Author: Mahmud Bezalel
Recently, an issue has been making waves among Nigerians on most social media platforms. A famous Nigerian Celebrity wore a fascinating dress to a high-profile event, and the dress had people marvelling.
Afterwards, it was said that after making the dress, the designer had been asked to choose between being tagged by the celebrity on Instagram or being rewarded monetarily. The designer pleased to be given both. And that is where the issues began.
After the incident became public knowledge, there were countless takes:
Most people said she was greedy, a modern-day equivalent of wanting to eat your cake and having it. Some others said she should have taken the option of being tagged on Instagram; that the tag would make her popular and give her more social media visibility, which might equate to more business clients.
Others said she should have just taken the money without requesting for a tag, as her work would speak for her and more business clients would come by themselves.
All these takes and there’s one point missing. Is there any law in the cyberspace hindering the fashion designer from posting the said work on her personal or business profile? Is there a code of conduct which states that any job done by a designer cannot be posted by that Designer on their profile to showcase expertise and whatnots?
If there is, then there is a need to advocate for a way to relax this law to give designers more laxity in exhibiting their creative prowess. If there is not, then this is a clear lesson on the need to maintain an active social presence, to an extent.
Nobody is saying you have to be consistently online or active. But there is a need for you to be there in the event of your works going viral.
It makes it easier to find you, champ. Put yourself out there.
Little issues such as this is why most people recognize the name of Thomas Edison faster than that of Nikolas Tesla. Not Tesla as popularized by Elon Musk, but the man, Nikolas Tesla himself.
Another good example is Oppenheimer. The renowned physicist. Everyone who knew him or had come in contact with him all said that he was a very knowledgeable person, not only in physics but also in several fields, excluding mathematics.
I guess Oppenheimer was also as human as the rest of us seeing how he also struggled with Mathematics. However, with this vast ocean of knowledge that he swam in, he didn’t win any Nobel Prize. Not one Nobel Prize at all.
Why? He didn’t stay too long enough on one field to publish a major research. And this is despite him being a major factor in the creation of the Atomic Bomb.
What hindered him from the Nobel? Publishing.
What is hindering you from getting recognition for your work, despite how good you are?
Posting. Put yourself out there, by yourself. Don’t wait for anyone to do that for you.
A word they say, is enough for the wise. Go forth and conquer ✨.
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