“[H]e developed a private philosophy of total self-reliance, an unyielding internal sufficiency that requires no external support from others.” - (Chinua Achebe)
Study:
1. Sun Tzu.
2. Julius Caesar.
3. Genghis Khan.
4. Hannibal Barca.
5. Alexander the Great.
6. Napoleon Bonaparte.
Do not just read them like history stories. Study them like case files. That is how you extract value. Also study their failures. That is where the real wisdom is.
How the world's greatest cities became unforgettable:
1. Paris makes you fall in love
2. Tokyo makes you feel the future
3. New York makes you feel alive
4. Istanbul makes you question time
5. Rio makes you forget your problems
6. Mumbai never lets you sleep
7. Vienna makes you feel cultured
8. Havana makes you nostalgic for something you never lived
9. Beirut breaks your heart and fixes it the same night
10. Kyoto makes you slow down
11. Lagos makes you believe in energy
12. Rome makes you feel small in the best way
13. Buenos Aires makes you want to dance at midnight
14. Amsterdam makes you rethink how a city should be built
15. Cairo makes you feel thousands of years pressing down
16. Barcelona makes you believe architecture is a love language
17. Nairobi makes you feel a continent rising
18. Lisbon makes you ache for something you cannot name
19. Seoul makes you question whether you have been living efficiently
20. Mexico City makes you understand that chaos and beauty are the same thing
21. Prague makes you feel like you stepped inside a painting
22. Marrakech overwhelms every one of your senses at once
23. Singapore makes you realize what a city looks like when it actually works
24. Athens reminds you that everything modern was once someone's ancient idea
25. São Paulo makes you feel the hunger of a city still becoming itself
26. Edinburgh makes you believe in ghosts and you are not even superstitious
27. Tbilisi makes you wonder why nobody told you sooner
28. Cartagena makes you feel like the heat itself has a personality
29. Medellín shows you that a city can completely rewrite its own story
30. Copenhagen makes you question why everyone else makes things so complicated
31. Accra makes you feel a pride that does not even belong to you
32. Kolkata makes you confront beauty and struggle sharing the same square meter
33. Bruges makes you feel like time forgot to move and you are grateful
34. Amman makes you feel welcomed before you have spoken a word
35. Jakarta makes you understand twenty million people sharing the same urgency
36. Tallinn makes you feel like the medieval world never fully let go
37. Bogotá surprises you so completely you feel embarrassed for your assumptions
38. Chiang Mai makes you breathe slower without anyone telling you to
39. Porto makes you realize faded beauty is still beauty, maybe more so
40. Dakar makes you feel the ocean and the continent pulling equally
41. Reykjavik makes you feel the earth is still being made beneath your feet
42. Jerusalem makes you feel the impossible weight of what people believe
43. Hanoi moves at full speed and still feels intimate
44. Thessaloniki makes you wonder why its neighbor gets all the attention
45. Sarajevo makes you sit quietly long after you leave
46. Oaxaca makes you understand that culture expressed through food survives everything
47. Lviv shows the stubborn dignity of a people who refuse to disappear
48. Zanzibar makes you feel the air itself is different
49. Lagos deserves a second mention because one feeling was never enough
50. Delhi swallows you whole, overwhelms you completely, and somehow makes you want to come back for more
Underrated life advice: Have more hobbies and fewer opinions. Learn an instrument. Plant a garden. Build something with your hands. Cook. Paint. Run. The happiest people I know spend less time debating life and more time actually living it.
Underrated life advice: Bet on yourself more often. Apply for the job. Start the business. Send the message. Take the trip. Ask the girl. You have to trust yourself enough to take the first step without knowing exactly where the path leads.
Top 50 Must-Read Books of All Time.
