Segment: Your Life Depends on You - Start focusing on skills.

Summary

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Episode Summary: "Your Life Depends on You – Start Focusing on Skills"

Konnected Minds Podcast with Derrick Abaitey
Date: July 19, 2026
Guest: Ayo Akidikpe

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Episode Overview

In this insightful segment of Konnected Minds, Derrick Abaitey sits down with rising real estate entrepreneur Ayo Akidikpe to explore the transformative power of skills over traditional education, the realities of hustling from the ground up, and why "purpose" might not be as helpful a concept as many think. The conversation dives deep into self-reliance, overcoming hardship, and the mindset shifts necessary for success in Africa's dynamic business landscape.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Harsh Reality of Livelihood and Self-Reliance

• Ayo Akidikpe's Early Financial Struggles
  • Ayo recalls his salary barely covering transport, forcing him to sleep at the office after a week:

    "At a point in my life, my salary was sixty thousand naira. My transport to and fro...was 55,000. My salary comes today. After a week, I'll start sleeping in the office." (00:30)

  • He questions the popular narrative that work is always fulfilling for its own sake:

    "Someone will come to you. Tell you what makes me happy is doing what I do. No, what makes you really happy. Money makes you happy, my brother? 100%." (00:46)

2. First Big Break and the Role of Skill (Not Credentials)

• Breakthrough in Real Estate
  • Ayo emphasizes personal responsibility:

    "Early in my life, I realized my life depended on me." (00:58, 09:58)

  • He shares how making his first sale – 6.4 million naira – transformed his life (00:58).
• On Degrees vs. Value Creation
  • On hiring:

    "None of [the people in my company] have I ever seen their university degree. It's all about value. What can you do? Skill." (01:25)

3. Learning by Doing: The Nonlinear Path to Expertise

• Diverse Experiences and Relentless Learning
  • Ayo did everything from bricklaying to website design, photography, and sales of all kinds:

    "I've always been creative... When I was 13, I just also wanted to be busy. It was not out of... there was no money. Yes, there was not as much." (08:32–09:55)
    "I was a graphics designer. I was a website designer." (09:58)

  • He advocates that young people "do everything first before you overthink." (10:25)
• Hands-on Training and the Power of Sales Skills
  • Story about accidentally landing in a paid copywriting seminar, which ended up being pivotal for his career:

    "One of the courses that changed my life... is the Straight Line by Jordan Bedford [Belfort]. Teaches you a lot about sales... even how to shake people properly." (05:12)

4. Purpose vs. Practice: A New Perspective

• Skepticism About ‘Purpose’
  • Ayo challenges the idea that everyone needs to figure out a single calling:

    "I don't think there's anything like purpose. I think there is something like finding something to do that is worth doing and doing it well and doing it until you are successful in it." (10:48, 11:30)

  • He shares that reading many books about purpose only made things more confusing (12:19).
  • Instead, he believes in focus, diligence, and adaptability:

    "People should focus on what makes them a better person, what makes them money, what makes life sustainable." (12:36)

5. Lessons from a Modest Upbringing

• Ayo describes growing up with a single mother in challenging conditions ("Face me, I slap you" housing in Nigeria) (08:32), and how these humble beginnings shaped his resilience and creativity.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Money and Happiness

  • Ayo Akidikpe: "What makes you really happy. Money makes you happy, my brother? 100%." (00:46)

• On Skills over Credentials

  • Ayo Akidikpe: "None of [my employees] have I ever seen their university degree before. ...It's all about value. What can you do? Skill." (01:25)

• On Purpose

  • Ayo Akidikpe: "I don't think there's anything like purpose. I think there is something like finding something to do that is worth doing and doing it well and doing it until you are successful in it." (10:48)

• On Early Hustle

  • Ayo Akidikpe: "Just do everything first before you overthink." (10:25)

• On Resilience

  • Ayo Akidikpe: "My mother raised us up... we could have just one egg and we divide into three and three of us. It's just fine." (07:31)

