“I Spent Most Of My Life On The Side Of Struggle”- Chess Master Tunde Onakoya Reflects After Speaking With Accomplished Women In Dubai

Chess Master Tunde Onakoya reflects in a recent post on x, he went further to share reasons why he would extend kindness to those are not privileged.

Read his post as shared on x:

“My life is a fascinating paradox. Today, I’m in Dubai, speaking to some of the most accomplished Nigerian women in the world. In a few weeks, I’ll be back in Nigeria, teaching chess to children on the streets and beneath bridges.

Some days, I am a global speaker and celebrated hero. Most days, just a chess teacher, struggling to keep kids focused in class. A strange but humbling duality.

As a child, I often questioned the deep inequalities around me. Never understood how someone could wear a million-dollar watch while another couldn’t afford a meal. How did we, as a society, accept such a world as normal?

The world is fractured in many ways, not just by borders, but by indifference. And the greatest danger of privilege and safety in our bubbles is when those with power no longer have the context to empathize.

I spent most of my life on the side of struggle. Now, I live between two worlds as an outlier. one of immense privilege and one of profound need. And perhaps, the paradox of purpose is to exist where these extremes collide. To understand that success means nothing if it isn’t shared, and service isn’t noble if it costs you nothing.

It has now become the greatest honor of my life to stand in this gap between the haves and the have-nots. To refuse the lie that both worlds must remain separate.

And if you are like me with some privilege and a heart that longs to lift others, I hope you find the courage, when you step into rooms of power, to ask: Who is missing here? And how can I stand in the gap for them?

The world doesn’t change from a distance. It changes when we step into the in-between and become the bridge that gives others a chance to belong. We mostly understand and apply this when we democratize access to technological products that can scale but rarely through our humanity.

Our lives are bridges, but we must find where to anchor them. I have found mine. I hope you find yours too, dreamer.

The gap isn’t just a space, it’s a calling.

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Source: Tunde Onakoya|X

Email: elora.akpotosevbe@yahoo.com