How do students truly master subjects?

I often play strange thought games with myself while walking and watching children.

I ask: What are the odds that this child could one day become a billionaire? Or the president of their country?

Wherever you are in a rich city, a rural village, or anywhere in between, the odds are never truly zero.

There’s always a chance, even a small one, that a child can become anything they dream of.

But for that future to become reality, it’s no coincidence.

They need the capacity to recognize and seize opportunities and that starts with preparation.

Opportunities are hard to predict. But in my experience, they’re what most often make the difference between someone who rises and someone who doesn’t.

And no, I’m not talking about luck.

The kind of opportunity I mean only shows up when you're ready to catch it. Or maybe it’s more accurate to say: you only recognize opportunity when you’re prepared to act on it.

So… how do you get ready? In my view, it takes three things:

1. Mindset: Dream Big
   
   The kind of mindset that dares to imagine more that sees beyond your current environment, and believes another life is possible.

2. Hunger: Want It Badly
   
   A deep, internal fire. Not just vague ambition, but the kind of desire that fuels persistence even when things get hard, and they will.

3. Skills: Learn & Master What Matters
   
   Not just passing exams, but mastering tools and knowledge that can actually change your life. Skills in tech, business, communication, and critical thinking, the ones that unlock doors.

These three are the foundation. If a child has them, they’ll start to notice opportunities. And more importantly, they’ll know how to act when the moment comes.

In Africa, we’re not short on dreams or determination. But getting the skills? That’s the hard part.

Why?

Because education from primary school to university is broken.

Even entrepreneurship and social skills are barely taught, or poorly taught.

This broken system is one of the biggest reasons for the absurd gap in African progress and productivity.

That’s why I want to work on education in Africa, especially at the university level. Because that’s the exact moment we lose most of the continent’s talent. Smart young people leave to study abroad, trying to get the skills they need. And even when a few return, integration is hard. Collaboration is harder. They often can’t give their best.

We need a better education system, and we need to build the best universities in the world.

I’m not different from the children I watch and wonder about. I’m one of them.

I have a big dream.

I want it badly.

I want to build that university.

But I don’t yet have all the skills. So I’m working on that.

My Plan

I’ll run a series of learning experiments to teach myself what I need — especially around how people truly master things.

Whether it’s engineering, business, or anything else, mastery is the foundation.

It’s not enough to know the basics. To build something meaningful, you have to know your field deeply.

How can I help young Africans master robotics, industrialization, engineering, artificial intelligence, all the things Africa desperately needs?

That’s what I’m here to figure out.

A university built on mastery.

A future where African youth no longer need to leave to learn.

I’m building that, one experiment at a time.