Sometimes You Struggle, Sometimes You Soar: My 2025 Review

Bigger apartment. Bigger milestones. Bigger dreams.

I also upgraded my problems.

Mold in every room.

A baby struggling to breathe.

Clinic bills I didn’t budget for.

This is the story of how the year that was supposed to elevate me almost suffocated me.

For over a decade, I’ve documented my journey from dreamer to doer, sharing deeply personal experiences, professional milestones and life hacks that helped me navigate each year. I shared my review in the years 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024 with you, with the hope of motivating you to dream big, take massive action, and make each year your best yet.

2025 was supposed to be our breakout year. Grant Master was roaring to go. On the home front, we had moved into a bigger apartment. For the first time, my wife and I each had our own home office. Life was looking up.

Then the walls started fighting back.

What began as a minor stain on the ceiling became a full-blown health crisis. My six-month-old daughter struggled to breathe at night. I found myself in ENT clinics more times than I care to count. We threw away clothes, bags, brushes, a bread toaster, a wooden rack, an award rack, even makeup powder. All covered in mold. All casualties of a war we didn’t know we were fighting.

But I get ahead of myself.

This is the story of how 2025 tried to break me. How I watched my baby wheeze while our caretaker sent “noted” replies. How I cleaned mold on Monday and watched it return by Friday. How I stood on stages talking about winning grants while quietly losing sleep over whether my family was safe in our own home.

It’s also the story of how we fought back. How Grant Master crossed 1,000 students trained through Grant Success School. How we spent six months building Africa’s first grant intelligence engine. How I was recognized as a global “Fundraising Champion of the Year” and “Impact Enabler for Social Enterprises.” How I built an entire life-tracking app in 24 hours without sleeping. How I served as a judge for The Queen’s Commonwealth Essay Competition and got selected for the prestigious Adinkra Fellowship.

2025 taught me that you can be winning publicly and struggling privately at the same time. That recognition means nothing if your daughter can’t breathe. That the most dangerous enemies are sometimes the ones you can’t see.

Let me tell you everything.

The War We Couldn’t See

Before I paid rent on March 30th, I told the lawyer about a room that needed fixing. He assured me he would communicate with the landlord. There was no serious stain on the ceiling at the time. I only spotted a wall that looked funny. It was not a big deal or so I thought.

By May, mold had invaded all three bedrooms and two bathrooms.

I sent pictures. I sent videos. I followed up on WhatsApp. I called and got no answer. When I finally reached the caretaker, he replied “noted.” Weeks passed. The mold spread. My messages became more desperate. “This is an emergency. It’s taking too long to fix this.” No response.

They sent painters. The painters barely scraped the surface. I could still see the mold underneath. They sent someone who blamed the hot water heater. I told him we never even use the heater in the second bathroom. They promised to fix the source. They didn’t.

Meanwhile, my six-month-old daughter was wheezing at night. Struggling to breathe. Her eyes showed discomfort. We made multiple trips to the clinic. In August, the senior ENT specialist looked me in the eye and warned that her exposure to whatever was irritating her nose needed to stop immediately or she would need to undergo adenoid surgery in the near future. Our hearts raced like a motorcycle.

That single consultation, plus medication and transportation, cost N56,000. One of many bills.

I found mold on her clothes. Inside the wardrobe where we kept her things. We moved her belongings to the only room we thought was safe. Days later, I found mold on that wall too. The exact spot where she had been sleeping.

I reached a breaking point in August. I could barely breathe. When the ENT doctor asked if I was still living in the mold-infested house, I didn’t know how to respond. That night, I shot a video showing my medication and the mold covering our walls. I sent it to the caretaker. Frustration had turned to desperation. We tried house hunting: 2 out of the 3 houses we inspected had more severe mold.

We hired a fumigator. His chemicals didn’t work. We cleaned with Hypo. The mold returned. We painted over it. The mold came back stronger. It felt like whack-a-mole, except the mole was winning and my family was paying the price.

Then I found Tytanic on Instagram.

Their products were expensive. A mold killer and breathable paint that cost far more than the regular alternatives. But we were out of options. We bought them. We applied them.

They were 95% effective.

For the first time in months, the mold stayed gone. My daughter stopped wheezing. I stopped waking up congested. We could finally breathe again.

What I Learned (And What You Need to Know)

If you want to rent a house and you see mold, run for your life. Seriously. Do not convince yourself you can manage it. Do not believe promises that it will be fixed. Run.

If you already live in a house infested with mold, you need to find the source. Maybe it’s a leaking pipe. Maybe the tiles of your neighbour’s rest room upstairs were not well done and water is seeping into your POP. Whatever it is, fix the problem at the source. Otherwise, whatever treatment you apply will not last. That was my experience.

Once you’ve addressed the source, don’t just paint over the mold. That’s a temporary fix that makes things worse. Use a proper mold acid to destroy the spores, then seal the surface with breathable paint that prevents moisture from getting trapped. Regular paint traps moisture. Breathable paint lets the wall “exhale.” This is the difference between mold returning in two weeks versus staying gone.

Document everything. Every message. Every photo. Every video. Every date. My WhatsApp trail became my evidence. Without it, I would have had nothing but frustration and medical bills.

