NOAH AFEOLUWAPE: WHAT 17 YEARS OF HELPING PEOPLE FIND PURPOSE HAS TAUGHT HIM

There are some people whose work is easy to describe because it fits neatly into a title. And then there are people whose work has grown into a much bigger conversation.

For the past 17 years, Noah AfeOluwape has built his work around one question: Who are you?

Known as “Mr. Purpose,” Noah has spent years helping young people and adults understand purpose, discover their strengths and make sense of the possibilities within them. From The Purpose Centre to Purpose Discovery Academy, books, conferences, coaching, schools and digital platforms, his work has continued to evolve.

But beyond the programmes and the title is a man still asking questions about purpose, faith, leadership, family, failure and legacy.

In this conversation with Africa Rising Stories (ARS), Noah opens up about the experiences that shaped his own journey, the people whose stories have stayed with him, the failures that changed him, what he is building now and what he hopes his life will ultimately make possible for others.

Question: ARS: May we meet you? Tell us about Noah AfeOluwape beyond “Mr. Purpose,” the organisations, businesses, books and programmes attached to your name. Who is the man behind all of this?

Mr. Purpose: Hmm, this is a very deep question, and thank you for asking. Noah is a faith-filled man who is a devoted lover of God, a lifelong student of wisdom, an amazing inspirational speaker with a heart of service. Hence, I love to lead people into discovering how to become better versions of themselves through continuous learning and better self-awareness.

I am an incurable optimist who always seeks a way out of any problem, and this mindset makes me see a problem as a door, not a wall, because every door has a key, and once we find the key, we open ourselves to new possibilities.

Question: ARS: In 2009, you started The Purpose Centre. What was happening in your own life at the time, and what was it about purpose that made you decide this was something you wanted to dedicate yourself to?

Mr. Purpose: After I completed my BSc. programme in 2008, I decided to seek the face of God. I engaged in prayer of enquiry and prayer retreats to clarify what He would have me do with the rest of the life He gave me.

You see, I had two near-death accidents: one at the age of nine and the second at the age of 15. The second accident left me with a broken left femur, and I was admitted to Igbobi Hospital, Yaba. I almost lost my left leg, but I thank God He gave me a second chance—not just at life, but to still maintain my steeze.

So, I made a vow to God as I walked out of the hospital on May 10, 2000, that I was going to walk with God and fulfil His purpose for my life and, more importantly, understand why He kept me alive after the second accident because the Okada rider died afterwards.

I didn’t know much about purpose at the time, but it was very clear that I had received a calling from God during that time of recovery at Igbobi Hospital.

So, in 2009, the instruction He gave me was to go and serve as a volunteer staff member at David’s Christian Centre, a church founded by my mentor, Pastor Kingsley Okonkwo.

Looking back, the instruction was to align me with a major principle of discovering your personal purpose, which is to serve a person who has already discovered their own purpose.

So, it was while I was serving my mentor at DCC that I got my own clear instruction in the place of prayer around July 2009. It was a very clear, unmistakable, majestic voice:

“Start your own ministry. It is called The Purpose Centre.”

So I was just obeying God and also keeping the vow I made after I survived the worst setback I have ever faced. But I discovered through it that purpose has the power to turn every setback into a setup for a super comeback.

Question: ARS: You have now spent 17 years helping people discover their purpose. How has your own understanding of purpose changed from the Noah who started in 2009 to the man you are today? And what have you discovered about yourself along the way?

Mr. Purpose: My significant discovery and understanding of purpose now is this: purpose has inbuilt prosperity and resources within it to fulfil the assignment once a person agrees and aligns.

Mr. Purpose: My significant discovery and understanding of purpose now is this: purpose has inbuilt prosperity and resources within it to fulfil the assignment once a person agrees and aligns.

I am bolder today to take personal steps towards converting my own personal discoveries into value-adding products or services to empower people.

I have become bolder, understand people’s complexities better and have a better emotional intelligence quotient now than I did 17 years ago because I would have handled some decisions better in how I related with people who have crossed my path.

But like I said, I am a committed student of wisdom, so I keep learning and leading people to discover their own purpose, with a firm focus on pursuing and fulfilling it because we have unlimited potential but limited time to deploy it for the good of humanity and the glory of God.

Question: ARS: Your work has touched thousands of young people, and some have gone on to take very different paths after encountering your work. Is there a particular person or transformation that has stayed with you and reminded you why you started?

Mr. Purpose: I am grateful to God for the privilege of being a custodian of these mysteries that have helped several thousands of young people find answers to the most important questions of life:

“Who am I?”
“Where am I from?”
“Why am I so different?”
“Where am I going?”
“How can I make a positive difference?”

