Simon Thazhigilla Simon🇳🇬@Thazhigilla_
You will never be the wealthiest in your state, not in Nigeria, not in Africa, not in this world, if you don't read this! And listen, it is not your fault.
Calm down before you start dragging my ‘okrika’ shirt. This is not a curse (me sef come from humble background), I simply wish to highlight something you might be overlooking.
I know you've consumed those 1,000 books by American billionaires, you even used your last penny to buy Otedola's book, you've gone through Tony Robbins seminars on YouTube while sprinkling two drops of ‘e go better one day’. I know you’ve attended conferences everywhere, you've starved your distractions, networked like your life depends on it (spoiler: it actually does like mähhddd), invested in courses that promise "financial freedom", and consistently showed up even on days when your spirit is screaming to give up.
But what if I told you the game was already rigged before you even started?
The Aliko Dangote you want to become had an uncle named Alhaji Dantata Alhassan. A whole family line of affluence handed him a beginning crafted in silver. Femi Otedola’s daddy (Michael Otedola) transitioned from politics to become the governor of Lagos. And you’ll be the one to shout ‘school na scam when you are literally the punchline. Mr Eazi’s uncle borrowed him 19 million naira to go and invest. And he failed ooo. Do you understand? He had the financial cushion to try and fail. Davido was sent abroad to study and ended up pursuing music. His dad brought him back, and Babcock University created an entirely new department of music just for him before his father eventually backed his musical career.
The truth is that you were built like a snail, whereas they were engineered like horses to start the race at the finish line. So even if you embarked on your journeys and struggles yesterday, you will always arrive after them. I acknowledge that you are not lazy; eyes cannot simply see the weight of the shell you carry. That shell symbolizes the absence of generational wealth and influential connections. It is a system engineered to favor those who are already favoured.
I was listening to Dr. Cosmas Maduka when he said that the cheapest car they have at Coscharis Group is around 32 million naira, and if an average person walks in requesting to pay in installments over two weeks, they will not give it to you. But see the crazy twist. He mentioned that if Dangote himself called them and asked them to let you have a Rolls Royce valued at 1.4 billion naira, they would allow you to drive it away.
And you think name, you think foundations, do not count? 😹
Connections are important like maaaahddd. Hard work will carry you far, yes, but not to the height you see in your dreams.
This thing is everywhere ooo... I was conducting my personal research on matching into a USA residency as an International Medical Grad(IMG). Let's say you wanted a prestigious specialty like Orthopaedic Surgery, Neurosurgery, Plastic Surgery etc. The slots available to you are so extraordinarily competitive that your chances are nearly zero (the probability of an IMG matching in Neurological Surgery in 2022 was 16 out of 36,277, or 0.044105%).
Then I looked up Harvard Medical School's match rate for 2024. Out of their 176 inducted doctors, 155 got matched into their choiced residency. Dem no born me well to think of schooling in Harvard Medical school with my papa money 📷, but what is obvious is just breathing the air at Harvard gives you a head start the size of the Atlantic Ocean…
This is not a post to make you give up. It is a post to make you wise up.
But here is where I get aggressive: shred the sham celebration!
You are not lazy my guy, you’ve just been outpaced by those born at the finish line. The snail doesn’t win by racing the horse. No, the snail wins by forming alliances, by being so strategic that it gets to ride on the horse’s back.
Were there outliers? Absolutely. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie clawed her way from Enugu to global shelves without a dynasty. But even she got lifts: scholarships, mentors who saw the fire in her and offered petrol. No one rises in isolation; that myth of being ‘’self-made’’ is what keeps you scrambling in the dark. You will never, ever accomplish it alone.
You may not be Dangote? That’s okay and beautiful 🤭. Your goal should be to become the ‘Dantata’ of your own lineage. You are the one who must break the cycle. You serve as the foundation and your duty is to work ten times harder and smarter, not to compete with the horse, but to create a stable where your generation can start side by side with it.
You may not reach the destination you dream of but you can be the one who charts the course, who lays the first stone, who ensures that those who come after you will never know the unbearable burden of starting from scratch.
That legacy is a currency richer than naira, more powerful than a name.
