Personality of the Week: Marvin Babatunde Uche (@MarvinUche)

I've known Marvin for a couple of years now and the thing that fascinates me most about him is his love for technology, and Apple in particular. Marvin, along with a mutual friend of ours Dipo Dan-Musa were the 2 people who influenced me the most in regards to technology and computer software operations. Meeting them is one of the best things that has ever happened to me and so it was only right for me to feature him as one of my Personalities of the Week (POTW). Here are some things about Marvin (that even I didn't know until I interviewed him):

Full name Marvin Chukwuma Babatunde Uche

Date of Birth 22^nd of March, 1992

State of Origin Imo

Place of Birth Moscow, Russia

Prospective Occupation Serial Capitalist

Likes Smart and productive people, technology that works, playing soccer (live soccer and games) and learning new things.

Dislikes Lazy and unproductive people, things that can make me lose focus in life, hateful people and the way things are in Nigeria.

Role Models My mother, Steve Jobs, Jonathan Ive, Elon Musk and Bishop David Oyedepo

What was growing up like for you? Hmm, I am still growing up though, as long as there are new things to learn in a bid to improve myself. My early growing up days were not typical; I grew up alone and I had to learn a lot about life on my own. I witnessed how life was to be rich and how it was to be not so rich, which has taught me how to make the best of everything. God gave me a lot of experiences that have molded me into who I am today. Luckily for me, I went to good Nigerian schools and the friends and other people I met gave me a lot of positive things to learn from.

I have always been a fan of technology and engineering in general, I was that weird boy in high school that always had wires, batteries and rotors in his school bag. My first big project was a water pumping machine, I was too proud of the things I made while I was growing up and everyone knew that I was the one to consult when they had problems or questions with related technology.

What drew you to love Apple so much? I have always thought of Apple as a way of life, a culture of its own. Technology is a vast aspect of life now, one needs to be guided by people or a company that knows the importance of the products of technology and apply them into the computers that we use every day. A lot of other firms rush and put infant technology into poorly built devices in order to deceive people and make profit. I realized at an early point in time that Apple understood the deep connection we had with our devices and were willing to make sacrifices to deliver amazing products.

In 2007, I got my first Apple device; a 512MB iPod shuffle (1^st generation) and instantly I got my first intimate connection with computer technology, then I got a 6th generation iPod Nano and then a 2^nd generation iPod touch. Using these devices, I began to understand the vision that Apple had and I felt the amount of effort and resources that went into the design and manufacture of Apple products.

How has Apple impacted your life most? Their products and services have made me very productive, their principles and way of doing things have inspired me.

Favorite Apple Product To be honest, I don’t have a favorite Apple product. Every Apple product has it’s own function and they play different important roles in my life.

Favorite entrepreneur I don’t have a favorite entrepreneur, every entrepreneur I admire has equally important stories and I keep learning of new ones.

Life Philosophies

1. We are all made for a reason and with God every dream is possible.
2. Do not settle for less than you deserve.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years? In 5 years’ time, I would have successfully set up companies with my colleagues that will be employing a lot of labor and solving a lot of Nigerian problems

Which African problem would you like to solve most? Education.

How do you think you can solve this? I plan to launch a company called Cider soon; one of the things we will be doing is using technology (Apple devices and services majorly) to solve a lot of problems that are currently being faced in the sector. With the help of the government, we are targeting public schools or educational institutions that offer free or relative cheap tuition fees so as to have a wide impact on as many lives as possible.

I know how important education is and knowing that there are ways to encourage people to learn and make a lot of abstract things they teach in school easy to understand and relate with using technology is a big dream of mine.

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