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Persistence Is More Than a Mindset. It’s a Numbers Game

Seun Tayo-Balogun
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Persistence Is More Than a Mindset. It’s a Numbers Game

Here is something motivational content rarely talks about: persistence has a mathematical side.

We are often told to keep going, believe in ourselves and never give up. But beyond determination, there is a practical reason to keep trying.

The more opportunities you give yourself to succeed, the less your future depends on the outcome of any single attempt.

Let’s do a simple probability exercise: If you have a 10% chance of succeeding on any one attempt, your probability of succeeding at least once across five independent attempts is approximately 41%. Across ten attempts, it rises to 65%.

The odds of each individual attempt haven’t changed. What has changed is the number of opportunities you’ve given yourself. Of course, real life is more complicated, but the principle is worth thinking about.

You approach one or two potential customers. They say no. You conclude there is no market for your product. You apply for a job. When you don’t get it. You may think you’re not qualified. You pitch an investor. When they decline. Suddenly, you’re questioning the entire business. The truth is one rejection is a very small sample from which to draw conclusions about your future.

Sometimes, you just haven’t knocked on enough doors.

Before J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was published (I wrote about this in the Invisible Season), twelve publishers had rejected the manuscript. Bloomsbury eventually said yes.

Imagine if she had stopped at the third rejection.

We know the ending now, so persistence looks like an obvious choice. But Rowling didn’t know that the next publisher would say yes. 

And that is the uncomfortable thing about persistence. You often have to keep trying without knowing whether the next attempt will change anything.

Not every rejection means the idea is bad. Sometimes it’s the wrong audience, the wrong timing or simply the wrong person making the decision.

But trying again should also make you wiser.

A 2010 study published in the Journal of Financial Economics found that entrepreneurs who had previously built a successful venture had a 30% chance of succeeding in their next one, compared with 21% for first-time entrepreneurs. The study examined venture-capital-backed businesses and measured success by whether a company went public.

That doesn’t mean every attempt makes you more successful. But experience can improve how we recognise opportunities, assess risks and make decisions.

Your tenth pitch shouldn’t necessarily be identical to your first. By then, you should have learnt something about your audience, your offer or your approach.

Persistence without learning can become repetition. Persistence with learning can become progress.

And sometimes, the evidence will tell you to change direction or stop altogether. There is wisdom in knowing when an idea is no longer worth pursuing.

Don’t turn one rejection into a lifetime verdict.

We should not treat a disappointing outcome as a final assessment of our ability, when it may only tell us what happened in one particular situation. One customer said no. One application was unsuccessful. One idea didn’t work.

What have you learnt? What could you do differently? And have you tried enough to make an informed decision?

Because there is a difference between something that has failed after a fair test and something that has barely been given a chance.

Rejection is not always a verdict. Sometimes, it is data.

So before you conclude that something cannot work, ask yourself:
Have I really tested this idea?
Have I learnt anything from the attempts I’ve made?
And most importantly, have I given it enough of a chance to know?

Because sometimes, what looks like failure is simply a conclusion reached too early.

Until the next note,

– STB

Notes with STB | A content series exploring mindset, money and business.

Research reference: Gompers, P., Kovner, A., Lerner, J. & Scharfstein, D. (2010). Performance Persistence in Entrepreneurship. Journal of Financial Economics, 96(1), 18–32.

The Brief Network: Inspiring Stories and Empowering Lessons.

Eleven Rejections, One Dream: José Hernández’s Road to Space

VIctor Akinwale
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Eleven Rejections, One Dream: José Hernández’s Road to Space

José Hernández went from picking crops in California’s agricultural fields to looking back at Earth from space. Born into a Mexican migrant farmworking family, he grew up moving between farms as his parents followed seasonal work. Years later, after earning degrees in engineering, contributing to scientific research and facing eleven rejections from NASA, he finally earned a place among the astronauts aboard Space Shuttle Discovery.

His achievement was remarkable, but the years that led to it make his story even more compelling. Hernández had to turn a childhood ambition into a practical plan, build the qualifications to pursue it and keep improving after repeated disappointment. His experience shows what sustained effort can look like when a goal demands far more than enthusiasm alone.

A Childhood Spent Following the Harvest

Hernández spent his early years moving around California as his family followed seasonal agricultural work. As a child, he helped pick crops such as strawberries and cucumbers while balancing school with the demands of farmwork. He did not learn to speak English until he was 12.

His circumstances were a long way from the world of space exploration. Yet, an experience in 1972 would introduce him to a possibility that stayed with him for years.

That year, he watched television coverage of the Apollo 17 Moon mission with his family. Seeing astronauts travel beyond Earth made a lasting impression on him. What began as childhood fascination gradually developed into an ambition he would carry into adulthood.

Having a dream, however, was only the beginning. He would need an education, technical knowledge and years of preparation to give that ambition a realistic chance.

Turning an Ambition into a Plan

Hernández pursued electrical engineering at the University of the Pacific in California before earning a master’s degree in electrical and computer engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

He went on to work at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where his research included technologies related to X-ray lasers and the development of digital mammography systems used to support early breast cancer detection.

These achievements reveal an important part of his story. While pursuing his ambition of becoming an astronaut, Hernández was already building a career in science and engineering, gaining experience and contributing to important research.

He was not waiting for his dream to come true before taking his next step.

He was building the knowledge and experience that could bring him closer to it. Each stage of his education and career gave him skills he could draw on as he continued pursuing his goal.

Ambition gives a person somewhere to go, but preparation helps make the destination possible.

Eleven Rejections, but No Final Answer

Hernández applied to NASA’s astronaut programme and was rejected eleven times before he was selected on his twelfth attempt in 2004.

For anyone pursuing a difficult goal, eleven rejections might seem like a clear signal to stop. For Hernández, however, each unsuccessful application became an opportunity to examine what he could improve.

