I’ve never been the person who waits for the perfect version of an idea before acting.
When I returned to Nigeria from the UK, I had one clear conviction: Africa needed to be taught the real skills required for work, the kind of schools weren’t offering.
So I reached out to a few colleagues in the academic space. We shared the same concern, and before long, we co-founded an initiative. On paper, it was perfect. The idea was sound. The problem was urgent. The solution had potential. Everything should have worked.
But it didn’t.
Not because the idea wasn’t good.
Not because the market didn’t need it.
It failed because we weren’t aligned on how to build it.
I had already spent a decade as an entrepreneur by that time. I had built, iterated, failed, and recovered. So my instinct was: let’s launch fast, let’s test it with real users, let’s learn in motion.
But some co-founders were wired differently. Their approach was, “Let’s perfect everything first.” Every time we tried to move forward, we had to slow down again to make another plan. Strategy documents. Frameworks. More meetings. Meanwhile, people were waiting for the solution.
It irked me.
The painful truth? That constant delay eventually killed the dream.
It was a heartbreaking lesson because I believed so deeply in the problem we were solving, and I didn’t think that would be the reason it failed. But it taught me something I’ve carried ever since:
Great ideas don’t fail because of bad strategy. They often fail because of misaligned pace and vision.
So I went back to the drawing board alone.
And this time, I built in my usual style: with urgency, imperfection, and a commitment to learn in motion.
That’s how I started what would later become Skilled For Work .
Let me be clear, it’s not that I don’t plan. I do.
But when I have clarity of the problem, and I’ve thought through the resources I have, I don’t wait. I shoot. I test. I refine. And I build from what I learn.
That’s what design thinking reinforces:
You don’t have to wait for all the lights to turn green before you start driving.
You just need to be clear on where you’re going and be willing to stop, ask, and adjust as you go.
People often say, “This idea is too important to risk launching it imperfectly.”
But in my experience, the bigger the idea, the greater the risk in not launching it at all.
So now, whether I’m mentoring founders, teaching remote workers, or designing programs, I look beyond the strategy slides. I ask:
Are we aligned on the problem?
Do we agree on the pace?
Can we start small, test quickly, and grow from feedback?
Because if we can’t move, we can’t build.
And if we wait for perfect, we may never start.
Dr Aderinsola Adio Adepoju
Sustainability | Innovation & Entrepreneurship | Global Opportunities | Employability Skills