Most people look at “successful people” and assume they would be happier and satisfied if they too were “successful” at whatever the “successful people” were “successful” at. But for many people, the more successful they get, the more angst they…
This is an honest interview on studying abroad, breaking into tech, overcoming impostor syndrome, and building a global career from scratch. And, our guest today is Jennifer Obinwanne Chidindu.
Social media has become deeply intertwined with the human experience that opting out feels like social suicide. The pressure to show up doesn't just feel cultural, but existential.
And for those of us looking to grow our brand or business, showing up is not enough – we need to grow. Yet, in trying to grow, we tend to follow the same playbook:
![Groking your life makes you more you. A Year To Grok Dick David's Living Eulogy [On Being 28]](https://pawns.com.ng/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Groking-your-life-makes-you-more-you.-A-Year-To-Grok-Dick-Davids-Living-Eulogy-On-Being-28-768x432.jpg "A Year To Grok: Dick David's Living Eulogy [On Being 28] 4")
This felt like the fastest year of my life so far. It genuinely felt like this was still part of last year. At a point, I couldn't tell what happened this year from what happened last year.
While my last year's eulogy ended in what felt like a divine script, this year felt like a violent ripping apart of that script by indifferent reality.
The "reality" of many people is hunger, joblessness, and loneliness, just to name a few. But, in reality, we have more food on earth than we can consume, entire industries with opportunities are emerging every day, and there have never been this many people on the surface of the planet, ever.
So, why do the facts conflict with many people's reality?
As you go through life, you will experience, gain, and lose many things. You will also be seen, addressed, and treated in many ways.
And while all these can lead you to see yourself in different ways, often bending to the whims and manipulation of the world, when you take charge of your identity, you become unshakable.
In 2014, a young boy stared at his JAMB result: 210. It wasn’t enough to study Medicine at his dream university. And for most people, that would have been the end of the story. But for Nwankwo Henry Eziefule, it was just the beginning. What follows is Henry’s story — a sincere, detailed account of what it really took to get the UK Commonwealth Scholarship, in his own words.
What nobody told me then, what nobody might have told you now, is that the “designated time” when “success” is supposed to happen is arbitrary. And the anxiety that comes from these designated timelines destroys your peace and hampers your growth.
Yet, we run with these timelines. Society as a whole has invented two categories of individuals, early bloomers and late bloomers, to further solidify these arbitrary timelines. Both labels further intensify the issue with the timelines.
Hoping for a better life in Nigeria can feel like trying to survive in the Amazon rain forest, butt-naked. It pours problems and bad news like rain. And inflation, like a vicious beast, is always ravaging – the cost of living defies the law of aerodynamics, and the purchasing power diminishes, as the value of the naira falls against the dollar like a coconut from a tree.
So, despite all these, why am I not of the opinion that immigrating (aka “Japa”) is the solution?
We all have our selfish desires, but achieving things that are truly grand or worthwhile often requires the input of more than one individual. Hence, to achieve our selfish desires, we often need to do selfless things. And, even when success comes, the wise can tell that the most important thing was the tribe (not the selfish prize).