He studied the backgrounds of astronauts who had been selected and identified skills he could develop. He earned a pilot’s licence, obtained scuba-diving qualifications and expanded his experience. He also learned Russian, a useful skill for working in international space operations.

His approach was practical. Instead of treating rejection as proof that he could never succeed, he looked for ways to strengthen his candidacy.

Eleven rejections did not end his pursuit. They gave him reasons to prepare differently.

This does not mean that persistence guarantees success or that every rejected opportunity is worth pursuing indefinitely. It means that, when a goal remains important and achievable, a setback can provide information that helps a person make a better attempt.

Hernández’s experience shows that perseverance is more than repeating the same action. Sometimes, it means changing your approach, developing new skills and becoming better prepared for the next opportunity.

The Day the Dream Became Reality

In 2004, NASA selected Hernández as part of its nineteenth astronaut class. He completed astronaut training and, in August 2009, travelled into space aboard Space Shuttle Discovery on mission STS-128.

The mission took the crew to the International Space Station, where they delivered supplies and equipment and supported the station’s continuing operations.

For Hernández, the flight represented the culmination of a childhood ambition that had survived years of preparation and repeated disappointment. The journey from working in agricultural fields to orbiting Earth was extraordinary, but it was not a sudden leap from one life to another.

It was the result of education, professional experience, deliberate preparation and a willingness to keep improving after rejection.

His achievement also carried a wider message for young people who may struggle to imagine themselves in fields where they rarely see people with backgrounds like theirs. A person’s beginnings do not have to determine the full extent of their ambitions.

The Work Behind the Dream

Hernández’s story offers several ideas worth carrying into everyday life.

First, take your ambitions seriously enough to prepare for them. Wanting a particular career or outcome is a starting point. Learning the necessary skills, seeking experience and understanding the demands of the opportunity are what help turn that ambition into a plan.

Second, let rejection prompt reflection. Disappointment is real, and not every setback has an obvious solution. But it is worth asking what an experience can teach you, what needs to change and whether another attempt makes sense.

Third, invest in skills beyond the minimum requirement. Hernández did not rely on his engineering qualifications alone. He continued developing abilities that could strengthen his application. In any field, a willingness to keep learning can open possibilities that were previously out of reach.

Finally, recognise that progress can happen before the final breakthrough. Hernández was already building a meaningful career in engineering before NASA selected him. The years spent gaining knowledge and contributing to scientific research were not wasted simply because he had not yet reached space.

Ambition gives a person somewhere to go, but preparation helps make the destination possible.

His story encourages us to value the person we are becoming while working towards the goal we hope to achieve.

Hernández’s remarkable journey also inspired A Million Miles Away, a 2023 biographical film starring Michael Peña. The film brings his experiences to the screen, from his childhood in a migrant farmworking family to his eventual achievement as a NASA astronaut. It offers another way to encounter a story shaped by ambition, preparation and persistence.

A Dream Worth Preparing For

José Hernández’s journey from migrant farmworker to NASA astronaut was built on years of learning, preparation and persistence. After eleven rejections, he did more than hope for a different outcome. He worked to become a stronger candidate.

Not every ambition will unfold as planned, and some goals may require a different path. But Hernández’s story reminds us that rejection does not have to be the end of the road.

Ultimately, the distance between where we begin and where we hope to be is bridged by the work we put in when no one is watching.

The Brief Network: Inspiring Stories and Empowering Lessons.

From Laying Bricks at 13 to Building a Real Estate Business: Lessons from Ayobami Akindipe

VIctor Akinwale
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From Laying Bricks at 13 to Building a Real Estate Business: Lessons from Ayobami Akindipe

At 13, Ayobami Akindipe worked as a bricklayer. By 21, he had become a licensed real estate agent. In 2019, he founded ACE Real Estate Development, marking his transition from construction and property sales into real estate entrepreneurship.

His journey offers valuable insights into recognising opportunities, building on practical experience and taking calculated risks to grow a business. From his early days in construction to leading a property development company, Akindipe’s story highlights the decisions and skills required to turn industry experience into a business venture.

1. Start with the Opportunity You Can Access

Akindipe’s entry into the construction industry was through bricklaying, not property investment or development. His journey shows that entering an industry at an operational level can provide a starting point for exploring other opportunities within it.

His experience also challenges the assumption that entrepreneurship must begin with substantial capital. Understanding how an industry works can be a valuable first step towards identifying where you can contribute and grow.

What founders can learn: Start with the opportunities available to you. Understand the industry, identify its gaps and build the knowledge needed to progress into more valuable roles.

2. Build on What You Already Know

By 21, Akindipe had become a licensed real estate agent, moving from construction work into property transactions. This was a shift in both his responsibilities and the skills required to succeed.

Rather than remaining in one role, he moved into another part of the industry. His progression highlights the value of understanding how different activities within a market connect.

What founders can learn: Before pursuing an entirely new industry, examine the opportunities within the one you already understand. Your existing experience may give you a useful starting advantage.

3. Understand What Growth Demands

When Akindipe founded ACE Real Estate Development in 2019, he moved towards building a business that extended beyond property agency. The company’s subsequent expansion into residential development involved a different level of responsibility.

Property development requires more than identifying buyers and sellers. It involves managing resources, coordinating projects and ensuring that properties are delivered as expected.

“Growth is not just about taking on bigger opportunities; it is about building the capacity to deliver on them.”

What founders can learn: Before expanding, assess whether you have the capital, expertise, systems and partnerships needed to support the next stage of your business.

4. Back Your Ambition with Financial Discipline

Akindipe’s early business journey reportedly involved selling personal properties to commit more fully to ACE Real Estate. This illustrates the financial commitment that building a company can demand.

