Coach AK: My path hasn’t exactly been linear. I’m a first-generation Nigerian, my parents came to America in 1976. They expected me to be a lawyer, a doctor, or one of those particular fields. For me though, I wasn’t the best student because I always had trouble finding my place when I grew up. I grew up in Colorado, a place where people didn’t look like me, except for my twin brother and sister, I’m a triplet. It was just us. In my home, it was very Nigerian but the moment I stepped outside it was a completely different world. I wasn’t “Nigerian enough” or “Black enough”. I was always playing that little divide. So, I’ve always had to be able to navigate in different worlds and be flexible.
I got into the University of Oregon because of sports. It was a kind of my gateway to get school paid for. I was one of those weird kids. I was an athlete but I was also a thespian. I did acting and digital design. And people would ask, “Why are you doing all these weird voice classes?”
Michelle: Stereotypes of athletes are far from theatre kids.
(both laugh)
Coach AK: Yea, I was doing drama performances. It really contributed to my platform of feeling comfortable in my own skin. Fast forward 15 years later (I’m aging myself), those same skill sets allowed me to feel comfortable on a stage to speak. So you never really realize the things that you’re developing at an early age, that can actually transition to something later on. As an athlete, it was really good because of the network and it taught me about the life lessons you gain from high-level athletics – delayed gratification, having a vision, a mindset.
Michelle: Professional development is a hot topic and everybody wants to be competitive against their counterparts in the market, how do you stay centered, what are the motivators that keep you aligned to your goals and make power moves professionally across all these industries?
Coach AK: What allowed me to be grounded is hitting rock bottom. I was doing this big project with the U.S. government and I actually ended up losing everything. I was homeless. Because of those moments, it makes you realize what’s really important and valuable. The problem is how we define success. We define success based on what we do between the hours of 9 to 5, what we do as a profession. But if you were to ask someone what was the most important thing to them, their job or profession, isn’t even a top 5 or top 10. So why is it that we identify success based on these metrics that are not even on your list? We need to change the narrative, because people are feeling lost.