Who is NERØ?
Hello friend!
After doing some thinking about the nature of this post, and specifically the post’s audience; I realized that there’s no need to explain to my already smart audience how dumb I am. So, rather than make a list of the number of awards won, projects completed, companies fired from, institutions attended, and startups ended (pun intended), I would attempt to do something different.
If it is not already obvious, I am of moderate intelligence which I would argue is on par with, if not below a large majority of my readers. And since this publication focuses on life, business, and everything in between, I believe it would be much better to paint a broad picture that encompasses not only the dazzling parts of a largely imperfect life but also the flaws that help bring the picture to life, albeit that the reader may relate more with the humanity of the writer.
Setting the stage
The stage is the NBA Finals, and we’re in game 7.
Fortunately for everyone else in the audience, I had to witness the Clippers bounce back from a 20-point deficit against the Bucks in the final game of a tied series. While everyone from California is rooting for their city’s team, this young man is somewhere in the back dressed fully in black, doing God knows what with heaven knows who.
Although parts of my eyes are covered by strands of hair, I am still able to focus on Dame’s game, not wanting to miss another buzzer-beating dagger three. I try to adjust my jacket to make myself more comfortable with my (activity) and I accidentally reveal the Bucks shirt with a large 34 on it.
The individual covering my eye notices it (finally), and stops to ask whose number that is. Then I have to stop as well to go on a 10-minute rant about a young dude from Nigeria who managed to find a way out of his country together with his family to Greece where they sought refuge and a better life for years before his brother introduced him to basketball and the rest is history. Fast forward to this moment, and he is now an NBA champion, a finals MVP and a two-time NBA MVP amongst other accolades.
“All that because they were able to leave Nigeria?” she asks. “No”, I retort. “He worked hard obviously…”.
And just as I was about to complete my sentence, I saw Damian Lillard side-step from the three-point line, throwing the Clippers’ defender to the other side of the court flat on the ground, and then raising his hands for a dagger three-point shot. My head follows the motion of the ball in an arc-like fashion as it goes up and on reaching the basket, I hear the buzzer.
The Milwaukee Bucks are NBA champions once again.
Heading Backstage
After a successful night as a fan, I head to the Bucks’ locker room to meet my genius friend who invited me to the game, laptop in one hand, girl in the other. After exchanging pleasantries I open my computer to make a presentation about the product my team and I have been working on, not minding Rema’s Carry playing in the background.
It’s software obviously, so dive straight into a live demo.
After a few minutes of explaining what the product is, what it does, how it would generate revenue for investors and service its users, I notice my freudian mask slip, as i’m about to go full-nerd on everyone in the room. So I guide the presentation to a gentle stop; It’s a locker room after all.
All things being equal, the presentation was good, but I got no response since my friend and I were covered in celebration champagne so we took some more pictures and headed out for the night.
Who knew tech could be this much fun?
Coming Home
Ordering an Uber for the other individual was easy, the hard part was getting home.
Although I enjoy taking the subway, I am not too familiar with the California subways system so it was only normal that it took a few minutes to get on a train to my apartment. What wasn’t normal was the fact that I was late to the station; I had an unfinished article from earlier in the day, and worse, I had work the next day.
So rather than hurry in an attempt to beat life, I decided to calm my nerves to get home safely first before resuming my unfinished tasks. As fate would have it, I got home just in time to skip my (second) dinner and head straight to my desk to finish my article whilst filling myself in on the tasks for the day ahead.
“Life is hard, but I’m harder”, I write as I add a full stop to the final sentence of my article and hit send.