Tosin Taiwo

At 19, Jola Ayeye was convinced she would never make it. She guessed 80% of a university exam, failed the module, and told Durham: even if I do a resit, I will fail again. Today she is the co-creator of I Said What I Said, one of Africa's most beloved podcasts, with sold-out shows in Lagos, London and New York. In this episode of Growth Through Failure, she shares exactly how she found her way out. If you have ever felt stuck, this one could show you the door. TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 Intro 01:42 The Failure Story 09:56 What Emotions Were You Feeling? 14:31 What Were Your Strategies 28:19 Who Were The Protagonists in Your Story? 40:35 Give Us A Summary of What You Do 42:02 Three Key Takeaways 49:06 Rapid Fire Questions ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ABOUT GROWTH THROUGH FAILURE: Conversations with leaders who turned setbacks into comebacks. Real stories of resilience, reinvention, and growth. New episodes every other Wednesday. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🔔 Subscribe: http://bit.ly/3WYkMTO 📧 Newsletter: https://www.tosinataiwo.com/#subscribe 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tosinataiwo/ 🐦 X/Twitter: https://x.com/tosinataiwo

He had the track record, the talent, and the proof. Yet, the UK Global Talent Visa still said no. In this episode of 𝗚𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵 𝗧𝗵𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝗙𝗮𝗶𝗹𝘂𝗿𝗲, Ope Aikomo, Paystack’s first employee and a key architect of one of Africa’s landmark fintech exits, unpacks what that rejection revealed about the art of self-presentation and the burden of proof.  It is a lesson on why everyone is in sales, whether they realize it or not. TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 Intro 0:52 The Failure Story 04:35 The Emotional Toll 06:23 Maintaining Focus 10:14 Strategies to Overcome Failure 13:43 How Support Helped Him Grow 16:23 Three Key Takeaways 22:28 Rapid Fire Questions ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ABOUT GROWTH THROUGH FAILURE: Conversations with leaders who turned setbacks into comebacks. Real stories of resilience, reinvention, and growth. New episodes every other Wednesday. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🔔 Subscribe on YT: http://bit.ly/3WYkMTO 📧 Newsletter: https://www.tosinataiwo.com/#subscribe 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tosinataiwo/ 🐦 X/Twitter: https://x.com/tosinataiwo

He directed a critically acclaimed music video for 𝗧𝗶𝘄𝗮 𝗦𝗮𝘃𝗮𝗴𝗲. His next client made 20 people publicly vote on his work. They rejected it. In my latest 𝗚𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵 𝗧𝗵𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝗙𝗮𝗶𝗹𝘂𝗿𝗲 episode, filmmaker 𝗕𝗼𝗹𝗮𝗷𝗶 𝗞𝗲𝗸𝗲𝗿𝗲-𝗘𝗸𝘂𝗻 shares the raw story of professional setback, the danger of ceding creative control, and the split-second decision to give a costly refund, just to protect his name. A powerful conversation for anyone navigating the reality of professional rejection.    TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 Intro 0:50 The Failure Story 07:36 The Emotional Toll 09:40 Maintaining Focus 12:25 Strategies to Overcome Failure 13:15 People that Provided Support 16:20 How Support Helped Him Grow 18:23 Three Key Takeaways 23:31 Rapid Fire Questions ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ABOUT GROWTH THROUGH FAILURE: Conversations with leaders who turned setbacks into comebacks. Real stories of resilience, reinvention, and growth. New episodes every other Wednesday. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🔔 YouTube: http://bit.ly/3WYkMTO 📧 Newsletter: https://www.tosinataiwo.com/#subscribe 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tosinataiwo/ 🐦 X/Twitter: https://x.com/tosinataiwo  