And if you’re in Nigeria dealing with serious mold, look up Tytanic. Their products saved my family’s health. This is not an ad. No one paid me to write this. I am simply telling you what worked for me.

Our daughter is much better now. She calls her mum “Meh meh” and causes glorious commotion all over the house, exploring everything within reach. Watching her breathe easy is worth every naira we spent fighting those toxic walls.

Before the Glory, the Grief

Let me tell you about 16th October, 2025.

I kept refreshing my email like a madman. The Entrepreneurship World Cup had me in a chokehold. Grant Master had applied alongside over 10,000 startups from 169 countries. We had made it to the Top 250 globally. Now we were waiting to see if we cracked the Top 100.

The email finally dropped at 3:27pm.

We didn’t make it.

I felt relief and sadness at the same time. Relief that the waiting was over. Sadness that we came so close and fell short. I didn’t cry. But I won’t pretend it didn’t sting. Being passed over is not fun. People who get rejected over and over again need therapy. I tell my students to be strong, but how can you be strong when your omission feels so wrong?

Was it our revenue? Should I have presented differently? What could I have done better?

I sat with those questions for a while. Then I remembered something I tell people all the time: rejection is not the end of the story. It’s just a plot twist.

The wins that followed gave me comfort.

The Wins

In September, I received an email that made me read it three times. I had been selected as an Adinkra Fellowship Laureate for 2026. The Adinkra Alliance Institute chose just 20 exceptional rising leaders from Africa and the African diaspora. Twenty. Out of thousands of applicants from across the continent and beyond.

The fellowship recognizes outstanding leadership, visionary spirit, and commitment to advancing the future of people of African descent. It includes two week-long international trips, mentorship from global leaders, and collaborative projects tackling critical challenges in Black communities. I’ll be heading to Ivory Coast in February 2026 for the first immersion.

In November, Global Elite Business Magazine named Grant Master the “Fundraising Champion of the Year.” We were recognized for enabling entrepreneurs and nonprofits to secure debt-free, equity-free funding for impact-driven businesses. For creating sustainable capacity through Grant Success School. For democratizing access to grant funding across Africa.

In December, Global Brands Magazine followed up with another honor: “Impact Enabler for Social Enterprises.” Grant Master was selected from over 18,000 companies evaluated globally for the 2025 Global Brand Awards cycle. Eighteen thousand. And they chose us.

Also in December, Oyo Talent Tribe named me one of 20 founders and builders recognized for shaping the Oyo State entrepreneurship and technology ecosystem.

Earlier in the year, I served as a judge for The Queen’s Commonwealth Essay Competition. QCEC is the world’s oldest international writing competition for schools, and I got to evaluate essays from young minds across the Commonwealth. It was humbling to be trusted with that responsibility.

Here’s What I Need You to Understand

Every single one of these awards was 100% merit-based. Neither Grant Master nor I paid one naira for any of them. Not one. In a world where people buy awards and fake recognition, I want you to know that these honors found us because of the work. The impact. The results.

We didn’t lobby. We didn’t pay. We just kept building.

Top 250 globally but not Top 100? That stung. But Fundraising Champion of the Year? Impact Enabler for Social Enterprises? Adinkra Fellowship Laureate? Oyo Ecosystem Builder? QCEC Judge?

I’ll take those.

Rejection is a part of life. But so is recognition. Sometimes they arrive in the same year. Sometimes in the same month. The key is to keep showing up until the wins outnumber the losses.

Building the Machine

If you want to sell to Nigerians, let me share something that took me years to learn.

I used to think both ways of making N15.4 million were equal. They are not.

N55,000 x 280 customers = N15.4 million (way easier)

N100,000 x 154 customers = N15.4 million (way harder)

Every tiny increment in price shuts out a large swath of the population. In a country where most people earn below N100,000 monthly, pricing is not just a strategy. It’s access. It’s inclusion. It’s the difference between building something for the few versus building something for the many.

This insight shaped everything we did at Grant Master in 2025.

Grant Success School: 1,000+ and Counting

When we launched Grant Success School, we had a simple goal: teach people how to write winning grant proposals so they never have to depend on anyone else for funding again.

In 2025, we trained 680 new students. That pushed us past a milestone I’ve been dreaming about for a while. Grant Success School has now empowered over 1,000 entrepreneurs and nonprofit leaders to master grant writing independently.

One thousand people who can now fund their own dreams. One thousand people who learned that grant funding is not magic or luck. It’s a skill. And skills can be taught.

We served clients across 20+ countries this year. From Nigeria to Kenya, Ghana to South Africa, and beyond the continent. The mission has always been to democratize access to grant funding across Africa. In 2025, we took serious strides toward that vision.

Grant Wizard: The Future We’re Building

But here’s the thing about teaching: it doesn’t scale infinitely. I can only train so many people. My team can only review so many proposals. There are millions of businesses and nonprofits across Africa that need grant funding but have zero experience writing grants.

How do we reach them?

We spent six months answering that question.

The result is Grant Wizard: Africa’s first grant intelligence engine.

Imagine this: you have a brilliant idea, a registered organization, and zero experience writing grants. You don’t know where to find opportunities. You don’t know how to structure a proposal. You don’t know what funders are looking for. In the old world, you would either pay someone like us to help you or struggle through rejection after rejection until you gave up.

