Sometime ago in January, I wrote the challenges of a Nigerian Blogger. Little did I know that the resolution I made to be a successful blogger no matter what was soon to be tested?

I had been living in Lagos, Nigeria since May, 2007. I had a little stint doing some currency trading and wondering whether I should get a job to raise some funds or job keep treading the volatile path of forex trading. I finally decided to get a job and began work with a Nigerian Banking Group in August of 2007. I did this for a year and a half – worked 10 hours a day plus an additional 3-4 hours in traffic of the overpopulated city. On the last day of December, 2008, I decided to take the leap of faith and chase a lifelong dream of becoming a full time entrepreneur running a web design and development company with a techie partner. My seed money was split between living expenses – which were extremely modest, transportation, rent, electricity bills, investments and business expenses.

We broke even and were hoping for our big break. Along the line I had to relocate to another part of town – a less expensive part which I called the back side of the desert hoping to cut down expenses drastically. Things became more challenging with the move instead – an irony.

Anyway,  I figured that since my business was more internet based than physical location based, I might has well just move to another part of Nigeria where stress level is 400% less, electricity is regular 80% of the day as opposed to 5% with zero traffic problems and internet access.

My decision to relocate was heavily influenced by Tim Ferris’s 4 Hour Work Week - especially the part where he talked about lifestyle design and living a world-class lifestyle for 5 to 7 times less in terms of cost (In this case a decent, basic life at 10 times less the cost of doing so in Lagos).

Anyway, I travelled to another city to do some sales presentations and by the time I got back to the city I was relocating back to, I had internet access issues that lasted for more than 3 weeks. At first, I had no internet access but later had I could access a few site excluding my blog and my six other niche sites!

The local server could not determine my IP address from my URL. I noticed a considerable drop in the traffic to my site for obvious reasons.

What I did.

• Got Angry

Yeah, I got very angry at circumstances. It was more of a silent rage. This very quickly turned into a pity party. Then I felt like a victim – a victim of location and a victim of my dreams. I felt sticking to a financial services job would at least bring in steady income despite the terrible pressure and uncertainty in terms of job insecurity.

• Discarded Bad thoughts

I think I got into this state of mind when I felt the investments I’ve been making in my offline businesses were not paying any dividends to even break even like before and could not get and THEN QUCIKLY DISMISSED the thought pattern.

• Evaluated

While I did not bottle in my emotions – in fact I think I expressed them BUT I also decided I would not let them control me.

I remember a cliché from Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad, Poor Dad – Don’t think with you emotion, Use your emotions to think. So I decided to analyse everything that has been happening lately and used my anger and ill feeling to think.

• Came to a conclusion

I realised that things were not as bad as I initially felt they were.

• Prayed

I believe in God – He knows all things, said He craves for a relationship with me and promised never to leave me so I decided to ask for His help.

• Asked for Help

I emailed friends and asked them for help. They could not solve the issues but gave some advice and encouragement. At least I was humble enough to know I am not immune from challenges.

• Decided

I was going to go on a commenting stint.  So I commented on the blogs I could access in the hope of getting some eyeballs from there back to my site since I could not post any content on mine.

I also made up my mind to write articles for my niche sites and generally adapt my strategies.

• Now

I am 70% settled in my new location. It is peaceful, naturally beautiful – trees, squirrels, colourful flowers, lots of bats – the second highest population in the world, regular electricity and at last access to my blogs. In fact I have internet access at home – just bought it yesterday from part of a contract job upfront.

I’d be disposing of my former modem from a Lagos-based ISP.

I have risen above one of my most pressing challenges like a phoenix from the ashes. Challenges will always come but they come to pass – to pass away.

Adversity does not build character. It reveals a man’s character to him.

How Do you Handle Adverse Situations in your life? Please share here.

Cheers,

Olusegun