Weare born into life, happy, cherished, loved and pampered by our parents, loved ones, relatives and neighbors. Life looks so easy at this point that we do not even know that the people we look up to go through tough experiences to provide our basic needs; food, clothing, shelter and a good education. Life seem very slow for us at this point, I want to grow up so fast to be like daddy and mummy, if anyone gave us a clue of what they had gone through, I know some of us will definitely remain babies, children for life. Growing into adulthood, have had some experiences that I now look back to my dad and mum and I thank them every day in my heart. Here is a brief of my 2016 experience as an active business entrepreneur.

Twenty sixteen is a year that I will not forget in a haste; it was the most difficult year of my life and career. I can tell this story today because am alive and the storm is over. The dream and mission was to achieve a reliable and competent software and technology company, creating solutions that moved society forward in Government, Education, Agriculture, Healthcare, Finance, Fashion, Tourism and other important aspects of the society. We actually did, in our first year we succeeded in developing viable and reliable solutions across these industries.

Ground zero is not a dead sentence, it is an opportunity given to us freely to start all over and avoid the mistakes and the errors we made in previous trials-Ugi Augustine Ugi Jnr

The essence of the write-up is not to expose in details what happened; someday I hope to complete a book with details if I have the opportunity to do so. This is rather a nugget for those who fail in business and in other endeavors. Going down taught me to be strong, rock bottom showed me the way, gave me a better and bigger idea of what I was going into. Wisdom showed up unlikely from that fall, with this experience I can say ground zero feels good when you fight, ground zero is not a dead sentence, it is an opportunity given to us freely to start all over and avoid the mistakes and the errors we made in previous trials. We put our heads, hearts and emotions to the best test and then ground zero suddenly disappeared. It is just okay to fail, so far we learn from it. If you never, ever suffer a failure, then you are probably not pushing yourself to your full potential. Often, it is only through failure that we eventually meet with success. Whatever career path we choose, we have to know that every path needs strategy, hard work and consistency.

When we failed in twenty sixteen, it was not because we could not avoid it, it was not because of us lacking in our competencies or abilities. We did everything just about, how everyone will have done it being in our position. We gave it the best shot and gave ourselves the best opportunity to win. What really went wrong? Our failure came from inside our team; we had accepted into the team several persons who did not understand what our aim, purpose and goals were so they sabotaged the team’s efforts and betrayed the trust we had in them. The company had invested well into several projects costing us all our backup funds in the process. So many will try to identify with you when you are successful just because of what they can get, not all of them will stand with you or support you when you fall, nobody wants to associate with a failure, this is truly the reality of life.

After the events that preceded our losing out of a major business, I had to call everyone in the team to announce our fate. I was letting go of anyone who could not stay, I opened the door to all those who could not afford to risk working with us to get back on track. It was the most painful decision I had to make because I loved everyone who had dedicated time and energy to work for this company, was even more painful when we had to watch persons with so much passion leave us.

When those who could not stay left, I looked at others who stayed back and I smiled, I asked all of them, are you sure about this decision because the road will get rough. I got a reply that challenged the person in me; I knew right then that I had an army to launch a comeback. Mind you, I actually thought some persons who were vital and pivotal to getting us back could stay but that did not happen for us.

What was most important was how calm the team and I took every event that came after that period, I smiled at some and cried inside at many others but it was most important that I kept composure as a leader. One year later and I never said a word about these events, for example during the end of twenty sixteen, the company had commitments, several payments to be made to keep development going, we ran our generators 24/7 to ensure we had power to work and then I had myriad of health challenges I had to battle with. We were broke and had nothing coming in, all our potential clients kept on posting, a client in London kept delaying payments and days kept rolling, time was not a friend at all so I made a brave move. I walked to my car one of the mornings, sitting on the driver’s seat and holding the steering, I spoke to the car, we had been pals and I was letting go of her to settle the imminent pressure that kept mounting. Days later, the car was gone but the relief was just for a month because we were determined to keep our services going while we kept praying some of our clients cleared up their commitments to the company.

When you can face these challenges and come out of them with a response, you truly can consider yourself a champion

The most important thing is not how we failed or why we failed, the most important thing was how we took those periods of our lives. If you cannot fail, you definitely cannot learn. We kept on working, we kept on believing, we kept the passion alive, we smiled and cracked jokes, we strongly believed that a comeback was possible. When you can face these challenges and come out of them with a response, you truly can consider yourself a champion. Heading a company is not an easy task, being the person everybody looks up to is the worst thing that can happen to you but at the same time passing the test of such a challenge builds up your confidence and prepare you for something bigger and better.

