Home Blog

He Was Rejected By 300 Investors. Then He Built a $1.2 Billion Company Solving His Own Problem

VIctor Akinwale
-
0
He Was Rejected By 300 Investors. Then He Built a $1.2 Billion Company Solving His Own Problem

Wemimo Abbey moved from Lagos to Minneapolis at 17 with his mother and no credit history. Without a credit score, they were turned away by traditional banks and forced to borrow at over 400% interest from a predatory lender just to get by.

In 2018, he co-founded Esusu with Samir Goel to fix the exact system that failed his family: a platform that reports rent payments to credit bureaus, so paying rent on time builds credit instead of building nothing.

What started as a personal experience of being excluded became a business built around solving the same problem for millions of others. And Abbey’s journey offers lessons that go far beyond building a company.

1. Build from what excluded you

Esusu wasn’t a market Abbey studied from the outside. It was the system that shut his own family out. The deepest product insight usually isn’t research. It’s a wound you understand better than anyone funding you.

2. Let rejection be data, not verdict

Abbey and Goel were turned down by roughly 300 investors before the round that got them started. 

Three hundred “no”s weren’t 300 signals to stop. They were 300 data points on how to refine the pitch.

3. Your first believers rarely look like “smart money”

Before institutional capital showed up, the first checks came from people close to Abbey, including someone who gave up buying a home to invest in Esusu. Conviction capital often arrives before credibility capital does.

4. Pick the unglamorous infrastructure problem

Rent reporting isn’t a flashy pitch. It’s plumbing. But unsexy, overlooked infrastructure, the kind everyone touches and no one has fixed, is exactly where durable, billion-dollar companies get built.

5. Scale through partnership, not just product

Esusu didn’t grow by chasing users one at a time. It partnered with Zillow, plugging into a platform with 228 million monthly active users, and built relationships with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to get rental data recognized in mortgage underwriting. Distribution partnerships can outrun paid acquisition.

6. Treat scale as a new starting line

At $1.2B, Esusu didn’t stand still. It acquired an identity-verification company, launched fraud detection, and is rolling out rent installment payments in 2026. The round that makes you a “unicorn” is a platform for the next build, not the finish line.

Every lesson traces back to one instinct: Abbey never treated his exclusion as a personal failure to overcome quietly. He treated it as market intelligence. The pain became the pitch. The rejections became the pricing of persistence. The scale became a new obligation, not a reward to coast on.

Your unfair advantage might be the thing you were told to hide.

The Brief Network: Inspiring Stories and Empowering Lessons.

The Invisible Season

Seun Tayo-Balogun
-
0
The Invisible Season

In late 1996, Tyler Perry was living in a Geo Metro he was hiding from the repo man. Sleeping in a car on the same street that would one day have a highway sign bearing his name. He had saved $12,000 (every dollar from selling used cars and collecting debts) and poured it into a single play. Thirty people showed up. He lost everything. So he tried again. And again. For six years, the plays flopped. The audiences were thin. His mother begged him to get a steady job and stop.

Here’s the part nobody puts on the motivational slide:

The despair, the suicidal thoughts, the overwhelming feeling of not wanting to live in that kind of moment, that was real (His words, not mine).

That’s what the invisible season actually looks like. Just a man in a car, hiding from the repo man, still believing in something nobody else could see yet.

In 1998, the seventh year, the play finally sold out.

Today, there’s an exit sign on an Atlanta highway pointing to Tyler Perry Studios. The sign next to it points to Sylvan Road – the same street where he lived in his car.

J.K. Rowling was rejected by twelve publishers. The thirteenth said yes only because the chairman’s eight-year-old daughter floated downstairs after reading the first chapter and said, “Dad, this book is better than anything you’ve shown me.” Even then, Rowling’s own editor told her she’d never make money from children’s books and to keep her day job.

Oprah Winfrey was told early in her career she wasn’t fit for television.

The pattern isn’t that they were resilient. Everyone says that.

The pattern is that none of them knew it was going to work. They just hadn’t stopped yet.

That’s the thing about the invisible season.

It doesn’t feel like a season when you’re in it. It feels like a conclusion. Like evidence that you read it wrong, started too late, aimed too high.

But effort and evidence don’t move on the same timeline. You can be doing everything right and have nothing to show for it yet.

The work is happening. The roots are going down. The timeline just isn’t yours to set.

Most people stop here and it’s not because they lack talent or vision, but because the silence feels like an answer.

So if you’re in the stretch right now where nothing visible is happening — hang in there.

The invisible season is doing exactly what it’s supposed to do.

Until the next note,

– STB

The Brief Network: Inspiring Stories and Empowering Lessons.

He Went from Being a Refugee to Building a Startup That Helps Thousands Become Entrepreneur

VIctor Akinwale
-
0
He Went from Being a Refugee to Building a Startup That Helps Thousands Become Entrepreneur

At eight years old, Abhi Thanendran wasn’t dreaming about building a startup. He was simply trying to start over.

Born into a Sri Lankan Tamil family, Abhi arrived in Canada as a refugee after his family fled the civil war. They settled in a low-income neighbourhood in Toronto, where his parents, both trained teachers, took whatever jobs they could find to support the family. Life wasn’t easy, but education became their greatest investment in the future.

