Akin OduwoleI was a toddler when my first bicycle arrived, it was actually a tricycle that seems safer for children of that age, plus obviously created an enjoyable riding experience for learners, I still have the mental picture of my late younger brother and I tussling for the right to ride. We mostly ride within the house and the corridor of our home, and a few times we got better freedom when there is permission to ride outside.
Then as a teenager I was privileged to get a “rally” bicycle as a birthday present, at this point it was simply impossible to ride within the house or at the corridor, so I will often times especially at weekends be allowed to ride around the neighborhood, joining bicycle races, long rides and riding to deliver errands. Notice that the level of freedom grew with my maturity.
As an adult with both parent late, I bought myself the first power bike, a Kawasaki ninja, a 600cc lovely bike, it was too noisy to ride within the neighborhood so riding partners and myself will naturally look for opportunities for a long ride. We opted for the longest route to any point for that opportunity for an even longer ride. Soon enough I wanted more speed and sold my ninja for a Yamaha XJ6, not satisfied I sold that again for a Buell that I believe was a 1250cc. As I grew older there was a need to downgrade my speed, so today I still ride a 650cc Italian bike by “Moto Guzzi” sometimes. You must understand that motorcycle riding is a combination of fear, exhilaration, relaxation, and extreme pleasure that changes one forever. It’s both physical and emotional pleasure, with a crucial layer of anxiety and adrenaline pumping, imagine that physical and tiring sensations of both hands and feet always being busy, that in itself requires major concentration – you smell everything, you feel everything and really never fully relax till you jump down at your destination. Today is not to talk about the benefits that riding comes with but it’s important to note that level of concentration and awareness of your environment and other road users are heightened because a smart biker knows that he or she is always at the risk of being knocked down so we protect ourselves by remaining visible, I particularly love the loud bikes because the noise tells everyone that I am coming and that in itself keeps me safe.
On one particular night, riding back home after work, the weather changed and it suddenly started raining, for a minute I thought about stopping to get on my rain gear but decided to keep on riding. I only reaped the reward of not stopping to get on the proper clothing for that season when I got home and my phone was soaked in rain water and in fact gone bad, it was when I tried to fix it the following day that I entered a bookshop to wear out the wait.
In my usual browsing through before buying a book I got the point of this particular author. He was saying that the real purpose of entrepreneurship is to change society in a positive ways. He defines self-employment as someone just copying and pasting what other people are doing, saying entrepreneurs should build businesses around market opportunities, leveraging on their own unique abilities. Entrepreneurship he said is about being creative and innovative. I asked myself does everyone who own a business have to be innovative? The few pages after I caught him saying “To acquire these skills doesn’t necessarily mean you have to develop them yourself, you can recruit those who are creative and innovative enough to make things happen”. I asked myself, is creativity and innovation the same? Google told me that; Creativity is the act of conceiving something new, whether a variation on a theme or something wholly new. Innovation is the act of putting something into practice. Creativity doesn’t necessarily lead to inventions and growth, but innovation does. It is however important to note that innovation doesn’t happen without creative people on board. There must be some people thinking outside the box and going against the norm sometimes.
The printing industry has consistently been undergoing rapid and numerous changes. It all started with the advancement of more and more digital technologies, this has profoundly impacted the ways in which information is conveyed to print consumers which has in turn changed their body language, and some have been emboldened to produce their own documents which has consistently reduced reliance on traditional print companies. In fact we see more and more upcoming printers buying office printers for startup in place of a digital printer, the market has become over saturated by this copy and paste approach. As a result of these changes, even printing device manufacturers are developing new technology that would make printing more efficient and cost-effective. Similarly, in response to these changing market trends, many print suppliers are now reposition themselves as a communications or marketing partner/service provider as opposed to solely being a prints or commodity supplier.
It must be established that if the street trains you there will be some disfunctionality, as opposed to being trained in a family unit. The Nigeria printing industry is now full of printers who are street trained. In going forward we need to create a family unit for our struggling street trained printers. We must be looking at how we can develop a mentorship model that this set of printers (usually young and legitimately trying to survive) can leverage on and grow into buying equipment that will further enhance their productivity or simply partner with bigger colleagues for a massive reach.
The role of the big brother is changing faster than we can follow, truth is no one can claim to have it all worked together anymore… It’s time to empower the youth. We must intentionally start to build the 15 to 35 year old’s. We must intentionally bring out the creativity in this sect and help them innovate so we can save the printing industry once again. If young people have successful businesses crime will be reduced or who else can help with an entrepreneurial movement that will change the printing environment?
editor