1. To Kill a Mockingbird (1960)
2. 1984 (1949)
3. The Great Gatsby (1925)
4. One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967)
5. The Catcher in the Rye (1951)
6. Brave New World (1932)
7. Crime and Punishment (1866)
8. The Alchemist (1988)
9. Don Quixote (1605)
10. Moby Dick (1851)
11. War and Peace (1869)
12. The Brothers Karamazov (1880)
13. Anna Karenina (1878)
14. Pride and Prejudice (1813)
15. The Divine Comedy (1320)
16. Hamlet (1603)
17. Ulysses (1922)
18. Lolita (1955)
19. Middlemarch (1871)
20. The Odyssey (800 BC)
21. In Search of Lost Time (1913)
22. The Trial (1925)
23. Beloved (1987)
24. Catch-22 (1961)
25. The Road (2006)
26. Fahrenheit 451 (1953)
27. Slaughterhouse-Five (1969)
28. Of Mice and Men (1937)
29. Lord of the Flies (1954)
30. The Grapes of Wrath (1939)
31. East of Eden (1952)
32. A Tale of Two Cities (1859)
33. Jane Eyre (1847)
34. Wuthering Heights (1847)
35. The Count of Monte Cristo (1844)
36. Les Misérables (1862)
37. The Stranger (1942)
38. Blood Meridian (1985)
39. Infinite Jest (1996)
40. Norwegian Wood (1987)
41. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (1994)
42. Things Fall Apart (1958)
43. Invisible Man (1952)
44. The Sun Also Rises (1926)
45. A Farewell to Arms (1929)
46. Dune (1965)
47. The Name of the Rose (1980)
48. Siddhartha (1922)
49. The Little Prince (1943)
50. Steppenwolf (1927)
Stay humble. You can seem like a millionaire to one person and a homeless person to the next. The ants think you are a giant, and the trees don't even notice you. You think you have a boring life, but the next person might be in love with your lifestyle. Don't compare. Ever. Everything is apple and oranges. Comparison is the thief of joy. Stay humble. And just be gareful for what you have. Life is just a big game of perspective.
On first dates, I mostly ask questions around the following:
1. Genotype
2. I usually ask about themselves: things they enjoy doing, favorite meals, birthday, and the major things I need to know about them at first. Like, do you sleep with the lights on or off? 😂
3. Who in your life has influenced you the most? This is more important than it sounds. Listen to the kind of people they take as role models or who influenced them growing up. If they ever mention people like Tacha, Saida Boi, or BBNaija stars, you know what to do next.
4. How important is family in your life?
5. What’s one thing about yourself you think most people don’t notice?
6. How do you handle issues when you’re angry or when things aren’t going your way?
7. How do you feel about gender roles in marriage?
8. How do you handle conflict with family members?
9. What’s your take on feminism or gender equality?
10. What’s the one thing you refuse to compromise on in a relationship?
11. How much influence should parents have in your marriage?
12. How do you handle jealousy, your own or a partner’s?
13. How would you describe your relationship with your father?
14. How important is religion in your life and relationships?
15. How do you define success for yourself?
16. What’s the end goal of a relationship for you?
17. Have you ever thought about marriage, and when do you see yourself settling down?
18. How many kids would you want to have?
19. Have you experienced any childhood trauma?
20. What really happened in your previous relationships? Where did it go wrong?
21. What’s a dream you’ve had since childhood that you still want to pursue?
22. Do you regret any major life decisions, and why?
23. Have you ever sacrificed something important for someone else?
24. What’s your take on forgiveness?
25. What’s a personal habit you’re trying to unlearn?
THE ART OF LISTENING:
Mother speaks — stop and listen
Father advises — take it in
Teacher explains — pay attention
Elder talks — respect the words
Child speaks — come to their level
Friend vents — just be there
Stranger asks — pause and help
Boss instructs — hear every word
Heart whispers — never ignore it
Someone cries — stay silent
Critic speaks — find the lesson
God speaks — in silence, listen
Your enemy talks — learn from it
Your gut warns — believe it
Old people recall — treasure it
Your own mind doubts — challenge it
To maintain my competitive spirit, I watch sports documentaries.
There’s something about watching elite athletes obsess over margins, pressure, discipline, setbacks, and winning that resets your mindset.