Today officially marks one month of Iko Africa being an alive breathing thing. 

One month already? Damn

A lot is running through my head, but I’ll start with how I’m feeling.

I feel proud of what I’ve contributed to build. Yeah, I have a lot of pride and admiration for myself as well as the Iko Mafia (our in-house name for the Iko team). 

Being a co-founder sounds, for want of a better word, fancy, and it actually is sometimes (for example, being hailed as a founder feels nice, LMAO 🤭), but the reality is that it’s a lot of consistent work and hard labour 💀. From people management to documentation to operations to marketing to data analytics to partnerships and everything in between, my eyes have seen a lot, my ears have heard a lot, and my hands have done a lot. And this is just the beginning. 

LOL. It is well with my soul.

There's a post I made on Twitter that I’ve been going back to when I feel overwhelmed:

• I know the work is much and heavy and hefty, but I was made for heavy lifting.

It reminds me why I decided to believe in myself despite the fear.

I was built for this and more, so let's run it. The fear is not my enemy, It's an internal check and balance system.

This is part of my whole 'reframing my thinking' thing. I've done a lot of self-deprecation and Debbie Downer thinking, and quite frankly, I'm sick of it. So, let me try reframing my mind and see what comes from that. Wish me luck 🧘🏾‍♀️

Another thing, in the current ecosystem, there’s a lot of negative noise. Every other week, there’s a startup story or rumour breaking out that makes me ask myself, “Who sent me work?” then I see an Ikoafrica link on my timeline or a message on Slack that positively reminds me about why I chose to be in this position.

While I pay attention to the bad news, I have also begun actively searching for good news. I realised I was harming my drive and motivation by consuming only startup wahala stories.

I want to read more “startups doing the damn thing and doing it well” news now. Like Waymond from Everything Everywhere All At Once said- “when I choose to see the good side of things, I’m not being naive. It is strategic and necessary. It’s how I learned to survive through everything.” 

My strategy right now is a healthy mix of delusion and pragmatism, and it seems to be working. I just need to keep honing down and fine-tuning my craft.

Amen? Amen.

Thank you to everyone who has been supporting the dream and the reality. 

I’ll write to you again with updates in 5 months. 

Cheers!

Love💙,

Jojo from Iko (Or, as the haters call me, Lord Farquaad from Iko😏)