This week, Ebuka Obi-Uchendu, a media personality and television broadcaster from Nigeria, celebrated ten years on Rubbin’ Minds. Ebuka spoke candidly on a variety of topics while sitting in the interviewer’s seat during the broadcast. When Ebuka was asked to offer advise to young people, it was one of the most important moments of the segment. Ebuka Obi-Uchendu said the following.
Ebuka Obi-Uchendu responded to a question on advise for young people by saying:
EBUKA OBI-UCHENDU: In 2006, I completed my first TV show in its entirety. It was a game show on NTA, and there were three, four, and five television channels available at the time. There was nothing comparable to content creation, vlogging, or podcasting. There are many more options and variations available now.
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Then, the fight was more about trying to get a platform. These days, the fight is about creating your brand if you can’t get on a platform and see where things take you.
So, I think I am also learning from young people to be honest because it was a completely different time and it’s just how you guy go for it. Back then, I don’t know that a lot of us could have just woken up and said yeah, I want to start something. Maybe because the platforms were not there. I am also learning from that.
Most importantly, what I would say to a lot of people who are starting off in whatever career it is right now is to understand that some of these things might not always work as quickly as you think. I have a lot of conversations with people in their early to mid 20s and sometimes I am honestly disheartened by some of the things I hear. The aspiration to own certain things before I am 25 or be at a certain point in my career at this certain age. You know, there’s this belief that by the time you’re 30, this world is over. Oh my God, I haven’t done anything. At 30 I wasn’t working. I had no job at 30. I can look at now and laugh but I had worked from 23-28. I was having a good run. I had three TV shows at the time. At 28 I moved to the United States to get a masters degree. I came back and I was unemployed for a year and a half. Literally, I had no job so I wasn’t make any money.
So, the idea that you have to be this person at a certain age, I think the pressure is a lot. I don’t know that it’s ever going to go away because we live in a world that everything is in your face so it’s harder to look away or fight it. But it’s just to understand that things sometimes take time.
What do you think about Ebuka’s advice to the youth, and about what he said.