Home Blog

He Started by Selling Motorcycle Parts. Then He Built Nigeria’s First Indigenous Car Company

VIctor Akinwale
-
0
He Started by Selling Motorcycle Parts. Then He Built Nigeria’s First Indigenous Car Company

In 1978, a young man in Nnewi finished secondary school with a clear plan for his future: he wanted to study engineering. Then he applied for admission. He didn’t get in. For many young people, that kind of rejection can feel like a verdict. A door closes, and suddenly the future they had imagined becomes uncertain. For Innocent Ifediaso Chukwuma, however, the rejection became a redirection.

Today, he is known as the founder of Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing, the company widely recognised as Nigeria’s first indigenous automobile manufacturer. But his story did not begin with cars, factories or millions of naira. It began with a young man who couldn’t study engineering and ended up learning business in a market.

The opportunity he didn’t plan for

After secondary school, Chukwuma spent some time helping his elder brother run a medicine store. It wasn’t the career he had imagined. But while working there, he discovered something unexpected. He enjoyed trading. He was fascinated by how goods moved, how prices changed and how buyers and sellers negotiated.

Engineering had closed one door, but business was opening another.

In 1979, he began an apprenticeship under Chief Romanus Eze Onwuka, one of the prominent motorcycle spare-parts dealers in Nnewi at the time. For two years, he learned the trade from the ground up. He learned how to understand the market, how to deal with suppliers, how to build relationships with customers and how to recognise demand. And perhaps most importantly, he learned how to look at an ordinary business problem and wonder whether there was a better way to solve it.

That last skill would eventually change everything.

He saw what everyone else had stopped seeing

At the time, motorcycles were commonly imported into Nigeria fully assembled. There was just one problem: they took up a lot of space.

Chukwuma noticed that importers were essentially shipping empty space along with their motorcycles. A container could carry only a limited number of fully assembled motorcycles. Instead of accepting that as simply “how the business worked,” he asked a different question: What if the motorcycles were imported as parts and assembled in Nigeria?

The idea sounds obvious now. At the time, it was a significant shift.

By importing motorcycles in semi-knocked-down form and assembling them locally, Chukwuma could fit far more units into a container. The same shipping space could now accommodate significantly more motorcycles than when they were brought in fully assembled.

That changed the economics. He could reduce costs, sell at a more competitive price and still make a profit.

The man who had failed to get into engineering school had just applied a kind of engineering thinking to business. He had looked at an existing system and found a better way to make it work.

Sometimes, innovation is simply noticing what everyone else has become too familiar with to question.

From learning the trade to building his own

In 1981, with savings of his own and financial support from his brother Gabriel, Chukwuma started his own motorcycle spare-parts business. In 1982, he formally incorporated the company that became Innoson Nigeria Limited.

But success did not make him stop. He continued moving from trading into assembly and manufacturing. He expanded into motorcycles, industrial components, plastics and other areas. The business grew into what would eventually become the Innoson Group.

And then came the decision that would change the scale of his story completely: cars.

The dream that looked too big

In 2007, Chukwuma founded Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing in Nnewi. Building cars in Nigeria was a very different proposition from selling motorcycle parts. It required factories, machinery, technical expertise, capital, skilled workers and the willingness to compete in an industry dominated by international brands.

It was a difficult market to enter.

But Chukwuma had spent decades preparing for it. The spare-parts business had taught him the market. Motorcycle assembly had taught him manufacturing. His earlier ventures had taught him how to build and manage a growing business.

What looked like a sudden leap into automobile manufacturing was actually the result of years of smaller steps.

What looks like an overnight success is often a collection of small decisions made consistently over many years.

Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing went on to produce vehicles including cars, buses and trucks for the Nigerian and African markets.

The boy who once wanted to become an engineer had built a company manufacturing the very kind of machines he might once have imagined designing.

But perhaps the most interesting part of the story is not the cars. It is everything that came before them.

What Innocent Chukwuma’s story teaches us

1. Rejection can redirect you

Chukwuma wanted to study engineering. He didn’t get the opportunity. But his inability to enter engineering school did not prevent him from eventually building a company that required engineering, manufacturing and technical expertise.

Sometimes the path changes without the purpose disappearing. A closed door can force you to discover a door you never knew existed.

A rejection can change your route without determining your destination.

2. Start with what you have

Chukwuma didn’t begin with a car factory. He began by learning how to trade motorcycle parts. That may have seemed small compared with what he eventually built, but every stage gave him something he needed for the next one.

