The Roadblocks That Have Made Me Better

image: lifehacker.com

I remember the post I made in 2014 about needing help with my marketing. And other posts about how running my own business was starving me and how my non-outgoing nature was working against me in business.

Fast forward to today and I am now the one giving people marketing advice. I am now thriving and the very nature that was against me has been my biggest strength. The roadblocks I faced have made me better in the end.

I do a lot of online transactions, dollar denominated. I always managed to overcome the roadblock by the banks. The process wasn't fun and some people would have just cursed Buhari/Emefiele and given up. But mine has led me to be an expert user of PayPal, Payoneer and Bitcoin.

Last week, I reviewed how much I spend on watching movies at the Cinemas. Plus the popcorn they cross-sell you and the overpriced coke. Now, I am switching to Netflix and Hulu. I have found a way to overcome Hulu's geo-restriction and I have also found a permanently working way to access the richer Netflix USA content (USA gets way more interesting movies and TV series than other countries). 

I now have the hardcopy of my book published to the USA market on Amazon and have already made some sales without advertising. It's just now that I am trying to publish it here for the Nigerian market. I still make monthly income from the kindle version, especially the rental service revenue share. I originally was planning to use book publishers but when they slammed me their bills I decided to learn how myself and do everything myself. Total cost was just the less than $10 I paid for the online course I took and the $10 I paid for the book cover design. I have recouped the amount multiple times over.

Yesterday, I facilitated another Financial Modelling class. Feedback was great. I never let my engineering background be a roadblock to my providing services for the financial industry. I have read more finance books than engineering books and have done financial projects for different clients within and outside Nigeria.

When I come across a roadblock, I focus more on what is on the other side and if I want it enough I work hard at overcoming the roadblock. In the end I get two benefits: I get what is on the other side and I also get better.