Hi friends ,

Recently, I toured Makoko, a floating slum in Lagos. My first impressions were shocking—open sewage, unsupervised children, and mountains of trash. I wanted to cover my nose and retreat to my hotel.

But I stayed. And as I looked closer, I began to see something I recognised:

The indomitable spirit of hustle

🌱 Creating Something from Nothing

From water vendors to wig shops, from boat boys to kitchens, everyone had found their hustle:

🧑‍🎓 Schools with almost nothing—yet educating hundreds of kids.

🏥 A midwife delivering ten babies a week—with almost no medical supplies.

⚡ A man running a phone charging business—with nothing more than a generator.

A local charity is providing education to the kids and at least one free meal a day

The resilience was inspiring. It reminded me of our superpower as entrepreneurs: creating something from nothing.

💪 Founders thrive in scarcity

I worked with a founder who’s company was in trouble. They had three months to get results otherwise the investors were going to pull the plug.

Did they have cash to throw at the problem? Of course not.

So they stepped up. They squeezed ever last drop out of the resources they had and it paid off: they delivered results and convinced their investors to bridge them.

So what happens afterwards? Did they return to their old ways? Hell no. The new way was better—and it stuck.

Scarcity makes us strong.

🤔 An experiment: What if you had nothing?

My company grew from three people and a dog to hundreds of employees. It was strange, but in some ways, the more we had, the harder things got. The ship was bigger—but much harder to turn.

• Imagine you were starting from scratch

  • No money

  • No network

  • No job

• What would you do?

  • Continue down the same path or make a new one?

  • Who would you need to be? More focused? More opportunistic?

Now ask yourself:

How might that version of you help with the challenges you have today?

See you on the road,

Ben