Grant Wizard changes that.

We poured all of our expertise into building a truly formidable product. Everything we’ve learned from helping clients secure over $30 million in grants. Every template. Every framework. Every insight about what makes funders say yes. We fed it all into an AI-powered system that enables anyone with zero experience to find and write badass grant proposals in minutes.

Not hours. Minutes.

This is not a chatbot that gives generic advice. This is a grant intelligence engine built by people who have actually won grants, trained grant writers, and studied what works across hundreds of successful applications.

The waitlist is live at www.grantwizard.ai

If you’ve ever felt locked out of grant funding because you didn’t know where to start, Grant Wizard is being built for you. If you run a nonprofit, social enterprise, or impact-driven business and you’re tired of watching opportunities pass you by, get on that waitlist.

We’re not just building a tool. We’re building the infrastructure for a more funded Africa.

The Team That Makes It Happen

I need to pause and acknowledge the people who make Grant Master possible.

My birthday this year was something else. The team went out of their way. Hammed Oyedele (ex-team member) dropped by my office unannounced. That alone was a pleasant surprise.

Then came the big surprise.

The team had recorded a video compilation of past and present team members wishing me happy birthday. Timothy said sweet things. Ibrahim spoke briefly but warmly. Ife’s message hit differently. Oyebola delivered. Emmanuel came through. Miracle’s video was thoughtful. Balogun showed up. Even two of Dami’s friends made appearances. The present team showed up and showed out.

Dami and Samuel were there in person. Celestina, our neighbour, even recorded a video.

MC Olayinka coordinated the entire happy hour. The games were fun. And then Wifey put the cherry on top: She made me three beautiful dresses. Three. Custom made. How did I get so lucky?

To everyone who has been part of the Grant Master journey, whether you’re still with us or you’ve moved on to other chapters: thank you. We don’t build alone. We build together.

If You Need Grant Master:

Want to learn how to write grants yourself? Join Grant Success School at www.grantsuccess.school

Want AI-powered grant intelligence at your fingertips? Join the waitlist at www.grantwizard.ai

Three Books That Rewired My Brain

I planned to read 12 books in 2025.

I read 3.

Before you judge me, let me explain.

For months, I kept saying I would read more. I bought the books. I stacked them on my desk. I added them to my “to-read” list. But life kept happening. Work. Family. Mold. Clinics. At least those were the excuses I gave myself.

The books gathered dust.

Then I made one small change: I started waking up earlier.

Not dramatically earlier. Just enough to carve out 30 minutes before the chaos of the day began. No emails. No WhatsApp. No distractions. Just me and the book.

That single adjustment helped me finish my third book of the year. Sometimes the obstacle isn’t motivation or discipline. It’s just logistics. Find the time, protect the time, and the reading happens.

Here are the three books that made the cut, and the lessons I’m carrying into 2026:

1. The Algebra of Wealth by Scott Galloway

This book broke my brain in the best way possible.

Galloway’s core formula is deceptively simple: Wealth = Focus + (Stoicism x Time x Diversification). But the insight that hit me hardest was his definition of economic security.

Economic security is not about how much you earn. It’s about how much you keep. Specifically, it’s when your passive income exceeds your burn rate. Passive income is money your money makes: interest, dividends, rent, appreciation. Burn rate is what you spend to live. When passive income is greater than burn, you don’t need to work. You might choose to, but you don’t need to.

Galloway suggests multiplying your annual burn rate by 25 to find your “number.” That’s the asset base you need to generate enough passive income to cover your lifestyle forever.

I did the math for myself. It was humbling.

The other concept that stuck: lifestyle creep. Every upgrade you make to one area of your life makes every other area feel shabby. Buy a nicer car, and suddenly your apartment looks old. Renovate the apartment, and now your furniture needs replacing. It’s an arms race with no finish line.

As Galloway puts it: “There’s always a better boat, a faster car, a nicer house. But money is just a number, and numbers are infinite. And, as such, there’s never enough.”

Key lesson: Wealth is not about earning more. It’s about the gap between what you earn and what you spend, multiplied by time. Start early. Stay disciplined. And know your number.

2. $100M Leads by Alex Hormozi

If you run a business and you’re struggling to get customers, this book is your manual.

Hormozi’s core insight: all else being equal, when you double your leads, you double your business. But not all leads are equal. You want engaged leads: people who show interest in what you sell by giving you their contact information, following you, or responding to your content.

The section on lead magnets changed how I think about marketing. A lead magnet is a complete solution to a narrow problem. It should be so valuable that people would pay for it, but you give it away for free. Why? Because a person who pays with their time now is more likely to pay with their money later.

Hormozi’s analogy is provocative but effective: be a legal drug dealer. Your free content is the first hit. Make it so good that they come back for more. Don’t dilute your free stuff. Make it as potent as your paid offers. Your reputation depends on it.

Key lesson: The business that provides the most value wins. Period. Make your free stuff so good that people feel obligated to pay you. And reach out to more people than feels comfortable.

3. Leaving the Tarmac by Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede

This one is personal.

