The Bliss of a Little Quiet
This came to me quietly on a late May night. It’s not a think-piece or advice. It’s just what I’ve been feeling lately about belief, becoming, pain, and the kind of quiet that heals and builds. I hope it meets you where you are.
It’s 11:34 p.m.
May 1st, 2025.
This is a slow, joyful story.
A story about becoming.
About the quiet power of the soul.
About the courage of will.
It’s the story of a born dreamer, out of ashes.
At a time in my life, I had a moniker carved out of my first name: Adekunle.
Adecunlay, it was.
So, I had created this beautiful event series then: Winning Ways with Adecunlay.
I was in 200 level in uni, and here I was hosting an event to talk about the power of winning and how to unlock success.
What did I truly know about winning?
Not much, lol!
However, tonight I realised the beautiful truth in that irony.
The beauty wasn’t in what I knew, it was in what I believed.
And that’s all winning really requires of you: to believe.
To trust your gut.
To lean into your intuition.
To follow through on your ideas.
Everything after that is up to discipline, consistency, and character.
But it all starts with belief.
When I came upon the remarks of Jensen Huang, which surmise as: “I hope suffering happens to you”, it wasn’t a new school of thought to me.
Tai Solarin’s “May your way be rough” had already brought me to the realisation of the gain in pain.
There’s great suffering in this world, but it is the existence of it that casts the shadow of worth on the bliss of joy or the resplendence of happiness.
Suffering tests your belief.
It presents a challenge, a question you must answer to prove if you really believe in the ideologies whose banner you fly:
“Do you really believe what you say you believe?”
That’s the irony of Winning Ways with Adecunlay, the real magic was the quiet.
I had the time, the space, and the freeway to orchestrate, dream, plan, and then deliver, flowing from mind to execution with relative ease.
And at every turn, I conquered one small pain at a time.
12:00 a.m.
May 2nd, 2025
Just recently, I had an open conversation with a close friend and confidant. Somewhere in that exchange, I saw clearly how tangled the past few years had become.
The patterns, the noise, the cycles… so loud they drowned out the strong, quiet thought that lights my flame.
Vulnerability is a virtue; a God-given gift that grounds men and centres us to our purpose.
When he was ruler of Rome, Marcus Aurelius had a servant follow him around… the servant had to whisper in his ear, “You’re just a man… just a man…” to keep him humble.
Humble.
Safeguarded from ego.
Vulnerability is for the Conqueror, not the Sufferer.
The Sufferer is already humbled by life’s prods, tricks, and capricious manoeuvres.
What is required is courage. The seed-flame that grows into a roaring fire strong enough to tilt destiny.
Because the true end of suffering is clarity.
Suffering births character.
Character gives way to clarity.
Clarity gathers thought and force.
And with those aligned, breakthrough becomes inevitable.
When faced with your next suffering, seek and fight to maintain your “quiet.”
Lean in.
Lean into the stillness.
Lean into the silence.
Lean into the bliss of a little quiet.