Don’t become so focused on where you want to be that you become ashamed of where you are starting.

3. Pay attention to problems

The opportunity that helped transform Chukwuma’s early business was not hidden somewhere far away. It was sitting inside a shipping container. Everyone else saw motorcycles being imported. He saw wasted space.

That difference matters. Entrepreneurs often find opportunities not by looking for something completely new, but by looking more carefully at something everyone else has accepted as normal.

The opportunity may not be invisible. You may simply need to look at the problem differently.

4. Think beyond yourself

There is something bigger in building a manufacturing company in Nigeria. It is not simply about selling another product. It is about creating jobs, developing skills, building local capacity and proving that some things Africans have traditionally imported can also be produced here.

That is part of what makes Chukwuma’s journey bigger than his personal success. He didn’t just build a business around what Nigeria could buy. He built around what Nigeria could make.

Your story is not over

Perhaps you’re in a season that doesn’t look anything like what you imagined. Maybe you applied for something and were rejected. Maybe the career you planned didn’t work out. Maybe you’re running a small business while dreaming about building something much bigger. Maybe you are wondering whether the small thing you are doing now will ever amount to anything significant.

Innocent Chukwuma’s story offers a different perspective.

He wanted to study engineering. He couldn’t. So he learned business. He started with motorcycle parts. Then he learned manufacturing. He built companies. And eventually, he built cars.

The lesson isn’t that everyone who starts small will build an automobile company. It is that your current position is not necessarily a prediction of your final destination.

You don’t need to have everything figured out before you begin. Start where you are. Learn what the season is trying to teach you. Pay attention to the problems around you. And when the next door opens, be willing to walk through it.

Because sometimes, the road to the thing you dreamed about begins with something you never planned to do.

The Brief Network: Inspiring Stories and Empowering Lessons.

The Habits That Last Aren’t the Most Ambitious Ones. They’re the Most Honest Ones

Seun Tayo-Balogun
-
0
The Habits That Last Aren’t the Most Ambitious Ones. They’re the Most Honest Ones

Everyone starts motivated.

The new year. The new month. The conversation that lit something up inside you. The book, the video, the moment someone said something that made you think this time it’s different.

And for a while — it is.

You wake up early. You do the thing. You feel good about it. Then life happens. The motivation dips. The feeling fades. And without the feeling, the action stops too.

That’s not a discipline problem.

That’s what happens when you build on inspiration instead of habit.

Inspiration is a spark. Habits are the structure that keeps the fire going after the spark is gone.

You don’t need to feel motivated to brush your teeth in the morning. You just do it. Nobody has a vision board about dental hygiene. It happens because it’s wired in — decided once, repeated until it required no decision at all.

The most consistent people you know aren’t more disciplined than you. They just stopped relying on how they feel.

But here’s the part that doesn’t get said enough: A habit only works if it actually fits your life.

Not the life you think you should have. Not the version of yourself you’re trying to become. The life you actually have right now, with the schedule you actually keep and the personality you actually have.

If you hate long drives, joining a gym across town isn’t a fitness plan. It’s a guilt subscription.

You’ll pay for it every month. You’ll intend to go. And every time you don’t, you’ll feel a little worse about yourself — not because you’re lazy, but because you designed a system that was working against you from the start.

The habit was never the problem. The design was.

A good habit isn’t the hardest version of the right thing. It’s the most honest version.

The walk around your neighborhood instead of the gym you’ll never get to. The ten minutes of reading before bed instead of the hour you’ll never protect. The small, consistent, unglamorous action that actually happens — week after week, without drama, without motivation, without waiting to feel ready.

That’s what finishes things.

Not the grand plan. Not the perfect routine. Not the most ambitious version of who you could be.

The small thing. Done consistently. By the actual person you are.

Inspiration will visit you again. It always does, but while it’s gone — and it will go — habits are what keep you moving.

Build ones that fit your real life, then let them carry you to the finish line.

The Brief Network: Inspiring Stories and Empowering Lessons.

From Taxi Driver to Telecoms Titan: How Mike Adenuga Built an Empire

VIctor Akinwale
-
0
From Taxi Driver to Telecoms Titan: How Mike Adenuga Built an Empire

Globacom did not enter Nigeria’s telecommunications industry first. It entered after the market had already begun to take shape, with established operators, millions of naira in infrastructure and customers who already had reasons to stay with the networks they knew. Yet when Mike Adenuga launched Glo in 2003, the newcomer did something that many late entrants struggle to do: it gave the market a reason to change.