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Important Timestamps

• 00:30 — Opening on salary struggles and money as happiness
• 00:58 — Realizing self-reliance and the first life-changing sale
• 01:25 — Skills vs. certificates in hiring employees
• 03:08 – 04:58 — Entry into real estate, deliberate skills training, and attending pivotal seminars
• 08:32 – 09:55 — Growing up in hardship, learning to hustle from a young age
• 10:25 — “Do everything first before you overthink” — Ayo’s advice to youth
• 10:48 – 12:08 — Deconstructing ‘purpose’ vs. focusing on practical skills and value

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Tone & Takeaways

The episode radiates the direct, candid, and pragmatic tone characteristic of both Derrick and Ayo. It’s packed with actionable wisdom, memorable analogies from Nigerian street life, and a refreshingly honest critique of popular self-help dogmas. Listeners are encouraged to take radical responsibility for their growth, experiment widely in their youth, focus on income-generating skills, and not overthink the idea of ‘purpose’—all delivered through the lens of Ayo's compelling personal story.

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Transcript

[Child]

Mom, can you tell me a story?

[Mom]

Sure. Once upon a time, a mom needed a new car.

[Child]

Was she brave?

[Mom]

She was tired mostly. But she went to Carvana.com and found a great car at a great price. No secret treasure map required.

[Child]

Did you have to fight a dragon?

[Mom]

Nope. She bought it 100% online from her bed actually.

[Child]

Was it scary?

[Mom]

Honey, it was as unscary as car buying could be.

[Child]

Did the car have a sunroof?

[Mom]

It did actually.

[Child]

Okay, good story.

[Mom]

Car buying. You'll want to tell stories about. Buy your car today on Carvana. Delivery fees may apply.

[Ayo Akidikpe]

At a point in my life, my salary was sixty thousand naira. My transport to and fro to the office in a month was 55,000. My salary comes today. After a week, I'll start sleeping in the office. Yep. Someone will come to you. Tell you what makes me happy is doing what I do. No, what makes you really happy. Money makes you happy, my brother? 100%.

[Interviewer]

What really made you want to change your life?

[Ayo Akidikpe]

Early in my life, I realized my life depended on me. When I wanted to start real estate development, right, I arranged for six months behind. I left home one day and I told my mom I was not coming back until I make money. But guess what? I was able to make my first sale. It was 6.4 million naira. And that changed everything.

[Interviewer]

You don't have a university degree?

[Ayo Akidikpe]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

The many young people who are screaming of unemployment in this country, what are the options?

[Ayo Akidikpe]

Do they have every person who is currently in my company? None of them have I ever seen their university degree before. None. It's all about value. What can you do? Skill. And the school wants to teach you this.

[Interviewer]

Ayo, what's the biggest mistake you made in real estate?

[Ayo Akidikpe]

There's no mistake. Everything that looks like a mistake is a lesson. Nobody knew me. I usually built from the Internet. We've sold estates from Instagram.

[Mom]

How?

[Ayo Akidikpe]

There are two ways to go about it. Number one is either you.

[Interviewer]

So real estate in Nigeria is set to hit 2.4 trillion USD over the next few years. So I'm speaking to Ayo Akidikpe and he's going to really break it down. This is going to be a masterclass for the people who want to get into real estate in this part of Africa. This conversation is for you. This is going to be truth about Real estate in Nigeria. How do you start? Education is key here. Remember on the 9th of September, Connected Minds live is happening in Kumasi Osecrum. Come with us. The details are going to be in the description and also in the comments. So grab yourself a seat because you don't want to miss out. Now, for my entrepreneurs who are in the community on tribe, we are going to be meeting every week to have conversations and discussions about your business. Now, if you are not on tribe and you want to join, the details are going to be in the description. So click and join and become part of the entrepreneur's community. Stick with me. Hey, Ayo, how are you doing?

[Ayo Akidikpe]

Very well, thank you.

[Interviewer]

You have a very calm spirit. It feels as if I'm still in Ghana. I'm still in Ghana. Doing an interview now. Let's get deep into it. How did you get into real estate?