Aig-Imoukhuede tells the story of how he and Herbert Wigwe left guaranteed success at Guaranty Trust Bank to buy and transform Access Bank. The title comes from a childhood memory: a young Aigboje standing on a tarmac, watching a plane take off without him. He vowed never to be left behind again.

The book is a masterclass in entrepreneurial courage. One quote hit me square in the chest: “Behold the turtle. He makes progress only when he sticks his neck out.”

Aig-Imoukhuede saw what others couldn’t see. He recognized that Nigeria’s banking industry was about to transform, and if he didn’t act quickly, the window to own a bank would close forever. He didn’t dream alone. He brought Herbert Wigwe along, reasoning that “four eyes of leadership are better than two.” He planned his succession from day one because he wanted to build something that would outlast him.

The lesson about value is timeless: “Nothing is ever wasted when it comes to accruing knowledge, experience and skills.” His years as a legal officer, which some might see as a detour, proved invaluable throughout his banking career.

Key lesson: If you wait for the perfect moment, you’ll be left on the tarmac watching others fly. Stick your neck out. Find a partner who shares your vision. And build something that outlasts you.

A Note on Reading

Peter Drucker said, “You cannot manage what you cannot measure.” I measured my reading goal this year and fell short. Twelve books planned, three completed. That’s a 75% miss rate.

But here’s what I also measured: the impact of those three books on my thinking. The Algebra of Wealth made me recalculate my financial goals. $100M Leads reshaped how we approach marketing at Grant Master. Leaving the Tarmac reminded me why I started this entrepreneurial journey in the first place.

Three books, deeply absorbed, beat twelve books skimmed and forgotten (yeah, I am consoling myself a bit here).

In 2026, I’m setting the same target: 12 books. I failed this year, but I’m not lowering the bar. I’m keeping up my early morning reading ritual and betting on myself.

What about you? What books shaped your 2025?

Stories That Stayed With Me

I watch one or two movies per month. Not a lot by some standards, but I’ve learned to see films not just as entertainment but as condensed life lessons wrapped in compelling narratives. The best stories hold a mirror to reality and force you to ask uncomfortable questions.

Here are the ones that wouldn’t leave my head in 2025:

1. Behind the Scenes (Funke Akindele)

The whole cinema was screaming. Clapping. Gasping.

I had tears trickling down my face.

Funke Akindele cooked. She really, really cooked.

Behind the Scenes is a masterclass in spotting parasites. The family members who smile in your face while slowly bleeding you dry. The “friends” who are only loyal when it’s convenient. The relatives who show up for your success but disappear during your struggles.

And here’s what shattered me: it was the house help and the cook who treated the children with love. Not the blood relatives. The people with no obligation showed more care than those bound by blood.

There’s a scene that captures just how fragile life is in Nigeria. It will sit in your chest long after you leave the cinema.

The plot twist at the end? Nobody saw it coming. The whole room gasped.

Key lesson: Blood does not guarantee loyalty. Watch what people do, not what they say. And sometimes, the people you overlook are the ones who truly have your back.

2. Kill a Monkey (Kemi Adetiba)

Kemi Adetiba cooked.

Kill a Monkey follows Efemini, a young man drowning in poverty. Life kept throwing him bad turns. He was earning N42,000 monthly at a restaurant when he ran into someone he had literally saved from death back in university. That person introduced him to cybercrime.

The series shows the seduction of quick money. The cells where teenagers learn to defraud people. The lifestyle. The women. The cars. But it also shows the inevitable end: violence, betrayal, and destruction.

Efemini’s mentor, Teacher, terrorized their families when they refused to pay him a cut. There were attacks. Counter-attacks. Deaths. Efemini was manipulated into killing his own boss, recorded doing it, then betrayed by the same woman he trusted. He was arrested inside his escape jet, evidence already in the hands of authorities.

The irony wasn’t lost on me: a cheating husband in the story got furious when his wife slept with another man. We judge in others what we excuse in ourselves.

Key lesson: Violent living ends violently. There are no clean exits from dirty money. And the people who recruit you into darkness will be the first to sacrifice you when it’s convenient.

3. The Herd

This movie depicted the horrors faced by kidnapping victims in Nigeria.

Derin and Fola had just gotten married. On their way home, they got kidnapped. Derin tried to escape and was shot instantly. The movie followed the survivors through the forest, the ransom negotiations, and the desperation.

What shocked me most was the side story. Gosi’s rich parents refused to pay ransom because they didn’t approve of their son’s wife’s tribe. The wife, in desperation, offered to divorce their son and leave the family forever if they would just release the funds. The tribalism. The pettiness. In the middle of life and death.

But here’s the twist that stayed with me: the breakthrough came from an Apple Watch. Derin was wearing one when he was shot. His brother in Canada pinged the watch, got a location, and shared it with the police. The location led to a church. The pastor and some members were involved in organ harvesting. They bought body parts from the kidnappers.

Religious leaders. Harvesting organs. Let that sink in.

Key lesson: Evil wears many disguises, including religious robes. Technology can save your life if you use it wisely. And tribalism is a cancer that makes people withhold help even when lives are at stake.

4. The Ice Road 2: Road to the Sky

I cried my eyes out at the end of this one.

