I think the most interesting thing about King Ochacho's ₦400 million story wasn't the ₦400 million.
It was the comment section.
After Ochacho spoke about the money being like ₦400 to his children during an Instagram Live, Nigerians immediately did what Nigerians do best.
They started investigating.
Where does this kind of money come from?
How much does he pay his workers?
Why is a billionaire sitting under a ring light explaining himself on Instagram?
And then someone summed up an entire school of thought in four words:
“You no follow sir.”
I laughed.
Then I thought about it.
Because underneath all the jokes was a surprisingly serious question:
What are we actually expecting wealth to look like?
Apparently, there is a Nigerian mental picture of what a billionaire should sound like, how quietly they should speak, what they should wear, whether they should post online, and even whether they should need a ring light.
That's fascinating to me.
We don't just judge wealth by money anymore.
We judge it by behaviour.
And social media has made that much messier.
The internet has turned wealth into something we can watch in real time.
Someone buys a house.
We see it.
Someone buys a car.
We see it.
Someone gives away millions.
We see it.
Someone says something that sounds outrageous about money.
We definitely see it.
Then the comments arrive.
Some people celebrate.
Some people doubt.
Some people start calculating.
Others start comparing.
And before long, the original story becomes a completely different conversation.
That's what happened here.
The ₦400 million gift was already a huge story because of Peller and Jarvis' wedding. But once Ochacho's comments about the money started circulating, the conversation shifted from “That's an enormous gift” to “What kind of person talks about money like that?”
Those are two very different questions.
And I think the second one tells us something about ourselves.
We have ideas about how successful people are supposed to behave.
A truly wealthy person should be quiet.
A billionaire shouldn't need social media attention.
A successful businessman should speak differently.
A rich person should somehow carry themselves in a way that lets everyone know they are rich.
But who decided that?
And more importantly, why do we care?
I think social media has made us particularly obsessed with the performance of success.
You don't just need to make money anymore.
You need to look like you're making money.
You need the right car.
The right office.
The right clothes.
The right captions.
The right photos.
Sometimes, even the right level of mysteriousness.
That's where I think people trying to make money online can get themselves into trouble.
They start building the appearance of a business before they've actually built the business.
I've seen the pattern everywhere.
Someone wants to become a digital entrepreneur, so they immediately start worrying about logos.
Someone wants to sell a service, so they spend weeks designing a website but haven't spoken to a single potential customer.
Someone wants to become a creator, so they're more concerned about having the perfect camera than making their first useful video.
It reminds me of the conversation around Ochacho in a strange way.
We're spending so much time deciding what success should look like that we sometimes forget to ask what we're actually building.
If you're starting from zero, that's a particularly important distinction.
You don't need to look rich.
You need to become useful.
Maybe you know how to write.
Maybe you're good at finding information.
Maybe you understand social media.
Maybe you can build websites.
Maybe you can help businesses find customers.
Maybe you're good at creating videos, graphics or digital products.
Those skills might not look impressive on Instagram at first.
But they're assets.
And assets are much more useful than appearances.
This is also why I don't think you need to be a “tech bro” or “tech sis” to make money online.
You don't need to build an app.
You don't need to understand complicated code.
You don't need to call yourself a founder before you've figured out what you're selling.
There are plenty of digital skills ordinary people can learn and turn into services or income streams.
You can explore affiliate marketing.
You can learn lead generation.
You can offer social media management.
You can build websites.
You can learn SEO.
You can help businesses with email marketing.
You can create content.
The internet doesn't only need programmers.
It needs people who can solve problems.
That's something I think Auxi Sherpa gets right. Its platform brings together services ranging from lead generation and website design to SEO, social media management, email marketing and AI-powered business tools.
And that brings me back to the ring light.
Maybe there's nothing wrong with a billionaire using one.
Maybe there's nothing particularly wrong with talking about your money either.
Maybe the more interesting lesson is that we've become so accustomed to seeing wealth performed online that we've forgotten how little we actually know about the people behind the screens.
A person can look rich and have terrible finances.
Another can look completely ordinary and own several successful businesses.
Someone can post every day and be struggling privately.
Someone else can barely post at all and be doing extremely well.
The internet is a terrible place to measure your own progress against somebody else's appearance.
Success doesn't come with one universal personality.
And if you're trying to build something yourself, you don't need to perform somebody else's version of success either.
You need to figure out what you're good at.
Learn something valuable.
Solve a real problem.
Find people who need that solution.
Then keep getting better.
That might be less entertaining than a ring light and a billionaire-sized number.
But it is probably a much better place to start.
If you have an article, opinion piece or news story you'd like published on Global News Arena, or you're ready to start building your own digital income stream, I'd love to hear from you.
