Edomwonyi Osariemen, the founder of IGryt Cafe—a prominent cafeteria brand that evolved from a modest bread-and-toast enterprise into a multi-sector venture—is one that I have always admired for his audaciousness and energy with which he executes what he sets out to do. And if you are in the University of Benin community and you look through same lenses as I do, you would totally agree with me that he is an authority on this topic. Now let’s cut the long preamble and dive straight into the conversation as you read what the winner of the MTN Car Competition 2025 has to say about Audacity in this article.

Key Takeaways from the Conversation

1. Action Precedes Clarity: You don’t need to see the entire staircase to take the first step; vision expands as you execute.
2. Environment Shapes Drive: Surrounding yourself with bold executors accelerates your personal capacity for risk and growth.
3. Strategic Audacity Wins: You can be audacious, but be audaciously wrong.
4. Adaptability Preserves Success: True audacity includes the humility to adapt when initial assumptions fail.

 

Defining Audacity and the Power of Incremental Steps

To kick off our conversation, how do you define audacity in your own words, and do you consider yourself an audacious person?

Audacity is fundamentally the ability and willingness to try new things, regardless of the circumstances, doubts, or potential stigma surrounding them. Looking back, I consider myself audacious because I have always possessed an inner drive to attempt more. We started very small, selling bread and toast. And today we are expanding into new sectors and controlling more stages of production. It is an ongoing evolution where each bold move reveals the next horizon.

Did you have the entire roadmap mapped out five years ago, or did the clarity come after taking that very first step?

Absolutely not; clarity comes through action. I often use the analogy of climbing a tree: the higher you climb, the higher and farther you are able to see. When you start at the bottom, your vision is limited to the immediate task—like buying raw ingredients. But once you solve that immediate problem and take a step forward, the next step becomes clear. Audacity allows you to take control of more steps in your production—moving from buying to producing, and ultimately to scaling. As you get closer to your destination, the beauty and structure of the process unfold.

Small Beginnings (Bread & Toast) ➔ Solve Immediate Problems ➔ Climb Higher ➔ Wider Vision

Effect of Environment and Mentors in Learning Audacity

Is audacity something people are born with, or can it be cultivated over time?

While some people are naturally extroverted or bold, audacity can undoubtedly be learned. You learn it by repeatedly putting yourself in challenging environments, attempting new ideas, and surrounding yourself with people who are also pushing boundaries.

There is a popular saying that if you sit in a room with four fools, you have not counted properly, there are five. That also applies to audaciousness, if you sit in a room with four audacious people, you will inevitably become the fifth. Being in an environment where others are constantly executing big ideas forces you to adjust past mistakes and keep moving forward. In all you do, remember to never give up.

Who are the mentors or figures that have shaped your audacious mindset in business and media?

I study leaders across different fields:

1. Spiritual Leaders: I majorly listen to Apst. Joshua Selman, as he is a man that drives me so much.
2. Business Leaders: I closely study Nigerian industrialists like Aliko Dangote for local execution and scale, as well as global figures like Jeff Bezos for his relentless customer focus and determination.
3. Media Strategists: In today’s digital landscape, you cannot ignore media. I heavily study creators like Jimmy (MrBeast) and Mrwhosetheboss. Jimmy’s focus is extraordinary—he analyzes every single second of a video, adjusting pacing, micro camera movements, and script hooks to ensure viewers stay engaged from start to finish. 

These are men that pay so much attention to details, details of spiritual life and development, details in business, and details in their content whatever detail, and to me listening to these men reinforces that audaciousness to wake up and go do something new and different everyday that brings me closer to my dreams. 

Winning the MTN Car Award

You won the MTN Car Award. Can you walk us through the backstory and how your audacious approach made that victory possible?

The day before I entered, I was physically exhausted, weak, and I rode my bicycle to deliver something at Buka just for me to step in and out and find out that my bicycle was gone. And that was the day I learnt about the MTN car competition. The following day I happened to pass by the venue and decided to stay behind for the event, where MTN once again made an announcement about the car competition. Instead of just casually participating, I immediately asked the organizers for the exact criteria and steps required to win.

They explained that victory depended on mobile app adoption and usage. And that there were a number of transactions alongside a number phone recharges required to win.

Here is how I approached it:

1. Restructuring Operations: I went straight back to my shops and immediately switched all payment collections and accounts to the designated mobile app(Momo).
2. Transactions: I got my coworkers and we began making transactions back and forth even as I began recharging random contacts. It was crazy man!
3. Verifying the Formula: I reached out to contacts and past winners in other states to verify if they actually won the car and how high the transaction thresholds were and what strategies had worked for them. Remember that all these happened after I got started.
4. Eliminating Bottlenecks: When we hit daily transaction limits for tier one accounts I told myself that most likely others must have hit this limit and stopped. So I decided to go a step further reaching out to the managers to activate the next tier of my account. We stayed up until late at night conducting transactions back and forth to clear the highest tiers.
5. Showing Up: On the day of the announcement, despite feeling completely drained, I chose to show up because there was nothing to lose. I showed up with the intent to enjoy the event and hope for the best.

When they called out the numbers and announced me as the winner, it was an incredible feeling. It proved that when you break down a goal into clear steps and execute without holding back, audacity yields tangible results.

The Pitfalls of Audacity—Overstretching, Failures, and Adaptability

To every advantage, there is a disadvantage. What are the potential downsides of being overly bold, and have you experienced them firsthand?

The biggest danger of audacity is overstretching yourself. When you have high confidence, you tend to think you can enter every sector simultaneously—logistics, production, retail, and more. In our business, we faced severe challenges with delivery and logistics because we were trying to make our services both fast and highly affordable. I quickly learned a hard economic lesson: you cannot be cheap, fast, and sustainable all at once. You have to choose your focus.

How did you handle that setback, and what does it teach us about adaptability?

It taught me that audacity without adaptability is dangerous. When a business model or pricing structure is not working, you must have the courage to adjust your prices and strategy rather than stubbornly holding onto an unsustainable vision.

Trait	Rigid Audacity	Adaptable Audacity
Approach to Challenges	Forces an unsustainable model	Adjusts tactics based on reality
Pricing & Value	Tries to be fast, cheap, and perfect all at once	Balances quality, speed, and cash flow
Focus	Ego-driven goals	Customer-driven needs

Does changing your business model mean you are betraying your original “Why”?

Not at all. You must realize that you do not create products or content for yourself; you create them for your customers. As times change, customer demands evolve, and your higher purpose must develop alongside them. If growing your business requires transitioning from a small office setup to a full retail shop or adjusting your service model, your “Why” must evolve to support that growth.  

A Conversation on Leadership and Balance

A Conversation on Loving People: An Interview on Authentic Connection, Networking, and Leadership

A Conversation on Faith and Finance

Conversation On Clarity As A Multi-Talented Entrepreneur

Conclusion

What do you have to say to people who want to incorporate more audacity into their daily lives and careers?

What I am about to say might be contrary to what people expect, “Be audacious about the information you consume and about changing your mindset.” Anchor your audacity in deep knowledge. Consume information relentlessly and study those who have successfully walked the path before you. Audacity without knowledge is just reckless gambling. You can be audacious, but be audaciously wrong.

 

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