Mike travels to Nepal to sprinkle his brother’s ashes on Mount Everest. What follows is pure action: mercenaries, a hijacked tour bus, a fight to save passengers and an entire country. Standard action movie stuff, brilliantly executed.

But the ending broke me.

Mike said goodbye to Dhani, the tour guide he had been fighting alongside. He entered the airport. He walked into a store and saw a rope. That rope triggered a memory: hiking with his younger brother years ago. His brother had asked what Mike would do if he passed. Mike said, “Keep on living.” Same thing he’d expect if roles were reversed.

Standing in that airport, ticket in hand, Mike made a choice. He didn’t board the plane. He walked out of the airport, into the street, and into the embrace of his soul mate.

I got so emotional. So teary. It was a joy to watch someone choose love over departure. Choose staying over leaving. Choose life over just existing.

Key lesson: Keep on living. Not just surviving. Living. And when life gives you a reason to stay, have the courage to put down the ticket and walk back.

Quick Mentions

G20 (Viola Davis): Terrorists hijack the G20 summit, deepfake world leaders’ videos, and cause global financial chaos. Believable stunts. Excellent casting. A proper action movie that kept my attention from start to finish.

Squid Game Season 3: I didn’t like how it ended. Player 456 died to save the baby, which was noble. Perhaps if he had waited for the clock to run out, they both would have died. Maybe I’m judging him because I know nothing happened after the clock ran out. Still, the VIPs enjoying other people’s suffering felt like a metaphor for corrupt politicians everywhere.

The Day of the Jackal: The best sniper in the world. Custom-made rifles. Cutting-edge equipment. A disillusioned former soldier turned assassin who always delivers. I kept watching episode after episode. Seasonal movies are dangerous for productivity.

House of David: Incredible storytelling. Having read the Bible stories, I expected to be bored. I wasn’t. The casting, acting, and execution had me glued for over 4 hours straight.

Ozark: The storytelling was too good to stop. Compelling doesn’t begin to describe it.

Heads of State (John Cena, Idris Elba, Priyanka Chopra): Funny, action-packed, good storyline. Solid entertainment.

A Note on Stories

I consume stories because they teach me things that textbooks can’t. How humans behave under pressure. What happens when values are tested? The consequences of choices made in desperation.

Every movie is a case study. Every series is a simulation. Pay attention to the lessons, and entertainment becomes education.

What stories shaped your 2025? Pls share in the comments.

Stages, Microphones, and Moments That Mattered

2025 put me on stages I didn’t expect.

Some were virtual. Some were physical. All of them reminded me why I do this work: to transfer knowledge that can change someone’s trajectory in a single afternoon.

Virtual Engagements

1. American Spaces Nigeria

Topic: “Funding Opportunities: Scholarships & Financial Planning for Economically Disadvantaged Youth”

This one was personal. I grew up watching my parents stretch every naira. I know what it feels like to want opportunities but lack the resources to access them. Speaking to young people about scholarships and financial planning was a conversation I wish someone had with me 15 years ago.

Information truly is the bridge between poverty and possibility.

2. Lagos State Public Service Accelerator Programme

Topic: “Building a Powerful Personal Brand”

This was a session on branding for public servants looking to accelerate their careers. The audience was engaged, the questions thoughtful. Personal branding isn’t just for entrepreneurs. It’s for anyone who wants their work to speak before they enter the room.

3. BudgIT Climate Fellowship Training

Topic: “How to Write Winning Grant Proposals”

Two sessions. Two days. One mission: equip climate-focused organizations with the skills to fund their own work.

BudgIT has been doing incredible work holding the government accountable and promoting transparency. Partnering with them to train their climate fellows was an honor. These are people working on some of the most urgent challenges of our time. They needed funding. I showed them how to get it.

4. Vital Swap Hackathon

Topic: “How to Write Winning Grant Proposals”

Hackathons are intense. Participants are building under pressure, racing against the clock. My job was to pause the chaos for a moment and remind them: the best product in the world means nothing if you can’t fund it.

Grant writing isn’t just for nonprofits. Startups, social enterprises, tech companies building for impact, they all qualify for more funding than they realize. I broke down the framework. They took notes. Some of them will win grants because of that session. That’s the goal.

Physical Engagements

5. Lagos Leather Fair (2025)

Topic: “Mastering the Art of Winning Grants”

Lagos Leather Fair was phenomenal.

The technical team had to bring a longer HDMI cable because the remote presenter couldn’t control my laptop from the stage. Small hiccups. But we made it work.

Before my session, I ran into Moses Simon, a fellow Mandela Washington Fellow and GSS student. I was genuinely happy to see him. He was happy to see me too. He thanked me once again for supporting him to win a Mastercard grant. I gave him a shoutout during the talk because that’s what community looks like. I met Emotu Harrison too, my former student who helped a company win $1 million in grant funding.

Ronke Giwa was the MC. She did a terrific job.

The audience was different from my usual crowd. These were artisans, craftspeople, designers, and entrepreneurs building physical products with their hands. Many of them had never considered grant funding as an option. They assumed grants were only for tech startups or NGOs.

I showed them otherwise.