However, personal sacrifice alone does not guarantee success. Founders must understand the risks involved and make deliberate decisions about how much they can afford to invest.

What founders can learn: Match your financial commitment to a clear business plan. Assess the costs, risks and potential returns before putting personal assets into your venture.

5. Turn Your Expertise into Opportunities for Others

Through ACE Academy, Akindipe extended his involvement in real estate beyond property transactions and development. The initiative was established to train and mentor young Nigerians interested in real estate sales and related opportunities.

This demonstrates how industry knowledge can become valuable beyond the founder’s own business. Training can help people develop relevant skills and find entry points into a market that may otherwise seem inaccessible.

What founders can learn: Identify what your business knows how to do well and consider how that expertise can solve another problem, develop talent or create opportunities for others.

6. Build a Business That Can Operate Beyond You

Expanding into property development increases the demands on a business. Projects require coordination, cost management, quality control and consistent customer communication.

A founder’s personal experience may help establish a company, but long-term growth depends on whether the business can deliver consistently as its operations become more complex.

What founders can learn: Document processes, delegate responsibilities and establish measurable performance standards. Build systems that allow the business to grow without depending on your involvement in every decision.

Final Thoughts: Turn Experience into Enterprise

Ayobami Akindipe’s journey from bricklaying to real estate entrepreneurship illustrates how practical experience can become a foundation for business development. His progression highlights the importance of understanding an industry, building on existing skills, managing financial risks and developing the capacity to deliver at a larger scale.

For aspiring founders, the central takeaway is clear: knowing how to do the work is a starting point; building a business requires learning how to create, deliver and sustain value.

The Brief Network: Inspiring Stories and Empowering Lessons.

Give yourself a shot before the world gets to have an opinion

Seun Tayo-Balogun
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Give yourself a shot before the world gets to have an opinion

In 2024, I watched Jade Osiberu’s Christmas in Lagos and wrote about three moments from the film that stayed with me.

One was a conversation between Ajani and Ivie, a writer struggling with self-doubt. He asked her:

“Do you want to break your own heart before the world has a chance to?”

I wrote at the time that the world already comes with its share of challenges. Why add to them by being overly critical, doubtful or unwilling to give ourselves a fair shot?

Two years later, Rachel Ojuromi’s story brought me back to that thought. Because whatever else you take from Rachel’s story, this young woman gave herself a shot.

Long before Rachel walked Chanel’s runway in Paris, she was walking the streets of Lagos. Literally. She and her friends would put looks together and create fashion videos on ordinary Lagos streets. Markets, roads, passers-by, traffic. The city became part of the set. There was no international fashion house waiting for them. No elaborate production budget. No guarantee that the right person would ever see what they were making.

For one of the projects that would eventually change things, Rachel, stylist Debby Fasingha and photographer Odey Ikpä recreated looks from Chanel’s Métiers d’Art collection using thrifted pieces and clothes they already owned. They worked with what was in their hands. And they put it out into the world.

Rachel has spoken about wanting to create something where she did not have to wait for somebody else to give her an opportunity. So she didn’t wait. She gave herself one.

I think there is something audacious about that.

At times we often begin people’s stories when the world notices them. The big contract. The successful company. The viral moment. The promotion. The award. The money.

But there is usually another story before that story. The part where nobody knows whether this thing is going to work (what I called the Invisible Season in an earlier Note). And perhaps that is where the real lesson is. These are a few gentle reminders I’m taking from Rachel’s story.

1. Give yourself a shot.

I have learnt that sometimes the first person who has to give you an opportunity is you. We spend so much time waiting. Waiting until we have enough money. Waiting until we know enough. Waiting until somebody chooses us. Waiting until the idea looks respectable enough to announce. And sometimes we don’t start because we are already imagining what other people will say. That part fascinates me.

Why are we worrying about what hasn’t even been said yet?

Someone might laugh. Someone might think the idea is ridiculous. Someone might think you’re doing too much. Someone might not like it.

So?

Let them.

Why should an opinion that does not even exist yet have enough power to stop something that does?

Sometimes nobody has rejected us. We rejected ourselves first.

2. Work with what is in your hands.

I also like that Rachel and her team did not wait for ideal resources. They had Lagos, their clothes, a camera, ideas, and more importantly, they had each other.

Rachel has spoken about not wanting a lack of money to become a limit on creativity. That does not mean resources don’t matter. Of course they do. 

But the resources required to become bigger are not necessarily the resources required to begin.

Sometimes what you have is enough for version one. Your phone. Your knowledge. Your kitchen. Your laptop. Your small audience. Your first customer. Your spare room. Your imperfect product.

Whatever is in your hands. Start there.

3. Don’t be afraid to look different.

There is another thing I find interesting about Rachel’s work. It didn’t look like everybody else’s. She didn’t need Lagos to pretend to be Paris. Lagos was Lagos – the streets, the markets, the people walking into the frame, the unpredictability of the city. Those things became part of what made the work interesting.

Sometimes we spend so much time trying to look like people who have already arrived that we remove the very thing that might make someone notice us.

Different is not always a disadvantage. Sometimes different is the point.

4. Start messy. Then keep going.

We have become very good at seeing people’s polished chapter and forgetting that they had earlier drafts. Rachel’s story is a useful reminder that you don’t have to begin looking like where you are going.

You have just started and it’s perfectly okay for your first attempt to be awkward. Your first video may not be great. Your first idea may need another ten versions. The good thing about starting is that the next version would be better. keep learning and keep adjusting.

Rachel has described success not as an overnight event, but as a series of things that compound.

I like that description. Because the Chanel runway makes sense only when you look at everything that happened before it.

5. Sometimes, the dream needs a partner.

Rachel’s story is also not really a one-woman story. Debby Fasingha was styling. Odey Ikpä was shooting. Rachel has been deliberate about acknowledging the people creating alongside her and has said plainly:

“I can’t do it alone.”

