Segment: Stop Expecting Handouts - Nobody Owes You Work, Create Value Or Stay Unemployed

Summary

Konnected Minds Podcast with Derrick Abaitey
Episode Segment: Stop Expecting Handouts - Nobody Owes You Work, Create Value Or Stay Unemployed
Date: June 9, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode of the Konnected Minds Podcast, hosted by Derrick Abaitey, features an engaging conversation between Chude Jideonwo and Adebola Williams. The central theme revolves around personal responsibility in career development, challenging the entitlement mentality among young professionals, and dissecting the realities of employment, entrepreneurship, and value creation—especially within the African context. The guests draw from their own experiences as entrepreneurs and business leaders, offering actionable insights for listeners aiming to build success, develop marketable skills, and foster the right mindset.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Fallacy of Entitlement and the Value of Work

• Ownership vs. Expectation:
  Chude opens with a candid observation about the misconception that business owners owe young people opportunities by default.

  • Chude Jideonwo [00:00]: “Nobody would ever. For the work you are doing, a lot of young people think entrepreneurs and business owners should, by default, hand it to them. I'm an entrepreneur. I would never. Why? Why would I want to do that if it's not favorable exit?”

• Labour Market Myths:
  Adebola responds by acknowledging Africa's jobs crisis, only for Chude to counter that jobs do exist, but mismatches and misconceptions persist.

  • Adebola Williams [00:14]: "There's a huge crisis in a lot of Africa. There's not enough jobs."
  • Chude Jideonwo [00:19]: "There are jobs."
  • Adebola Williams [00:20]: “So if there are jobs, why don’t we list all the jobs and the skills required and then teach people the skills needed to come and do the jobs?”

• Skills vs. Opportunities:
  Chude highlights the gap between having a skill and actively demonstrating your relevance in a tough economy.

  • Chude Jideonwo [00:27]: “There are people who have the skill to do the job, they just don't have the right for. And I know that people will say, but the economy, we are all struggling.”

2. Business, Competition, and Scaling in Africa

• Failure to Scale:
  Both guests reflect on why many African businesses struggle to scale, with an emphasis on the challenges posed by premature employee competition and insufficient value creation.

  • Chude Jideonwo [00:47]: “The primary reason why a lot of businesses within the African ecosystem don't scale…”
  • Adebola Williams [00:50]: “Competition can be a great thing. How do I make sure that it's actually for myself and not towards others? This part of the world, you start a business, you bring somebody on and the person quickly wants to compete with you.”

• The Utility Mindset:
  Chude articulates a value-driven approach to one’s professional life:

  • Chude Jideonwo [01:08]: “Here’s what I mean. The more and more people use you, the more you are useful and the lesser they use you, you become useless. So people should allow themselves to be used.”

3. Personal Struggles and Sacrifices of Leadership

• Juggling Entrepreneurship and Employment:
  Adebola probes into how Chude balances running his own business with being CEO at Red Africa. Chude is transparent about the trade-offs, praises the value of learning, and references tech titans who manage multiple ventures.

  • Chude Jideonwo [01:40]: “First and foremost, let’s forget the fact that with Red is a paid employment, it’s just another business. … Think about Elon Musk and Zuckerberg… they create multiple empires that are linked, but not the same.”

• Learning to Lead:
  Chude describes the humility required to succeed, admitting that he was at times “the dumbest PR person in the room.”

  • Chude Jideonwo [03:08]: “I’m always, I’ve always been very comfortable with learning. … You really should only be done once … performance [is] the evidence of learning.”

• Giving up Leisure for Growth:
  He shares how pursuing greater ambition means giving up leisure activities for professional obligations.

  • Chude Jideonwo [06:05]: “As much as I love sports and I love playing games, when I got this job, I knew I need to give up something. So I looked at my time and I said, you know what? What can go? The games have to go.”

4. Time, Productivity, and Prioritizing What Matters

• Time Management and False Busy-ness:
  Chude explains how people fill their lives with “time fillers” that aren’t meaningful, contrasting that with how he chooses to allocate his hours for maximum value.
  • Chude Jideonwo [07:29]: “A lot of people complain that they don’t have time. … What happens? How did you use yours? … We spend a lot of time doing a lot of things that we think are important, but they’re not really important, just time wasters. … But you see, one thing I won’t take as time filler is the work.”