That foundation changed everything.Abhi went on to study Mathematics at the University of Waterloo before beginning his career in actuarial science. Although the work sharpened his analytical thinking, it wasn’t where he saw his future. He moved into quantitative finance, working at hedge funds before taking a bold leap into the startup world by joining Revolut as one of its earliest employees and its first data scientist.

At Revolut, he met Neil Shah.

The two worked together as the fintech giant grew from a tiny startup into one of Europe’s biggest success stories. Along the way, they learned what it takes to build products that millions of people use. But they also noticed something missing.

Online shopping had become faster and more convenient, but it had lost the excitement and human connection that made shopping enjoyable. They believed technology could do more than process transactions. It could bring people together.

In 2021, they left their comfortable careers to build Tilt, a live commerce platform that allows people to sell products through live video. Their goal wasn’t simply to create another shopping app. They wanted to give ordinary people the opportunity to become entrepreneurs without needing celebrity status or millions of followers.

The journey, however, was far from smooth.

Like many startups, Tilt didn’t succeed on its first attempt. The founders initially built a live shopping experience for independent brands, convinced they had found a winning idea. The market thought otherwise. Sellers struggled with the product, adoption was slow, and the excitement they expected never came.

Rather than defending their assumptions, Abhi and his team paid close attention to what users were telling them. Every complaint became valuable feedback. Every setback became an opportunity to improve. They refined the product, shifted their focus towards live auctions and resale fashion, and the results changed everything. What once looked like a failing idea became the foundation of one of Europe’s fastest-growing live commerce platforms.

That willingness to improve became part of Tilt’s culture. As artificial intelligence began transforming online commerce, the company introduced an AI-powered tool called Snap to help sellers create listings more efficiently. The first versions failed to impress users, with many sellers finding the experience frustrating. Instead of abandoning the product, the team continued refining it until it became one of the platform’s most widely adopted features. For Abhi, failure was never a signal to quit. It was a signal to keep improving.

His approach to competition is equally refreshing. While many startups spend their time worrying about giants like TikTok and other established platforms, Abhi believes founders should spend far more time understanding their customers. In his view, companies become industry leaders not by obsessing over competitors, but by consistently solving meaningful problems for the people they serve.

That philosophy is reflected in how Tilt operates. Rather than creating a marketplace where only a handful of influencers dominate attention, the platform is designed to help everyday sellers succeed. Abhi believes entrepreneurship shouldn’t be reserved for those who already have fame or influence. With the right tools and opportunities, ordinary people can build thriving businesses and loyal communities of customers.

Today, Tilt has grown into one of Europe’s fastest-growing live commerce platforms, operating across several countries and raising more than $50 million in funding. More importantly, it has helped create sellers who have built thriving businesses from scratch. According to Abhi, none of the platform’s first 13 million-dollar sellers were influencers. They were ordinary people who were willing to learn, work hard and show up consistently.

Abhi’s story reminds us that where you begin does not determine where you finish. A refugee child searching for a fresh start would one day build a company that is helping thousands of ordinary people create opportunities for themselves.

Reflecting on entrepreneurship, Abhi once said, “The absolute most important thing is to never give up.” He believes many businesses fail not because the idea lacks potential, but because founders lose conviction before finding the solution. As he explains, “Every single problem has a solution, and your job as a founder is to find what that solution is.”

Sometimes the greatest advantage isn’t having the perfect start. It’s having the resilience to keep moving forward when life gives you every reason to stop.

A Few Other Lessons Worth Taking Away

  • Your circumstances may shape your story, but they do not have to define your future.
  • Great founders don’t assume they have all the answers. They listen, learn and adapt.
  • A successful career is valuable, but sometimes growth requires leaving comfort behind.
  • Don’t become obsessed with competitors. Become obsessed with solving your customers’ problems.
  • Not every first idea will succeed. Be willing to pivot when the evidence points in a better direction.
  • Failure is feedback. Use it to build something better.
  • Build opportunities for ordinary people, not just those who already have an advantage.
  • Success belongs to those who keep learning, adapting and showing up consistently.

Above all, never give up. Persistence often separates businesses that fail from those that eventually succeed.

The Brief Network: Inspiring Stories and Empowering Lessons.

From Marketplace to Movement: How Bukky Asehinde Is Building a Home for African Creativity

Seun Tayo-Balogun
-
0
From Marketplace to Movement: How Bukky Asehinde Is Building a Home for African Creativity

When Bukky Asehinde launched Bellafricana in 2016, she wasn’t trying to build an event or even a physical destination. She simply wanted authentic African creative products to become more visible and accessible to the world. 

More than a decade later, that same vision has grown into TALES House London—a permanent home for African fashion, beauty, art, food and lifestyle brands.

Tales House London
Tales House London Launch, 2026

Interestingly, Bukky doesn’t see this as a change in direction.

"The vision has remained the same, but the mission has evolved."

From the beginning, her goal was clear.

“My vision was simple: to make authentic African creative products globally accessible and to help African creatives get the visibility and recognition they deserve.”

