Are you ready to Finish Strong this year? If Yes, this article is for you.
Dear Friend
It’s been a moment indeed. Our theme for the rest of the year is FINISHING STRONG and in this episode we will be sharing the importance of staying true to your journey. In the midst of our own experience of twists and turns, from COVID-19 scares to life changing surgeries, injuries and physiotherapy, keeping our eyes on the prize remains extremely important to us.
We’ll begin with a short story about Chioma Ndukwe, a Nigerian blogger, writer, former model and entrepreneur born and raised in an Anglican family from Isuikwato L.G.A in Abia State, Nigeria. She had fallen in love with writing at the tender age of 12 and had dreams of someday becoming a successful writer. To achieve this dream, she enrolled at the Lagos State University, to earn a degree in English language.
While in her final year at university, “Chi Chi”, as she was fondly called by her family and friends, discovered blogging and began putting her talent and training to use by creating a blog. She started off writing about topics that interested her, such as fashion and social events on campus and it really took off. Fellow students wanted to know the latest fashion trends, where the latest parties and events held and who was in attendance.
Soon, Chioma’s blog became very popular on campus through her witty writing style and crisp accompanying photos, that organisers started sending her exclusive invites and inside scoops to cover and promote their events. It wasn’t always fun though, her grades began to suffer with the growth of her blog that she once got invited by her faculty Dean to discuss her failing grades.
She also got in trouble with some students she’d written about in not-so flattering ways. But stories like those even made the blog more popular and spread like wildfire. Every other week, there was a trending topic on campus, courtesy her blog and within 8 months Chioma had become the center of attention, a reality that made her both beloved and a target at the same time.
As it turns out, she’d realised that the more controversial a story was, the more interest and curiosity it sparked among readers within the community. She wrote more intentionally, expanding her content beyond university life while ensuring events and other stories she covered were always fact checked! This earned her lots of credibility and helped build a cult following among her numerous “fans”, mostly 18 to 45 year old women.
But there was still the problem of failing grades and the risk of not being part of her graduating class. This was the turning point for her as she had to act fast! She had grown her little blog from a hobby and passion, into a thriving business that was earning her hundreds of thousands of naira in advert revenue monthly, not bad for a college undergrad. Chioma had stumbled on gold and wasn’t about to lose this, but she also didn’t want to fail at one of the reasons she’d achieved this success — her English degree.
She decided to look inward and seek counsel from her community and tribe, a group of small business owners she had met at a digital media conference, during the social media week held in Lagos, months earlier. So, what did she do next and did she eventually make that year’s graduating class?
Next time, we will review Chioma’s journey and share some lessons we all can learn from it. What would you do if you were in her shoes?
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