5. Redefining Success: Entrepreneurship vs. Employment

• Not Opposites, But Parallels:
  Chude sees both entrepreneurship and employment as equally challenging and valuable, underscoring the need to serve others in any leadership capacity.

  • Chude Jideonwo [09:30]: “They are not dissimilar. And I think that’s the biggest challenge. I’m a servant in my own business. I serve the employees that work with us.”

• Rituals and Routines for High Performance:
  He shares actual strategies: his companies never work from the office on Mondays in order to start the week with better mental health and performance.

  • Chude Jideonwo [09:40]: “I don’t work from the office on Mondays. … I have a personal bias to Monday … So that way the pressure of starting the week on a good note is higher.”

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Value and Usefulness:
  Chude Jideonwo [01:08]: “The more and more people use you, the more you are useful and the lesser they use you, you become useless. So people should allow themselves to be used.”

• Differentiating Time Fillers:
  Chude Jideonwo [07:29]: “We spend a lot of time doing a lot of things that we think are important, but they're not really important, just time wasters.”

• Entrepreneurship = Service:
  Chude Jideonwo [09:30]: “I’m a servant in my own business. I serve the employees that work with us.”

• Rethinking Mondays:
  Chude Jideonwo [09:40]: “Since I started my business in 2016, we've never worked from the office on Monday.”

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Important Timestamps

• 00:00 - 00:47: Opening on entitlement, availability of jobs, and work ethic in Africa
• 01:08 - 01:22: The utility mindset and “allowing yourself to be used”
• 01:40 - 04:17: Juggling leadership roles, learning from giants, and continual learning
• 06:05 - 07:29: Sacrifices in personal life, giving up leisure for professional growth, managing time
• 07:29 - 09:01: The realities of time fillers versus purposeful work
• 09:12 - 09:40: The parity of entrepreneurship and employment, and rituals for peak performance

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Tone & Takeaways

The conversation is candid, direct, and practical—aimed at demolishing excuses and encouraging listeners to take agency over their careers. Both Chude and Adebola highlight that sustained success comes from self-awareness, deliberate value creation, humility to learn even at the top, and the discipline to trade comfort for growth.

Key Message:
If you want work, you must create value—because nobody owes you a job or an opportunity. Whether you pursue entrepreneurship or climb the employment ladder, servant leadership, skill development, and brutal honesty about your time and efforts are essential.

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For more insights, follow Konnected Minds Podcast on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok.

Transcript

[Chude Jideonwo]

Nobody would ever. For the work you are doing, a lot of young people think entrepreneurs and business owners should, by default, hand it to them. I'm an entrepreneur. I would never. Why? Why would I want to do that if it's not favorable exit?

[Adebola Williams]

There's a huge crisis in a lot of Africa. There's not enough jobs.

[Chude Jideonwo]

There are jobs.

[Adebola Williams]

So if there are jobs, why don't we list all the jobs and the skills required and then teach people the skills needed to come and do the jobs?

[Chude Jideonwo]

There are people who have the skill to do the job they just don't have the right for. And I know that people will say, but the economy, we are all struggling.

[Adebola Williams]

You will feel it like you want

[Chude Jideonwo]

to die, but you will not die. Exactly. If I'm the strongest person on my team, I failed.

[Adebola Williams]

Is that the reason why a lot of our businesses keep failing?

[Chude Jideonwo]

The primary reason why a lot of businesses within the African ecosystem don't scale

[Adebola Williams]

is because competition can be a great thing. How do I make sure that it's actually for myself and not towards others? This part of the world, you start a business, you bring somebody on and the person quickly want to compete with you.

[Chude Jideonwo]

It's something to be proud of, and

[Adebola Williams]

we should accept that.

[Chude Jideonwo]

Here's what I mean. The more and more people use you, the more you are useful and the lesser they use you, you become useless. So people should allow themselves to be used.

[Adebola Williams]

Most people who own businesses would rather focus on their business and then run their business. But interestingly, you've chosen a path that you have your own business and you also are employed as a CEO of Red Africa. How are you able to juggle the two?

