Failing is OK: Brains behind iROKOtv Jason Njoku inspires at TEDxEuston

Nigerian internet entrepreneur and CEO of iROKO Partners, Jason Njoku, addressed a captivated audience at TEDxEuston about the value of failure for entrepreneurs.

The talk stood tall because in the startup world ‘failure’ is a taboo, and a word that most entrepreneurs choose to forget is in their vocabulary.

What with around 400-million entrepreneurs in the startup world, it’s no wonder that the image of success is cultivated to the point where people are taught to ignore their failings.

Njoku, however, offers a kinder, and perhaps more real, approach motivating that young startups and entrepreneurs can learn from the dastardly word, like he did. It’s not like iROKO Partners is his 11th attempt at a sustainable company or anything (hint: it is).

Despite pioneering the distribution of African content online, through platforms iROKOtv and iROKING, Njoku notes that embracing failure, incorporating it into his image as an entrepreneur, was a good move, for himself and others, stating that people will respect you for overcoming hard times.

“I’m a certified failure,” he told the audience, amidst laughter, but his poignant insights into why we really fear failure, make it a refreshing and inspiring talk.

iROKOtv is the world’s largest legal distributor of Nollywood movies online, and currently offers a library of over 5 000 streaming films to its 500 000 plus users, most of whom live outside of Africa.

iROKING is the largest digital distributor of Nigerian and African music. As of October 2012 its mobile site offers steaming and download services, of songs and music videos, to users directly to their phones.

The vision of iROKOtv and iROKING is to turn them into the Netflix and Spotify of Africa respectively.

Watch Njoku’s talk in full, below.