[Ayo Akidikpe]

So majorly getting into real estate was more of God's vision. You know, I'd done almost everything in my life from when I was 13 until when I was 19. And I just needed the direction and just one thing that I could do well and do it, you know. You know, just be known for it. And I really prayed to God this time when I was in school and God gave me the vision for real estate. And I started just as a realtor, a consultant, an agent on the streets also. I did that for like two, three years. And now I've been in the real estate for at least 10 years.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, 10 years. And you are still below 30. But how does that work?

[Ayo Akidikpe]

I started when I was 19.

[Interviewer]

Okay. At 19. Real estate.

[Ayo Akidikpe]

How? As an agent, a realtor, jump all about try. So the crazy thing is this. For like two, three years of my first life in real estate, I didn't say one thing.

[Interviewer]

And which aspect of real estate is it?

[Ayo Akidikpe]

The residential.

[Interviewer]

So you were selling?

[Ayo Akidikpe]

Yeah, I was trying to market other people's properties. Market lands, market, you know, try to rent houses for people. Yeah.

[Interviewer]

Where did you get that skill to be able to do that? You just jump in there?

[Ayo Akidikpe]

No.

[Interviewer]

Okay.

[Ayo Akidikpe]

I learned. So when I got a vision, what I did was I jumped into different training rooms. In fact, I went to as much trainees to the extent I went into wrong training rooms. One of those times I got into one of the training rooms and I mean, I do attend free trainings, right. One of this time I just go into the training room and everything was organized. Everything was so nice. We went on sea break, apple break, lunch break. I'm like, no, the seminars and trainings that I go for, they're usually free and they don't share food. If they try, they'll probably give you water.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Ayo Akidikpe]

So one of the bricks, I, you know, I, you know, Requested one of the organizers and the person was like, okay, what's the problem? I was like, I think I'm in the wrong place. I mean, they were teaching what sounded like sales. It was a copyright class, right? It sounded like sales. It was more about, you know, you know, about copywriting. Right. And how it has, you know, to do it, you know, having the right copies in terms of marketing the product and all that. And in one of the breaks, I was like, I think I'm in the wrong place. You're like, you think so? Like, you just walked into a wealthy, 000 naira room. I borrowed money to attend that conference. So how is it that I'm walking into a training room that is paid for? It's like, oh, it's fine. You can come the next day and get your certificate for free. And that was it. So I went to so many training rooms, so many trainings. And one of the trainings, one of the courses that changed my life, I always tell people, is the Straight Line by Jordan Bedford. Yeah, the Straight Line by Jordan Bedford teaches you a lot about sales, about tonality, about presentation, very simple things, even how to shake people properly. Like. And trust me, I learned skills there that got my first job in real estate.

[Interviewer]

When we're speaking earlier, you said your path has been skill, skill, skill, and you learning things for yourself, essentially. I think there was a part where you're telling me that you were a bricklayer at some point. Where did that come in? Is that because, you know, family did not have enough money? Were you just trying to survive the hustle culture? What is it?

[Ayo Akidikpe]

So growing up was really tough. In fact, when people ask me, how many schools did I go, like, for primary and for secondary, probably 10. Wow. For primary, probably 10. For secondary, probably like, I'm not 10 again, why? Growing up was very tough and, you know, it was rough. And even for me, I repeated just as one, like three times. Right. And crazy part, is this the Jesus one that I repeated three times. I went to different schools at those three times.

[Interviewer]

But why did you keep changing schools?

[Ayo Akidikpe]

So life was really tough, just let me put it that way. And I grew up with a single mother and at some point, you know, they had to also leave to try to make things happen for us. I wouldn't say we didn't have what we wanted. Yes. I mean, we're always contented. My mother raised us up anyway. I have a sister. She raised us in a way that we just knew how to manage things. We could have one egg. In fact, there Are many things that surely reminds me of now how we could have just one egg and we divide into three and three of us. It's just fine. On days where we don't have so much, we just. Yes, we're just always really fine. But for me, businesses started, I think way before even when I was 13. When I was seven, eight years old, one of my neighbor gifted me a camera. Brand new camera. I lived in a place where we call Face me, I slap you. Do you. Do you guys understand that in Ghana? So face me, I slap you. In Nigeria means you have like. It's like a building where you have a lot of people living.

[Interviewer]

Right, right.