[Chude Jideonwo]

To be honest, I'm quite excited to be here, but I think it's a question most people always ask, and I always answer with a corny answer, but I will give you the details. But my answer is always like this. First and foremost, let's forget the fact that with Red is a paid employment, it's just another business. And if you think about the work that the likes of Elon Musk and Zuckerberg and all these people do, they create multiple empires that are linked, but not the same. So X is different from SpaceX and different from Tesla, but there's a clear link in that uses X to tell the stories of what's happening on Tesla and using SpaceX to, you know, move the narrative of what he's trying to do with moving people and moving the world. Because Tesla is about moving the world, SpaceX about moving people into a new World, you understand for me when I got the opportunity to do work at Red because I was doing my business before. Now now the founders of Red, Chude and Adebola being like mentors for me in the industry, I'll do my business. I'm in marketing. My agency, my group that I co founded, my business partner is a marketing service agency. It's digital, it's experiential, it's tech. All of the other things within the group is around marketing and how to move marketing forward. Essentially it's for the love of marketing. So when the opportunity came to lead the group at Red, Red is marketing communications.

[Adebola Williams]

Right.

[Chude Jideonwo]

I had never done marketing communications. I had done marketing, sat in the room with marketing communications experts and thought, maybe you should do it like this. I had an idea or give them a suggestion. But remember I wasn't the one doing it so they had to do it. So whenever I'm like, you know what? If not, why not? So I went and did it and I'm doing it. When I first got in, I'm not going to lie to you, it was harder than I thought. I was thinking I'd done this before. Easy peasy. I would crush it. I'll go into a room and I'll be the dumbest PR person in the room. There are people in the room who are smarter than me. But I'm always, I've always been very comfortable with learning. So I have no problems being in the room where an intern knows what is happening more than me. I'll sit down there and ask the questions because I've learned you can only be done once. You really should only be done once once you learn the evidence of learning performance. So I hit my room and I'm learning. I'm like, I leave a room and I go and read. I've gone to many meetings, say something. I'm like, I'll be taking notes. You think I'm taking something serious? I'll be there. I'm the CEO and I'm like writing notes. I'm like, oh, what I'm writing is things I need to go and read up. So I leave the room and I go back and I read right now I go into rooms and I'm the smartest person in the room.

[Adebola Williams]

But the thing is you are employed to lead a company.

[Chude Jideonwo]

Yes.

[Adebola Williams]

Most people that employ CEOs is because they want to step away from the day to day growth and strategy of the business. So they want your full attention.

[Chude Jideonwo]

Yes.

[Adebola Williams]

But then you also have the people company again.

[Chude Jideonwo]

I will Use the analogy of other great people. Because if other people have never done it before, then I would say it's not doable. It would not matter, right? If, for example, the opportunity came for me to acquire a business and I bought a film company, does that mean the company will fail because I'm doing my own business? No. I would have to find a way to make the man hours work and do. Every one of us wants to be more than what we are today. Nobody satisfied just being the guy behind the camera, right? They want to go from being a guy behind the camera to being the director, from being director to being the executive director to being the movie producer. They want to go from all of that to owning a full movie studio. All of that growth requires you to shift your personality, shift what you think is possible. Yes, they wanted my full time attention and they get it. But what they do not get is all of my. They only get the time attention that is required to do the work. What is the work that I'm required to do? Lead the organization. I am doing just that. Every day I wake up, I ask myself what needs to be done in international today. We have 24 hours. Other things lose importance. Yes, those who know me know. I mean, I love games. I would play games all by myself. I can sit in my room, play football manager till morning because I love playing games. I love football. I love watching football games. I watch football matches before I took the work at Red. I'll probably watch four or five football games in the weekend because again, I have more time on my hands. So I'm like, Manchester City is playing today. I want to watch it. It's not my business. I mean, Manchester United fan, by the way, hit on it all you want.

[Adebola Williams]

Yeah, but you guys lost yesterday.