Grants exist for creative industries. For manufacturing. For cultural preservation. For skills development. The leather workers, bag makers, and shoe designers in that room left knowing that funding was available for them too. They just needed to know where to look and how to ask.

BCOS TV Interview on Artificial Intelligence

This one was explosive.

The topic was AI, and I came prepared with facts, stats, stories, and scenarios. The interview felt less like a Q&A and more like a conversation between two curious minds exploring the future together.

I felt very much alive on that set. Dishing out insights. Breaking down complex concepts. Making AI tangible for everyday people. When I walked out of that studio, I knew I wanted to do more media appearances. There’s something powerful about reaching thousands of people through a single conversation.

Book Me

If you want me to speak at your event, conference, training, or organization on grant writing, personal branding, AI, or entrepreneurship, visit www.gbengaogun.com to book me.

I don’t just give talks. I transfer skills. I leave audiences with frameworks they can use the next day. And I bring energy that makes learning feel less like a lecture and more like a conversation with a friend who wants to see you win.

“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” Invite me to plant seeds in your audience.

The App I Built in 24 Hours

For years, I’ve shared Excel sheets and Microsoft docs of my planners with you. Templates to track your goals, your habits, your progress. You could download them, adapt them, and make them your own.

But I got tired of my own system.

Jumping from spreadsheet to spreadsheet. Opening one doc for daily tasks, another for monthly reflections, another for financial tracking. And the formulas. God, the formulas. One wrong keystroke and Excel would break. Cells would show errors. Hours of tracking, gone.

I wanted something better. Something that wouldn’t break when I made a mistake. Something that showed me how I was doing in real time. Something magical.

So I built it.

I started vibe coding on a Friday night. I didn’t stop. I didn’t sleep. By Saturday evening, the core app was live. 24 hours. One sitting. Zero sleep.

Over the next 5 days, I refined it. Added features. Fixed bugs. Made it beautiful.

The result is Life OS (www.thelifeos.xyz).

What Life OS Does

Life OS helps you track every key area of your life in one place:

Daily routines. What did you do today? Did you exercise? Did you read? Did you pray? Check the boxes. See your streaks. Watch your consistency grow.

Weekly tasks. What needs to happen this week? Track it. Complete it. Move on.

Monthly diary. Write daily in your monthly journal. Capture thoughts, wins, struggles, lessons. Don’t let the days blur together. If you wonder how I am able to write detailed yearly reviews, this is how.

Financials and Investments. Income. Expenses. Savings. Investments. See where your money goes. Make better decisions.

Health. Track metrics that matter to you. Sleep. Steps. Water. Whatever you’re measuring.

Goals. The big ones. The scary ones. The ones that keep you up at night. Track your progress. See how far you’ve come.

Why I Built It

Peter Drucker said, “You cannot manage what you cannot measure.”

I’ve quoted that line in every yearly review. I believe it deeply. But measuring your life across 7 different documents and spreadsheets is exhausting. It creates friction. And friction kills consistency.

Life OS removes the friction.

The charts are truly enchanting. You can see your performance in real time. Updates are instant. If you accidentally delete something, you can restore it. No more broken formulas. No more lost data. No more excuses.

I built this for myself. Then I realized it could help people like me. People who are tired of scattered systems. People who want something digital and seamless to track their lives in real time, every time.

Your Gift

The app is free for now. Once my hosting fees increase, I’ll charge a small fee to cover costs. But for now, it’s my gift to you.

Go to www.thelifeos.xyz and start tracking your life.

I’ve only shared it with Wifey and 3 friends so far. You’re among the first to hear about it publicly. Consider yourself an early adopter.

If Life OS helps you become more intentional about how you spend your days, my 24 sleepless hours will be worth it.

Please share it with your friends and family. The people who measure their lives are the people who improve their lives.

Elections Have Consequences

Let me tell you about the estate where I live.

The power supply used to be relatively good. Then it got very bad. So bad that noisy generators became a serious nuisance. You couldn’t keep food in the fridge without it spoiling. The cost of petrol and diesel became unbearable. We were spending money just to have basic electricity that should have been stable.

The former executives tried their best. I won’t take that away from them. But there was little progress. Meetings happened. Complaints were logged. Nothing changed.

Then election time came.

Here’s where it got interesting. The election rules excluded residents who had missed monthly estate meetings. Think about that. You pay your dues. You live in the estate. You contribute financially. But because you missed a few meetings, you can’t vote for who leads your community?

I stood up on the floor and made a case. If you pay your dues as a resident, that should be sufficient condition to cast a vote. Attendance at meetings is good, but it shouldn’t be a barrier to participation in democracy.

The house agreed with me.

Of course, there was drama. I won’t be going into all of it here. But the key thing is that democracy happened. We, the people, elected a new chairman.

The new chairman wasted no time. He and the new excos got to work immediately. They brought the estate together through social events. They launched green projects. And most importantly, they engaged IBEDC to guarantee steady power for the estate.

As I write this, the power supply has improved so dramatically that food in our freezer is actually frozen. Our fridge works like a fridge should. The generators are quieter because they’re needed less often.

All because we showed up. Spoke up. Voted.

Key lesson: Democracy is both National and local. It’s what happens in your estate, your community, your local association. The leaders closest to you often have the most direct impact on your daily life. Don’t ignore local elections. Don’t stay silent when policies exclude people unfairly. Speak up. Vote. Hold leaders accountable.

