Once Desperate, Thrice Slow

Desperate people do desperate things. Early on in my academic journey,  I was pretty desperate to produce an output.

During such an instance, there was conference on innovation coming up at UNU-MERIT.

I needed to be obedient and not to rest on my hoars as a young academic.

I had an idea of a paper that could fly. If my memory serves me right,  titled the paper, 'the employment effects of process and product innovation in Nigeria.'

I strove and I strove and I wrote and wrote.

There were some papers based on other climes that I could glean thoughts from too. I got as much useful material that I could get, did preliminary analysis and sent it off.

Ultimately, the paper came back rejected for the conference. 

As I went further down the academic road, I realised that paper was not original in the least.

If I know what I know now I should have done a plagiarism test before sending it out.

But I was very grateful I was not accepted for that conference.

In the spirit of transformation, I conduct a self-assessment and plagiarism check on any paper that should be sent out for public consumption.

Whenever I recruit research assistants, who have to work under tight deadlines, I take their output through the same process of rigorous checks. In many instances, I had been extremely disappointed by the extent of similarity.

Unlike those who advised me, If I would advice upcoming academic just learning the ropes, I would not advice them to strive to publish and present papers at conferences.

I would simply tell them to strive to be original. Strive to study just for the sake of it, then when your knowledge overflows, you may start to write.

Now, I am content staying years without striving to read any paper at any academic conference.

Now, I am content being slow to write or even collaborate.

Now, I am content just observing the winds and rains, economic cycles and real world phenomena.

Now, I derive contentment from just enriching my mind with sufficient information and experience, through pure study and daily living.

Now, I just calm down.

So that when my thoughts begin to overflow on a subject matter, I then pick up my pen or computer to start writing.

The journey to being a thought leader is a narrow path and lonely road. 

You may need to be freed from every form of self-imposed and environment-imposed pressure in order to get free on your unique journey.

You may need to ignore many calls for conference papers as if they were spam mails.

You will need to say no to being a copycat and say yes to being authentic.

You will need to stay focused on your own lane and not court others. 

Even the slow and steady tortoise can win its own race. So can I and you as well.

I am now a slow but original writer.