DAVID, UI Designer

You need to be a visionary, at least for your own life. I recently realised that every other person does not have the ability to create a mental picture of their future, hold on to it and work towards it regardless of their present circumstances. It was my wife who pointed this out to me. She said some people cannot lead even themselves. instead, they’re loyal followers. They need to be told what to do. They can vaguely describe their future, but lack the ability to formalise it and create an actionable plan, let alone the commitment and consistency to execute that plan. For people like this, I think it makes sense to find a visionary with similar interests and follow in their footsteps. I do think finding that visionary is more difficult than leading yourself, but it is better than leaving everything to chance. Some people would have turned out differently if they had someone else who showed them that it is possible to get a job in NNPC, scholarships abroad, etc, without 'connections'. Since they can’t imagine a better life for themselves, their actions/inactions are motivated by incentives, not vision. It took a while for me to believe my wife because it’s hard to even imagine that some human beings live like this. You hear them say things like "school na scam" or use criminals like internet fraudsters as references in their arguments because to them, incentives are all that matters. They cannot create their own world in their mind, so they reach out to what they consider the 'real world', observe and adopt behaviours the 'real world' rewards. These are the people who want to study medicine, law or engineering, and more recently want to become software engineers because in the 'real world', there are incentives to pursue these career paths. It is the same explanation for people who have explored UI/UX design, forex, crypto, sports betting, social media influencing, etc, all in their 20s. It looks like hard work, but it isn’t.