There's something Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk have in common - And no, it's not their billions.

On the challenges with writing, why a 1st class was so important to me, and an argument to 'de-risk' your life.

Hi guys,

Hope you are well. I’m doing okay, Alhamdulillah.

I’m breaking my own rule today, writing this at 6:38 am on Friday morning. Well, it’s actually 7:12 now - I spent way too much time checking my Wozzup and reading Ibankhan’s amazing substack. Anyhoo, back to why I’m breaking my rule. I foresee a tough weekend ahead so this is the only way to ensure I put something out. Anybody who knows me well knows I almost always have a fully booked calendar.

There’s always always something to do. Sometimes, it is a project like PAADC to which I am strongly and publicly affiliated, other times it is a random business idea (everything from building a owambe services company to selling Arabic-themed face caps) that takes my energy for a couple of months and then fades into the background as we make little progress and or cannot devote enough time. And then there are a number of personal, more long-term commitments I have made - some to myself (like reading books, taking courses, or writing this newsletter) and some to others. But it is what it is, and I am grateful for the privilege to (mostly) determine how I spend my time, Alhamdulillah.

So if it is this difficult to write, why do I still do it?

Because I like it.

If I didn’t truly enjoy spending several hours a week putting together content for this newsletter, I would have stopped by now. I enjoy receiving the email responses, I appreciate the people who share or tell me when something has helped them, and I like to get constructive criticism as well on what did not make sense and how it can be better.

One advantage (and challenge) of building in public is that it opens the door to requests to do more. In the last couple of weeks, I have received four requests to write articles on other platforms. I accepted one, declined two, and postponed one. It was a selfish decision because the one I accepted was aligned with my interests and the others were perhaps a bit further away. But the truth is, I frankly don’t have the time.

The one I postponed (requested by a much older person I respect) was a little more tricky. On one hand, I explained to him that I am much too swamped to commit in the meantime but will revert soon. On the other hand, I can’t define what soon means. I’m sure he sees every newsletter, social media post, and wherever else I make noise and think, ‘Bobo yi o ma serious’. 😂

The irony of it is I genuinely like to do things with people. A few years ago, some of my friends were working on something I would have found interesting but left me out of it. Feeling bad, I complained about being left out.

Their response, ‘Bro tbh we feel sey you no go get time.’

I knew it was true, but it hurt all the same. Ah well.

I started writing this with something else in mind but have instead spent the whole time ranting. 😂 

Okayy, back to the newsletter.

Image from yourstory

A few weeks ago, I was struggling with something and Olaniyi advised that I reach out to one of our egbons - let’s call him Bro T. Bro T has a crazy busy schedule so it was difficult to set up an appointment. Eventually, he called back on a Saturday evening (if I remember correctly). We talked about a couple of things, I shared my challenges, and he gave me some direction. Great guy.

Then I asked about something else I had been thinking about. You see, Bro T had spent some years working for a multinational company in Nigeria, then left to become an entrepreneur - in (what appears to be) a very successful venture, but recently left all of it for a top US business school. But it didn’t make sense to me.

‘I thought you were fully enjoying the entrepreneurship route, or was there any problem with Aduragbemi Enterprises?’

‘Nah bro, Aduragbemi is going great’

‘So why leave? Or are you going to learn more and then bring the skills back to Aduragbemi?

‘Lol no o, I’m looking for job o. I may not return to Aduragbemi for a while.’

‘Eh ehn’

‘Yeah. The thing is, I’m trying to de-risk my life.’

‘De-risk your life, what does that mean?’

‘See Nigeria is a very risky country, anything can happen at any time. Right now, I just want to spend a couple of years abroad and get citizenship or permanent residency somewhere else. Then, I’ll come back.’

‘Ohh I get now, thanks for sharing.’

‘Yeah’

And then we talked about some other random things before that call came to a close. But I haven’t stopped thinking about the concept of ‘de-risking your life’. I am neither an advocate for japaa at all costs, nor am I one of those who think everybody must stay to ‘build Nigeria’.

Bro T’s decision is a personal one, and I wish him all the best. But the more I thought about the concept of ‘de-risking your life’, I began to see it everywhere. I just hadn’t thought about things like that previously.

When I was an undergraduate at the university, it was immensely important to me to finish with a first-class. I worked super hard (Oghenaogie would disagree), prayed a lot, and told many people to keep me in their duas as well. But looking back, I did not make a first-class because I loved Engineering so much and enjoyed the challenge. A first-class was super important because I was hoping to leverage it to access opportunities - get good jobs, possibly get scholarships for grad school, etc.

I didn’t realize it then, but by trying to graduate with a first-class and stand out from the 500,000 people that graduate from Nigerian universities annually, I was ‘de-risking my life’.

Many other people do it as well. Sometimes we like to think successful entrepreneurs, inventors, and professionals are people who are super talented and can dive head-first into a groundbreaking idea, ignore all the risk, and the consequences be damned.

I genuinely don’t think so. I think these people are a lot more intentional x strategic than they let on.

Elon Musk grew up in South Africa with all his dreams and ambitions about computers and inventions but decided to reduce risk and increase his likelihood of success by moving to the West. He moved to Canada at 17, acquired their citizenship (his mother was originally Canadian), started at Queen’s University, and then eventually transferred to the US, where he studied Business & Physics at the University of Pennsylvania - an Ivy league school.

He even started a Ph.D. in Energy Physics at Stanford before ultimately dropping out during the internet boom of the 90s. What is important here is that he was strategic. Decisions like moving countries, switching universities, or dropping out of school were not taken on a whim. In all of them, there was a conscious effort to take the decisions that would maximize opportunity and minimize risk.

Jeff Bezos is no different. At his high school graduation, he gave a speech about his dream for mankind to ‘colonize space’. Did Bezos then spend his entire post-high school days working on his space dream? No. He went to Princeton, where he graduated with a 4.2 GPA (out of 4.00 - yes, you read that right) in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science.

Now that he had graduated, did he begin his space x entrepreneurship dreams? Again, nope. He worked mostly on Wall Street, where he became a Senior Vice President of a hedge fund at age 30. Now that he had money and stability, did he finally pursue his childhood space dream?

Again, no. Sensing the opportunity of the internet growth era, Bezos launched an online bookstore in 1994, which has grown into the Amazon we know today. Bezos never forgot his dream though, and Blue Origin (his space company) plans to land on the moon in 2024.

One thing is clear again. Bezos has been super strategic, making decisions not necessarily because of ‘passion’, but evaluating risk and opportunity trade-offs before making the right decisions.

There is no one way to ‘de-risk your life’. For some, it would be about relocating to cities or countries where they can better access opportunities. For some, it would be by starting their careers in amazing companies that would open doors later instead of taking the highest-paying jobs they can find. For some, it would be about staying in school and delaying those fascinating entrepreneurship dreams. For some, it may even be in the choice of who they choose to spend the rest of their life with.

All of these decisions are immensely personal, and the right answer for person A would make no sense to person B.

As you go on with your new week, I recommend you think long and hard about the decisions you will be making, and how they optimize your personal trade-off for risk or reward.

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Gracias, and see you around.

Hameed

** Author’s note: I currently have about 650 people subscribed to this newsletter. I hope to bump it up to 1000 by the end of the year. Please subscribe and share with your family and friends. Merci beaucoup! 😀