Takeaways From MindSwap Initiative Class With Google’s Nigeria Country Director, Juliet Ehimuan - Awa-abuon John Asama

4 min readSep 30, 2020

There are privileges and there are what I call SUPER privileges.

Applying to be part of the first cohort of the Tonye Cole’s Mindswap Initiative is a good enough feeling, it shows one is open and willing to take advantage of opportunities, you could revel on that alone. But getting picked is an entirely different ball game. A thought on my mind this moment is what Mr. Olakunle Soriyan shared with us during our time with him about finding favour with people with options. It will be unthinkable to not be grateful.

When I got the mail that I was picked to be part of the first cohort, I was completely blown. I knew who Mr. Tonye Cole was and it was a bit hard to reconcile the fact that I would be spending the next couple of weeks learning from this Energy Rockstar I’ve admired for such a long time.

I was happy. I was excited and most of all, I was contented.

I got hold of my ‘Mentee Handbook’ a couple of days to our first session only to find out that I wouldn’t be learning only from TC — how we refer to Mr. Tonye Cole during our meetings — but that he had been kind to the extent of bringing other highly inspirational individuals and industry experts to also share their wealth of experiences with us. This is way beyond what I could ask for and quite frankly, it was way more than I’d expected.

I’m really enjoying my time.

Now let’s get started on the main purpose of this piece.

Below are my takeaways from Our Session With Google’s Nigeria Country Director, Juliet Ehimuan

1. Digital Literacy is today what basic literacy was years ago

That the world has gone digital is no news, but what are we doing about it? how well we know and take advantage of this realization, that technology is now at the heart of everything we do, determines to a large extent what becomes of us as individuals and as a nation.

2. Be Inspired. Think Big. Take Action.

Do all three. Being inspired or simply having an idea is great but without thinking big to generate motivation and eventually taking action, your inspiration forever remains an idea. Nothing more.

3. How to Evaluate a billion-dollar idea

A billion-dollar idea would need to solve a billion-dollar problem. It doesn’t get simpler than that. However, we were encouraged to work on our ideas even if they do not look billion-dollar-ish from the get-go. With constant improvements and iterations, we are very likely to find opportunities to scale our ideas. And like she rightly said; “sometimes you don’t know until you put it out there.”

4. The 3 Bs for Self-direction

Having defined self-direction as the process by which we, inspired by our purpose and convictions, develop a plan and take responsibility for moving from where we are now to where we want to be, she gave us the three Bs, which are;

Be clear about your vision and purpose

Be the captain of your ship and

Be your own Coach

5. What Innovation is

She defined innovation as the process of creating value by applying novel solutions to problems. She made it clear that ‘novel innovations’ do not necessarily have to be new, and that it could be just an improvement on the process. She also gave us two questions to use to probe ‘test’ our ideas;

Does it solve a meaningful problem? And;

Does it create value?

6. Putting in Our Best

When you perform below your capacity, you do yourself a disservice. She underscored what we were taught in previous sessions that whatever we do now is a rehearsal for mastery and if we deliver mediocre performances, over time we will master the art of ‘not giving our best’ even when our it becomes absolutely necessary that we give our best.

She also shared some questions to help identify our purpose. They are;

What are you passionate about?

Where do you see a need that moves you?

What are your strengths?

She also let us in on a whole lot of other issues, especially as regards technology and what Google and other stakeholders are doing to improve the sector in Nigeria.

It was an insightful session indeed.

And something extra, she showed us a clip of an amazing tech solution. A mobile app that scans and detects cassava diseases and suggests treatment. For me, that is just wow… I’m looking forward to when the technology will be commercially available and extended to cover other agricultural products too. Click here to watch the video on youtube

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