I was committed to Aquada. I had saved to invest in the project. I had left my job in the U.S. and relocated to Nigeria to start the company.  I had moved from a very comfortable life working for a Fortune 500 industrial giant in the Mid-Atlantic to living in a semi-rural setting in Nigeria. I had put together a team of competent and dedicated staff to drive the project. This was what I wanted to do. This was what I was called to do.

In addition to the challenges of relocating [back] to a country that no longer seemed familiar to me after having been away for more than 15 years, I had a deadline. I HAD to make this investment in this facility work because I had foreclosed my options by not giving myself an out.  I had quit my job, packed up and moved half way around the world to do this. I'd laid it all on the line (financially and professionally) for this project. (This is an issue faced by most people who have had to contemplate or make this cross-border entrepreneurial journey, especially where family ties and personal history are involved. Given that you could have an out, how much exposure is too much? How much risk should one assume? It is not an easy question to answer for oneself, talk less for others seeking to go down that road.)

We called the product 'Scintilla Garri Flour'. We trademarked it and went through the regulatory process. Everything was fine. Now it was time to sell the product.

There is no other way to describe this: We went to the market, and the market said 'No!'.

We did not see it coming.

I did not see it coming........