The road to success is paved in gold! LIESSSS
Truth is success requires a spirit of doggedness, bouncing back from failures and a lonely trip on the road less traveled. While we are always quick to celebrate the successful, its refreshing when they are honest about their humble beginnings and less than successful first steps.
For many, Jason Njoku, the founder and CEO of iROKO Partners, needs no introduction. iRoko is the largest digital distributor of Nigerian movies and African music. In 2012, Jason made history when he raised $8 million from New York-based Tiger Global Management. Today, IROKO Partners is the holding company behind the successful iRokoTV, NollywoodLove, and Njoku’s latest venture, African music streaming service iROKING.
Mr. Njoku has been open about his journey to success. In his 2012 TEDx talk, titled “failing all the way to success”, he tells the humorous yet inspiring story of his less than successful previous ventures. In a time when many are scared to try, for fear of failing, his story is a helpful reminder that failure is never the end.
In his latest article published on His blog, he posts a picture of his 2010 bank balance of £0.25, certainly a far cry from what it is today, and an inspiring message to NEVER GIVE UP
“My wife persuaded forced me to do a little spring cleaning this weekend. As I was going through my things rubbish, I came across this old account statement for an iROKO Partners Ltd bank account in London. If you look at the date its 13 July 2010. The statement is for June 2010. That’s right. £60.25 paid in. £60.00 (my feeding money) paid out. And an ending balance of £0.25. That’s right folks. I literally had £0.25 in my account thats $0.42 or N63.
Needless to say life has improved somewhat, but as I go about trying to frame this statement, it definitely reminds me of how far in such a short time one’s life can improve. It doesn’t have to be as dramatic, but improve life can. It also should serve to demonstrate to anyone, anywhere right now toiling away in obscurity on a little project or something no one gives a flying f*** about that as long as you believe in yourself and your project then success (whatever that may mean to you) is or may be just around the corner. All you have to do is find the inner strength to stay in the game.
At this point I had toiled for 6 long years. Fast forward another 4 years and everything has changed. But then I didn’t know that. It was only pain.
Founders. Never ever ever ever ever ever ever ever give up. On yourself. You may migrate from project to project and you will never know which one is ‘the one’. But one day, someday. Your stars will align”
Leave a Reply