You know how they say there is truth in every joke right? Well, I believe so and in all our so called joking we do here on social media, a lot of truths are being revealed about who we really are. There is a picture that is making rounds on the internet. It is a screenshot of a twitter exchange between a Nigerian hyperrealism pencil artist Eli Waduba and Kevin Hart. The Nigerian artist put up a pencil drawing he had made for Kevin Hart on Twitter, tagged Kevin Hart and asked his followers to share until Mr Hart sees it - which happened. Kevin Hart offered to buy the drawing and commission the artist to do two other drawings of his celebrity friends.
I have written extensively about our use of social media and how we focus so much on the social part forgetting the networking part. How we have not fully realized that our social media footprint is slowing replacing the traditional resume we have been used to.
Any- Ha!
I read a few comments under the said photo and for the most part, I was rather disappointed in what many people chose to make of the event.
“Sahhhhhhhhhh just like that. Make I go that twitter make my own miracles happen.”
“The lord works in mysterious ways... hard work and humility 👏💯🔥”
“Abeg wuna teach me how to draw make i hammer too”
“God dey up”
“I go start draw back. My eye dey hot”
“JESUS, how come i neglected my drawing skills nah, weh.”
“Kevin Hart has a heart of gold come see some of my bro n sis here when dem nova reach for door them start jerk chest for up.”
“Na yi way Bonang say make ei try, jlo fit see yintoo”
A couple of things are happening here.
First, what really happened is opportunity coming to someone who was prepared. Most of the comments however seem to neglect the fact that the guy had honed a skills for what I am sure - a very ling period of time. I’m not sure Kevin Hart would react or make that offer if that guy’s talent was not high up there. I am sure many more people have tagged many more other people on stuff but never gotten a response. In this history of people shooting their shots to celebrities on social media, I have never come across a situation where the celebrity responded if the talent was not one that cannot be ignored.
Secondly, I cringe at comments along the lines of “why did I stop drawing.” Comments like these explain why copying is a common practice when it comes to doing business in Cameroon. When one man start fry pof pof for carrefour e start giyam, all man di want start fry pof pof for the same carrefour. This myopic mindset is detrimental to our growth. Rather than thinking of what do I do and how can I put myself out there, people are thinking I need to stop what I am doing to go an do what that guy is doing since it is what seems to be giving.
Third, some wanted to make it about Kevin Hart’s kindness. Yes I get it, I have always know Kevin Hart is a nice person and besides, he is so rich I don’t think it was such a big deal for him. He didn’t go out of his way. He could have bought that drawing of himself from just about anybody, even if Bill Gates drew that and tried to sell it to Kevin Hart, Kevin would have bought it. So he wasn’t buying it because it was done by some poor aspiring artist in Nigeria, he bought it because he liked it. Holding the rhetoric that it was luck means any mediocre talent will spend more time tagging celebrities on their mediocre work and wonder why God does not like them.
That Said:-
I go back to stressing the need for us to have the right conversations around the happenings around us just like when I wrote about Cédric Simen’s car. The right conversation here should be along the lines of what I am constantly preaching - “you social media footprint is your new resume.” I expected that event to prime people to talk amore about how they can use their social media activity to put themselves and their work out there. How they can take advantage of the new opportunities that social media has brought us. To my dismay, it somehow ended on the miracle note.
Any-Ha!
As Jovi talk norr - “Sitting and waiting for a miracle is cheap.”
- Tino Foy