The Visa Denial That Created A Star - M.I. Abaga

The Visa Denial That Created A Star - M.I. Abaga

Long before the fame, his goal was simply the American dream: an SUV, a Ford truck, and the suburbs. But after losing his college scholarships in Michigan, M.I. Abaga was forced back to Nigeria and officially denied a U.S. visa.   Earning a 9,000 Naira monthly salary at an internet cafe in Jos, he had to completely rebuild his identity. Today, he is a legendary hip-hop artist and the architect behind one of Africa’s greatest music ecosystems.   In this episode of Growth Through Failure, we cut past the typical celebrity fluff to break down the reality of starting over from nothing.  Stop letting closed doors define your final destination. TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 Intro 01:47 The Failure Story 09:24 What Emotions Were You Feeling? 16:40 What Were Your Strategies 21:00 Who were the protagonists in your story? 31:33 Three Key Takeaways 37:40 Rapid Fire Questions ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ABOUT GROWTH THROUGH FAILURE: Conversations with leaders who turned setbacks into comebacks. Real stories of resilience, reinvention, and growth. New episodes every other Wednesday. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🔔 Subscribe: http://bit.ly/3WYkMTO 📧 Newsletter: https://www.tosinataiwo.com/#subscribe 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tosinataiwo/ 🐦 X/Twitter: https://x.com/tosinataiwo

How to Win When The "Safe Route" Fails You - Taiwo Adeyemi

Feeling trapped in a "safe" career? Watch this before you make a move. When Taiwo Adeyemi abandoned his civil engineering degree in his third year, his family made him sign a legal undertaking to absolve themselves of his "stupidity."  Today, he is the Chief Executive at BoxxCulture, former manager to Tunde Onakoya, and the culture connector behind some of the most influential talent in Africa's entertainment industry.   In this episode of Growth Through Failure, Taiwo delivers an elite operational playbook for building a high-level career off-script. We cut past the typical corporate advice to break down: • The vital psychological difference between "Deal Friends" and "Real Friends"   • How to survive a massive career pivot when your network thinks you're failing • The sunk-cost trap: Why he walked away from a 20 Million Naira buyout for his documentary,     Road to Blow  • The "Fail Fast" framework for turning a career dead-end into institutional leverage   TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 Intro  01:35 The Failure Story  07:26 What Emotions Were You Feeling?  11:07 What Were Your Strategies  17:23 Who Supported You? 21:33 Three Key Takeaways  30:36 Rapid Fire Questions You don't have to use the conventional route to succeed.

How to Survive a Very Public Failure - Moses Babatope

In 2014, Moses Babatope stood in a room full of Nigeria's most distinguished guests for the premiere of Half of a Yellow Sun. He was the man responsible.  From the first frame to the last, the picture was pixelated and the sound was muffled. He wanted to disappear. He never spoke about it publicly. Until now.  In this episode of Growth Through Failure, Moses, Co-founder of Filmhouse Group and CEO of Nile Media Entertainment Group, shares what that night taught him about accountability, resilience, and how surviving your worst professional moment can become the foundation of everything you build after.  TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 Intro  01:32 The Failure Story  05:12 What Emotions Were You Feeling?  06:01 What Were Your Strategies  08:40 Three Key Takeaways  11:28 Rapid Fire Questions  ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ABOUT GROWTH THROUGH FAILURE: Conversations with leaders who turned setbacks into comebacks. Real stories of resilience, reinvention, and growth. New episodes every other Wednesday. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🔔 Subscribe: http://bit.ly/3WYkMTO 📧 Newsletter: https://www.tosinataiwo.com/#subscribe 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tosinataiwo/ 🐦 X/Twitter: https://x.com/tosinataiwo

How to Recover After Losing Your Dream Job - Lady Kay

She had spent years working towards it. In 2023, at 32, she finally got the Chief Brand Officer role she had been groomed for since 2016.  The co-founders had waited specifically for her. The investors were excited. It felt like everything was falling into place. Ten months later, her contract was terminated mid-meeting, without warning.  In this episode of Growth Through Failure, Koromone, aka Lady Kay, shares the unfiltered story of losing her dream job, the red flags she missed, what it really costs to stay somewhere that does not value you, and how she rebuilt from scratch.  This is for anyone who has ever been made to feel guilty for knowing their worth. TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 Intro 02:09 The Failure Story 12:41 What Emotions Were You Feeling? 16:46 What Were Your Strategies 18:33 Who Were The Protagonists in Your Story? 20:30 How Support Contributed to Your Growth 21:57 Three Key Takeaways 36:42 Rapid Fire Questions ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ABOUT GROWTH THROUGH FAILURE: Conversations with leaders who turned setbacks into comebacks. Real stories of resilience, reinvention, and growth. New episodes every other Wednesday. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🔔 Subscribe: http://bit.ly/3WYkMTO 📧 Newsletter: https://www.tosinataiwo.com/#subscribe 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tosinataiwo/ 🐦 X/Twitter: https://x.com/tosinataiwo

Why HYPE Doesn't Always Equal Success - Tunde Onakoya

For years, Tunde Onakoya did one thing: use chess to change the lives of children from disadvantaged backgrounds. He broke the world record for the longest chess marathon, 60 consecutive hours in Times Square, New York.  The world was watching. Then he took out a bank loan, designed a chess board he believed in with everything he had, and only sold one. In this episode of Growth Through Failure, he shares what the market taught him that the applause never could, and why hype is never a substitute for traction. TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 Intro 01:23 The Failure Story 06:57 What Emotions Were You Feeling? 12:52 What Were Your Strategies 20:11 Who Were The Protagonists in Your Story? 32:25 Three Key Takeaways 40:38 Rapid Fire Questions ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ABOUT GROWTH THROUGH FAILURE: Conversations with leaders who turned setbacks into comebacks. Real stories of resilience, reinvention, and growth. New episodes every other Wednesday. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🔔 Subscribe: http://bit.ly/3WYkMTO 📧 Newsletter: https://www.tosinataiwo.com/#subscribe 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tosinataiwo/ 🐦 X/Twitter: https://x.com/tosinataiwo