Elections have consequences. Our food is better preserved because of it. And I’m also reminded that when citizens engage, systems can actually work. The playful reality of a working freezer sits alongside the serious truth: democracy, even at its smallest scale, has the power to change lives.

The Woman Who Out-walks Me

Let me tell you about my wife.

In 2025, she averaged 10,000 steps per day.

Ten thousand. While being the primary caregiver for our one-year-old daughter. While managing a household. While pursuing her own goals with the kind of stubbornness that makes me both proud and slightly terrified.

Meanwhile, I averaged 3,685 steps per day.

She out-walked me by 2.7x. And she did it while carrying more weight than I did. Not physically. But in every other way that matters.

It’s wonderful to do life with a partner who is super driven. Someone who doesn’t just talk about goals but chases them with relentless energy. Someone who makes you want to be better because watching them settle for less would feel like a betrayal of who they are.

On my birthday, she put the cherry on top of an already incredible celebration. She made me three beautiful dresses. Custom. Three. And that was just one of many gifts.

How did I get so lucky?

Marriage is not only about love. There are good days and there are hard days.

You will never agree on everything. And that’s ok.

Marriage is about partnership. It’s about finding someone whose drive matches yours, whose values align with yours, and whose presence makes the hard days bearable and the good days unforgettable.

I found that. I don’t take it for granted. I love you, Mrs Oguns.

The Glorious Commotion

My daughter is one year old now.

She calls her mum “Meh meh.” She causes glorious commotion all over the house, exploring everything within reach. Pulling things. Touching things.

Watching her breathe easy after the mold nightmare is a gift I don’t take lightly. There were nights when she wheezed and I felt helpless. Mornings when her eyes showed discomfort and I didn’t know what else to do. Clinic visits that cost money and emotional energy.

But she’s better now. Much better.

And every day she explores our home with curiosity and chaos, I’m reminded why we fought so hard to make that home safe. She deserves clean air. She deserves walls that don’t poison her. She deserves parents who will move heaven and earth to protect her.

We moved heaven and earth. And now she’s thriving.

On Black Tax: A Word to the Wise

I remember being a teenager. We had an Uncle who was doing well, and I somehow expected him to be giving me money. That’s how it works when you’re young. You see someone succeeding and you assume their success should overflow to you.

I am that Uncle now.

And I now know that Uncles have huge financial responsibilities. We cannot throw money around. We have house rent, school fees, business expenses, health emergencies, and a thousand other demands on every naira we earn.

But I also believe in family. I believe in lifting others as you climb. So my wife and I have developed a philosophy that works for us:

Set them up. Don’t prop them up.

Pay for a course or training that gives them a skill. Buy a laptop that helps them work. Buy them tools for apprenticeship or business. Give them life-changing advice. Connect them to people who can open doors. These are investments that multiply.

Monthly stipends, on the other hand, are not sustainable. Especially for family members who can and should be working. Giving someone N5,000 or N50,000 every month doesn’t lift them out of poverty. It just makes them dependent on you.

Do not let any family member turn you into their personal ATM. If you go broke taking care of family, who will take care of you?

Unless you are Elon Musk, you cannot lift everybody in your generation out of poverty. Know that and know peace.

But here’s the exception: your parents. Spend money on your parents while they are alive. They sacrificed for you when you couldn’t repay them. Now that you can, don’t wait. I have one parent left and two in-laws. They will never lack while I have breath in my body.

Help where you can. Invest in potential. But protect your own oxygen mask first. You can’t pour from an empty cup.

The Gift My Father Left Me

When I sleep, I see things.

It’s probably a gift I got from my late Dad. My Dad could look at you and tell you what you ate last night and what you planned to do tomorrow. He didn’t need to sleep to see things. He was a deeply spiritual man.

Years ago, when my laptop was stolen, I called him. He told me it would be found within 7 days. It was found in 3.

I don’t have his ability. Not fully. But I do see things when I sleep.

Take the Usyk vs Dubois boxing match. I saw the result 3 weeks before the fight and posted it on my WhatsApp status. If I was into sports betting, I would have made a killing.

Wifey asked me a question that stuck: what other dreams am I not taking action on?

That question haunts me in the best way. Maybe dreams are not just entertainment. Maybe they’re directions. Maybe I need to pay closer attention.

Six Lessons 2025 Carved Into My Soul

Every year teaches you something if you’re paying attention.

2025 taught me more than I bargained for. Some lessons came through victories. Others came through struggles I wouldn’t wish on anyone. All of them changed how I move through the world.

Here are six truths I’m carrying into 2026:

1. Document relentlessly.

When the mold invaded our home, my WhatsApp trail became my evidence. Every message. Every photo. Every video. Every timestamp. Without that documentation, I would have had nothing but frustration and medical bills.

The caretaker said “noted.” I have the screenshot. The landlord promised repairs. I have the date. We threw away mold-infested belongings. I have the pictures.

Documentation is not paranoia. It’s protection. Whether you’re dealing with landlords, clients, employers, or contractors, keep records. Write it down. Take the photo. Save the message. Your future self will thank you when your memory fails but your receipts don’t.