Sometimes you need somebody who sees the slightly crazy idea and says:

Okay. How do we make it work?

Someone who will hold the camera. Make the clothes. Build the website. Read the draft. Make the introduction. Stay up late. Try again. Not necessarily someone powerful or with money, just someone willing to get in the trenches with you.

6. Execute.

Ideas are wonderful. I have plenty of them. But ideas sitting in our heads don’t get the opportunity to meet the world.

Rachel has spoken about trying to see her ideas through whenever she has one. And perhaps that is the simplest lesson here.

Do what you have to do, even when no one understands it. Do it because an idea cannot become anything while it remains only an idea.

Rachel and her friends recreated Chanel on the streets of Lagos. The work travelled. Chanel creative director Matthieu Blazy saw it. And on October 5, Rachel Ojuromi walked Chanel’s Spring/Summer 2027 show at the Grand Palais in Paris.

Rachel Ojuomi

The girl who had been creating her own runway eventually found herself walking one of the biggest runways in fashion.

It is a beautiful ending.

But the real work happened when there was no invitation. When there was just an idea, some clothes, the streets of Lagos, a camera and a few people audacious enough to see what they could make from them.

Back in 2024, I wrote:

Why add to the world’s challenges by being overly critical, doubtful or unwilling to give ourselves a fair shot?

Two years later, Rachel’s story has brought me back to the same thought. Maybe the world will say no. Maybe they won’t understand. Maybe they’ll laugh. Maybe it won’t work the first time.

So?

Give yourself a shot first.

and Let them say.

Until the next note,

– STB

Notes with STB | A content series exploring mindset, money and business.

The Brief Network: Inspiring Stories and Empowering Lessons.

Women are good at putting money to work. So why is it still harder for us to access capital?

Seun Tayo-Balogun
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0
Women are good at putting money to work. So why is it still harder for us to access capital?

In 2021, Fidelity Investments analyzed the performance of 5.2 million self-directed investment accounts over a ten-year period. Women outperformed men by an average of 40 basis points, or 0.4 percent, a year. That difference may sound small. But in investing, small differences compounded over long periods matter.

Fidelity was not the first to notice a difference in how men and women invest.

Research by Brad Barber and Terrance Odean found that men traded significantly more frequently than women, and that the additional trading reduced their net returns. Fidelity’s later research also found that women investors were more likely to say they stayed the course when markets declined.

The picture that emerges is interesting. Women tend to trade less, hold longer and are less likely to react to every movement in the market. It turns out, we can be pretty good at putting money to work.

But this is not only an investment story.

For years, researchers have also studied what happens inside households when women have greater control over financial resources.

The World Bank has documented evidence from countries including Bangladesh, Brazil, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Mexico, South Africa, China and the United Kingdom showing that when women control a greater share of household income, spending tends to shift in ways that benefit children and families. More money goes towards things like food, education, health, nutrition and housing.

The contexts differ, and I would be careful not to turn this into another stereotype that women are somehow naturally more responsible with money. The point is that there is evidence, across very different settings, that when we have greater control over financial resources, the benefits can extend well beyond us.

And that makes the next set of numbers difficult to ignore.

Because when we move from controlling money to asking for capital to build businesses, the picture changes.

Harvard Business Review reported in 2023 that companies founded solely by women received less than 3 percent of venture capital investments.

Gusto found something similar from a different angle. Among businesses started in 2022, 14 percent of male owners received at least some funding from private capital investment. For women, it was 6 percent.

Men were receiving private capital at 2.3 times the rate of women. And importantly, Gusto found that the disparity could not simply be explained away by the different kinds of businesses men and women were starting.

So we arrive at a strange contradiction.

When we have money to put to work, there is evidence that we can use it effectively. Yet when we need capital to build, we are less likely to receive it.

There is another layer to this.

Women themselves may underestimate their financial ability. In Fidelity’s 2021 research, only a third of women said they felt confident making investment decisions. Seventy percent said they needed to know more about choosing individual stocks.

We were outperforming and underestimating ourselves at the same time.

Confidence matters. Financial knowledge matters. We should absolutely continue learning, investing and becoming more comfortable making financial decisions.

But confidence cannot explain the entire capital gap. Access matters too. Who gets funded matters. Who gets to sit across the table from investors matters. And who gets the opportunity to turn a good idea into something much bigger matters.

This is why I think the conversation about women and money needs to become broader. We know something about what can happen when women have greater control over financial resources.

We invest. We put money into our households. We educate our children. We improve health and nutrition. We start businesses. And in many cases, the impact of that money travels far beyond us. So perhaps the economic question is no longer simply whether we know what to do with money. There is enough evidence to suggest that we do.

The more interesting question is what becomes possible when more capital reaches our hands.

Imagine what we could build.

Until the next note,

– STB

Notes with STB | A content series exploring mindset, money and business.

Sources:

  • Fidelity Investments (2021), Women and Investing Study – analysis of 5.2 million self-directed retail accounts, January 2011–December 2020.
  • Fidelity Investments (2023), research on women, investing and market volatility.
  • Barber, B. & Odean, T., Boys Will Be Boys: Gender, Overconfidence, and Common Stock Investment.
  • World Bank, World Development Report 2012: Gender Equality and Development – evidence on women’s control of household resources and investment in children’s human capital.
  • Solal, I. & Snellman, K. (2023), For Female Founders, Fundraising Only from Female VCs Comes at a Cost, Harvard Business Review.
  • Gusto (2023), The Rise of Women Entrepreneurs.

The Brief Network: Inspiring Stories and Empowering Lessons.

From a University Food Business to 45+ Outlets

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From a University Food Business to 45+ Outlets

There is nothing particularly new about jollof rice.

There is nothing new about shawarma either.

