This is how I found purpose
The last couple of months have been about building.
7 months ago, something happened to me. I couldn’t describe it or explain it to everyone around me, so I locked myself away and disconnected. But a couple of months later, it all started to make sense, and I tried to describe it here.
It was also during this period that I found my purpose. Right after I turned 31, I figured out exactly what I wanted to do with the rest of my life
- telling stories.
Sometime in December 2019, I was scrolling through the internet when a headline stopped me. Jason Njoku, founder of IrokoTV, had spent 13 months isolated in his room building his first product.
I was still figuring out a lot of things back then.
I asked myself - how does a man lock himself away like that? How does he know it’s going to work? Wasn’t he afraid of going broke, of failing, of never figuring it out? But IrokoTV was already a thing by then, so I kept scrolling with one thought in my head: whenever I know exactly what I want to do, I’ll do what Jason did. I’ll lock myself away for as long as it takes and build it.
That’s the story of how my 2026 started.
I’ve never been so sure, so afraid, and so excited about anything in my life
as much as I am about this.
There’s a detail from my kidnapping I never got to share here - you can read the full story in the previous issue. But what I will tell you is this: a week after I had conceptualized PTBCI, I started to doubt myself. As is my nature, I gave in to those doubts and began to shut the idea down. I told myself it was too much work.
Then I got kidnapped. I thought I was going to be killed. I said my final prayers. But somehow, I saw the sun rise the following morning, and that’s when I knew - there was more to this. I had a mission to fulfil. God had just walked me through my Jonah experience.
So I started building.
In November, I made the very first announcement,
and spent all of December working.
Proverbs 19:21
“Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.”
What I’m about to share was supposed to happen in January. But with how much we’ve built now and how much we know, announcing then would have been premature.
For every breakthrough, there was always another way to make things better. That was when I realised the motion, then I remembered Jason Njoku, and I knew what I had to do. Lock myself in, until I figure this out. Also, no distractions, so I cut my hair.
And when I say we, I mean we. I have a partner, and PTBCI has a Director of Operations.
We spent the last few months going back and forth on ideas, putting in the needed work, sacrificing time, energy, and resources, and holding the brush as steady as possible just so the outcome would be a masterpiece.
But you will meet him in due time.
Protect The Boy Child Initiative
One of the most painful things I see today is that boys and young men are growing up without real role models - lost, misguided, or simply with no sense of direction. Something has shifted, and the gap between the men we need and the men being raised is widening every day. PTBCI exists to close that gap - across age groups, across generations.
Our mission is to Mentor, Educate, and Nurture.
One thing kept coming up as we dug deeper into this work - a truth so simple it’s almost easy to miss.
The final stage of becoming a man is understanding your father.
In July of 2025, 1 had a conversation with a couple of gentlemen, where we needed to take a step back and exhale. For well over a year after that, I sat with a thought -
How many men had so much to say but didn’t have the avenue to because they didn’t understand what the problem was, and no one was asking the right questions. It bothered me.
That’s what led us here.
#closethegap - our first official campaign, is a documentary about real men, with real stories, in the places they call home. We strongly believe that you can’t provide a solution without first knowing the problem, and you can’t close a gap you haven’t first been honest about. In doing this, I figured one thing out.
Every Man Has An Inner Child … Unhealed.
Follow us on our socials and read more here - ptbci.substack.com (they have something they want to say to you 😉 )
This is beautiful! Please don't stop. You are about to heal hearts
Now I understand.
Such an inspiration. Well done Adekunle.