Here is the thing about feedback: learn to give it.

If you use the gift analogy, you don’t start gifting only when you are perfect at it. You start gifting and perfect it as you continue the practice.

You might not yet be perfect at delivering feedback, but give it anyway. You will get better as you practice. Even though the person might not like it in the moment, the thoughtfulness of your gesture will grow with time.

Too many people around you are stuck in a rut because you are hesitating to share feedback.

– Osasu Oviawe

The hardest part is showing up.

Everything else is easier after that.

Always do the hardest part first.

Show up.

– Osasu Oviawe

Until you take the wheel of your life, everything is a nudge to do so.

Everything.

After taking the wheel, everything is designed to keep you on the road.

Everything.

– Osasu Oviawe

The most common advice I give beginners is to protect their investments from themselves.

I think this is partly why older people have long recommended real estate as a first investment. You can’t check the price daily, and you can’t wake up and flip it on a whim.

For many workers, a pension ends up being their best-performing asset because it’s largely out of their reach.

Trading, on the other hand, is a no-go for beginners. It brings all of you into play, and you’ll quickly learn you can’t be trusted with your own money, given how fast you can lose it.

I started a company with one overarching rule: every kobo that goes in stays in, compounding. It has been my best-performing venture.

The highest volatility in any investment is the investor. Protect your investment from it.

– Osasu Oviawe

Every solution attracts its own problem.

Stay away from solution providers when you do not have a problem.

– Osasu Oviawe

Until you have a child, you assume that toddlers and kids kicking up a storm in public spaces or on transportation are an indication of poor handling by their parents.

When you have a child, you realize that whatever they feel inside, they extend to the outside in spite of grooming and without seeking permission.

When you understand this, you realize that it is okay. You are enthralled by both their calm and their storm.

As I have grown older, I have realized this about adults too. The more you observe them, the less you judge them. You become enthralled by their calm and their storm, understanding that it is only an extension of what is happening within.

– Osasu Oviawe

Commit to a place.

Commit to a venture.

Commit to a partner.

If it works out, you win. If it does not, you learn.

Commitment compounds the good in you. Anything less erodes it.

– Osasu Oviawe

Peer pressure only works among peers.

You can choose your peers.

You cannot choose the pressure they exert.

Choose your peers wisely.

– Osasu Oviawe

Never give up agency over your own life.

Own it, love it, shape it.

– Osasu Oviawe

It is easier to prune branches than it is to prune roots.

So, branches get trimmed before they cause damage, and roots cause damage before they are uprooted.

It is easier to nurture roots than it is to nurture branches.

So, roots get watered and branches are left to the elements.

– Osasu Oviawe