Sophocles Writes

What is your middle name? Does it carry any special meaning/significance?

My middle name is Akinkunmi. The name carried so much significance that I didn’t know where to start from. Akinkunmi means “The brave one has joined me”. But who have I joined? And how am I the brave one?

As the first child of my parents, they believe that for me to come to them first, I must be very brave. Very brave to be the first child of a very young couple. They believe that my fortune will elevate them to places hitherto undreamt of!

Akinkunmi, the brave one is here.

What is the last thing you learned?

The end of all things is death. Whether organic or inorganic, everything has an end. No matter how strong, healthy, or rich, broke, all humans will die.

This little orb of carbon and silicon we call Earth, will one day cease to exist. The knowledge of death is a scary one, and that is why every living thing wants to be immortalized one way or the other.

The purpose of living is death.

What is one question you hate to be asked? Explain.

If there is one question I hate to be asked, it would be “How are you?”

How am I? Where should I even start? How should how even start?

I am not fine. I am feeling lonely even though I am surrounded by people. I am feeling depressed even though I ingest stimulants daily.

How am I? Should I talk about my emotional state? Or my dismal financial status? Should I talk about the current economic situation of my country?

Don’t ask me “How are you?”, just assume all is well. Because if I should try to answer that question, we’ll be here for a while.

How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success?

I have a lot of apparent failures that turn out to set me up for success. But the one that resonates most with me is my poultry business.

Immediately after I graduated from the university, I decided to raise poultry birds to support my family. I raised the birds and I achieved a minimum live weight of 3kg. I raised 50 birds and I felt on top of the world. Yeah. Money. I’m a farmer baby. I’ve arrived.

But then, I had no idea that marketing is a different gravy to production. To cut a rather long story short, I lost a lot of money because I had to feed my birds long after they achieved market weight. I couldn’t market my birds the way I perfected production. I lost a lot. I was sad. Depressed. And generally unhappy.

But that loss made me go back to the basics, I sought out other farmers and learned how to market my birds. My loss (failure) made me realize the importance of marketing in any business environment.

My second production was a resounding success. I made a lot of money and improved my poultry house. That failure made me the farmer that I am today.

You’re writing your autobiography. What’s your opening sentence?

I cried. And I cried again. At least, that was what my mummy told me I did when she gave birth to me.