We are the average of our Five closest friends.

I was in my final year in school when I noticed four classmates of mine frequently visiting my room to have meetings with my roommate. 

These meetings went on and on for days and the days turned into weeks.

I later discovered that they were working on an idea that has evolved into a Healthtech Startup. And for obvious reasons, I wasn’t included in the team.

This piqued my interest and made me slightly curious about what they were up to.

In weeks that followed, they were talking about raising funds.  And by sheer luck or magic or more realistically hard work and dedication, they raised seed funding from a pitching contest at a program organized by the Vice President of Nigeria.


Although the company, health-tech company (sync city), failed eventually, the speed and efficiency of the team drew me in. It was my first exposure to the world of technology and startups. I joined twitter and started consuming every material on technology I could lay my hands on.

3 years later; I have worked as an Early-stage employee at a health startup, started a couple of projects, and I recently worked as the head of Product at another technology startup in Lagos.

I don’t know how serendipity works but as Marc Andressen of A16Z puts it, if a small group of your five smart est friends is headed to Denny’s at 11 PM to discuss an idea for a startup.. you’d better follow them.

There’s really no career planning (Please apply context); the world is moving way too fast.

There’s skills building, skills stacking and looking out for/taking Opportunities.

Advice to young chaps like me.

You might want to keep an eye out for what your five smart friends are up to (not in an envious way but as a means to learn)

The opportunities are in daily casual conversations and bants but the higher the Quality of the people around you, the better the Quality of the conversation and Opportunities.

Be intentional about the five closest people to you.