I giggle a lot and almost could see through anyone’s depth of interest at a glance by asking two simple questions.

1. How long have you been interested?
2. Since you are interested in this for this long period of time, what have you done regarding your interest?

By anyone’s answer to this question, I could almost tell whether such person’s interest is motivated by the tide of the wind or by dedication to leapfrog the tides.

Interests are fluid and multidimensional often flowing with the tide of the wind. It is never stable for a living and active being, it can even grow uncontrollably. I was there or say I am still there, that’s why I know.

Interest grows, but interest never gets anyone anywhere, obsession does. Now I agree things start out as interest but those things must grow to become an obsession for them to see the light of the day and possibly leapfrog. It took me time to be able to bring this to perspective. This tweet’s question and answer reveals that…

How do you discover what you need to be focus on? Being one that has a varying interest.

@KapilGuptaMD

Replying to

@real_DavidALADE

There are interests And there are obsessions.

That was me on June 19, 2019, asking the respected and insightful man question about the multidimensional nature of interest and his answer changed everything.

Yes, there are interests and there are obsessions, the mistake a lot of us make is to think of both as one. However, it does not actually take long before it gets revealed that this thing is only a thing of interest to this fellow and not an obsession. For me, the two questions I mentioned earlier quickly help me to pinpoint the difference per time either for myself or for someone else.

Many interests flow with the tide of the wind. I have been there and maybe I am still there. I wish I still have my LinkedIn profile image of about 2 years ago. My profile would have been evidence to show that this guy flows with the wind. I had things like Fintech enthusiasts, Big Data enthusiasts, tech evangelist, tri-sector intelligentsia and so on my profile.

Now those things aren’t bad at all, in fact, it was my version of not seeking permission but following after forgiveness constantly. However, unsustainable.

And if I was to advise anyone, I would still say it’s fine to go through that process. Don’t seek permission always remember.

What usually makes the difference is not stopping at that point of interest. Today those things are ripped off my profile.

How do people move from interest more often than not motivated by the tide of the wind to the realm of obsession? 

By dedication, people achieve this.

Till tomorrow, your interest will keep growing just like mine is constantly growing albeit with the tide of the wind. However, we get to work on (dedication) just a minute percentage of our interests (I may peg it at <5%).

Those interests that we dedicate our time to pursue end up either being an obsession or we realize oh, this can’t grow beyond this and we drop it. In technology development cycle we call it “the peak of inflated expectations.”

Only those interests that survive the peak of inflated expectations gets to become an obsession and they are usually very few.

I started by saying I giggle when I get asked some questions. That’s because I could tell that these things someone is asking me of are still in the realm of interest and no matter what I say, it might not be enough to move them to the realm of obsession. It is your sole responsibility to move yourself to the realm of obsession, interest is too multidimensional to invite anyone to navigate it for you. Move beyond interest.

When I see folks in the realm of obsession, something I rarely do, by the way, I can go all out to see them building upon their obsession. They are people worth 100% of my time.

Few of them I’ve met, I pay for online courses for them to learn, some I share my login details with to learn, some I go the extra length of being their accountability partner and some I benefit in different measure.

Yes, it is usually a worthy investment, some did it for me. They are ripping it now and will do later.

Why have I written this?

1. To help you understand yourself and forces that are shaping you. 
2. To help you understand the interplay between interest and obsession. 
3. To help you understand that not all interest will turn into an obsession and only those who turn to obsession actually leapfrog you. 
4. To also help you understand that it is all normal to have a varying interest.

Above all to help you to move quickly from the realm of interest to the realm of obsession through dedication.

And lastly, to point out that not all interests will make it past the bridge of dedication. And that is 100% alright.

However, you need to be dedicated ASAP in order to root out those interests that are only occupying space in your mind but will never see the light of the day.

I have mastered the art of navigating the realm of interest and obsession for myself and have a mental playbook for this. Hopefully, I will be committed enough to share one day. For today, that’s all.

Invest in people’s obsession and you had reaped your investment one way or another.

Invest in people’s interest and you are almost guaranteed to lose your investment.

When you are making a choice between both, go for obsession.

From previous conversations from experts in this platform on e-commerce, I have come to assume that perhaps the biggest problem facing e-commerce in Nigeria is the fact that as they scale, the logistic challenges start to get complicated. Then the other problems, which include lack of trust which is hinged around the fear of not getting exactly what is ordered. Many Nigerians for a lot of reasons are still not comfortable paying online. This is also a problem.

To be honest I hate complicated things, and I avoid them unless  in some very limited and specific instances when I try to dabble a little just because I think I may stand a chance of solving them. Sometimes too, you just try as you never know what will unfold as you dig a little bit further beneath the surface. Most complex problems aren’t solved with the entire solution in sight, some just gradually appear as you do those iterations, they just unfold as you scramble.

Basically there are two components in this, e-commerce and logistics. So if I pick the first and isolate it, you discover that most of these firms have no issues here. So, I can say that their comparative strength is in this domain. This doesn’t mean that they haven’t got  little bottlenecks to overcome there.

Part of the problem is in having access to logistics infrastructure to enable them scale. The cost of doing this is unimaginable .But pioneers like Amazon have been able to survive working with companies like UPS, USPS (United States Postal Service) and FedEx, all working under their own individual terms and conditions.