2. Guard your health fiercely.

My daughter struggled to breathe for months. I found myself in ENT clinics more times than I care to count. We were living in a house that was slowly poisoning us, and we didn’t fully realize it until the damage was done.

No amount of money is worth your family’s ability to breathe. No apartment is worth your child’s health. No savings from cheap rent justify waking up congested every morning. If you can move out of a bad house, pls do so.

Your health is the foundation everything else is built on. If the foundation cracks, the whole building crumbles. Invest in good air, clean water, nutritious food, and regular checkups. Be paranoid about your health. It’s the one asset you can’t replace.

3. Build for yourself.

I got tired of broken spreadsheets and scattered documents. So I built Life OS in 24 hours without sleeping. I didn’t wait for someone to create the perfect tool. I didn’t complain about what didn’t exist. I built what I needed.

You have permission to solve your own problems. You don’t need to wait for the perfect app, the perfect system, or the perfect moment. If something frustrates you, and you have the skills to fix it, fix it. If you don’t have the skills, learn them or hire someone who does. This is the age of AI. You have zero excuses to not be able to use basic AI tools.

The world rewards builders. Be one.

4. Invest in people strategically, not emotionally.

Black tax is real. Family expectations are real. But going broke to satisfy everyone’s demands is not a strategy. It’s a slow death.

Set people up. Don’t prop them up. Pay for courses that give them skills. Buy laptops or tools that help them work. Connect them to opportunities. These investments multiply.

Monthly stipends for able-bodied adults who should be working? That creates dependency, not progress. You cannot lift everyone in your generation out of poverty. Know that and know peace.

But here’s the exception: your parents. Spend money on your parents while they are alive. They sacrificed for you when you couldn’t repay them. Now that you can, don’t wait. I have one parent left and two in-laws. They will never lack while I have breath in my body.

5. Participate in democracy locally.

I spoke up at an estate meeting. I argued that paying dues should be enough to qualify for voting. The house agreed. We elected new leadership. Now my freezer actually freezes food.

Democracy is not just what happens in Abuja or your state capital. It’s what happens in your estate, your community association, your local council. The leaders closest to you often have the most direct impact on your daily life.

Show up. Speak up. Vote. Hold leaders accountable. Don’t surrender your voice and then complain about the outcomes.

Elections have consequences. I’m sleeping better at night because of it. And I’m also reminded that when citizens engage, things can actually change.

6. Embrace rejection as redirection.

Grant Master made the Top 250 globally at the Entrepreneurship World Cup. We did not make the Top 100. That email at 3:27pm stung.

But in the same year, I was named Fundraising Champion of the Year. Impact Enabler for Social Enterprises. Adinkra Fellowship Laureate. Oyo Ecosystem Builder. A judge for The Queen’s Commonwealth Essay Competition.

Rejection is not the end of the story. It’s a plot twist. The wins gave me comfort. They reminded me that one door closing doesn’t mean all doors are closed. Keep knocking. Keep building. Keep showing up.

Sometimes the recognition you didn’t get makes room for the recognition you couldn’t have imagined.

Track Your Life Like Gbenga

For years, I’ve shared my planning templates with you. Excel sheets. Word documents. Systems to track your goals and habits.

In 2025, I took things to a whole new level.

I built Life OS (www.thelifeos.xyz) to help you track every key area of your life: daily routines, weekly tasks, monthly diary, financials, investments, health, and goals. All in one place. Real-time updates. No broken formulas. No scattered documents.

The app is free for now. Consider it my gift to you.

And if you want AI-powered help finding and writing grant proposals, join the waitlist for Grant Wizard at www.grantwizard.ai. We spent 6 months building Africa’s first grant intelligence engine. It’s coming soon.

The Road Ahead

2025 tried to break me.

Toxic walls that poisoned my family. Rejection that stung. Sleepless nights building products and fighting mold. Moments when I wondered if I was doing enough, being enough, providing enough.

But I’m still here.

My family is breathing easier.

Grant Master is stronger than ever.

Life OS exists.

Grant Wizard is coming.

The awards came without me asking or paying for them.

The lessons came whether I wanted them or not.

In 2026, I’m reading 12 books. I’m traveling to Ivory Coast for the Adinkra Fellowship. And then another foreign trip after that.

I’m launching Grant Wizard to the world.

I’m watching our daughter grow into a beautiful and strong leader. I’m staying vigilant about mold and health and all the invisible enemies that lurk in places you least expect.

And I’m documenting everything. Because you cannot manage what you cannot measure.

Your Turn

If you’re reading this and you’re saying to yourself, “2025 was hard for me too,” I see you. I feel you. You’re not alone.

If you’re saying, “I want 2026 to be different,” then make it different. Don’t wait for permission. Don’t wait for the perfect moment. Start now. Start messy. Start scared. But start.

Dream audaciously. Build relentlessly. Love fiercely. Document everything. Protect your health. Invest in people who invest in themselves. Show up for democracy at every level. And when rejection comes, let it redirect you to something better.

Life is short. Make it count while you can.

Now, go do epic stuff.

Credit

This review was edited by Mrs Chidimma Ogunbowale (my wife sabi book no be small).