Yet Ibigbemi Oloruntobi has built Item7Go around these familiar foods into a fast-growing Nigerian quick-service restaurant business with more than 45 outlets.

Perhaps that is precisely what makes the story worth studying.

Oloruntobi graduated from the University of Ilorin with a degree in Physics in 2011. A year later, Item7Go began as a small food business around the university, serving students who wanted meals that were affordable, filling and quick.

Fourteen years later, the business has moved far beyond its university beginnings. Item7Go now operates across multiple Nigerian cities, including Ilorin, Ibadan, Lagos and, most recently, Abuja. A September 2026 report on its Abuja opening puts the chain at more than 45 outlets nationwide.

But the more interesting story isn’t how many branches Item7Go has opened.

It’s what the business appears to have understood along the way.

You Don’t Always Need to Invent Something New

Entrepreneurship is often presented as the search for the next revolutionary idea.

Item7Go suggests another route.

Rice already had a market. Nigerians already understood party jollof. Students already needed affordable meals.

The opportunity wasn’t necessarily to create new demand. It was to serve existing demand exceptionally well.

Item7Go built around a straightforward proposition: familiar food, accessible pricing and convenience. BusinessDay describes the attraction of the brand in similarly simple terms: good food, fair prices and quick service.

There is a lesson here for founders constantly searching for an idea nobody has ever seen before: the opportunity may not lie in creating a new product, but in finding a better way to package, deliver and build a business around something people already want.

Simplicity Can Be a Strategy

Look at the Item7Go proposition and there is another interesting choice: focus.

Rather than trying to become everything to everybody, the brand became strongly associated with a relatively narrow range of familiar foods, particularly its rice combinations and shawarma.

That matters.

  • A focused offering can make:
  • purchasing easier to manage;
  • preparation more consistent;
  • staff training more straightforward;

customer expectations clearer.

And as a business adds locations, repeatability becomes increasingly important.

We cannot say from publicly available information exactly how Item7Go standardises its kitchens or what its unit economics look like. The company has not publicly disclosed detailed financial or operational data.

But its expansion demonstrates something founders often discover too late:

Complexity is expensive to scale.

Before adding more products, more services and more locations, it is worth asking whether the thing you already sell can be delivered repeatedly and reliably.

Technology Should Solve a Real Problem

Item7Go also hasn’t added technology simply to say it has an app.

Its ordering system solves a very ordinary problem: waiting.

Customers can order ahead through the Item7Go app or web app, choose a pickup location and collect when the food is ready. The company describes the proposition simply as “Ready on Arrival.”

That is what useful business technology often looks like: less friction between the customer and the thing they want.

For a smaller business, the equivalent doesn’t necessarily have to be an expensive custom app. It might be:

  • a good website;
  • a WhatsApp ordering system;
  • automated payments;
  • a better inventory process.

The question is the same:

Where is the friction, and what can remove it?

Start With One Market. Don’t Assume It Is Your Final Market.

Item7Go’s beginnings around the University of Ilorin are also instructive.

Students were an obvious first market for an affordable, quick meal. But the business did not remain a campus food stall.

It expanded into the wider city and eventually into other major markets.

Today, people who may never have heard of the original university outlet know the Item7Go brand.

That progression matters because founders sometimes confuse their first customer with their only possible customer.

Your first market can teach you how the business works.

It doesn’t necessarily define how large the business can become.

Standardise Before You Scale

And perhaps this is the biggest lesson in the Item7Go story.

Opening another branch is not really the difficult part of expansion. Reproducing what made the first one work is. That requires systems.

And perhaps this is where Oloruntobi’s Physics background provides an interesting metaphor, even if we shouldn’t claim it caused his business approach.

Physics trains you to think about systems, variables, cause and effect, and repeatable outcomes. A scalable business requires much the same discipline. The founder eventually has to turn what they know intuitively into processes that other people can understand, follow and reproduce.

A recipe has to become a consistent process. A particular way of serving customers has to become part of staff training. An ordering method can be supported by technology, while the practices that make one successful outlet work have to be structured well enough to be replicated across others.

That is how a business becomes less dependent on the person who started it and more capable of growing beyond them. 

The Bigger Lesson

Item7Go did not invent rice, takeaway food or fast food. What it has done is take something Nigerians already understand and build an increasingly sophisticated business around delivering it consistently.

That may be the more useful entrepreneurship lesson in the story. Building a successful business does not always require creating something the market has never seen before. Sometimes, the opportunity lies in taking an existing product, understanding what customers value about it and finding a better way to deliver it.

We spend a lot of time looking for extraordinary ideas, but some of the strongest business opportunities can be found in ordinary products and familiar problems. The difference often comes from how well a founder understands the market, simplifies the offering, removes friction and builds systems that allow the business to repeat what works.

For founders, that is perhaps the most important takeaway from Item7Go: you do not always have to reinvent the product. Sometimes, you need to reinvent the way the business works.

The Brief Network: Inspiring Stories and Empowering Lessons.

Before you decide whether the glass is half full or half empty, look at the room you’re in.

Seun Tayo-Balogun
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0
Before you decide whether the glass is half full or half empty, look at the room you’re in.

There is a question most of us have been asked at some point: do you see the glass as half full or half empty? It is meant to reveal something about your outlook, your optimism, the way you are wired.

But here is what the question does not ask: Who filled the glass? How big is the glass? And why do we assume that seeing it as half full is the right answer?

I want to tell you about a boat cruise I was on recently.

At the start of the evening, the anchor made an announcement: once we were ten minutes from docking, nobody would be permitted to use the bathroom. Simple rule. Everyone heard it. Everyone acknowledged it.

Halfway through the cruise, I went down to the lower deck to get a drink. The bar was quieter down there, the view was better, and the seating was comfortable. I ordered a cocktail, settled in, and enjoyed the evening exactly as it should be enjoyed.

blob:https://thebriefnetwork.com/0e5f0b84-da45-49f1-b318-5262f761b0d2Meta Boxes

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I completely forgot about the rule.

