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You Built It. Now Give It Wings

Seun Tayo-Balogun
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You Built It. Now Give It Wings

I have often thought about how much building a business resembles raising a child. You nurture it, invest in it, protect it and give it everything you can. In the early days, almost everything depends on you. You make the decisions, solve the problems, attend to customers and sometimes do the work of five people.

And understandably so. You’re building something from almost nothing. But just as you wouldn’t want your child to depend on you for everything forever, there comes a time when the business you’ve spent years nurturing needs to learn to stand without you.

And I think this is one of the more difficult transitions for founders.

When you’ve spent years being responsible for everything, stepping back doesn’t always come naturally. You know the customers, understand the products and can anticipate problems before they happen. Sometimes doing something yourself feels easier than explaining it to someone else.

So you keep doing it. The business grows, but your responsibilities grow with it. More customers, more staff, more decisions requiring your approval. Before long, you may find that you’ve built a business that struggles to function unless you’re constantly available.

Sometimes, the very things that make you feel indispensable are the things preventing your business from growing beyond you.

Working in your business versus working on your business

There’s a difference between working in your business and working on your business.

Working in the business means attending to its daily demands: customers, orders, complaints, staff, deliveries and approvals. Working on the business means developing people, improving processes, building systems and planning for the future.

Both matter. But daily operations can consume every available hour. You finish the day exhausted, having solved one problem after another. You’ve worked hard, certainly. But have you made the business any less dependent on you?

Learning to let go

I think one of the first things founders must remember is that your business was never about you. It was always about the people you set out to serve.

You may have started it and invested years of your life into building it, but customers should be able to receive the quality of products and services you promised, whether you’re personally attending to them or not.

Making that possible requires investing in people.

You cannot build a business alone. And you don’t always need everyone to arrive fully formed.

Sometimes you have to build with the people you have while helping them become the people the business needs.

Train them, share your knowledge and give them responsibilities. It may take longer initially to teach someone than to do the work yourself, but if you never make that investment, you may be doing the same task for years.

Then comes the harder part: learning to let go.

If you wait until someone can do everything exactly as you would, you may never delegate anything.

And even after delegating, you must learn to look away.

We sometimes give people responsibility, then spend the entire time watching, correcting and interfering. We want them to take ownership, but we also want everything done precisely our way. Not everything will be done your way. And sometimes, somebody else’s approach might even be better.

Set expectations, provide guidance and check the results. But give people room to think, make decisions and grow.

You can hold people accountable without controlling every step they take.

And while you’re learning to let go, document what matters.

Because if every process, instruction and standard lives in your head, then you’re still the system.

Create procedures, checklists and clear expectations so people have something to refer to without constantly needing you to explain what comes next.

Giving your business wings doesn’t mean leaving it behind

Not every founder wants to build a large company, expand into new markets or employ hundreds of people. Some people genuinely want to keep their businesses small, familiar and manageable. And there’s nothing wrong with that. But even a small business doesn’t have to require you to carry everything yourself.

Personally, there are parts of running a business that I genuinely value, and I don’t think I should have to give them up simply because I’m the founder.

There's a difference between being involved because you want to be and being involved because nothing can function without you.

You should be able to remain close to your customers, care deeply about your products and stay involved in what matters to you, without being responsible for every little thing.

We often measure business growth by revenue, customers, employees or locations. But perhaps another measure is whether the business can continue delivering on its promises when you’re not in the room.

Because you can spend years building a business, only to discover that you’ve also built yourself a job you can never leave.

Your business is like your child. You nurture it, invest in it and give it everything you can. But you must also give it wings.

Are you building a business that can stand on its own, or one that will always need you to hold its hand?

Until the next note,

– STB

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

The Brief Network: Inspiring Stories and Empowering Lessons.

Edward Moshole Went from Being a Factory Cleaner to Building a Manufacturing Business

VIctor Akinwale
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Edward Moshole Went from Being a Factory Cleaner to Building a Manufacturing Business

Edward Moshole started with R68, selling cleaning products to fellow workers at a food processing factory in South Africa. Years later, he would build Chem-Fresh, a detergent manufacturing business whose products reached major retail chains.

His story began in 1999 when he recognised an opportunity in the demand for cleaning products. Rather than invest in manufacturing immediately, he started by buying and reselling existing products, using his wages to purchase his first stock.

He bought a five-litre bottle of bleach and sold it by the litre, starting with colleagues who needed cleaning products but often had limited time to shop. From there, he expanded to door-to-door sales, households and local shops.

Moshole eventually wanted to do more than resell other companies’ products. He began experimenting with detergent production in his backyard, using second-hand 25-litre spice drums and a homemade manual mixer. He spent weekends learning how to manufacture the products, gradually developing the skills needed to establish his own brand.

This led to the creation of Chem-Fresh, which produced detergents and disinfectants. The move into manufacturing gave him greater control over his products and opened up opportunities to grow beyond small-scale sales.

In 2004, Moshole left his job to focus on the business full-time. His next goal was to get Chem-Fresh products into major retail outlets, particularly Pick n Pay. Securing a place on supermarket shelves was difficult, but he continued pursuing the opportunity.

Chem-Fresh eventually entered Pick n Pay’s retail market in 2007. To meet growing demand, the business needed to increase its production capacity. Support received through South Africa’s Technology Transfer Fund in 2006 helped the company acquire mixing and filling equipment and raw materials.

