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Thursday, May 11, 2017

Book Review: Working On a Dream by Gbolahan Fagbure


I met Gbolahan Fagbure in 2012. During my week at Jumia, he was the guy who got to work first and left last. If he wasn’t bent over his computer, he was walking purposefully around the warehouse. He had the intelligent look of a builder. Although we didn’t work together, he left a strong impression.

I began receiving invitations to Speaker Series Africa after leaving Jumia. I thought it was interesting and was vaguely aware Gbolahan organized it, but never attended; I went to Ibadan more frequently then. Next I heard of him, he was co-founding Supermart.ng with Raphael. I loved the idea and played around the website.

Therefore, when I saw Working On a Dream with Kemi Onabanjo (this phrase is only here so you know Kemi is my G ), I had to read it! Finally, a chance to ‘know’ Gbolahan. I bought it the next day, and I am glad I did!

*****

Working On a Dream was a good read, worth every kobo of the N2,500 I paid for it; I could hardly put it down. The book is consistent with the image of Gbolahan I formed in 2012: concise, direct, focused, and fast. While it was obviously well edited, you could tell the original writing was incisive. If I may exaggerate a bit, no words were wasted.