When Talent Isn't Enough: AfricAspire, Luck, and the Truth We Don't Like to Admit

"Success has many fathers," the old saying goes, but rarely do we name luck among them. In 2015, Michael Lewis, author of Moneyball and The Big Short, gave a speech to graduating students at Princeton University that challenged this very omission. He argued that luck plays a much bigger role in success than most of us are willing to admit.

He explained how people pass through the many filters of success, telling themselves stories of merit and determination: "I got into Princeton," "I earned that A," "I worked hard for this job." But the deeper truth is that none of these things are possible without certain starting conditions. Who your parents are. That Princeton exists. That you didn’t have to fight in a war. That you were born into the right body, in the right place, at the right time. That the world was open to you.

It struck a chord with me. Because this is more than theory. It’s something I’ve seen and lived.

AfricAspire is my response to that truth. My attempt to say: if luck shapes lives, then we must help shape luck.

Over the years, I’ve spent time with young people across English-speaking Africa — especially in places where opportunity doesn’t arrive, where potential is rich but resources are poor. And I’ve seen first-hand the kinds of lives they dream of. They are not small dreams. They are not unformed. But they are so often deferred or destroyed by one simple thing: the absence of circumstance.

No connections. No capital. No education that leads anywhere. And yet, these young people possess drive, ideas, generosity, even genius. They are simply missing the invisible scaffolding that holds up so many others in the world.

This scaffolding, in Lewis’s terms, is luck. Or, if you prefer, chance. Or, for some, providence.

Whatever name you give it, it’s clear that many successful people fail to factor this in when they talk about how they got where they are. They write stories about effort and perseverance (important though they are), but they forget the foundations they never had to build themselves.

For me, AfricAspire is about recognising those missing foundations and offering an answer. Not a silver bullet. Not charity in the patronising sense. But a genuine investment in equity. In creating space, structure, mentorship, brand identity, and business tools for young African entrepreneurs whose main deficit is not in ability, but in opportunity.

We aren’t here to hand out luck like lottery tickets. We are here to honour potential. To be part of a rebalancing. A lifting.

My own journey also mirrors some of these tensions. I know what it is to wrestle with the idea of luck versus self-determination. I was raised with the view that God has a will and a plan for each of our lives — and many of our AfricAspire participants and supporters hold tightly to this truth. I respect that deeply.

And yet, I have also learned that systems, governments, and structures often fail to reflect the justice and purpose that belief calls us to embody. That the gap between what should be and what is needs more than prayer. It needs action.

And so I find myself in that space. Holding the tension. With gratitude for the grace that has sustained me, and a fierce determination to help others build their own scaffolding, not just wait for it.

This is what AfricAspire means to me.

And so I return to Michael Lewis’s point: luck is often written out of the narratives of success. But for many young people in Africa, its absence is the whole story. They are not less talented. They are not less determined. They simply haven’t been afforded the same foundation.

This truth doesn’t dismiss faith. In fact, many of the young people AfricAspire exists to serve hold fast to the belief in a personal God — in divine will, purpose, and provision. I honour that. I’ve lived inside those beliefs myself and still carry some of their language within me.

But I also recognise that systems and structures often fail to reflect the justice those beliefs point toward. And that’s where AfricAspire stands — in the tension between what should be and what is. We work not in denial of faith, but in pursuit of its fruit: dignity, opportunity, fairness, and hope made visible.

Whether you see that work as luck redistributed, justice enacted, or a divine calling answered — if you believe in the dignity of untapped potential and the need to level the ground — then AfricAspire is for you.

And for them.

Because some doors were never meant to be locked.

To support, collaborate with, or learn more about AfricAspire, please get in touch or visit www.africaspire.org.uk.

𝐏𝐇𝐈𝐋 𝐀𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐘
𝐅𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝐀𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐀𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐞™, 𝐅𝐮𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐏𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐭 𝟒 𝐁𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐂𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝐂.𝐋.𝐄.𝐀.𝐑.𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐱™
𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝟏𝟓 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬’ 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐔𝐊, 𝐄𝐔, 𝐀𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐀𝐬𝐢𝐚 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐬 — 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲, 𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲.

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