2016 Chronicles : Go Ahead Be Jealous!

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2016 Chronicles

1.Be Filled with Jealousy…

I am a strong advocate for professional jealousy.

jealousy

Contrary to popular opinion, I believe the green eyed monster is your friend [if harnessed properly]. It has served me well for years.

 I am not talking about hate or  contempt. I am talking about an honest to god, “I wish I had that” feeling.

Now jealousy must not lead you to automatic hate and contempt of the person/object of your jealousy, because that way you learn nothing from them.

Jealousy should lead you to ask the questions:

  • what did they  do to get it [the thing i wanted]? 

  • how can I learn how to get it ?

  • Does it align with my plans(because jealousy can derail you from your current plans too, by distracting you )?

  • Can I do it better 

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Then use the lessons to rockstar your way to the next level.

Now go forth and allow your jealousy to make you better.

2.Now who lied to you that real women should not compete?

Admittedly these memes are feel good [I also once believed this], but I now call bull on the notion.

I can assure you all the women in the picture below are all fierce competitors!

compete1

Now slowly say to yourself “Real Men don’t compete, they collaborate”. Does it sound right to you!

Exactly: If you are women or man and you are in the same space as my organization EDEL and targeting the same set of customers. Yes Girl I am here to compete and I will be competing hard!

 

However I agree that there are some scenarios where collaboration is beneficial. These are my best scenarios for collaborating …

  • When it increases market share for all parties e.g. if you are in the ecommerce space [only 5% of the population use ecommerce] and you work together to increase market size to 15% of the population so u can both make more money.
    • I am even here for the collaborative twitter arguments. Cue the constant hilarious twitter wars between Marek (then then Javago.ng CEO) and Mark Essien (CEO of Hotels.ng). it served as wonderful way to bring awareness to both their brands and position them as 1/2 in the Nigerian online hotel booking platforms,
  • When Collaboration provides more opportunities for other women.
    • E.g. The Obama administration female staffers “amplification” i.e. strategy, women in meetings repeated each other’s ideas, crediting the women who came up with them

 

Otherwise go forth and compete like hell!