The Soft Issue
August 2017
Story from Outside
4 Of
My Life Regrets
&
2 Lessons I Have
Learned
By: Seye Kuyinu
M
shared in common- my fascination with behavioural
psychology and Neuro linguistic programming. A few
mentalism and card tricks later; we had exchanged
numbers. He seemed rather disappointed that I
hadn’t at least emailed him to invite him for one
of the events I organized last year. You see, at the
HighLifer launch party he was that one person I
wanted to attend, to share my idea with, and to
somehow mentor me. I looked at his calendar (it was
publicly available at that time) and saw he was busy.
Why email? Someone like that gets a lot of more
important emails. And that was Regret #2
y grandma died this morning. Now it feels like
a stupid excuse when I write that I planned to
return her call today. She called me two days
ago but I didn’t pick up because I was at work.
I didn’t want to have to face the ridicule I would have
subjected myself to if my co-workers heard me speaking
in her native language which I sucked at.
Thank God I was driving alone when my mom broke this
to me because I needed to cry this one. So I let the tears
flow in synchronicity with the rain that was falling (why
does it always rain when someone important dies)
I cried mostly because I was going to return her call today.
But I could have picked up when she called. I could have
called her yesterday. This kind of regret is why the but-
she-was-old consolation isn’t much consolation.
A few years ago, I got a job offer from one of biggest
companies in the world. It was Google. I had just
taken a promising job with another multinational; a
6-month contract with Google had its uncertainties.
So I dangled the offer letter in front of Leonard
Stiegeler, who had hired me, while asking for a pay
raise. Should I have taken the job? Regret #3
And that is regret #1.
I initially started this article yesterday and the title was
supposed to be Three Regrets and Two Lessons. And it was
supposed to read this way:
I stood in front of him while he sat down to listen. It was
usually the other way around- I sitting in the audience and
him on the stage. Sometimes, I read his articles online.
Sometimes I would see a flyer, a poster or an online
ad with his face on the left side of the advert. This time
around I was in front of him telling him all the things we
66
At the age of 8 years old, I had started taking
classical piano lessons. Unlike most people, I
enjoyed the classes immensely. It was particularly
interesting watching as I got better. A piece starts
really complex, I feel like I will never ever ever play
it. Two weeks later, it’s like a nursery rhyme. Easy
peasy. When it was time to choose the course I
wanted to study in Uni, I wasn’t bold enough to tell
the
LENS