Are You Wasting Your Weekends?

You storm the venue. You gasp for breath as you take your seat. Thank God you’re on time! Your friend Wale is also there. What a surprise? You both talked over the week and he hinted you about an upcoming interview by the weekend. You also told him you had an interview on the same day. But neither of you asked where. Now you find him there, not fiddling with his phone but solving a Rubik’s cube. He has a knack for solving stuff. Puzzles, sudoku, you name it. After 10 minutes of waiting, you realise it’s just going to be the two of you. A lady walks out of the lobby to the waiting area. Banke! You remember her from the Gmail account picture. She’s the lady who sent you the invite. You and Wale follow her into an open office space. It was there you realized that you two are vying for the same role. Banke starts to talk. “Welcome gentlemen, we appreciate you for coming.” You both smile and nod your heads in muted acknowledgement. “Your applications were superb. It’ll interest you to know that 150 people applied for this role. But after much scrutiny, you two impressed our CEO so much and we sent you the invites. Why gather a crowd when we already know who we want?” You sense a rush of feel-good hormones as you sit up in a reflex show of confidence. Banke continues… “We’d like to hire both of you but right now, we have only one position.” You glance at Wale. He does the same. Your eyes lock. Banke has declared war! Not that kind of war. But if you both came to get hired, it means there has to be a winner. Right? You remember chatting with Wale in the waiting area. He was telling you about the app he’s been building as a weekend project. A food ordering app for diabetics. It’ll feature eateries that offer diabetes-friendly options. He’s still crafting out the business model. But he’s close to something workable. In the mean time, he needs a cash cow for the project. It’ll be ready for launch in the next four weeks once he clears a few bugs and licensing wahala. It wasn’t a big feat but it was amazing. Before Banke walked in on you both, Wale was even running you through a few features on the app. “Wow, alaye! How did you do this?” you asked. “I took some courses online so I decided to build something out of it. I built the website first and then I started working on the app. But I want to launch them both in one go. I even sourced my data from a few local websites and mapped my strategy from there.” Banke snaps you out of your thought as she starts talking again. “Wale, I looked up the website you built. It’s amazing! My daughter is diabetic and it’s always a pain when we can’t get the right restaurant for her anytime I pick her from school and work keeps me here till evening. Wale starts to explain everything in detail. Banke turns to you. “Alfred, from your resume, I saw that you’ve done a long list of courses online. Some from edX, Coursera and even HarvardX. I’m impressed!” “Have you done anything with those skills you’ve been learning yet?” You clear your throat. You wrack your brain, fishing for the right words, but your hook returns empty. You succumb, “uhmm…not yet. I’m still thinking.” You look over at Wale. This interview will only go one way. Banke breaks the silence, “I know, sometimes the ideas don’t come when we want!’ She’s only being diplomatic. You know it. The interview runs for another 20 minutes. Nothing much! Just the regular CARL technique questions. “Tell me about a time you were in a fix and how you handled the situation. Tell me a point in the past where you handled pressure and how.” Wale narrated how he squeezed his way out of a mental block while building his site and app. Banke was blown away. “Thank for your time, gentlemen. We’ll be in touch.” Banke says, as she ushers you both out the door. “All the best alaye,” you say to Wale. “Thanks man. You too.” Wale answers as you both lock palms. A few days later, the email comes in. 𝐃𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐀𝐥𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐝, 𝐀𝐥𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐥𝐬 𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐯𝐞, 𝐰𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐞. 𝐖𝐞’𝐥𝐥 𝐛𝐞 𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐮𝐩 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐬𝐨𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐰𝐞’𝐥𝐥 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐮𝐬. 𝐖𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐞𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮’𝐫𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐩𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰𝐥𝐞𝐝𝐠𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮’𝐯𝐞 𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐜𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬! 𝐑𝐞𝐠𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐬 Wale landed the job. It was no surprise. You knew from the time Wale told you about his app. There are many reasons Wale got the job, but one stands out. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐖𝐞𝐞𝐤𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐩𝐥𝐞! Although certificates are great, most businesses—good businesses—will hire based on what you’ve done rather than what you are capable of doing. Certificates lend credence to your attendance but real application crowns your learning. The weekend project principle is a sure way to build something out of your learning. It’s about working on a personal project and documenting your process systematically. It could be a book, a website, an app or a physical product. While weekends offer the opportunity to rest and refresh, it works best for those who leverage those 60 hours to build something. The good news is, you won’t have to do this forever. The key is to build when you should be building. And rest when you should be resting. Anything outside that comes with consequences. Also, it doesn’t have to be on a weekend. Your personal projects could run anytime. However, a weekend offers you perhaps the longest uninterrupted time; 60 hours. Take the online courses, attend the boot camps, acquire the skill and certificates, but more importantly, channel them into building something tangible. 𝐇𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐲 𝐖𝐞𝐞𝐤𝐞𝐧𝐝!