“It's the audacity for me. Why do you have the audacity to think you can do it?”
A friend asked me this question during a phone call to celebrate us becoming Sunday Times Bestsellers for a second time with our new book, The Wealth Habit.
As soon as she asked the question, I smiled because I recognised where it was coming from.
When you look up the meaning of the word ‘audacity', it means a willingness to take bold risks.
As children, we were born to be creative and take risks, but somewhere along our journeys to adulthood, we lose a part of our creative identity.
When I reflected on whether to write this blog post, I realised that I've been on a journey of rediscovering my inner child and that I should write it because you may also be on that journey.
I'm at a stage of life now where I don't listen to people who tell me I can't do something.
That attitude or energy came from somewhere, and I'd like to explore that more deeply today.
Note, this post is a personal reflection.
I'm writing it as it comes to me, so hopefully, it speaks to you.
More importantly, I think you'll need audacity for the future we are entering.
Before I dive into the why I have the audacity, let's begin with some context.
A Brief Look at Where It Began
The start of my life began in Nigeria, and we never lived in a home we actually owned.
We rented and moved a lot because my parents were always in search of work or opportunity.
We came from very humble beginnings, and the best hope I had as a teenager before the age of 14 was to go to school and see what happens.
At 14 in the late 90s, we emigrated to the UK, and our situation got comparatively worse.
With very little money, my parents worked 3 jobs each, we could barely even rent a place, and life felt good when we ended up renting a council flat in East London.
But deep down, the more I looked around this country, the more I saw what was possible for others. The question was, why wasn't it possible for us?
We had many battles to fight first: residency, new culture, lack of money, racism, fitting in, shame, etc.
But, even with these challenges, my parents gradually overcame the shame of leaving the life they'd built up to work as cleaners, washing dishes, stacking shelves, etc.
They didn't want anyone to know they did these jobs, but it is all they had or could get.
Writing about it now actually made me teary because they sacrificed so much because they believed their children would have a better future in the UK.
In addition to their low-paid jobs (where some bosses took advantage of them), they even started all kinds of small businesses.
Some made money, and some didn't.
All of this meant they had little to no time for us (and themselves) because they were always working from one job to another.
Where Things Are Now
I've had to fight my way up.
We all judge success or progress differently, so these may not be important to you, but it has meant a lot to me to achieve certain life milestones given where I began:
- I passed my driving test first time. Life began for me here at 17 with my first car, a Fiat Punto.
- Got into City, University of London, through clearing and achieved a First Class honours degree in BSc Economics & Accountancy.
- Trained for 3 years with a top 10 accounting firm and passed the tough ACA exams first time and became a Chartered Accountant. A proud day.
- Dreamt of going, applied and got in to do my MBA at the University of Cambridge, Judge Business School.
- Worked in the investment business for 14 years and eventually became a CFO (a dream) from a trainee, across different companies.
- Started and didn't succeed at various side hustles, learning a lot and kept trying.
- Got married to Mary (a dream) and also became a present dad to our two sons (a life promotion).
- Together, we achieved Financial Independence at 34, including being mortgage-free in 7 years. Financial destiny changed forever.
- Started The Humble Penny to help others with their finances. Over 5 million people have been helped so far.
- Started Financial Joy Academy to help Dream Makers take action to achieve financial freedom.
- Became a Non-Executive Director, using my skills to help people in financially vulnerable circumstances.
- Became a published author of 2x Sunday Times Bestselling books, Financial Joy and The Wealth Habit.
- Won various awards, including ‘Entrepreneur Senior Leader of the Year', ‘Best Investing Book', etc
- Happily married for 15 years and counting.
Nothing has been handed to me; I've had to dream of them and gradually make them happen. This isn't a brag, it's for context.
Back to our friend, she asked the question with this background of progress so far…
Why Do You Have The Audacity?
Here is what comes to mind as I reflected on this question and considered my personal journey:
1. No One Has a Monopoly On the Future
I still remember The Shard in London being built. During my train journeys to work, whenever we'd arrive at London Bridge, I'd look at this magnificent building taking shape.
It dawned on me that a lot of the London we see today began in people's imaginations.
They had to think of how to plan the city, design the roads, buildings, etc.
