Dear Tunde,

The ceiling fan in my room has a slight issue with its rotation. It makes a rhythmic, metallic click every three seconds. It is the only sound in the room right now.

I have a pen in my right hand as I write this to you. It is heavier than it looks.

I am sitting here looking at a document that will pivot the direction of our newest venture, iPropty. Everything we have built, every late night and strained conversation over the last three years, is balancing on the tiny metal tip of this pen.

Terrifying…

I spend much of my life expecting clarity. You want the skies to part and a booming voice to tell us which path guarantees success. I analyzed the market, talked to mentors, built spreadsheets trying to predict the future and protect myself from failure. I want to be 100% sure before we move.

But the spreadsheets always run out. At some point, the data stops. The advice runs dry. You find yourself at the edge of the dark.

Now, I think I misunderstood what commitment is. We think it is the absence of doubt. We think the great founders and leaders of the past moved forward because they possessed some mystical certainty that the rest of us lack. They didn’t.

Commitment is looking at your own doubt, acknowledging its presence, and stepping forward anyway.

You don’t go all in because you are certain you will succeed. You do because it is the needful thing to do.

That is the hidden price of building anything that lasts. You cannot negotiate with uncertainty. You just have to let it sit in the room with you while you do the work.

Soon it will align with your vision and celebrate your results. As for the fan in my room, now repaired.

For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.— 2 Timothy 1:7

Warmly,
Oluboba Ayodeji