We need to talk about the toxic hustle culture killing young Nigerians. Every morning on Instagram, I see motivational posts: "Grind while they sleep." "No days off." "Sleep is for the weak." And every other week, I hear about another 28-year-old who dropped dead from hypertension, or a 32-year-old entrepreneur who had a stroke, or a content creator who collapsed from exhaustion. We have normalized suffering as a badge of honor. If you are not working three jobs, running a side hustle, learning crypto, and attending night school simultaneously, you are "lazy." We brag about how little we sleep. We compete over who has the most stressful life. We call it "hustle spirit," but it is actually self-destruction. I was that person. At 26, I was running a logistics business, working freelance as a graphic designer, and doing dropshipping. I slept four hours a night. I survived on energy drinks and ibuprofen. Then one Tuesday afternoon, I woke up in a hospital bed. My blood pressure was 190/120. The doctor looked at me and said, "Young man, you are trying to die before your father." I took six months off. I sold two of my businesses. I started sleeping eight hours. I began eating actual food instead of Gala and Coke. And you know what? The world did not end. My remaining business actually grew because I had clarity. I was making better decisions because my brain was not fogged. Nigeria is hard enough without us adding self-imposed torture. The system is rigged against us — bad roads, no light, no water, inflation — so why are we making it harder by glorifying burnout? When did rest become a sin? When did self-care become "softness"? If you died today, your employer would replace you in two weeks. Your hustle would continue without you. How many of you are running on empty right now? And what will it take for us to realize that a dead hustler cannot enjoy the wealth? Let's be honest.
