There’s something romantic about moving fast. “Fail fast.” “Launch fast.” “Scale fast.” In today’s startup culture, especially in tech, speed is treated like a badge of honour. If you’re not sprinting, pivoting, tweeting wins and hitting milestones every month, you start to feel like you’re falling behind.

But what if you’re not?

What if the magic isn’t in the sprint, but in the stroll? What if building slowly — with intention, care, and curiosity — is the real flex?

I didn’t always think this way. Like most young people who dipped their toes into Nigeria’s tech waters through Lagos, I was swept up in the high-octane energy of the scene. There were pitch nights, accelerator deadlines, Twitter threads filled with hot takes and growth hacks. The pressure to “hustle hard” was constant, loud, and glorified.

And for a while, I ran with it.

Then I Moved

When I left Lagos, I wasn’t only trying to escape the hustle. I was just craving something quieter — a life with fewer traffic horns and more headspace. But I didn’t expect that move to also shift how I thought about work, building, and success.

In Lagos, everything felt urgent. But in Asaba, I began to notice the value of pace. Not slowness for its own sake, but slowness that allows for depth, for soaking things in, building brick by brick, and thinking long-term.

Starting this blog with my partners — a platform focused on tech and business stories from the South-East and South-South — was the first time I truly built something at my own pace. There were no pitch decks to rush, no launch dates to beat. I wasn’t trying to go viral. I was trying to go deep. And that changed everything.

Hustle Culture Is Loud, But Not Always Smart

Let’s be real: hustle culture sells. It’s cute. It’s easy to package. It makes for great LinkedIn posts and motivational reels. But it often prioritizes output over outcome, speed over substance, and activity over clarity.

We applaud 20-hour workdays, but rarely question what’s actually being produced. We celebrate burnout as a rite of passage, instead of a red flag. We glorify overnight success, forgetting that most of it is carefully curated illusion.

And for founders and creatives outside major hubs like Lagos, this mindset can be even more toxic. It creates the false belief that if you’re not moving fast, you’re not moving at all. That if you’re not constantly visible, you’re invisible.

But some of the most impactful work — especially in emerging ecosystems — happens off the radar. Slowly. Quietly. Thoughtfully.

Slow Building Is a Mindset

Building slowly doesn’t mean being lazy or lacking ambition. It means being deliberate.

It’s about:

• Taking the time to truly understand your community before creating for them.
• Testing small, local, sustainable ideas instead of chasing vanity metrics.
• Prioritizing quality over quantity.
• Measuring success in relationships, trust, and long-term relevance, not just traffic spikes or investor interest.

In smaller cities, where the support systems may be thinner and hype cycles shorter, this approach isn’t just ideal — it’s necessary. You learn to build with what you have. You grow organically. You become resilient.

And ironically? That resilience is what makes you really ready when growth comes.

There’s Power in Patience

Let me tell you something about the South-East and South-South: we’re not in a rush, but we’re going far.

Every story curated on this blog so far — from the designers in Asaba to the hardware hackers in Uyo to the makers in Aba — has echoed the same rhythm. These are people who aren’t chasing the limelight. They’re building because they care. Because the work matters. Because their communities matter.

They may not always have the polish of Yaba founders or the spotlight of Lagos media. But they’re solving real problems. And they’re doing it with grit, heart, and long-haul vision.

One founder told me, “If I build this well for five people, I can build it well for 5,000.” That’s the kind of thinking hustle culture rarely makes space for.

Let’s Redefine Success

What if we stopped measuring success by how fast we got there, and started measuring it by how well we arrived?

What if a startup that takes five years to reach 500 loyal users is just as impressive as one that gets 50,000 downloads overnight but can’t retain them?

What if rest, slowness, and reflection weren’t seen as the opposite of ambition, but part of it?

This is especially important for women, creatives, and founders in underrepresented regions. The pressure to prove ourselves, to be seen, to be taken seriously — it’s real. But maybe the most radical thing we can do is to refuse the rush.

To choose slowly. To choose well. To choose what works for us.

The Bottom Line?

Building slow isn’t an idea most people propagate. It doesn’t always trend. It doesn’t get standing ovations. But it builds things that last.

It gives you space to make mistakes without burning out. It helps you stay rooted in your why. And it invites you to build not just businesses or products, but legacies.

So if you’re like me — building in a quiet city, outside the limelight, choosing process over pressure — I hope this serves as a reminder: you’re not behind. You’re just building differently.

And that’s more than okay.

That’s powerful.

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Tell me: Are you team slow or fast build? Drop a comment or share your journey — I’d love to hear how you’re building, wherever you are.

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