What changed wasn’t the destination. It was the route.

"When I started Bellafricana, I thought an online platform would be enough. I wanted someone in London, New York, or anywhere in the world to discover and confidently buy from an African creative."

But listening to the community revealed something bigger. Visibility alone wasn’t solving the problem.

"Creatives needed business support, mentorship, community, access to markets, and opportunities to meet customers face-to-face."

That realization eventually led to Bellafricana’s first London pop-up in 2023.

TALES 2023

Then TALES became much more than an event. It became an experience. And after witnessing its impact on both brands and customers, another question emerged.

"Why shouldn't African creativity have permanent homes around the world, just like cities have Chinatowns or Little Italys?"

That question became TALES House London.

As Bukky explains,

"It's not just a permanent retail space. It's the beginning of a much bigger vision to create global destinations where African creativity is celebrated every day."

Although the platform has evolved, the problem she set out to solve remains remarkably consistent.

"The core problem hasn't changed."

For Bukky, African creatives have never lacked talent. What they’ve lacked is visibility, structure, access and trust. Many creators produce exceptional work, yet struggle to reach the right customers, price confidently, tell compelling stories, or expand beyond their local markets.

While international interest in African creativity has increased, she believes stronger business foundations are now more important than ever.

"Bellafricana isn't just about promoting brands anymore. It's about helping them build sustainable businesses that can compete anywhere in the world."

One of the most striking themes throughout Bukky’s journey is that every stage of growth has been driven by listening. Rather than deciding what the community should want, she paid attention to what it actually needed. When asked why she expanded beyond a traditional marketplace, her answer was simple.

"Because people build businesses, but community builds movements."

She realized creatives weren’t simply looking for another platform where they could upload products.They wanted encouragement. They wanted collaboration. They wanted somewhere they could ask questions without feeling judged. They wanted people who genuinely believed in them.

TALES 2024

Looking back, Bukky summarizes Bellafricana’s journey in one sentence:

"Each step has simply been responding to what our community needed next."

Community came first. Then experiences.Now, those experiences have found a permanent home.

The decision to establish TALES House wasn’t driven by ambition alone.

It came from repeated conversations. Every year after TALES ended, the same question surfaced.

"When are you opening again?"

It wasn’t only vendors asking. Customers were asking too. She also watched creatives spend months preparing for TALES, build remarkable momentum, and then have nowhere to continue that momentum once the event ended. That was the turning point.

"TALES shouldn't just be an event. It needed to become a destination."

And, as she puts it,

"TALES House is our answer to that."

As African brands gain greater international recognition, Bukky believes the conversation itself needs to change.

“I think we need to stop calling them ‘African brands’ first and start recognising them as great brands that happen to come from Africa.”

For her, the challenge has never been talent.

"Quality has never really been our issue. Perception has."

She believes stronger investment, infrastructure, storytelling and opportunities will continue to shift that perception. At the same time, founders themselves have work to do.They must invest in branding, systems, customer experience and consistency. As she reminds creatives,

"Global recognition isn't just earned through talent. It's earned through excellence."

Working with hundreds of entrepreneurs has also shaped the advice she gives. 

The biggest mistake isn’t poor products. It’s neglecting the business behind the product. Some founders spend years perfecting what they create while giving very little attention to pricing, marketing, sales, cash flow or customer experience.

She also sees another pattern. Waiting until everything feels perfect before becoming visible. Her advice is direct.

“Visibility creates opportunity. People cannot support what they don’t know exists.”

And ultimately,

"Build the business with the same care they build the product."

Like many entrepreneurial journeys, hers has also included moments of uncertainty. Moving to the United Kingdom became one of the most difficult seasons of her life.

“Financially, emotionally and mentally, I questioned whether I had the strength to rebuild Bellafricana in a new country.”

There were moments she considered walking away. But messages from creatives kept arriving. Stories about renewed confidence. New opportunities. Lives changed because someone believed in them. Those reminders helped her continue.

"My faith also carried me."

Then she adds one sentence that captures the season perfectly.

"There were moments when all I had left was obedience."

For young creatives beginning their own journeys, Bukky’s advice is practical.

Master your craft. Learn business. Build relationships. And don’t wait until everything feels perfect.

“Start before you feel ready.”
“You don’t need perfect conditions to begin.”

Looking ahead, Bukky hopes TALES House becomes the first place people think of when they want to experience African creativity in London.

TALES 2024

She envisions thousands of visitors discovering African brands, founders securing wholesale partnerships and international customers, and creatives saying one simple sentence:

"TALES House changed the trajectory of my business."

Beyond London, she hopes the model can one day be replicated in cities around the world.

Near the end of our conversation, we asked Bukky what lesson has most changed the way she thinks.

Her answer perhaps explains every chapter of this journey.

“I stopped asking, ‘How do I build a successful business?’ “And I started asking, ‘How do I build something that outlives me?'”

She says that shift changed every decision she made.

"It moved me from building a platform to building an ecosystem. From organising events to creating institutions. From chasing growth to creating impact."

Then she leaves us with a thought that feels bigger than entrepreneurship itself.