“Every human has four endowments — self-awareness, conscience, independent will and creative imagination- Stephen Covey

Stephen Covey said, “Every human has four endowments — self-awareness, conscience, independent will and creative imagination. These give us the ultimate human freedom, the power to choose, to respond and to change” when you experience failure the way I did, you have to choose how you want to respond, you have to choose, respond and accept the changes that happen around you. This reaction is what sets you up for a comeback or a final fall. Even when people around me gave up, I kept believing, my parents called me up one morning that they had discussed over a meeting the hard times I was experiencing, they kept proposing I accepted job offers that came up. How will the committed members of the team I had left feel if I told them I was jetting off to Lagos, Abuja or London to listen to job offers, it could only mean one thing which is that I had given up and conceded defeat. After a good discussion with them later that day, I assured them I was sure about my decision to find a way back and out of where I was. I eventually found my way out and it was the best decision I made.

You just have to Limit the damage of failure and be in control of the situation. Nobody plans to fail when an idea is born, we are not perfect so we are all bound to make mistakes either miscalculating or misjudging the business. When you meet failure on the road, control everything; take charge and responsibility for actions. Do not dwell so much on blaming anyone; move on from people who could not key into your plan. In life, you will realize there is a role for everyone you meet. Some will test you, some will use you, some will love you, and some will teach you. However, the truly important are the ones who bring out the best in you. They are the rare and amazing people who remind you why it is worth living.

“Failure should be our teacher, not our undertaker. Failure is delay, not defeat. It is a temporary detour, not a dead end. Failure is something we can avoid only by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing.” — Denis Waitley

There is no success without a failure or failures; failure is certainly a prerequisite for success. Failing lets, you learn to be better at what you do. If you want to succeed at anything, you need to remind yourself that you will fail several times before getting to that point. Keep this at the forefront of your mind each time you hit an obstacle or fail completely. Moreover, if you do not want to fail, here is the usual advice, say nothing, do nothing and become nothing. That is when you can avoid failing, and doing this makes you the biggest failure in life. If success ever came on day one, am quite sure many of the inventions and technologies we enjoy today would not be, we teach wisdom from failure much more than from success and this helps us to even make better, what we have started.

From failure, comes experience, from falling, comes getting up and facing the challenge. It has been one hell of an experience and I want to use this medium to give an update on what we are achieving here at Nugitech. Highlighting below most of the solutions we have painstakingly developed in the past 2 years.

When we started out in 2016, we had the unique opportunity to develop a unique Revenue management platform, which was to run the entire revenue system of Cross River State, a system that should have installed a new era for revenue management in Cross River State checkmating all the leakages and consolidating on IGR. We actually ran the platform for some months under the test period but Cross River was not ready for such, a missed opportunity to consolidate and focused in-wards. Today that same solution drives the IGR of some other states. Within the same timeline, we developed our school solutions for Universities, colleges, Secondary, and primary schools; we have so far deployed the solutions in five tertiary institutions and in some secondary schools.

Within the same period, we collaborated Remita and made rural collections possible. Remita runs a very efficient system, making revenue collections so easy to track, but they had one major problem, which was internet connectivity especially in rural and well-condensed populated areas. We developed a mobile application that allows the Remita agent to collect without internet, while at it; they issue a unique receipt via a mobile Bluetooth printer. Once the device connects to the internet, our app intelligently runs a secured synch with our server, during this process; we generate RRRs and use the agent wallet on Remita to settle the transaction. We provide a web portal were agents can see how they are faring, we give them statistics of their various collecting points and how much they have made. All this for a very small fee monthly or annually. We make them collect like the real boss.

Another solution we deployed within this period was Tailorgang, a solution designed for tailors to make them better at delivering quality services within and outside Africa; Tailorgang now accommodate Nigeria, Ghana, and Kenya, with other countries to follow soon, our unreleased version is currently in the Google play store and under review and testing. Other viable solutions we actively worked on were Illera (our health information system for hospitals), 360datalytics (in partnership with key industry players, 360datalytics help states capture and maintain accurate data of their citizens and help them consolidate on IGR). We also successfully completed Descadious, a waste management app for team Charis, a young group of women who believe they can use technology to change their immediate environment, though delivered very late due to myriad of challenges, the app should be live in the next few days on the Google play store.