[Ayo Akidikpe]

And it's just one room and it faces their self. And then they have just one kitchen and they have just one toilet. That's how it is. Yeah. So it's like an environment where people in the kitchen, you all cook in the same kitchen. And people would come and probably borrow salts, borrow palm oil. So it's that kind of environment. That's right. And one of my neighbor woke up one day and gifted me a camera, brand new. At 7. We lived in a place called Motion. And I would go on the street then because in Lagos it was. Lagos was quite interesting at the point. People, whenever they want to have parties, they do it on the main road. They just put canopies on the road and have their parties. So it was, you know, I had a camera, so I would just go there, take pictures of people and then print out the film and then give it to people for maybe like 10 error 5 naira. It was just fun. Oh. In fact, those money, what did I use it for? Probably both toy guns and bullets. But it was very interesting. My mother was a tailor who would sell dusters and sell it to school people. That's how I grew up. So when I was 13, at the point, my mom was not around and I just had that desire to make my life, you know, make sense. And I mean all my life I've always been creative. So when I was 13, I just also wanted to be busy. It was not out of. There was no money. Yes, there was not as much.

[Interviewer]

What really made you want to change your life?

[Ayo Akidikpe]

I think early in my life I realized my life depended on me very early in my life. So When I was 13, I mean I did briefly. When I was 15, I did. When I was 15, 16, I did photography. I went to filmmaking institute, I did business consultation, business registration, I did. I was a graphics designer. I was a website designer.

[Interviewer]

You were a middleman as well, for a lot of things.

[Child]

Ah.

[Ayo Akidikpe]

So I did General D. General D in Nigeria is like all this forever living that you go sell people's medications on the streets. I saw drinks on the street. I saw data, I saw the airtime. I did everything. And that's usually my advice to young people. Just do everything first before you overthink.

[Interviewer]

And which point in a person, in a young person's life, should they be trying to do everything?

[Ayo Akidikpe]

There is this thing we were taught growing up that, oh, every one of us has a purpose in life. You need to discover your purpose. And you would realize that people grow to 25, 27, 30, and they're still like, oh, I'm still trying to discover my purpose. People get jobs and they're like, I'm trying to discover my purpose. I don't think there's anything like purpose. I think there is something like finding something to do that is worth doing and doing it well and doing it until you are successful in it. But before you do that, of course you have a lot of time. So do everything. Because it's in the process of doing everything, you find that one thing that makes more sense.

[Interviewer]

So you don't believe in purpose.

[Ayo Akidikpe]

I think purpose is just a word used to confuse people. Because the moment you keep saying purpose, it makes people overthink.

[Interviewer]

But then what is more important than purpose?

[Ayo Akidikpe]

Finding one thing to do. Just finding something worth doing and doing it well. Even the Bible says it set a man diligent in his works, he will do what? Stand before kings. And the same Bible also says, whatever your hands finds to do, do it well. Do it with all thy might. So what is purpose?

[Interviewer]

So when. When. When you had the revelation that you should go into real estate, wouldn't you have said that, oh, this is purpose?

[Ayo Akidikpe]

Yes, but do you know how many books I read on purpose? Okay, okay. And I still did not understand what my purpose was.

[Interviewer]

If I understand what you're saying, then it means that people should focus on what is going to pay them, make them money and give them skills.

[Ayo Akidikpe]

Yes. People should focus on what makes them a better person.

[Interviewer]

Okay.

[Ayo Akidikpe]

What makes them money, what makes life sustainable.

[Child]

Mom, can you tell me a story?

[Mom]

Sure. Once upon a time, a mom needed a new car.

[Child]

Was she brave?

[Mom]

She was tired mostly. But she went to Carvana.com and found a great car at a great price. No secret treasure map required.

[Child]

Did you have to fight a dragon?

[Mom]

Nope. She bought it 100% online from her bed, actually.

[Child]

Was it scary?

[Mom]

Honey, it was as unscary as car buying could be.

[Child]

Did the car have a sunroof?

[Mom]

It did, actually.

[Child]

Okay, good story.

[Mom]

Car buying. You'll want to tell stories about. Buy your car today on Carvana. Delivery fees may apply.