First blogging dividend

Something happened on the evening of last Friday. And I bet you, it was amazing. So amazing, it might be the best thing that has happened to me this year. Damn! We're almost quarter-way in already. I was so excited that I just had to call my sister, who I think is the person who could most easily appreciate the event. If you know me, you would know I'm not the type that is easy to impress or excite in this manner.

I'm preparing to head out for my night shift work when I receive a call from the most unlikely person. It's Idowu, the fashion designer whose suit-making business, I featured in this post. A post which managed to reach critical acclaim by all standards. Just search for affordable custom-made suits in Nigeria and you'd get a sense of what I'm talking about. The post makes it to number 1 on Google for such a valuable search term; nuff said.

With the information in the last paragraph at hand, it's not so surprising to know that Idowu was calling to express his profound gratitude at the immense free publicity my singular post had brought to his small business. "Just today, two people have already called me", he said, "and this is how it happens every single day", he added. What better way to express it than to make me a brand new pair of suits for absolutely free. Of course, with a couple of office shirts to go with it. He was calling me to ask for what colors I would prefer for each of the clothes he wanted to make me!

If I've ever felt so elated as I did in the moment the reality of what was happening settled upon me, I cannot remember when it was. It felt almost too good to be true that this was happening, but then, it undoubtedly was. The feeling of fulfillment I felt in that moment was nothing short of profound.

Looking back on that moment, I'm sure that the feeling I got is one I want to get everyday. I want to get acknowledgement like this, that the work of my hands directly has an impact in improving the quality of life of someone out there. In no better way could anyone say "More power to your writing" than this. Now, I feel deeply convinced that starting and keeping this blog is one of the best decisions I have ever made.

Let me share something deeply personal with you. I genuinely want to help people around me with the few gifts I have. When I see the cleaners in my office and the apprently bleak future ahead of them, I do not feel superior or lucky. I feel worried that in my privileged position, I'm not doing anything to improve the outlook of their future. Same applies to the little boys scrubbing windscreens uninvited and hawking petty goods in the midst of heavy Lagos traffic. Perhaps, this little reward will spur me in being more creative in this pursuit of using my gifts to improve the quality of lives of more people that I come across.

It was this passion that inspired me to write about Idowu's business in the first place. He was doing a great job, but totally missing out on the increase that being visible on the internet could bring to his business. My initial thought was to make some money off him in return (I paid for my first suit) by proposing building him a website. I actually went ahead to discuss this with him, but he apparently was reluctant. He had mentioned that one of his brothers was gonna do this for him. So, ahead I went to write that beautiful post about his business. Today, my reward for giving freely is here. And for that, I feel blessed to be saddled with the burden of this passion to be positively impacting on my environment.

Trust me to update this post with the picture of me in my brand new gift clothes as soon as I get it. Yippee.