These improvements reportedly increased its production capacity from around 200 litres of dishwashing liquid a day to as much as eight tonnes a day. Chem-Fresh went on to expand its product range and supply other major retailers, including Spar, Massmart and Dis-Chem.

Moshole’s experience shows that building a business often requires several stages of growth. Reselling gave him a way to enter the market, manufacturing allowed him to develop his own products, and improved equipment helped him meet the demands of larger customers.

His story also highlights the value of starting with a manageable opportunity. He began with people he already knew, expanded his customer base and gradually developed the skills and resources required to grow.

An opportunity becomes meaningful when you take the steps to turn it into something real.

His journey teaches us that opportunities can exist in places we already know. The work we do and the needs we observe can reveal possibilities worth exploring. However, recognising an opportunity is only the beginning. Turning it into a sustainable business requires learning, reinvestment and the willingness to adapt as the business grows.

Edward Moshole’s rise from factory cleaner to business owner was built through practical decisions made over time. His story reminds us that a modest beginning can become the foundation for something greater when initiative is matched with consistent effort and a willingness to learn.

The Brief Network: Inspiring Stories and Empowering Lessons.

Isaac Sesi Saw a Problem in Agriculture and Built a Business Around It

VIctor Akinwale
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Isaac Sesi Saw a Problem in Agriculture and Built a Business Around It

Agricultural losses do not always happen in the field. Grain that has been harvested can still be damaged during storage if it contains too much moisture. For farmers, this can mean losing produce they have already spent time and money growing.

In Ghana, this problem presented an opportunity for Isaac Sesi, an electrical engineer who was working as a research engineer at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).

His work on a grain moisture meter led to the development of GrainMate, a device designed to help farmers measure the moisture content of their grain before storage. In 2018, he founded Sesi Technologies to take the product beyond university research and into the market.

The decision marked the beginning of a business that would have to contend with the realities of manufacturing, financing and getting farmers to adopt a new technology.

From Research to a Commercial Product

Before GrainMate became a commercial product, it was a research project aimed at addressing post-harvest losses.

Sesi was part of a team working to develop an affordable grain moisture meter that could be manufactured locally. The need was practical. Some farmers estimated moisture levels by biting or tossing grains because suitable measuring equipment was expensive or difficult to access. These methods could lead to inaccurate assessments and unsafe storage conditions.

GrainMate offered a more reliable way to measure moisture content in grain, helping farmers make informed decisions before storing their produce.

For Sesi, the project presented an opportunity to put engineering research to practical use. 

“I decided this project wasn’t going to end as another academic project.”

He established Sesi Technologies in March 2018 to commercialise the technology. The decision meant taking responsibility for more than developing a working device. The company also had to manufacture it, find customers and establish a way to generate revenue from its sales.

The Cost of Taking Technology to Market

Building the product was one challenge. Financing its production was another.

Reflecting on the company’s early financial difficulties, Sesi said:

“We started with no money, absolutely no money.”

The company secured pre-orders from a customer who paid 70 per cent upfront, allowing the team to finance the initial inventory needed to fulfil the order. This arrangement helped Sesi Technologies move forward without having all the production capital available at the outset.

It also illustrates a practical difficulty for hardware businesses: a product may have a willing customer, but the company still needs money to manufacture and deliver it.

The team faced other challenges. In his account of the company’s early years, Sesi acknowledged that they had limited experience in electronics manufacturing, set unrealistic production timelines and overpromised to clients. He also wrote about becoming distracted by pursuing too many activities and nearly running out of cash several times.

These problems affected the company’s ability to manage production and meet its commitments. They were reminders that developing a useful product does not automatically create a well-run business.

The Question of Scaling

In 2019, Sesi Technologies was producing a few hundred GrainMate units every couple of months at its facility in Kumasi. During a conversation with an investor, Sesi was asked a question that challenged his growth plans:

“What’s your plan to scale from 200 units to 200,000 units?”

Until then, he had focused on refining the product and fulfilling orders. Scaling, however, required a broader plan for manufacturing, supply chains, logistics and distribution. Selling more units would mean little without the capacity to produce and deliver them reliably.

Having a product that solves a problem is only the beginning. Building the capacity to deliver it at scale is what turns an innovation into a sustainable business.

Sesi Technologies later expanded beyond GrainMate into post-harvest services, including drying, threshing, storage and market access. The company also developed FarmSense, a soil intelligence solution designed to help farmers make informed decisions about soil conditions and crop production.

In 2019, Sesi was named one of MIT Technology Review’s Innovators Under 35 for his work in agricultural technology.

His experience highlights a key challenge for entrepreneurs: developing a useful product is one achievement; building a business that can deliver it consistently and grow sustainably is another.

The Business Behind the Technology

Isaac Sesi’s experience with GrainMate demonstrates the work involved in turning an engineering solution into a commercial enterprise. Identifying a problem and developing a useful product are important first steps, but manufacturing, financing, customer relationships and planning for growth determine how effectively that solution can reach the market.

For entrepreneurs, the central takeaway is straightforward: solving a problem creates an opportunity, but building a sustainable business requires a plan for delivering that solution consistently.


The Brief Network: Inspiring Stories and Empowering Lessons.

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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0
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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0
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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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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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.

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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.

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