“Because success is wonderful.”

“But significance, that’s what lasts.”

The Brief Network: Inspiring Stories and Empowering Lessons.

The Mindset Behind a Self-Made Billionaire: Lessons from Sara Blakely

VIctor Akinwale
-
0
The Mindset Behind a Self-Made Billionaire: Lessons from Sara Blakely

Success stories often focus on the outcome. We celebrate the billion-dollar valuation, the magazine covers, and the milestones. What we rarely see are the countless rejections, moments of doubt, and quiet decisions that shaped the journey.

Before Sara Blakely became the founder of Spanx and one of the world’s youngest self-made female billionaires, she was selling fax machines door to door. She had no background in fashion, no investors, and no blueprint for building a global company. What she had was a problem she wanted to solve and the courage to keep going when others couldn’t see her vision.

Her journey offers lessons that extend far beyond business.

1. Great businesses begin with everyday problems.

Sara Blakely did not set out to build a billion-dollar company. She simply wanted a better undergarment to wear under white trousers. Instead of accepting the inconvenience, she asked a simple question: “What if there were a better way?”

Many successful businesses are born from paying attention to ordinary frustrations. Opportunities often hide in the problems people have learned to tolerate.

As Blakely once said,

 “It’s important to be willing to make mistakes. The worst thing that can happen is you become memorable.”

2. Don’t wait until you feel qualified.

When Sara started Spanx, she had no experience in fashion, manufacturing, or retail. She learned as she went, researching patents, contacting manufacturers, and pitching her product herself.

Many people delay their dreams because they believe they need another qualification, more experience, or perfect timing. Progress often belongs to those willing to learn while moving.

In her words,

“Embrace what you don’t know, especially in the beginning, because what you don’t know can become your greatest asset.”

3. Rejection is not the end of the story.

Manufacturers dismissed her idea. Buyers questioned the product. Investors were unconvinced. Yet every “no” became another reason to refine her approach instead of abandoning it.

Rejection is often feedback, not failure. Those who build lasting businesses understand that persistence frequently outlasts talent.

Blakely captured this mindset perfectly:

“Failure is not the outcome. Failure is not trying.”

4. Believe in your vision before the world does.

Every entrepreneur reaches a stage where no one else understands the vision. During that season, confidence becomes more valuable than applause.

Sara invested her own savings, protected her idea, and continued showing up long before the world recognised its value.

As she said, “Trust your instincts.” Sometimes the conviction you have today becomes the opportunity others recognise tomorrow.

5. Wealth follows value.

Spanx became successful because it solved a real problem for millions of women. Profit was a result of creating genuine value, not the starting point.

Sustainable wealth is often built by improving people’s lives. The more meaningful the solution, the greater the potential impact.

6. Keep your sense of humility as you grow.

Success did not erase Sara Blakely’s appreciation for learning. She has consistently spoken about curiosity, gratitude, and surrounding herself with people who challenge her thinking.

Growth is not only about increasing revenue. It is also about becoming the kind of leader who continues to learn, adapt, and serve.

As she once said,
“Don’t be intimidated by what you don’t know.”

7. Your mindset will shape your future before your circumstances do.

Perhaps Sara Blakely’s greatest advantage was not money, connections, or experience. It was the way she viewed obstacles. She saw challenges as invitations to think differently, rejection as part of the process, and failure as an opportunity to grow.

Long before success becomes visible to others, it is built in the mind.

Building wealth is not only about earning more. It is about seeing possibilities where others see limitations, creating value where others see inconvenience, and choosing persistence when giving up feels easier.

That is the mindset behind a self-made billionaire.

The Brief Network: Inspiring Stories and Empowering Lessons.

You Don’t Start from Scratch. You Start from Experience

Seun Tayo-Balogun
-
0
You Don’t Start from Scratch. You Start from Experience

What Abby Kesington’s journey reminds us about beginning again.

People often talk about “starting over” as though moving to a new country or changing careers wipes the slate clean.

It rarely does.

More often, you’re navigating a new environment with years of experience already in your hands.

That is one of the lessons we can draw from the journey of Houston-based Nigerian poet Abby Kesington.

Before becoming known for her poetry, Kesington worked as a journalist in Lagos and studied Political Science in Nigeria. Those experiences shaped how she observed the world—paying attention to people, questioning society, and looking beneath the surface of everyday life.

When she later relocated to the United States, she wasn’t beginning from zero. She was entering a different cultural and literary landscape, carrying with her the perspective, discipline and lived experiences she had already built.

Today, her poetry reflects that journey.

Her work explores themes such as identity, resilience, anxiety, freedom, belonging, social justice and hope. Rather than relying on dramatic declarations, she often uncovers profound truths through quiet observations of nature and ordinary life. Her poems invite readers to slow down, reflect and find meaning in experiences that might otherwise go unnoticed.