[Chude Jideonwo]

It's okay, it's okay. Like I said, hate on it. I mean, we're better than us now they're bottling everything. But the. The thing is, as much as I love sports and I love playing games, when I got this job, I knew I need to give up something. So I looked at my time and I said, you know what? What can go the games has to go. So if I'm going to spend my weekends doing work for other people, then something else will go. So I'll give up the games and give up movies. There's a lot of movies I want to watch. I'm always writing if you check my movie list is always piling that great movies. I was checking prime the other day, I put up, I'm like, wow, that's a great movie. I thought about it. Do I have two hours to do this? I'm like, no, I need to review that document. I need to check that email. I need to do. I just, I'll play the movie, put it on pause. That's my cue to go back to it mentally. Right. I may never go back. But you know what it does for me? It tells me there is something else to be done. Now, here's the thing. I do take a lot of breaks. I take breaks. I take. But here's. Most people think that you should take. I've learned I can. I'm not gonna take two week's break. I may not take one week break from work. What I do, I'll take three hours. So in a, on a Thursday, for example, if I feel like all my work is done at 5, I'm not the type that you catch. I thought, I'm going out to car. No, if I'm done at 5, I leave, get home early and go and watch that movie. Because the work was, was done at 5.

[Adebola Williams]

Yeah.

[Chude Jideonwo]

Now, what most people do, and this is where I realized that the trick is a lot of people complain that they don't have time. What they realize what I realized that a lot of people have the same advice. What happens? How did you use yours? More often than not. In fact, I saw something on social media the other day about a couple who started a challenge on social media and they're like, they're gonna have sex. But because their sex life is struggling, what they started to do was every day before they pick up their phones in the evening to relax, they must have sex.

[Adebola Williams]

I see.

[Chude Jideonwo]

And it sounds like so much pressure when you think about it. They said something that was very true. Said, when they are watching movies, they're on their phone. When they are gisting with friends, they're on their phone. When they're doing that, they're on their phone. So they tell themselves, you know what? Before you, you know that thing happens in the evening, I'm sure you know what it means by 8pm, 9pm when you want to rest for the day, what do you do? Pick up your phone and you start to scroll and you go through all the Instagrams and all I said, before we do that, let's have sex. They realized that because they felt that they didn't have time for themselves when they started to do that improved. They actually have time. They still finish sex and go back to the phone or they go to bed. But you know what has happened? They've gotten the sex in right? And I realized myself like, and it's true, we spend a lot of time doing a lot of things that we think are important, but they're not really important, just time wasters. They are time fillers. All of us have a lot of time fillers. I have a ton of time fillers. But you see, one thing I won't take as time filler is the work. So at the people company at Red, my time is split effectively between doing the work.

[Adebola Williams]

So if I ask you this question, what would your honest answer be? Which one do you personally think you are most successful at leading Red or both being an entrepreneur in your business?

[Chude Jideonwo]

Both. In fact, I'm extremely successful at both. Like which one do I give the most time? That question you're trying to ask.

[Adebola Williams]

No, no, actually it's incredible, you know, being successful at both. But if you were to advise a 19 year old, which path do you do you think will be clearer for them to take? Entrepreneurship or employment?

[Chude Jideonwo]

They are not dissimilar. And I think that's the biggest challenge. I'm a servant in my own business. I serve the employees that work with us.

[Adebola Williams]

Never thought about it like that. Carry on.

[Chude Jideonwo]

Everybody assumes that being an entrepreneur means you're the big boss. I am the one who leaves the office latest. Don't take my offer again. I always say ask people that work with me. I get to the office. So here's how my day typically works. I don't work from the office on Mondays. I generally avoid it. Since I started my business in 2016, we've never worked from the office on Monday. Like will I tell the team when you join? I'll tell you Monday, work from home. I have a personal bias to Monday. I feel like people wake up on Sunday, go to church. Because I used to have a very busy Sunday. You know, go to church, get back from church like five or six. And before I even get time to relax, it's Monday and I didn't like it. It meant that I get into the week and I study psychology by the way. So it meant that psychologically I get into the week and I'm already disliking my week. Do you understand? I'm already disliking how the week is going because I'm thinking to myself that Monday is the first day of the week and I'm already feeling like this pressure. So you know what I started to do when I started my business? I took out Monday. I said work from home on Monday. So that that way the pressure of starting the week on a good note is higher. So I'm there to get When I sleep on a Sunday, I'm not pressured. I want to restart to the Monday. I wake up and just get on my laptop. I start. So that's why I started working. That's my first day of the week. By Tuesday, which is our first day of the day in the office. We're back in the office now. Right now I resume Tuesdays in Red because Red has a two day walk from the office week. So I resume Tuesdays in the morning at Red because there's always work to be done at the people company. I will go to company at 4:30 or 4 I'll be rushing Connected Minds Podcast

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