atinuke onifade

300-500L on recess! • Mechanical Engineering • University of Ibadan • 2027 Graduate

atinuke is not another failing genius.

I first noticed Atinuke after she had joined recess! on Telegram, in December 2023.

She engaged with a post in the comments with a deeply frustrated tone that made her brilliance painfully obvious, narrating how her fruitless diligence in university was sabotaging her sense of self earned from her consistently high performance in secondary school.

Having high personal standards she was failing to meet, paired with a high level of personal motivation, meant she spent every day hating both school and the circumstances she could not understand that quietly shaped her academic performance in university.

The post she engaged with was a question on whether Ewa Agoyin & Dodo should be compulsory in her school.

Her answer? Hell no:

"I want it to be so scarce that only people like me who have it so hard can get it. It's the holy grail. I want it first, I want it most and I want to use it first."

Stick around for her full statement.

Of course I paid attention. She was only in 100L then, but her raw, focused energy pierced through the noise of internet fun-and-games engagement to deliver the weight of her ambition to me. She distinguished herself as one of us who value precision, wisdom and truth.

She signalled her appetite for excellence, and in only a few semesters, proved she was not all talk, and that she has what it takes to move faster, follow instructions and take ownership of her destiny without looking at uche's face.

I don't know about you, but that's someone I want on my team, and don't want to compete against.

In this story, you'll see why Atinuke's own drive multiplied by Ewa Agoyin & Dodo has brought her the same recess! I've experienced since my time in school.

I'm super proud to feature her story here (and first) to inspire students in each generation as a shining example of our mission to reconnect raw African talent to our economy. 🌞

"This program I was selected for was also one of the direct benefits of using the principles in the book."

Q1: how did you find recess!?

*tells her story of finding recess (verb)*

on recess! (us):

"I can’t really remember how I found the brand to be honest. I was pretty active on twitter then and I used to go down rabbit holes of random stuff, so this was just one of it. I thought the book was funny so I bought a chapter, then two, borrowed the whole book and somehow I now own it."

So our marketing worked to create the right time & chance for us to meet.

Q2: why did you buy in?

"I borrowed Ewa Agoyin and Dodo at a point where I was honestly not doing well in school and I knew it,

because by the end of my 200 level second semester my results were just bad, like I had one A, a bunch of Cs, a D, maybe one or two Bs, and it didn’t even feel like I could recover from that because I had been trying but nothing was really changing,

so I decided that something had to give and that was when I got the book."

conversation with Atinuke when she just started the borrower to owner plan after 200L.

Q3: and you trusted the Ewa Agoyin & Dodo recipe?

"I didn’t just read it once and move on, I read it over and over again,

I even wrote things down and tried to actually follow what it was saying even when it felt stressful and exhausting because I was basically forcing myself into a completely different system, like trying to sleep properly, wake up on time, plan my semester, get to class early, actually open my books and read,

and at that point it didn’t even feel like it was working because there were no results yet and I was even going through a lot at the time so everything just felt overwhelming, but I kept showing up anyway and somewhere along the line something started changing."

PS: During this transition, Atinuke reached out to me because she was getting exhausted and even ill (very diligent, I tell you). I took the opportunity to remind her that we're named recess! as the space for play, and this space is THE point, guiding her to take her time to play DAILY to refill her Energy tank (from Chapters 3 & 12).

Books are great for scale, but I consider human feedback like this a necessary accompaniment with Education Technology.

Q4: how did the changes feel?

"I found myself paying more attention in class, asking questions even when I felt like I would sound stupid, sitting with people who were more serious about school, and just trying in general,

and there was this part in the book that said, 'you paid for this school, so ask questions', and that honestly stuck with me because it helped me get over that fear,

and then when results for 300 level first semester came out I was actually shocked because I had seven As, and that had never happened to me before."

Q5: has it truly made you THE happier student?

"It wasn’t even just about the grades,

it was the fact that I started enjoying school more, things began to make sense, I wasn’t as scared of tests anymore, and I started becoming that person I always wanted to be academically and also someone people could rely on,

someone that could actually handle work and understand what was going on, and since then I’ve kept going back to the book every semester as a reset because I know it works for me, and now I’m in my final year still using it,

so when I say the book helped me I mean it actually changed how I approached school and that ended up changing my results too as a by product. I’m just glad I can rest in school now and still kill it."

Q6: how likely are you to become our ambassador on your campus?

her complete statement on Telegram in 100L:

"I want it to be so scarce that only people like me who have it so hard can get it. It's the holy grail. I want it first, I want it most and I want to use it first.

Then when I become like my old self or even better, I know that I would definitely help others. How do you know this? Because even when I was the best student, I took pride in helping my juniors. So, yes."

today?

"There’s a certain drive that my pain and story has afforded me and not everyone has it. Not everyone will honour it.

I have informally told people about the book, shared my journey with them and all and they were impressed

but the next thing that pops out of their mouth is, 'please, send it to me',

and this is coming from [people] that I’d beg a million times to apply for an opportunity that literally could change their lives. They would never read it even if I shared it and gave them money on top of all that.

I would become an ambassador if I could."

Since selling Ewa Agoyin & Dodo as a student in 2019, I've learned that only people smarter than the status quo actually buy and trust it. They're the only ones willing to bet on themselves, and have the humility to accept wisdom as their force multiplier. The rest just can't catch up.

I assured her that Ewa Agoyin & Dodo is not for everyone; as a book it's a cult-classic, and as a mindset it's for the outliers who run the world. The few who are looking for the same results, will reach out the same way she did, scratching, biting and bleeding; focused on their solitary goal and searching out their purpose. As an ambassador, you'll know immediately, and they'll prove themselves gradually with their actions.

Also the best time to get it is in 200L, after getting tired of making expensive mistakes and living without precision. That's the best possible time to learn systems thinking and apply it to see tangible results.

The less semesters a student has left, the more concrete everything gets: from their thinking to their CGPA. People have procrastinated getting it until graduation and come back to me with regrets or final exam desperation.

Atinuke started in 200L, saw results after 1 semester, and is now a badass senior.

(Naturally, she's not satisfied and wants to do much more. My exact feelings on ikigai.)

Are you one of us?

Show me your resolve.

connect with Engr. Atinuke