Her growing body of work has appeared in respected literary publications, including The Bayou Review at the University of Houston, where her poems The Game and Runway were featured in the Fall 2024 “Freedom & Deliverance” edition. She was also included in A Legacy of Freedom, the bilingual anthology Wole Soyinka: The Herald at 90, produced by the Pan African Writers Association to honour the Nobel Laureate. In addition, her poem, “Finding Me,” was published as part of the anthology “The Fire Within” by Women in Visual and Literary Arts of Houston (WIVLA) in 2025. More of Kesington’s poetry can be explored on her official poetry page 

One of the most distinctive aspects of Kesington’s writing is the way it blends her Nigerian heritage with her American experience. Instead of leaving one identity behind to embrace another, she allows both to shape her voice. The result is poetry that speaks not only about migration, but about identity, adaptation and the quiet strength required to find your place in a new environment.

For many people, changing countries, careers or industries can feel like starting over.

But stories like Abby Kesington’s remind us that the foundation has already been laid.

The skills you’ve developed, the challenges you’ve overcome, the relationships you’ve built and the lessons you’ve learned remain part of you. A new environment simply gives those experiences a different stage on which to grow.

Whether you’re building a business, changing careers, pursuing a creative calling or beginning a new chapter in life, remember this: Growth isn’t about discarding your past—it’s about carrying its lessons into your future.

The Brief Network: Inspiring Stories and Empowering Lessons.

From Poverty to the Oscars: The Remarkable Journey of Viola Davis

VIctor Akinwale
-
0
From Poverty to the Oscars: The Remarkable Journey of Viola Davis

Greatness is often assumed to start with opportunity. Viola Davis‘s life says otherwise. Hers started with resilience, with the decision to keep moving when everything around her suggested she should stop.

Today, Viola Davis stands among the finest actors of her generation. She is an Academy Award winner, an Emmy Award winner, a two-time Tony Award winner, a producer, and a bestselling author. She is also the first Black actress to complete the Triple Crown of Acting, winning competitive Oscar, Emmy, and Tony Awards. None of this was written into the life she was born into.

Before the applause, she was a little girl in Central Falls, Rhode Island, one of six children. Her parents, Dan and Mae Alice Davis, worked hard, but a large family and little money made daily life a struggle. Their home was in poor condition. Food ran short more often than not, and hardship was simply part of growing up.

Davis has never softened the truth of those years.

“I was the kind of poor where I knew right away I had less than everyone around me. We had nothing.”

For a child, poverty is rarely just about empty pockets. It is the sense of being overlooked, of feeling that life has already set a ceiling on what is possible. Viola Davis carried that weight too.

Then something shifted.

As a young girl, she watched Cicely Tyson play Jane Pittman in The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. It was the first time a performance reached something in her she couldn’t yet name. That moment planted a dream she would spend years chasing.

Acting stopped being something she watched and became something she wanted to do.

She went on to study theatre, giving herself fully to the craft. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre from Rhode Island College in 1988, where she honed her skills and deepened her commitment to acting. But talent didn’t open doors on its own. Hollywood wasn’t waiting for her.

For years she worked the stage, taking every role she could get in an industry that offered Black women painfully few chances. Auditions often ended in silence or rejection. Recognition was slow. Success felt far away.

Plenty of people would have called the dream unrealistic. Viola Davis didn’t.

Instead of letting rejection define her worth, she used it as fuel to sharpen her craft. She chose excellence over quick recognition, trusting that preparation would eventually meet its moment.

That moment came in 2008. Her performance in Doubt lasted only a few minutes on screen, but it was enough to earn her first Academy Award nomination and put Hollywood on notice. It proved that impact isn’t measured by screen time but by what an actor brings when the camera is finally on them.

The Help pushed her further into the spotlight. As Aibileen Clark, a domestic worker carrying quiet dignity through impossible circumstances, she moved audiences worldwide and picked up a second Oscar nomination.

Then came a role that changed television.

As Professor Annalise Keating in How to Get Away with Murder, Davis delivered a character who was brilliant, flawed, and completely human. The performance won her the Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, the first Black woman to take that award.

In her acceptance speech, she said:

“The only thing that separates women of colour from anyone else is opportunity.”

It wasn’t just a line for the moment. It was a statement about how much talent goes unseen simply because the door was never opened.

A year later, her role as Rose Maxson in Fences earned her the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, a win built on decades of discipline rather than a sudden break.

By then, Viola Davis had become the first Black actress to complete the Triple Crown of Acting. Every trophy carried years of struggle the world never witnessed.

Even at the height of her career, Davis has stayed honest about fear, doubt, and the work of healing.

“You have to be the hero of your own story.”

She has also encouraged people to:

“Dream big and dream fierce.”

But dreaming was never the whole plan. She backed it with preparation, studying relentlessly, taking on difficult roles, staying committed to her craft long before recognition arrived. That mix of vision and discipline is what carried her from Central Falls to the biggest stages in entertainment.

Her story leaves a few lessons worth sitting with.

Where you start is not a forecast of where you’ll end up. The family and circumstances you’re born into don’t set the ceiling on what you can build.

Rejection isn’t always a signal to quit. Sometimes it’s simply asking you to get stronger and more prepared for what’s coming.

Success rarely moves fast. Behind every visible win are years of work nobody saw.

More than anything, Viola Davis’s life shows that the real fight is rarely against poverty or rejection themselves. It’s against the belief that those things get the final say.