Of Course, our own NIPOST is out of the question for obvious reasons, but still we have got logistics company within us, who have built the needed infrastructure . These companies have had relative success in local delivery and logistics. GIG logistics, ABC transport, and a few others have been able to survive this difficult terrain. They’ve got a comparative strength in local delivery and logistics and interestingly have got the needed basic infrastructure.

EXPLANATIONS USING SET THEORY. 

So let’s say there is a company P that has different elements in it, which includes difficulties and strengths in specific areas,  and another company Q which has strengths in a specific area, but has very limited capacity in another important area.

Let for the sake of this analogy take P to be the e-commerce company, and Q the logistics company.

If for maximization of returns, the e-commerce company P  needs logistics necessities (12,6,18,10,4,2,16,8,14) but has only got (12,6,18) ,

But Q being a company that has built logistic capacity with time and experience has got all those necessities (12,6,10,18,4,2,16,8,14).

The solution to the problem would theoretically be the union of the two sets (PUQ) as shown in the grey shaded  portions of the diagram.

Here you have a set that has all the components of Q, and still has the components of P.  As for Q, it benefits by receiving additional inflows from P as is represented by the point of intersection {12,6,18} which is actually also a part of P.

In the end you have more profit for Q and more Specific capacity for P; a win – win situation.

Some companies based in the United States for instance push the manufacture of specific items which are components of their product to China because of the lower cost of production occasioned by cheaper labour.

Nokia for instance is a Finnish firm, but most of its components including it’s  lithium ion batteries are manufactured in China. Nokia saves some money, China makes a little bit more.

So one could suggest that, e-commerce companies merge or sign partnership deals with local transport and logistics Companies who understand the terrain and who have a track record of effective delivery that has been proven and tested with  time.

MMM (Mavrodi Mundial Moneybox), a social financial networking scheme, came into Nigeria around November, 2015. The Ponzi scheme promised Nigerians 30% returns on the money they “invested”. However, they will not have access to their money and the “interest” until it matures 30 days later. This promise was so enticing because whereas banks will give you 0.3% interest on your money with them (that is if you didn’t withdraw from it within the month), MMM will give you 30%. This promise of financial independence attracted many Nigerians.

I was among the subscribers of MMM. I learnt about it through my neighbours, who came to sell the idea in the school I worked with then. Most of the teachers jumped in and we really enjoyed it while it lasted. When MMM crashed, we paid the price fully.

The news of the suicides that followed the crash of MMM still tastes bitter in my mouth. There were also cases of crashed marriages and businesses because of unwise investments made by people who believed MMM was their answered prayers. The country was indeed thrown into mourning that period.

But have Nigerians learnt from this bitter experience? No, not at all; they have actually learnt nothing. Most Nigerians refused to learn. MMM only opened the door for more fraudulent Ponzi schemes to enter Nigeria.

Sometime in April, or was it May, my friends contacted me and asked me to invest in another Ponzi scheme called Loom. This one pays eight times of a person’s investment after some days (I think after four days). I told all my inviters that I am yet to recover from MMM so I won’t go in for Loom, which I saw as a looming disaster that will only bring me gloom. I was called chicken livered and all, but I don’t regret my decision because Loom has joined the list of Ponzi schemes in the waste bin.

What prompted me to put up this article is that I went into my Telegram page this morning (after weeks of not visiting it) and noticed a lot of notifications from people and groups I knew nothing of. I only belonged to three groups in Telegram, which I joined because their activities and discussions help me a lot. But today, I found seven new groups that I didn’t add myself and people I don’t know by sending me private chats.

I ignored the chats because I’ve discovered how porous Telegram is but I decided to check out the groups. Out of these seven new groups one discusses matters relating to community development (they are adding people from Anambra State so I guess it has some political undertones) while the other six post matters that sounded like Greek to me.

In these other six groups I’m referring to, I saw comments like, “boss, confirm my payment”, “I want to send up 500k”, “manager reply my direct chat”, “new members have special offers”, “promo package for those that brought new members” and things like that. The first thing my mind told me was, “these are fraudsters”. But as I checked more of these groups, I noticed that they are different Ponzi schemes quietly making their transactions through the social media. People quietly add those they felt will be interested without first notifying them. Maybe, they hoped that by the time the person studies the movement of cash up and down, he will be enticed into the game.

So, here is the whole summary, MMM is still operating in Nigeria. But it is wearing different clothes and answering different names right now.

Of course, I heard that the original MMM is still operating in Nigeria even though its founder, Sergey Mavrodi, has died. But that is not the point I want to make here. The major issue is that Nigerians are still “investing” their hard earned money into wrong ventures.

If you truly sit down to analyse why people go into Ponzi schemes you will agree with me that poverty wasn’t the cause. During the MMM days, people accused poverty for influencing their decisions to take the risk. But today that NairaBet, NaijaBet and other betting houses have kept the low income earners busy, no one will accuse poverty again for pushing people into this high risk “investment” plan.

It is improper to refer to any of these Ponzi schemes as investment. Yes, it increases the money the person “invested” by collecting from other “investors” to settle him; but is that how investments work?

Nigerians need to understand that they can never increase their income through these shady ventures. They need to learn the “easy come easy go” idiom and put it to use. They should stop taking unnecessary and stupid risks. There are so many ways money can be invested and there are many ways income can be increased, choosing Ponzi scheme will only end in disaster.