When I eventually got up to use the bathroom, nobody stopped me. I walked the full length of the deck, unhurried and entirely confident, until I arrived at the door and found it shut. The rule had not disappeared because I forgot about it. The door was already shut. I did not need discipline, willpower, or the right mindset. The environment had already decided for me.

That is the point. Build the right environment and certain decisions become easier because the room has already removed some of the options.

That is the thing about environment. It does not always announce itself. It works on you quietly, shaping what you reach for, what you consider normal, and sometimes what you do without thinking.

David Burkus, author of The Myths of Creativity, has written extensively about what allows people and organizations to produce creative work. One of the ideas explored in the research behind his book is that creativity does not exist in isolation. Expertise and motivation matter, but so does the surrounding social environment: the people, structures and conditions in which the work happens.

The environment may be doing more work than we are willing to credit it for.

Mindset culture has done something useful and something damaging. The useful part is real: your internal narrative shapes your decisions and how you respond to circumstances. The damaging part is equally important: it has placed almost the full weight of outcomes on the individual and quietly removed environment from the conversation.

Mindset culture says: If you are not progressing, change your mindset. If you are not disciplined, work on yourself. If you are not producing your best work, try harder.

There is truth in personal responsibility. But personal responsibility does not exist in a vacuum.

Your thinking shapes your decisions. But your environment shapes your thinking.

Before you spend another month trying to think your way into better results, ask honestly what environment your thinking is happening inside. The people around you. The conversations you are part of versus the ones you observe from the outside. The information you consume every day. The behaviours your environment makes easy. The space where you do your most important work. And perhaps even the things your current environment has made so normal that you no longer notice them.

Sometimes the work is internal. You need to change how you think, what you believe, or what you are willing to do.

But sometimes, you have done enough work on yourself. You need to change the room.

Your mindset matters. But your environment may be doing more work than you think.

Until the next note,

– STB

Notes with STB | A content series exploring mindset, money and business.

Source: Burkus, D. (2013). The Myths of Creativity: The Truth About How Innovative Companies and People Generate Great Ideas. Jossey-Bass.

The Brief Network: Inspiring Stories and Empowering Lessons.

Ideas Don’t Arrive Fully Formed: What Amazon, Netflix, Nintendo and Instagram Teach Us About Turning Ideas Into Businesses

VIctor Akinwale
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Ideas Don’t Arrive Fully Formed: What Amazon, Netflix, Nintendo and Instagram Teach Us About Turning Ideas Into Businesses

Amazon began with books. Netflix began with DVDs. Nintendo began with playing cards. Instagram began as something called Burbn.

Today, these names are attached to businesses that look very different from their earliest versions. That difference matters because building a company rarely means taking an idea from a notebook and executing it exactly as planned. The original idea can provide the starting point, but customers, technology, competition and experience can change what the business eventually becomes.

Amazon is a clear example.

When Jeff Bezos founded Amazon in 1994, the idea was to build an online bookstore with a selection that a physical shop could not match. Amazon opened its virtual doors in July 1995, selling books online. Its early communications described the company as an online bookseller, and its initial ambition was to use the internet to offer an unusually large selection of books.

The company did not remain there. Within a few years, Amazon had moved into music, videos, toys, electronics and other categories. By 1999, it was describing itself as a place where customers could find and discover almost anything they wanted to buy online.

The important part of the Amazon story is not that Bezos had a grand plan to sell everything from the beginning. He started with a specific category that made sense for the internet and expanded from there.

A starting point does not have to define the final size of the business.

That also offers a useful lesson for anyone sitting on an idea and waiting for it to become perfect before taking the first step. Amazon did not need to know everything it would eventually become before it launched. The initial idea was specific enough to test, and the business grew as Bezos and his team learned what the market could support.

You do not need the finished idea to begin. You need an idea that is developed enough to test.

Thinking can improve an idea, but putting it into the market produces information that thinking alone cannot provide. Customers can reveal what they value, what they ignore and what needs to change.

But starting is only part of the process. What happens when the conditions around the business change?

Netflix followed a different path.

When Netflix launched its online DVD rental store in 1998, customers could rent DVDs through the internet and receive them by post. The service was built around the technology and consumer behaviour of its time.

That business eventually became something else.

As broadband internet improved, Netflix introduced streaming in 2007. The company later moved into original programming, beginning with House of Cards in 2013. In 2023, Netflix sent its final DVD, bringing an end to a 25-year chapter that had provided the foundation for its next stage.

Netflix’s story shows that an idea can be right for one period and still need to change as the market changes. A founder who remains committed to the original business model simply because it worked at the beginning can miss the opportunity created by new technology or changing customer behaviour.

The business you start is not necessarily the business you will need to keep building.

Nintendo’s history stretches even further.

In 1889, Fusajiro Yamauchi began a small business manufacturing Hanafuda playing cards in Kyoto, Japan. Nintendo eventually moved into other forms of entertainment and began manufacturing games alongside playing cards in 1963. By 1978, it had entered the video-game business, and the company later became one of the world’s best-known names in gaming.

There is a useful distinction here. Nintendo did not abandon the idea of entertainment; it changed the form through which it delivered it.

For founders, that distinction matters. Sometimes the enduring idea is not the original product. It may be the problem the company wants to solve, the experience it wants to create or the market it wants to serve.

Nintendo’s history shows that a company does not have to remain confined to the business it first entered.

The product can change while the purpose behind the business remains.

Instagram offers perhaps the clearest example of an idea being reshaped by users.

Before Instagram, Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger were working on Burbn, a location-based social app that allowed users to check in, make plans, share photos and interact in several ways. After watching how people used the product, the founders noticed that photo sharing was attracting the strongest interest. They decided to strip the product down and focus on photographs.