They don’t.

The girl who once wondered if she mattered became one of the most respected actors alive, not because life got easier, but because she refused to let go of a dream that started with almost nothing.

Viola Davis’s story makes one thing clear: where you begin can shape the road ahead, but it never has to decide where you end up.

The Brief Network: Inspiring Stories and Empowering Lessons.

Book Review: What “The Business of the 21st Century” Teaches Us About Building Wealth in a Changing World

VIctor Akinwale
-
0
Book Review: What “The Business of the 21st Century” Teaches Us About Building Wealth in a Changing World

For generations, success has been defined by a familiar formula: study hard, get a good job, work diligently, save money, and retire comfortably. Yet, in today’s world, that formula no longer guarantees financial security. Rising living costs, economic uncertainty, rapid technological advancement, and evolving labour markets have forced many people to rethink what it truly means to build wealth.

In The Business of the 21st Century, Robert Kiyosaki challenges this conventional thinking. He argues that financial freedom is not achieved simply by earning more money, but by building assets, developing financial intelligence, and creating systems that generate income over time.

While the book focuses on network marketing as a pathway to achieving this, its broader lessons extend far beyond one business model. More than a guide to building a business, it challenges long-held assumptions about work, wealth, and financial independence in the twenty first century. 

Here are eight key lessons from the book:

1. Wealth Is Built by Owning Assets

One of the strongest messages throughout the book is that lasting wealth is created by owning assets rather than relying solely on earned income. Kiyosaki challenges the traditional belief that earning a higher salary is the key to wealth. Instead, he advocates acquiring assets that generate continuous cash flow.

This idea reflects one of the defining principles found throughout his work: wealthy individuals prioritise acquiring assets that put money into their pockets, while many others spend their income on liabilities that continually take money away.

The lesson is particularly relevant today. A higher salary may improve one’s standard of living, but without assets such as businesses, investments, intellectual property, or income-producing ventures, financial freedom can remain elusive. Ultimately, Kiyosaki argues that income from labour has limits, while income from assets has the potential to grow independently of the hours a person works.

2. Understand the Cashflow Quadrant

Among the book’s most influential concepts is the Cashflow Quadrant, a framework Kiyosaki uses to explain the different ways people earn income.

He divides income earners into four groups:

Employee (E): Individuals who work for wages or salaries and exchange time for money.

Self-employed (S): Professionals and business operators who own their jobs but remain heavily dependent on their own time and expertise.

Business Owner (B): People who own systems and businesses that continue operating with the help of other people.

Investor (I): Individuals whose money works for them through investments and income-producing assets.

Kiyosaki argues that while there is nothing inherently wrong with being an employee or self-employed, genuine financial freedom is often found by gradually moving towards the Business Owner and Investor quadrant. Instead, he advocates gradually building assets and businesses while developing the knowledge required to transition over time rather than remaining dependent on a single source of earned income.

The Cashflow Quadrant remains one of the book’s most practical ideas because it challenges conventional thinking about where income comes from and whether one’s current path can provide long-term financial independence.

3. Financial Education Matters More Than High Income

Another recurring theme is that financial education often matters more than the size of one’s paycheque. Many people earn substantial incomes yet struggle financially because they lack an understanding of budgeting, investing, taxes, debt management, and wealth creation. Conversely, individuals with modest incomes but strong financial habits may gradually accumulate lasting wealth.

According to Kiyosaki, schools teach people how to earn money but often fail to teach them how to manage or multiply it. For students, young professionals, and entrepreneurs alike, this serves as an important reminder that financial literacy should be viewed as a lifelong pursuit rather than a one-time lesson.

Money is not only earned; it must also be managed wisely.

4. Build Systems, Not Just a Job

One of the most practical lessons in the book is the importance of building systems.

Many entrepreneurs unknowingly create businesses that depend entirely on their own constant effort. While they technically own a business, they remain trapped because everything stops when they stop working.

Kiyosaki maintains that true business ownership involves creating systems that continue to operate efficiently with capable people, effective processes, and strong leadership. Whether someone owns a small enterprise, leads a growing company, or works within an organisation, the principle remains relevant. Sustainable success comes from building structures that can continue creating value beyond one’s individual effort.

A system, when built well, creates leverage. It allows people to multiply their impact rather than simply working longer hours.

5. Personal Development Is One of the Greatest Investments

One of the book’s most compelling arguments is that the greatest investment anyone can make is not in stocks, real estate, or even a business, but in themselves. Kiyosaki believes that lasting success begins with personal growth.

Throughout the book, he explains that leadership, communication, confidence, emotional resilience, and the ability to work with people are qualities that determine long-term success in business. Technical knowledge may help someone secure a job, but personal development often determines how far they can go.

This is one reason Kiyosaki speaks positively about network marketing. Beyond the financial opportunity, he describes it as a training ground where individuals learn to lead teams, communicate effectively, overcome rejection, and develop confidence.

Even for those who never pursue that business model, the underlying lesson remains valuable. As the business world continues to evolve, people who invest in learning, adaptability, and leadership are better positioned to seize new opportunities.