She applied to over 16 of the world's most elite universities, including the Ivy League. The pressure was so immense, it led to a full breakdown in the middle of an airport. In this episode of Growth Through Failure, celebrated artist Bunmi Agusto shares the unfiltered story of navigating academic pressure, rejection, and the mental health toll of chasing a version of success that wasn't her own. This is a powerful story for anyone who has ever felt crushed by expectation and needed to find the courage to define success on their own terms.   TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 Intro 0:36 The Failure Story 04:40 The Emotional Toll 06:00 Maintaining Focus 11:22 Strategies to Overcome Failure 21:00 How Support Helped Her Grow 24:13 Three Key Takeaways 31:39 Rapid Fire Questions ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ABOUT GROWTH THROUGH FAILURE: Conversations with leaders who turned setbacks into comebacks. Real stories of resilience, reinvention, and growth. New episodes every other Wednesday. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🔔 Subscribe: http://bit.ly/3WYkMTO 📧 Newsletter: https://www.tosinataiwo.com/#subscribe 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tosinataiwo/ 🐦 X/Twitter: https://x.com/tosinataiwo

She invested her $5,000 life savings into a Lagos souvenir business. The margins were terrible, the business failed, and the depression that followed lasted three months. In this episode of Growth Through Failure, Oluwalanu Agusto shares the unfiltered story of iHeart Lagos, and how that painful failure became the foundation for her success.   TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 Intro 0:36 The Failure Story 05:53 The Emotional Toll 10:05 Strategies to Overcome 11:09 Who Helped Her 14:22 How Support Contributed to Growth 15:15 Three Key Takeaways 18:02 Rapid Fire Questions ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ABOUT GROWTH THROUGH FAILURE: Conversations with leaders who turned setbacks into comebacks. Real stories of resilience, reinvention, and growth. New episodes every other Wednesday. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🔔 Subscribe on YouTube: http://bit.ly/3WYkMTO 📧 Newsletter: https://www.tosinataiwo.com/#subscribe 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tosinataiwo/ 🐦 X/Twitter: https://x.com/tosinataiwo

He was a rising star in one of Nigeria's top banks, on a path paved by family legacy. After ten years, he had the promotions, the connections, and the secure future. But during the End SARS protests, a values clash forced a choice between his career and his conscience. In this episode of Growth Through Failure, I sit down with Dare Aderinokun (Bosco), the founder of Quacktails. He shares the unfiltered story of walking away from a guaranteed future, the immense pressure from his family, and how he turned a simple hobby into a trailblazing brand that has sold over 500,000 drinks. This is a powerful story about identity, courage, and what it truly means to define success on your own terms. TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 Intro 0:54 The Failure Story 08:16 The Emotional Toll 15:48 Strategies to Overcome 20:25 Maintaining Focus 24:36 Who Helped Him 29:46 Three Key Takeaways 33:43 Rapid Fire Questions ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ABOUT GROWTH THROUGH FAILURE: Conversations with leaders who turned setbacks into comebacks. Real stories of resilience, reinvention, and growth. New episodes every other Wednesday. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🔔 Subscribe: http://bit.ly/3WYkMTO 📧 Newsletter: https://www.tosinataiwo.com/#subscribe 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tosinataiwo/ 🐦 X/Twitter: https://x.com/tosinataiwo #growththroughfailure #entrepreneurship #careerchange #resilience #purpose #business #tosinataiwo

They were promised $150,000 in a prestigious accelerator. After 18 months of gruelling work, they got nothing. But what if that was the best thing that ever happened to them? In this episode of Growth Through Failure, the founders of This Is Us share their story of turning a crushing rejection into a thriving, self-funded business.   TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 Intro 0:45 The Failure Story  09:00 The Emotional Toll 12:36 Strategies to Overcome   16:10 Who Helped Them   25:48 Three Key Takeaways 35:33 Rapid Fire Questions   ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━   ABOUT GROWTH THROUGH FAILURE:   Conversations with leaders who turned setbacks into comebacks. Real stories of resilience, reinvention, and growth. New episodes every other Wednesday.   ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━   🔔 YT Subscribe: http://bit.ly/3WYkMTO 📧 Newsletter: https://www.tosinataiwo.com/#subscribe 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tosinataiwo/ 🐦 X/Twitter: https://x.com/tosinataiwo

