“Sir, I’ve never used a phone, but Bill Gates I want to be!”
Some time ago, I went to Osun state. I got to Oshogbo from Ore, from there I got to Ikirun. Then I got to the Saturday Market, there I met a young man, He said his name is Ife or something close to that. I was new to the land so all the names were strange to me, they rarely ever stuck. Ife was in his late teens. Ife doesn’t own a phone. Ife has never used a phone. Ife has never touched a system.
So I started doing my primary assignment. I would trek, after trekking I would end up in a class of students and start teaching them. Everyone in the class was poverty-stricken. But there was a young man that was the worst hit, they call him Ife. Ife was a student in that school, Ife was a student in that class.
I would use the last 5 minutes of every lecture to tell them the story of every great man or woman I know that started from difficult backgrounds.
I told them about Albert Einstein, and they asked questions. I told them about Olusegun Obasanjo, and they would ask more questions.
I would trek for 5 days, I would teach for five days. Ife was always late, Ife was always late, 5 days a week. I didn’t notice, He thought I didn’t notice. His school uniform was torn in several places, I didn’t notice. He thought I didn’t notice. He wasn’t understanding much of what I taught, I didn’t notice. He thought I didn’t notice. Ife pays 100% attention in each class, I didn’t notice. He thought I didn’t notice. But He never asked a question. I didn’t notice, He thought I didn’t notice.
So another quarter came, then another month came, then another week came, then another day came. I started trekking, once again. After trekking, I entered a school. After I entered the school, I entered the class, after I entered the class, I started teaching.
Lo and behold, Ife was already there before me! I taught for a few minutes and then I asked a question. Lo and behold, Ife answered it before everyone! So I taught for a few more minutes and then I asked “students, any questions?”. Lo and behold, Ife asked a question before everyone!
After lectures, I took Ife outside the class and asked him to tell me his story.
He told me “My family is poor. I sell wood every morning to help my family before coming to school.
Now I wake earlier, just to sell wood faster because now Albert Einstein I want to be, Olusegun Obasanjo I want to be, Steve Jobs I want to be, Mark Essien I want to be. You forgot your text book here in class last Friday so I took it home and read it as much as I can. Now, Shakespeare I want to be, Barack Obama I want to be.”
Tears rolling down my cheeks, listening to the young man speak.
He said to me “Sir, Bill Gates I want to be, Mark Zuckerberg I want to be. Please help me. I want to use this thing you teach me, to write an app that will solve a big problem.”
He said “Sir, I want to be a programmer when I grow up like you. What subjects do I need to study well? I swear, Tim Cook I now want to be.”
I didn’t have any financial support for this young man, but I knew within myself that a new great man has been born. Soon my time with them came to an end. I trekked a couple more days with them, I trekked a couple more weeks before I trekked away. I still regret being very broke then. I could have helped him with some money, bought him a smartphone, bought him a PC, and some electric power generator to light his home and charge his laptop.
All I could do then was pay more attention to him in class, and give him extra lessons in my house, tell him about Paul Graham, tell him about Dustin Moskovitz, Jan Koum, Jason Njoku. I told him about rivers and how they cut through rocks, told him about rhema, metanoia, photosynthesis, and how I couldn’t help him much then because I was also trapped in the matrix with him.
I told him about metamorphosis and the never-say-die caterpillar I am, engaging my own transformation. I told him about butterflies and the city where the electric power supply never goes off.
Ife is the boy with no email, no phone, no computer, no electricity power supply, nothing. Truth is, I may never see Ife again, I gave him my phone number and asked him to call any year he is able to. I remember watching him scribble it down in his old dog-eared notebook after which he folded the notebook back into his back pocket. If I ever meet him again, I do hope to see him at the top.
I don’t know what the future of Ife will be, but I’m sure it will be the future of a soul that has awoken.
History has taught us never to write-off a person with ambition, ambition is priceless. It is because of people like this that I work extra hours every day, I hope that someday I can be able to help their situation. Every day I wake up, I expect that call from Ife. I do hope to be able to help with more than just inspiration if we ever meet again and he needs it.
Ife’s story is identical to the story of a billion and one people trying to come into technology and make a difference in the world. It will need more than the average genius to navigate out of such situations.
He needs to navigate his way out of the mental poverty of not knowing what to do, the societal poverty of not having the right platform, and someone to tell him.
Every time someone makes it from a third-world country or such impossible situations, I try to read them up as much as I can because…Jeff Bezos I want to be. They are the most dogged type of geniuses, though rarely celebrated.
The world we live in today only remembers the rich son of the rich man who started a rich company from his rich parent’s money and connection, then grew it into a much bigger company! Hurrah!
They are often written about, interviewed in the media, and quoted in speeches. Little attention is often given to that unknown individual that started from very disadvantaged negative situations, then pulled through zero to hero.
May Ife succeed.
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