Although most of London's land has been taken up, the future is like empty fertile ground waiting for us to build on it.
And you know the best part? No one has a monopoly on it.
You and I can make decisions today that have the power to change the direction of the future.
This idea gets me very excited because it makes me wonder, if I could create a version of the future, what version would I create?
It makes me dream big even when others are afraid of the future.
2. The Power of 1% Changes
We cover this one extensively in chapter 2 of The Wealth Habit, “The 1% Rule: Tiny Adjustments, Massive Wealth”, and the neuroscience behind it.
Growing up, I was conditioned to think of success = big changes.
However, I've learned to appreciate the compounding power of 1% changes.
Whenever I think of a big goal, rather than get overwhelmed by it, I think to myself:
- could I do 1% of it today?
- what if I improved from yesterday by 1% today?
- imagine if I did 1%, Mary did 1%, and a team member did 1%, we'd be way ahead.
This idea of getting 1% better started to help me see big goals as made up of small, easy 1% changes.
Take becoming a Sunday Times Bestseller. I came up with a series of 1% improvements:
- write a blog post weekly
- comment on LinkedIn daily
- talk to a stranger about the book
- ask someone in a comment if they've bought the book
- make a YouTube video and give value to people, and mention the book, etc.
We easily had at least 200 combinations of these 1% improvements over the 2 months building up to the book launch and hundreds more in the months before that.
When you add up the compounding effect of these small changes, it makes an audacious goal more possible.
3. Challenge + Deadline? Yes, Please.
I've found that I perform best when I am working towards a deadline.
Parkinson's Law states that work expands to fill the time available for its completion. When I limit the time to achieve something, I make the outcome happen faster.
This is a simple mind trick, but it works.
Want something to happen? Give it a deadline.
Most people run away from deadlines, but I run towards them.
4. Never Settling
We were invited to a podcast recently, and one of the questions we were asked was:
“What is one thing about your partner that still surprises you — good or bad?”
I asked my wife (Mary) what her response would be when she thinks about me as her husband, her answer surprised me.
She said:
“You never settle, even when things are going well, and that mindset has taken us very far as a family”.
I remember thinking, Wow! I didn't even know I did that.
You learn so much about yourself when you ask others what they see in you.
It reminds me of when I wanted to start The Humble Penny, and I didn't know if I had what it took, and I asked my brother what my strengths were.
Without wavering, he said:
“Focus. You know how to focus on one thing and just go for it. Remember when you wanted your first car, the Fiat Punto. You'd paste pictures about it on the wall to visualise it”.
Back to the point on never settling, when I reflect deeply on it, I realise that what I like is a feeling of personal growth. I never want to feel like I'm stagnating in life.
Progress (in any life dimension, rather than endless conquest), no matter how small, keeps me going.
Recommended: Financial Joy vs The Wealth Habit
5. Show Our Children What's Possible
Although my parents might not have realised it, whenever they took some risk to start a business or do something enterprising, they were teaching my siblings and me.
So these days, whenever I want to aim for something bold, I often ask myself, what would our children learn from this? How would I grow from doing this?
Doing stuff that stretches me is one way of indirectly opening the minds of our children to endless possibilities.
We also make a point of getting them involved in the smallest of things.
For example, they helped to offer their ideas on the book cover design, choice of colours, and they even acted as accountability partners checking in weekly to see if we're hitting the milestones set.
6. Take Others Along
Since Mary and I made a video years ago sharing how we became mortgage free in 7 years, a number of other people bought into the vision and have achieved mortgage freedom.
Some did it in 10 years, some in 8 years, some in 15 years and so on.
But, a key thing to note is that a lot of these people needed someone they could relate to for them to say “if they can do it, I can do it, too!”.
Many of them have written us emails to tell us what an instrumental role we've played on their journey to success and what it has unlocked for their families.
The same thing applies to other goals that require audacity.
Take becoming Sunday Times Bestsellers for a second time with a second book, as Black authors.
Yes, it matters that we're Black authors. The publishing industry is hard, and it's even harder for Black authors.
We were the first ever couple in the UK to become Sunday Times Bestsellers, not once but twice in a row.
This is significant because, as Black authors, firstly, it's pretty rare to make the list.
Now, we've shown more people (no matter your background) that it is possible, and this will open doors for more people.