His first e-commerce launch was a catastrophe. The site crashed in 5 minutes. The entire marketing budget, wasted. Instead of folding, Prince Nnamdi Ekeh, the man now building the "Amazon of Africa" with Konga, flipped the script. He turned the public failure into a PR win that skyrocketed his brand. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 Intro 2:12 The Failure Story  9:48 The Emotional Toll 11:14 Strategies to Overcome Failure   13:21 Who Helped Him  15:21 How Support Helped Him Grow 17:10 Three Key Takeaways 19:46 Rapid Fire Questions ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ABOUT GROWTH THROUGH FAILURE: Conversations with leaders who turned setbacks into comebacks. Real stories of resilience, reinvention, and growth. New episodes every other Wednesday. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🔔 ΥΤ Subscribe: http://bit.ly/3WYkMTO 📧 Newsletter: https://www.tosinataiwo.com/#subscribe 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tosinataiwo/ 🐦 X/Twitter: https://x.com/tosinataiwo #princennamdiekeh #growththroughfailure  #nigerianentrepreneurs   #tech  #africanbusiness   #entrepreneurship   #tosintaiwo #africa  #konga

His manager stole $100,000 and nearly destroyed his career. This is how Fisayo Fosudo rebuilt everything. Africa's top tech YouTuber shares the painful, untold story of betrayal, police involvement, and the lessons that made him a stronger leader. A masterclass in turning your deepest wound into your greatest strength. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 Intro 2:12 The Failure Story  11:10 The Emotional Toll 12:42 How He Maintained Focus 13:37 Strategies to Overcome   14:44 Who Helped Him  19:05 Three Key Takeaways 24:12 Building His Team 29:45 How to Fix Nigeria 39:27 Rapid Fire Questions ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ABOUT GROWTH THROUGH FAILURE: Conversations with leaders who turned setbacks into comebacks. Real stories of resilience, reinvention, and growth. New episodes every other Wednesday. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🔔 Subscribe: http://bit.ly/3WYkMTO 📧 Newsletter: https://www.tosinataiwo.com/#subscribe 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tosinataiwo/ 🐦 X/Twitter: https://x.com/tosinataiwo

After ten years of building one of Nigeria's most beloved fashion brands, Rukky Ladoja of Dye Lab walked away. In this episode of Growth Through Failure, she shares the painful but powerful story of closing her first brand, Grey, and how that "failure" became the foundation for her globally recognized new venture.   We explore: The emotional struggle of giving up on a decade-long dream. Why she had to unlearn everything to build her new, sustainable brand. The critical lessons she learned about business, identity, and resilience.   Follow me on: tosinataiwo across YouTube LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, and X. Subscribe to my Newsletter: www.tosinataiwo.com

Welcome to the first official episode of Growth Through Failure.   What happens when one of Nigeria's top coders gets rejected by Google? She flips the script. In our debut episode, I sit down with tech entrepreneur and investor Ire Aderinokun (who happens to be my wife!), to discuss her year-long journey of facing rejection from the world's biggest tech companies.   We explore: • The emotional toll of professional rejection. • The power of personal branding to bypass gatekeepers. • Actionable strategies for turning setbacks into career-defining opportunities.   Please share this video and follow for more stories on how leaders turn failure into their greatest strength. Subscribe to my Newsletter: www.tosinataiwo.com    

On Monday, I confessed my fears. Today, it's official. This is the official launch of my new brand; a playbook for anyone looking to understand and build in Africa. After a decade of experience, I'm creating a new narrative beyond despair and hype with an authentic, African-led strategic toolkit. In this video, you'll discover my three pillars: • Africa on Monday: Strategic insights on African news. • Growth Through Failure: Real stories of leadership and resilience. • Gateway Africa: Your partner for market access into and out of the continent. Please share this Podcast and Subscribe for weekly insights. 🙏 Subscribe on YouTube: http://bit.ly/3WYkMTO  ➡️ Subscribe to my Newsletter: www.tosinataiwo.com 📩 Business Inquiries: [email protected]