“You build on failure. You use it as a stepping-stone. Close the door on the past. You do not try to forget the mistakes, but you do not dwell on it. You don’t let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space.” — Johnny Cash

Today we have all our products running actively and returning income on a daily basis. This was not easy at all. If you have ever lived and survived on the edge, you connect what I am saying. Did I learn a lot from my experience? Yes I did, it is a bigger mistake if I never learnt from these events. The most important thing to do after a failure is to learn, review the decision making process that lead to that failure and try to change it.

“The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.” — Henry Ford

Do we have a point to prove in life? No, we do not. This is the first question you ask yourself when you fail. We are all learners; we remain so until death comes calling. You do not know everything and you do not get hard on you for failing. Ultimately realizing that every task offers a challenge, every challenge offers an opportunity; every failure offers a new cycle to learn. Doing all these repeatedly takes you closer to your destination. The more you fail, the better you prepare yourself for success.

Dueling on one failure leads you to only one destination, which is that ultimate failure, an end to your dreams. I cannot remember how many times I failed; I cannot forget some. One night in 2009, I had organized a beauty pageant with some friends, I call these periods the discovery period of my life, and I had to discover who I really was. The show happened but we owed so much and made less, even dedicated my fees to that show. That night I wept, I cried because I failed, it was painful because like many others, we gave our best, our very best. About how I paid up for my fees? My wife who was just a friend came through for me, dropped all her savings a day to my exams, this is just why I will not let her go after that event, I won’t forget to mention Nedu who convinced his sister for a soft loan to make up my fees.

Handling failures requires people who believe in you, if you have friends who clap when you fall, you are in a mess. I cannot thank my parents enough, my wife, my brothers, my team especially all who stayed back because they believed in me. To show how much these persons mean to me, I have to list every one of them in this write up.

1. God almighty

2. My wife Mrs. Nneotta Sally Ugi

3. My Mum Mrs. Monica Ugi

4. My Dad. Mr. Augustine I Ugi

5. My Brothers Leo, Elvis and Emma

6. My Mother in-law Prof Mrs. Sara Oden

7. All my sister in-laws. Kebe, Glory, Anita and Cynthia, Juliet.

8. My team. SUNDAY OKOI, KINGSLEY JEROME. JESSICA UGBE. UCHE, ISAAC ABUA, DENNIS OBI, LIVINUS. TOLU. SLYVESTER. PATRICIA, BROWN, SULIEMAN, ZAKARI, ETTI EMMANUEL,UDOKA, LYDIA, EMMA OLUBE,

9. My friends Jane, Macanthony, Chibex. Atem. Emmanuel olube, Philip,

This write up will not be complete if I do not mention ZAKARI SULIEMAN now late, I met Zakari in 2009 at the bogobri central musk in Calabar. I was looking for a 100 USD to open my first domiciliary account. Zakari helped with the exchange, took my naira, and handed me five 20-dollar bills. I immediately loved Zakari, but we did not do so much between 2009 and 2012. I called Zakari for every Dollar I spent online and we immediately trusted each other. I trusted Zakari to tell me the truth about the black market exchange rates while he trusted that I will always come for dollars and will always pay up assuming I owed him. I could call Zakari all the way from London and He will do all my business without giving me any need for fear or concerns. During the 2016 fall, Zakari was a friend that stood by us. I will call him to give us Dollars and take the money later when a client paid up, some payments could even get to him after 4 weeks. Zakari trusted us not to fail. I paid up my last debt to Zakari few days before He passed away, I was so angered that after He fought for us, He could not see us make it the way He had wished and always prayed for us. May his soul Rest in Peace. As Enterpreneurs, we need an array of Zakaris, people who believe in our ability to succeed.

We come here empty just like the day we go back, we don’t even have all the time to process what happens to us, we have seconds to make decisions that affect our stay here, decide not to duel on things that happen to your life negatively. Learn from all the negative events if they ever give you the chance, from the positives, allow them inspire you to greatness, so that you can impact on others and become an inspireation to them.

If you are building a business, it means you can change a life and inspire a nation to economic progress and make the world a better place

Entrepreneurs out there, you need to stay strong and positive. If you are building a business, it means you can change a life and inspire a nation to economic progress and make the world a better place, life usually happens and failure is sure at some point, but being focused on the goal, the vision and the mission allows you to win. I learnt something very important during this past years, you cannot sell what you dont love, you cannot market what you dont use, In every changing society and economy like ours, the most powerful and enduring companies and brands are built from the heart, they are real and sustainable. Their foundations are stronger because they are built with the strength of the human spirit, not an advert, we build Nugitech from the heart, and then we are on a journey to make her one of the greatest technology company from Africa.