6. Entrepreneurship Requires Courage

Every worthwhile venture involves uncertainty. Fear of failure, fear of rejection, and fear of making mistakes prevent many people from pursuing opportunities that could change their lives.

Kiyosaki argues that successful entrepreneurs are not fearless. Rather, they learn to act despite their fears. They understand that mistakes are part of the learning process and that every setback provides an opportunity to gain experience.

This perspective is especially relevant in today’s economy, where innovation often comes from people willing to challenge conventional thinking. While caution and careful planning remain important, excessive fear can become a greater obstacle than failure itself.

The message is clear: resilience, continuous learning, and the willingness to learn from failure are essential for anyone seeking long-term success in business.

7. Relationships and Mentorship Accelerate Growth

Another recurring lesson is that success is rarely achieved in isolation. Throughout the book, Kiyosaki highlights the importance of learning from people who have already travelled the path you hope to follow.

Mentors provide more than knowledge. They offer perspective, accountability, encouragement, and practical wisdom that cannot always be found in books or classrooms. Likewise, surrounding yourself with people who challenge and inspire you can shape your mindset and influence your decisions.

The book also emphasises the importance of building genuine relationships. Trust, collaboration, and a willingness to help others are not merely personal virtues; they are essential business skills. In an increasingly connected world, opportunities often emerge through strong relationships rather than individual effort alone.

8. Think Beyond the Paycheque

Perhaps the book’s most enduring message is its challenge to rethink the way income is earned. For many people, employment provides their only source of income. While there is nothing wrong with earning a salary, Kiyosaki argues that relying on a single income source leaves individuals financially vulnerable.

He advocates creating additional streams of income through businesses, investments, royalties, intellectual property, or other income-producing assets. The goal is not simply to make more money but to create financial resilience and greater freedom over time.

In today’s world of digital entrepreneurship, the creator economy, online businesses, and technological innovation, this principle feels more relevant than ever. Building multiple streams of income is no longer reserved for a privileged few; it has become an increasingly realistic goal for those willing to learn, adapt, and take calculated risks.

Final Thoughts

The Business of the 21st Century is more than a book about network marketing. It is a compelling invitation to rethink how wealth is created in today’s economy. While not everyone will agree with Robert Kiyosaki’s approach, his emphasis on financial education, asset ownership, and developing an entrepreneurial mindset offers valuable lessons for anyone seeking long-term financial freedom.

If you’re looking for a book that challenges conventional thinking about money and inspires you to view wealth from a different perspective, The Business of the 21st Century is well worth adding to your reading list. You can get a copy here. 

The Brief Network: Inspiring Stories and Empowering Lessons. 

It’s Never Too Late: Colonel Sanders Built KFC into a Global Brand After 65

VIctor Akinwale
-
0
It’s Never Too Late: Colonel Sanders Built KFC into a Global Brand After 65

At an age when most people are settling into retirement, Colonel Harland Sanders was starting over again.

He was born in 1890 in Henryville, Indiana, and lost his father at the age of five, which meant young Harland was cooking for his siblings while his mother worked to keep the family afloat. That early kitchen responsibility would prove more useful than anyone could have guessed. But the path there was anything but direct.

Before chicken ever entered the picture, Sanders drifted through more jobs than most people hold in a lifetime. He worked as a farmhand, a railroad fireman, an insurance salesman, a ferry operator, and a filling station attendant, among others. He tried his hand at law and lost that career after a courtroom dispute with his own client. Business ventures failed too. A ferry service he started was made obsolete by a newly built bridge. An oil lamp company he ran collapsed once electricity reached rural households. By the standards most people use to measure success, Sanders had little to show for his first four decades of work.

In the early 1930s, running a gas station in Corbin, Kentucky, he began serving simple meals to travelers passing through. More and more people started coming to eat there. He expanded into a roadside restaurant and spent years refining a fried chicken recipe built around eleven herbs and spices, along with a pressure frying method that cooked the chicken faster without sacrificing flavour. By his early sixties, the business was doing well enough that he assumed it would carry him for the rest of his life.

Then everything changed. A new interstate highway was built, and it redirected traffic away from Corbin. Cars that used to pass right by his restaurant now had no reason to stop there anymore. Customers stopped coming, and within a short time, the business that had taken him decades to build could no longer sustain itself. Sanders had no choice but to sell it, and he sold it for far less than it was worth. He was 65 years old. Instead of retiring with savings and security, he was left with almost nothing and a Social Security check of 105 dollars a month to live on. For most people, this would have been the point to give up. He had spent his whole life building toward something, and in one stroke, it was gone.

Instead, he got in his car and started driving. He travelled across the country with his pressure cooker and his seasoning mix, cooking chicken for restaurant owners and their staff, often sleeping in the back seat between stops. He is said to have been turned down more than a thousand times before a restaurant owner finally agreed to serve his chicken. But some said yes, and he began signing them on as franchisees, paid on a simple arrangement of a few cents for every piece of chicken sold. One of his earliest partners, Pete Harman in Salt Lake City, is credited with giving the business its name and its now familiar takeout bucket.