We did it because of you and others, demonstrating the compounding power of community (see chapter 18 of The Wealth Habit).
7. God Has a Design
We've been watching House of David recently on Prime, and in an epic scene, David is about to fight Goliath, and Samuel blesses him by saying, “may you be filled with the courage of Moses and the strength of Samson”.
Something about that spoke to me personally.
In the series, Mychal (Michal), the daughter of King Saul, serves as a pivotal character who deeply believes in David's divine destiny, often acting as a bridge between him and the realisation of God’s design.
Mychal actively encourages David to embrace his role as the future king, even when he feels overwhelmed or unworthy.
In my everyday world, this speaks to making sure that whatever we're working on is presented to God, and if it's part of His will, he will make our paths straight.
Most people reading this likely don't believe God has a design; however, this belief has been instrumental in helping me to fight for the future (fighting all kinds of “Goliaths”) by faith, even when it seems impossible.
God has a design, and it's always to His glory.
8. Supportive Family, Friends and Mentors
It helps massively to have a supportive spouse; in my case, Mary was also fully aligned with the mission and goal we had.
My family members mostly have a growth mindset, and they help in so many practical ways, e.g. childcare whenever we had to go on a podcast, radio, etc.
Friends (especially a handful) cheer us on and step in whenever family are unable to help.
Mentors remind us of the bigger picture.
All this together provides a system of encouragement and accountability, especially on days when we're tired or start to lose belief.
Recommended: How to Make Work Optional In Every Decade of Your Life
9. Experimental Mindset
When I was at college, I liked Chemistry, but couldn't see how it would help my future career.
Looking back on it now, it helped to shape what has become an experimental mindset.
Most people have a fear of failing at things, and I've certainly experienced that myself.
However, over time, the more I've tried things and learned from others, the more I've come to realise that there is never any failure, even if things don't work out.
I now see everything (small and big) as simple experiments. Some will work out, others will provide opportunities to learn and improve.
This has helped me to reduce that build in fear of failure that we've been conditioned to embrace as adults.
When I watch our children play today, they have that experimental mindset.
I believe every adult needs to rediscover it deep within.
10. T.H.I.N.K B.I.G
We've been reading a book called “You Have a Brain” by Dr Ben Carson, with our children, and highly recommend it.
A central message of the book is T.H.I.N.K. B.I.G., an acronym that stands for Talent, Honesty, Insight, Niceness, Knowledge, Books, In-depth learning, and God, designed to help readers achieve their potential.
Whenever I feel like something (e.g. a goal, life challenge or life vision) is way bigger than me, I remember to THINK BIG.
The ‘Insight', ‘Knowledge', ‘Books' and ‘In-depth Learning' aspects of THINK BIG remind me that I have agency (and so do you!) and can find answers to things that others might miss simply by directing my time away from distractions.
If ever you're in doubt about your potential or fear creeps in, THINK BIG. Dive deeper into each element, and you'll find your way.
Conclusion
I hope you've enjoyed reading my reflections on this topic.
It's my belief that we'll all need audacity to enter and thrive in the future that we're going into right now with AI disruption, global uncertainty, war, etc.
That audacity could come from you choosing a simpler lifestyle, becoming debt-free, relocating somewhere new, starting or growing a business, investing more aggressively, learning new skills, working fewer hours and prioritising your health, forming better relationships, preparing better for retirement, etc.
Essentially, you need audacity to proceed when most people retreat.
Whatever your next step is, I hope this post has encouraged you and given you a sense of self-belief, purpose and possibility.
If I can help on that journey, feel free to get in touch. Details are below.
More resources to help you live by design and make your dreams happen:
- Book a 121 Power Hour and get some coaching
- Read The Wealth Habit: Small Changes That Will Make You Rich
- Read Financial Joy: Banish Debt, Grow Your Money and Unlock Financial Freedom
- Join Financial Joy Academy: Classes, Coaching, Accountability Partnerships, Community, Lunchtime Clubs, etc.
♻️ Thank you for reading this post and helping our work progress. Please share this post with others on WhatsApp or via email 😊.
What aspect of this post spoke to you personally? Got any questions about anything above or your own current situation? Comment below.
As always, in all things, be thankful and seek joy.
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