The company arrived with one-kobo-per-second billing when established operators were charging by the minute. It cut SIM card prices that had reached as high as ₦25,000 and eventually gave them away for free. Within its first year, Glo reportedly had one million subscribers across 87 Nigerian towns. The company was not the first to recognise Nigeria’s telecommunications opportunity, but it understood something important about entering a crowded market. 

You do not always need to arrive first; you need to give people a reason to choose you.

That approach says a lot about the businessman behind the green network.

Mike Adenuga had been building businesses long before Glo. By the age of 26, he had reportedly made his first million through trading lace fabrics, soft drinks and general merchandise. Before telecommunications, he had already moved into banking and oil and gas, establishing Consolidated Oil in 1990, now Conoil Producing. A year later, the company struck oil in commercial quantities in the shallow waters of Ondo State, marking a significant achievement for indigenous participation in Nigeria’s oil industry.

His background helps explain why telecommunications was never simply a decision to start a phone company. Adenuga had already developed a habit of entering industries where the opportunity was large, the competition was serious and the barriers to entry were high.

Perhaps the most unlikely chapter of that journey came much earlier. While studying Business Administration at Northwestern Oklahoma State University and later completing an MBA at Pace University in New York, Adenuga worked as a taxi driver in the United States to support himself and pay his tuition. It was a very different world from the one he would eventually occupy, but the contrast is part of what makes his story compelling. The future billionaire was not handed a business empire. He was building his way towards one.

By the time he turned his attention to telecommunications, he had already accumulated the capital and experience to take a much bigger risk. The first attempt did not go smoothly. Adenuga secured a conditional GSM licence in 1999, but it was later revoked. When another licensing opportunity came in 2003, he returned, secured a new licence and launched Globacom on August 29.

The obvious question was: why enter a market where other companies already had a head start?

Adenuga’s answer was written into Glo’s strategy. Instead of trying to look like the companies already dominating the market, he challenged some of the things customers had come to accept as normal.

Per-second billing challenged the way calls were charged. Lower SIM prices challenged the cost of entering the mobile market. And as Glo grew, Adenuga made an even bigger move that went far beyond pricing.

In 2009, Globacom’s Glo-1 submarine cable landed in Lagos, connecting Nigeria directly to the United Kingdom through a fibre-optic link and providing additional international telecommunications capacity. For a company that had become known for cheaper calls and affordable SIM cards, investing in a major piece of international infrastructure revealed a much larger ambition. Adenuga was not only interested in selling access to a network; he was willing to invest in the infrastructure behind that access.

That is the pattern that runs through Adenuga’s business career: enter, differentiate and then build beyond what people expect.

It is also why Glo’s story cannot be reduced to telecommunications alone.

Adenuga’s business interests now stretch across oil and gas, banking, real estate and other sectors. Yet unlike many business empires that eventually become fragmented among different investors or publicly traded shareholders, Globacom has remained under Adenuga’s ownership more than two decades after its launch.

That is particularly notable when viewed against the history of Nigeria’s other major telecommunications companies. MTN Nigeria became publicly listed on the Nigerian Exchange in 2019. Airtel Africa is publicly traded in London and Lagos. Etisalat Nigeria, after defaulting on a $1.2 billion loan, went through an ownership crisis and eventually became 9mobile. Globacom took a different path, remaining privately held under Adenuga.

There is another unusual part of the story: the founder himself has remained remarkably difficult to see.

Adenuga rarely gives interviews and has generally stayed away from the constant public attention that surrounds many wealthy entrepreneurs. The Glo brand is everywhere, but its founder is not. Millions of Nigerians interact with businesses he built without ever hearing him explain those businesses in the way today’s founders often do.

That quietness makes the scale of what he has built even more striking.

From trading to oil, from oil to telecommunications, and from telecommunications into the infrastructure behind it, Adenuga has repeatedly entered industries where the competition was already established and found room to build something of his own. His story is not really about a taxi driver who became a billionaire. The taxi was simply one chapter. The bigger story is about a businessman who kept finding his way into industries where the stakes were high and then staying long enough to make his presence matter.

He was not the first to enter Nigeria’s telecom market.

He did not have the advantage of being the established player.

But he found a way to change the market after he arrived.

And even after more than two decades, he still owns the company he built.

Sometimes, building a business is not about being the first person through the door. It is about being the person who changes what happens after you walk through it.

The Brief Network: Inspiring Stories and Empowering Lessons.

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.

123...31Page 1 of 31