Back in secondary school, my report card was so red, you’d think I was studying Fine Arts with a major in bleeding ink. One term: Mathematics F9. Intro Tech F9, Social Studies E8. I handed the sheet to my dad on the balcony as he announced the results out loud.
My mum overheard from inside and screamed, “Did you not pass anything at all?!”
Truthfully, I did pass the easier subjects like Yoruba. But years later, I found myself in technology teaching myself to code, debugging late into the night, and building digital products that people actually use.
The road from “red biro scholar” to working in tech wasn’t paved with gold. It was filled with failure, late-night miracles, unpaid jobs, accidental networking, and a lot of “try-again” moments.
This article is not about glorifying loss. It’s about showing how failing forward is often the secret to building in tech, where iteration, experimentation, and resilience are the true currencies.
Every Success Has a Backstory
In 1998, a company called Confinity tried building a cryptographic product. It failed. Then it pivoted to payments and became PayPal. That “failed startup” launched the careers of Elon Musk (Tesla), Reid Hoffman (LinkedIn), and Peter Thiel (Palantir).
Netflix nearly went bankrupt renting DVDs. Twitter was born from a failed podcast platform. Olamide was told his music was too “razz” to go mainstream.
Today, he’s behind some of Nigeria’s biggest musical exports Fireboy, Asake, and others. Every great leap often begins with a great loss.
Red Biro & One-Night Wonders
Let’s go back a bit.
Junior WAEC? I didn’t even tell anyone I was writing it. I wanted peace of mind to binge-watch movies. But somehow, I passed.
Senior WAEC? I forgot I had Government the next day. I hadn’t even opened the textbook. But by a twist of fate, I found an old copy the night before, read it till dawn, and walked into the hall like James Bond. Distinction.
My friends who winged it relied on whispered answers. I winged it with grace and luck.
Lesson: Sometimes you don’t need months of prep, just one good night and the courage to show up. The same applies to hackathons, last-minute bug fixes, or pushing code minutes before a deadline.
Syntax and Stumbles: Learning by Breaking Things
When I taught myself to code, I thought I was just learning JavaScript and APIs, but what I was really learning was how to fail fast and fix things.
Your code won’t compile. The API won’t respond. GitHub will confuse you. And that one stubborn bug? It will teach you patience, frustration, and humility.
But this is where tech is beautiful. You don’t have to get it right the first time, you just need to keep improving. Most innovations such as cloud computing, mobile apps, even AI tools were born from trial, error, debugging, and relentless iteration.
That process doesn’t just teach coding. It trains your mind to think like a builder, a problem solver, and a technologist.
Buggy Builds and Better Ideas
In the early days of my projects, the builds were chaos. Android apps would crash. Websites wouldn’t render on certain browsers. One campaign I thought would “break the internet” didn’t even trend in my WhatsApp group.
But every failure gave me direction. I listened. I refactored code. I iterated on design. And most importantly, I fell in love with solving the problem instead of clinging to the original idea.
As Waze co-founder Uri Levine put it: “Fall in love with the problem, not the solution.” That line became my compass in technology.
Networking: The Startup Fuel You Can’t Ignore
Here’s one thing many technologists underestimate: relationships.
A few years ago, I landed a significant tech gig through a friend I met during a freelance project. At the time, we were just two hungry guys debugging code and trying to survive.
But we stayed connected, shared knowledge, and supported each other’s journeys. That friendship later opened doors to bigger opportunities and platforms.
In tech, your idea matters. Your execution matters more. But your network? It can completely change the trajectory of your career.
Look at Airbnb. It wouldn’t have taken off without its network of mentors and early adopters. Or Andela, which scaled through global tech partnerships and community building.
If you’re starting out in tech, here’s my advice:
- Don’t ghost people after collaborations.
- Contribute value before asking for help.
- Stay helpful, curious, and consistent.
In a world where one introduction can lead to investment, mentorship, or your next job, relationships are underrated capital.
Some Will Win. Some Will Lose. All Must Show Up.
Let’s not pretend. Not everyone in tech wins big.
Some people get lucky early. Others build for years and never quite break through. Some apps go viral. Others barely load.
But what matters isn’t the immediate outcome; it’s the mindset.
Do you still show up to code?
Do you still push after a failed deployment?
Do you learn from every “no”?
That’s what separates those who fade away from those who eventually figure it out.
The Final Plot Twist
If you’ve ever been rejected from a job, ghosted by a client, shipped a product nobody downloaded, or posted something that got zero likes, congrats. You’re not a failure.
You’re a builder in motion. In tech, business, and life, success doesn’t come from avoiding failure. It comes from using each failure as raw material for the next build.
So if you fall, do it boldly. Fail fast. Learn faster.
Then rise again with a new algorithm, a smarter product, or a fresh connection.
Because in technology, the story isn’t over; it’s just getting interesting.