The change was significant. They had spent about a year working on Burbn, then threw most of it away and built the much simpler product that became Instagram.

The lesson is straightforward: an idea can become stronger when you remove what is unnecessary and focus on what works.

For founders, that can be uncomfortable. Time, money and effort create an attachment to what has already been built. But the work invested in an idea does not automatically make the idea worth keeping in its current form.

Building something is not a reason to keep building the wrong thing.

Amazon, Netflix, Nintendo and Instagram took very different paths, but their histories reveal the same principle: successful businesses are often shaped through the process of building them.

Amazon began with books and expanded. Netflix began with DVDs and moved into streaming. Nintendo began with playing cards and eventually became a gaming company. Instagram began as Burbn before its founders focused on the feature users valued most.

For someone with an idea today, that means the first version does not have to answer every question. It needs to be strong enough to test.

Waiting until an idea feels completely developed can keep it permanently in your head. Starting gives you evidence. Customers respond. Markets reveal opportunities. Problems become clearer. Some assumptions survive; others have to be discarded.

The point is not to change direction every time something becomes difficult. It is to distinguish between persistence with purpose and attachment to an idea simply because it was the original one.

An idea is a starting point, not a finished product. Build it, learn from what happens, and give yourself permission to improve what you started.

The Brief Network: Inspiring Stories and Empowering Lessons.

Nigeria has a fake-product problem, and it’s doing more damage than we think

Seun Tayo-Balogun
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0
Nigeria has a fake-product problem, and it’s doing more damage than we think

Over the past few days, I have been reading comments from Nigerian women describing itching, irritation and other reactions they associate with sanitary pads. Some say the problems stopped when they changed products.

Those experiences deserve to be taken seriously and investigated. They do not, on their own, tell us what is causing the reactions.

But as I read the conversations that followed, particularly the calls for women to abandon pads for period panties, menstrual cups, disposable underwear and even baby diapers, I found myself thinking about a much bigger problem.

What happens when consumers stop trusting the products in a market?

Because switching products does not necessarily solve a quality problem. The alternative can also be counterfeit, poorly manufactured or substandard. The issue is not simply which product we choose.

It is whether we can trust the market from which we are choosing.

The problem is bigger than one product

Nigeria’s problem with fake and substandard products is not new. What makes the current conversation interesting is how many different categories now seem to provoke the same question from consumers: Is this genuine?

In August alone, NAFDAC received 225 complaints about suspected counterfeit products and says it typically receives more than 200 complaints a month. These are complaints, not confirmed cases, an important distinction, but they tell us something about the level of concern in the market.

And counterfeiting is only part of the problem.

Something I found particularly interesting while looking into this was SON’s explanation for why substandard products remain in Nigerian markets. Beyond smuggling, the agency says some importers deliberately ask foreign manufacturers to manufacture products below the required specification for profit.

Think about the difference.

The product does not necessarily have to be a fake version of a famous brand. The compromise can begin with the specifications themselves.

To the person buying it, however, it may simply look like another product on the shelf.

Then there is purchasing power

This is where I think the conversation becomes more complicated.

When purchasing power falls, price carries more weight in everyday decisions. If two products appear to do essentially the same thing but one costs considerably less, the cheaper one becomes harder to ignore when household budgets are stretched. That does not mean people with less money deliberately choose fake products. Many consumers may have no idea that the cheaper product is counterfeit or substandard.

But economic pressure changes markets. Research on food fraud in Nigeria found a relationship between financial constraints and consumers’ tolerance of fraudulent products. In one study of more than 2,000 Nigerian consumers, 21.1% agreed to some degree that during difficult economic times it could be acceptable for sellers to sell counterfeit or adulterated food if it caused no harm. Household income was also significantly associated with attitudes towards food fraud.

A separate 2026 study similarly found that economic hardship can contribute to the normalization and tacit acceptance of fraudulent food products.

Of course, while food is only one market, the economic mechanism is worth thinking about.

Falling purchasing power does not only change what people can afford. It can also change the kind of market that develops around them.

Where there is enormous demand for cheaper products, there is money to be made by businesses willing to satisfy that demand by compromising quality. And that creates another problem.

Quality has a cost

I understand this part particularly well from running a business. Proper materials cost money. Genuine sourcing costs money. Compliance costs money. Duties, appropriate storage, distribution and quality control all cost money.

A business that absorbs those costs is not really competing on equal terms with one that quietly removes some of them while presenting something that looks equivalent to the consumer. This is why fake and substandard products are not only a consumer-safety problem.

They distort competition.

The business doing things properly becomes the more expensive option. SON itself recognizes this. One of the stated purposes of its conformity system is to provide a level playing field for genuine businesses and prevent economic losses caused by substandard imports.

But I think there is an even bigger economic cost.

Trust is economic infrastructure

Every time we buy something, we make assumptions we rarely think about.

  • We assume the brand on the package made the product.
  • We assume the ingredients listed are the ingredients inside.
  • We assume that when we pay for a particular quality, that is what we are receiving.
  • We assume that basic standards have been met.

That is trust. And trust removes friction from an economy.

Now, imagine the opposite.

You have to investigate every bottle of medicine before taking it. Examine every cosmetic carefully. Question every unusually cheap food item. Verify every electrical product. Wonder whether the sanitary product you have used for years is still being made to the same standard. Suddenly, a simple transaction requires more information, more time and sometimes more money.

Businesses feel it too. Genuine companies have to spend more proving authenticity and protecting their brands. Retailers have to work harder to establish credibility. Regulators spend resources pursuing offenders. Consumers increasingly retreat to sellers they already trust.

That is why trust is economic infrastructure.