By the early 1960s, Kentucky Fried Chicken had grown to hundreds of locations across the United States and abroad. In 1964, Sanders sold the company for two million dollars, though he never really stepped back. He spent the rest of his life travelling as the face of the brand, inspecting restaurants and insisting that the food meet his standard. He died in 1980 at the age of 90. His face still appears on the KFC logo today, making him one of the most recognisable brand figures in the world. The company he built out of a roadside kitchen now operates more than 25,000 restaurants across over 145 countries.

Sanders never meant to teach anyone anything. He was just trying to survive, but his journey carries lessons of its own.

1. A late start is still a start. Sanders had already lived a full life of failed ventures before fried chicken became his defining work. The years behind him did not disqualify him from beginning again.

2. Loss can be the opening, not the end. Losing the Corbin restaurant felt like the end of everything he had built. It became the reason he franchised in the first place.

3. Persistence is a decision, repeated daily. Sanders faced far more closed doors than open ones on his early franchising trips. He kept driving anyway, one rejection at a time, until a single yes changed everything.

4. Protect what makes your work distinct. His recipe and his insistence on quality were non negotiable, even after he no longer owned the company. That standard is what people still associate with the brand today.

5. Show up as the face of your work. Sanders did not disappear once the business succeeded. He remained visible, accountable, and involved, and that presence became part of the brand itself.

Closing Thoughts 

Sanders spent forty years failing at other things before he found the thing he was meant to build. The lesson is not that failure is noble on its own. It is that failure is only the end of the story if you decide it is. He did not have youth, capital, or a safety net at 65. He had a recipe, a car, and the willingness to keep asking.

Success does not run on a clock. It runs on whether you are still willing to knock on the next door.

The Brief Network: Inspiring Stories and Empowering Lessons.

Fred Swaniker: He Didn’t Just Build a Company. He Built Africa’s Future Leaders.

VIctor Akinwale
-
0
Fred Swaniker: He Didn’t Just Build a Company. He Built Africa’s Future Leaders.

When many entrepreneurs think about building a business, they focus on creating products, increasing revenue, or expanding into new markets. Fred Swaniker chose a different path. He built institutions that develop people.

Born in Ghana and raised across several African countries, Swaniker experienced firsthand the challenges and opportunities that shaped the continent. He came to believe that Africa’s greatest challenge was not a lack of talent or resources, but a shortage of ethical, visionary leaders. Instead of waiting for someone else to solve the problem, he decided to do something about it.

His entrepreneurial journey began with a simple but ambitious idea: identify exceptional young Africans, equip them with world-class education, and inspire them to become leaders who would transform their communities and countries.

This vision led to the founding of the African Leadership Academy (ALA) in South Africa, an institution dedicated to nurturing the next generation of African leaders. Students from across the continent come together to study, develop leadership skills, and prepare to solve Africa’s biggest challenges.

But Swaniker did not stop there.

Believing that higher education in Africa needed a new approach, he co-founded the African Leadership University (ALU). The university was designed to move beyond traditional classroom learning by focusing on leadership, entrepreneurship, problem-solving, and practical experience. Its mission is bold: to develop millions of ethical and entrepreneurial leaders for Africa.

As his mission expanded, so did the institutions behind it. He launched ALX, a career accelerator that has trained hundreds of thousands of young Africans with technology, leadership, and professional skills for the future of work. He also established the African Leadership Network, bringing together entrepreneurs and leaders committed to driving positive change across the continent.

Each organisation serves the same purpose. None exists in isolation. Together, they form an ecosystem designed to develop leaders who will build businesses, strengthen institutions, improve governments, and create lasting impact across Africa.

More recently, Swaniker founded Sand Technologies, a global enterprise AI and technology company that works with governments and businesses to solve complex challenges in healthcare, energy, water, infrastructure, and digital transformation. Operating across multiple continents, the company demonstrates that African talent can compete and lead on the global stage.

Today, through the African Leadership Group, Swaniker continues pursuing an ambitious vision of developing millions of ethical, entrepreneurial, and digitally skilled leaders who can shape Africa’s future.

Over the years, his work has influenced thousands of young people, many of whom have gone on to build businesses, launch social enterprises, work in public service, and create meaningful change across the continent. Rather than measuring success only by profits, Swaniker measures impact by the lives transformed through education and leadership.

His story reminds us that entrepreneurship is not limited to selling products or building technology. Sometimes, the most valuable company you can build is one that empowers people to reach their full potential.

Founders Takeaways

Purpose can become your greatest competitive advantage. Swaniker identified a problem that mattered deeply to him and built organisations around solving it.

Businesses can create lasting impact by investing in people. Developing human potential often creates ripple effects that extend far beyond financial returns.

Think beyond today’s success. Building institutions that outlive their founders is one of the greatest forms of entrepreneurship.

Leadership is a multiplier. When you develop one leader, the influence of that investment can spread to thousands of others.

Fred Swaniker’s legacy is a reminder that the greatest businesses are not always those that make the most money. Sometimes, they are the ones that help others discover their potential and build a better future.

The Brief Network: Inspiring Stories and Empowering Lessons.

123...31Page 1 of 31