My DIY (Do-It-Yourself ) mental attitude is the reason I have relentlessly succeeded, in spite of myriad challenges, over the past decade as an entrepreneur. Many of the obstacles I encountered were intimidating, and would have stopped me permanently, if I had NOT possessed this DIY reflex.
For instance, this website (www.tayosolagbade.com), my newsletter, indeed my entire business life would have “died” years ago, if I had not formed the “habit”.
Example: Click here read how despite losing my 9 year old spontaneousdevelopment.com domain in May 2014, I built a superior reincarnation of my website on www.tayosolagbade.com all by myself, in a matter of weeks!
I refer to my passion for learning to do things myself i.e. being a Do-It-Yourself enthusiast or what some call a “DIYer”.
(NB: In a related article written about 7 years back, I described myself as a Jack of Many Trades. Click to read it).
TIP: Consistent with the theme of this article, was the over 3 hour battle it took me to send it out as an email broadcast to my newsletter subscribers. From 10pm Nigerian time on Monday 17 Dec 2012, till well after 1a.m the next day(I was still based in Nigeria then), my Etisalat internet connection simple went to sleep for some strange reason at the time I need it to be awake the most.
And that was happening NOT for the first time!
Luckily for me, I’d already published the newsletter as scheduled on this blog which auto-published to my Facebook business fan page and personal profile, as well as my Twitter page via RSS Graffiti.
As you can imagine, it turned out to be a good thing that I knew enough to set it up this way. Otherwise, I’d have been unable to publish the online version when due!
How Much You Need To DIY, Depends On Your Part of the World
If you live and work in a developed society, the need to do things yourself sometimes, may not readily appeal to you.
However, for people, like me, in less developed social environments, like mine, one often has to develop multiple interests and competencies to make up for the shortage of RELIABLE solutions.
The following true story illustrates the above scenario perfectly.
A few years ago, I met a Nigerian gentleman who had just returned from the USA where he’d been away for about 5 years. During that time he had made a bit of name for himself as an author and speaker. His published book had sold quite well in the small town he was based.
And the local media had given him enough coverage to make him close to being a celebrity of sorts. From what he and his pretty Austrian wife told me, it was at one of his book signings that they met – and fell for each other.
My friend wanted to republish one of his popular books from the USA with a local printer. He also wanted to produce an audio version of the book. This was part of the plan he had to launch himself into the Nigerian market.
According to him however, the problem was that there seemed to be no standard service providers like those in the USA that could do what he wanted. He said back in the states he would simply hand over his manuscript to his agent, and virtually everything needed to get the book published would be handled by the latter.
Out here, he complained about having to run around looking for business centers to type and typeset his manuscript. And then there were countless errors that he had to sit with a computer operator to work through and correct.
To make matters worse, by the time I got involved I discovered they were typing his manuscript in Corel Draw!
My friend had no idea the business centre operator was using an inappropriate software application for his work.
He said “I just want it done! Back in the states I never had to get involved like this. I know nothing about all of this stuff”.
To cut the long story short, I had to really get involved in helping him find the right places to get the help he needed.
And that included going out of my way to locate a studio where he and his wife could produce the quality of recording they wanted for the book’s audio version.
Here’s what he asked me at a point: “So how come you know about all these things?
You’re not even a book publisher or anything!”
My answer was that I’d learnt the hard way that it was better to know a little about most things I planned to engage others to do for me. That equips me to assess what they do for me – and also contribute intelligently to the process – even do a few things on it by myself, should they be unavailable.
That Doesn’t Happen In Your Country? Great! But What If One Day, It Does?
Now, what my friend went through can happen to anyone in one form or the other.
Maybe you won’t be coming to speak or provide your expert service here in Nigeria. But right there in your base
things can still go wrong.
How ready will you be when that happens?
(NB: I recall reading New York Times stories that described the experiences of people who’d failed to heed warnings
issued about Hurricane Sandy. Some of them got trapped – a few even lost their lives, because they failed to prepare for the unlikely but possible!)
So I ask you: What are the things you currently depend on others to do for you? It
could be a service provider or even a friend you have great confidence in.
Maybe she’s a tech savvy person who prepares all your Power Point presentations, or does your graphic designs for your client projects for instance.
I hate to think negative too…:-)
But what if for some reason, she becomes temporarily unavailable?
Do you have ready access to someone else you can reliably reach out to? And if not, do you have any idea of how to prepare a Power point presentation as impressive as those she does for you by yourself?
What about preparing your speaker one-sheets? Or creating passable designs that can meet the client’s expectations?
God forbid you discover a wrong phone number or mistyped email address on the newly prepared speaker one sheet you want to give a meeting planner. Or maybe there’s a wrong phone number on the website header image/banner to be used for a client’s website.
If you had requested a copy of the raw Corel Draw or Photoshop file used to prepare
the speaker sheet or website graphic, maybe you’d be able to quickly edit it, and produce a corrected version.
But if you had NOT requested a copy of the raw document, or you did NOT know how to carry out simple editing edits of that kind using the relevant application…you’d risk making a poor impression on the client. Indeed, it could cause the client to lower his/her rating of you!
Anything can happen. Don’t Be A Fish Out Of Water When It Does!
The truth is that even the most reliable of people – your trusted assistant or highly reputable provider inclusive – can sometimes make mistakes or fail to come through for you when it matters.
We are all human after all – which is why one must always have a fall back plan in place.
Will you be prepared with an alternative plan if/when that happens? Or will you just try to wing it?
People often value a professional who can improvise and adapt effectively. If you come across as being that way, meeting planners may conclude you are a more “reliable” performer who can deliver no matter what goes wrong.
That implies repeat business, even referrals, are likely to come from them for you.
Ironically, you may only need to know a little about most things, to achieve this significant impact.
Interestingly, learning those little things may just require PROACTIVELY spending a little time with those who do those things for you normally.
Or it could mean making out time to read – and practice what you learn from – a self-help (or DIY) tutorial!
In the end, quite often, you’ll find you have a LOT to gain, and nothing to lose by adopting this attitude, and acting diligently on it all the time.
Final Words: I also recommend, strongly too, that you TEACH your kids to be that way as well, from as early as possible in life.
They will enjoy a lot of positive attention and recognition from their peers and adults alike, for being that way. Attention that will over time earn them financially rewarding personal and career advancement opportunities.
Good luck!
PS: I practice what I preach…
And that’s just one of so many things they have learnt how to do. You can do the same for your kids. They will be forever grateful to you :-))
RELATED…
On 4th May 2014, Tayo’s 9 year old domain (Spontaneousdevelopment dot com), which hosted his website, was taken over by Aplus.net.
Within a few days however, Tayo used his advanced self-taught web development skills to build a SUPERIOR “reincarnation” of it the website http://www.tayosolagbade.com.
But updates are still ongoing to URLs bearing the old domain name in most of the over 1,000 web pages, and blog posts
he’s published.
If you experience any difficulties finding a page or document, email Tayo at tksola dot com.
Click “Tayo, What Happened to SpontaneousDevelopmentDotCom ?” to read a detailed narrative about how the above event occurred :-))
Here’s an article Tayo wrote, to inspire others to defy adversity, and bounce back to even greater reckoning at what they do EVERY time:
And he wrote the one below, to explain why losing a domain name, no matter how old NO LONGER determines your online success or otherwise:
A Proven Strategy to Find Profitable Buyers Regardless of Your Domain Name
NB: This article was first published online via spontaneousdevelopment.com in 2012
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