If you ask some persons their reason for choosing tech, you would get responses like, “oh I loved how hackers hacked into systems while growing up so I decided to learn how to code, or I love playing games so much and wanted to know the logic behind it," and so on. While these are good and interesting reasons, if you asked me this question I'd have told you it's SAPA! Yes, Sapa.

SAPA is a term in Nigeria used to describe a state or period of extreme suffering and hunger. I believe that it is one of the reasons a lot of Nigerian youths are going into tech. The country has made living unbearable and most youths just manage to survive. The government look for different means to disrupt the efforts of legit business owners and even owe workers salaries of which the minimum wage is nothing to write home about. Money earned after 30 days of hard work is barely enough to cater for one’s personal and family needs.

I am happy tech is becoming popular and that so many youths can see the opportunities in it. While Sapa is a good motivation for going into tech, it should be noted that it is not an easy journey. After all, nothing good comes easy right? Being called a tech bro/tech sis sounds cool but you should be ready and willing to put in the work. I have seen people start and stop half way saying things like, “JavaScript is hard ..I can’t seem to come up with a good theme for my design, and so on”. This reminds me of a post I saw somewhere on twitter that said tech is like blood money but the only thing is that it’s going to require your blood.

Yep! You will have sleepless nights trying to figure out how to resolve a bug in your code. There are days you will feel like you are heading somewhere, but you realize, that your design is far from the results you want to see or the result is not being implemented as you want it to be. Do not allow this to discourage you, keep learning, relearning and unlearning.

Well, Sapa is indeed a good reason to want to go into tech but it requires a lot more. It requires discipline, dedication and consistency. When you are desponding, remember what spurred you into action and you'll never be lacking in zeal. When you feel down and overwhelmed sometimes, it’s okay to take a break, it’s okay to relax and take your mind of tech for sometime and give yourself the time to refresh. Keep remembering one thing, that at the end of it all, it’s going to be worth it!