We usually think about infrastructure as roads, ports, electricity and telecommunications. But markets also depend on confidence that the rules mean something, standards mean something and what we are paying for is reasonably close to what we are receiving.

Of course, individuals have a role. Where we buy matters. Who we buy from matters. Prices that make no commercial sense should make us ask questions, particularly for products we eat, drink, swallow or use on our bodies.

But there is a limit to how much responsibility can reasonably be transferred to the consumer.

We should not have to become investigators every time we go shopping.

A functioning market should make it relatively easy to trust that what you paid for is what you received. And perhaps that is the bigger issue behind the sanitary-pad conversation.

The question should not end with whether women should switch from pads to period panties, menstrual cups or something else. It is whether we are building a market in which consumers can trust any of those choices.

Because once people routinely begin questioning whether the food is genuine, the medicine is genuine, the cosmetic is genuine or the sanitary product is genuine, it’s no longer a collection of isolated fake-product problems.

It’s a trust problem.

And trust is economic infrastructure. When it breaks down, the market becomes more expensive for everyone trying to do the right thing.

Until the next note,

STB

Notes with STB | A content series exploring mindset, money and business.

The Brief Network: Inspiring Stories and Empowering Lessons.

Why Aliko Dangote Is Our Inspiring Person of the Month

VIctor Akinwale
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0
Why Aliko Dangote Is Our Inspiring Person of the Month

If you hear the name Aliko Dangote, you probably think of Africa’s richest man. But there is more to his story than the billions attached to his name.

For decades, Dangote has built businesses across industries, moving from trading into manufacturing and some of Africa’s largest industrial projects. His success has made him one of the most recognisable businessmen on the continent, but the more interesting part of his story lies beyond the size of his fortune.

It is in the way he approaches work, the values he has passed on to his children, his views on success and wealth, and the legacy he hopes to leave behind. These offer a closer look at the person behind one of Africa’s biggest business empires.

That is why Aliko Dangote is our Inspiring Person of the Month.

1. He has built his life around the belief that nothing is impossible

One phrase has stayed with Dangote for years: “Nothing is impossible.”

It is also a phrase his daughter, Fatima Dangote, associates closely with her father. She has described him as a visionary and identified “Nothing is impossible” as his favourite expression. She has also spoken about the values he has instilled in his children, including hard work, discipline, perseverance and humility.

Dangote has explained the thinking behind his approach to business in similar terms. Speaking about the bold decisions he has made over the years, he said:

“We always dream very big, and we’re committed to investing in Africa.”

He has also revealed that he keeps a sign on his desk that reads “Nothing is impossible.”

For Dangote, the phrase appears to be more than a motivational line. It reflects the mindset behind his willingness to pursue ambitious projects, take difficult decisions and keep going when the path ahead is uncertain.

2. He has shown that big ambitions require perseverance

There is a tendency to look at Dangote’s businesses today and forget how long some of them took to become what they are.

His expansion into large-scale manufacturing came with serious setbacks. In an interview about the early challenges of his cement business, he recalled a period when a completed factory was not functioning properly and the company faced major financial pressure.

“We were really in trouble,” he said.

The experience, he explained, taught him the importance of “tenacity and focus in business.”

3. He is thinking beyond personal wealth

Dangote has accumulated a fortune large enough to make his name synonymous with wealth in Africa. Yet, when asked how he wants to be remembered, his answer was not about how much money he made.

He said:

“I have actually passed the stage of just doing business to make money. I want to leave a legacy. I want to be remembered as somebody who has industrialised Africa.”

For Dangote, the question of legacy appears to have become as important as the question of wealth. His ambition is no longer simply about building successful businesses, but about what those businesses can contribute to Africa.

In 2023, he described his vision as wanting to see “an industrialized, productive, healthy, and self-sufficient continent.”

4. He has kept his personal lifestyle simple

For someone who has built a fortune of billions, Dangote’s description of his personal life is strikingly simple.

He recently revealed that he has lived in the same house for 36 years and has no plans to leave.

“You know how long I’ve been here? Thirty-six years. I don’t plan on leaving. I’m very comfortable here.”

He also spoke about the lifestyle he shares with his daughters and family, describing them as “very, very down to earth” and saying, “Maintaining us is not expensive.”

The comments offer a glimpse into how Dangote separates the scale of his business interests from his personal lifestyle. His wealth may have grown enormously over the decades, but he says there has been little need to constantly change the way he lives.

5. He keeps thinking bigger

For Dangote, reaching one milestone has rarely meant stopping there.

He started in trading before moving into manufacturing, built businesses across several industries and expanded beyond Nigeria. Then came the Dangote Refinery, a project on a scale that few private companies in Africa had attempted.

Explaining his approach to big decisions, Dangote has said:

“We make a lot of bold moves, which other people find very difficult to take. We always dream very big.”

That willingness to think beyond what already exists has been a defining part of his career. His story is filled with decisions that required him to commit significant resources to ideas that would take years to fully realise.

For Dangote, the size of the ambition has always been part of the point.

What We Can Take From His Story

Aliko Dangote’s story offers lessons that go beyond business and wealth.

Think big. His belief that “nothing is impossible” shows the importance of giving yourself permission to pursue ambitious ideas.

Persevere. Big goals come with setbacks. His emphasis on tenacity and focus shows that ambition must be matched with the discipline to keep going.

Build beyond yourself. Dangote wants to be remembered as someone who “industrialised Africa.” His focus on legacy shows the value of creating something that can continue to make an impact beyond your own lifetime.

Keep building. From trading to manufacturing and eventually the Dangote Refinery, his career shows what can happen when ambition is followed by action.

The lesson is simple: dream bigger, work hard, persevere, and build something that matters.

That is the inspiration we take from Aliko Dangote, our Inspiring Person of the Month.

The Brief Network: Inspiring Stories and Empowering Lessons.

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