Every story is unique, but there are some that solidified my conviction that I was not wasting my own life.

The story of Daniel Idiabor and Miss Bamidele Vivian Osagie, aka Vien007.

Daniel was already a graduate from secondary school with a background in science-related subjects and a strong desire and ambition to study medicine in the university. But life happened to him, and he got stuck.

When he encountered The Purpose School courses, he discovered he was not designed by God to study science-related subjects but pure arts.

I actually had a one-on-one session with him for four weeks, and this opened his self-consciousness to what was already within him but that he had never paid attention to.

The second story, which is so inspiring, is that of Vien007.

She was already in her final year as a Computer Science student at LASU, but everything was going wrong for her at the time. The frustration she had endured as a Computer Science student for five years came to an end when she met me and decided to also go through one-on-one coaching on Purpose and Personal Mastery using the curriculum of The Purpose School, now Purpose Discovery Academy (PDA).

Vien007 was a walking radio station and entertainer, but all of her personality makeup and greatness were bottled up in the error many parents make: forcing their children to study courses that they wished they had studied.

So, she was a victim of the traditional style of parenting, and her life was literally almost over at the time we met her.

She finished her four-week coaching, and a global star was born.

She went on to redirect her energy towards developing her real natural talent, which pointed towards becoming an OAP on radio. Her unique voice and very cheerful personality paved the way for her in the radio and entertainment industry, and today she earns millions from her work as an event hostess and makes a lot of impact on young people in the media space.

These two stories made me wonder: what will happen across Nigeria and Africa if more youths get to know about the Purpose Education curriculum we have discovered and served for many years?

Question: ARS: Your journey has not been limited to purpose coaching. You have written books, trained people, hosted events, built businesses, created conferences and developed Purpose Discovery Academy. What drives your desire to keep turning ideas into something tangible, and what have these different ventures taught you about yourself?

Mr. Purpose: I am living to die empty!

I am committed to denying the grave of any of the treasures within me and the riches God has loaded me with for the enriching of the rest of humanity.

I read Dr. Myles Munroe’s book Maximizing Your Potential shortly after I recuperated from the fractured femur, and the major theme of that book was learning the principles of living a full life, using every resource and ability one has been given to glorify God and also empower humanity.

Don’t forget, God’s first statement to humans was, “Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

One principal drive I have is to live a full life before I leave this life, and also the best way to convince people about fulfilling their own purpose is to show them what is possible with my own life.

A minister of the gospel must first administer what he teaches to his own life to make him an authority with credibility.

I have, through all of these ventures, learned that fulfilling purpose is an adventure that requires meekness to learn new things and, at the same time, the courage to attempt what you have never done before, because if you never start it, you won’t become an expert at it.

Question: ARS: Building for 17 years cannot have been a straight line. What has been one of the most difficult seasons, failed ideas or unexpected turns in your journey, and what did that experience teach you that success could not have taught you?

Mr. Purpose: One thing these past 17 years have taught me practically is that the shortest route to success is still the longest route to success.

It was very difficult at the beginning because I was working as a pioneer and walking into a tunnel of possibilities no one had ever dared to walk into.

The vision God showed me was vividly clear and compelling. He didn’t explain the details, but He showed me a glorious ending full of testimonies of transformed lives, including mine.

I was walking with God literally because He is the owner of the idea I have been building, but so many people thought I was crazy, especially my immediate family.

My father, being an educationist, wanted me to work as a teacher and was willing to help me secure a job with the civil service, but I told him I had already found my life’s work.

It was hard to wake up every day under his roof to continue on this path back then because I initially didn’t have any viable economic proof that this work could sustain me financially, let alone sustain other people.

One unforgettable season was 2013, September 29. We had just clocked four years, and I planned to use the book launch of Loving Maths, my first book, to give The Purpose Centre greater visibility, but it ended up being a poorly executed project.

It got me into financial debt, created lots of pressure, and the lady who had promised to marry me then even called off our engagement due to all the turbulence of that season.

It toughened me up. I look back at that season now with gratitude because the seed of failure back then birthed the tree of many successful projects we have done.

Most recently, this included the launch of Africa’s first-ever Purpose Discovery mobile app, which we launched in 2024 on my 40th birthday.

Question: ARS: Your work began from a strong Christian understanding of purpose. How has your faith shaped the way you make decisions about your work, business, family and the people you choose to serve?

Mr. Purpose: Any attempt to remove God from the centre of one’s pursuit to fulfil purpose will inevitably lead to self-destruction.

A pilot cannot fly a plane successfully once he stops listening to the control tower or changes the flight plan while in the air.

We fulfil purpose by being in a committed relationship with the Principal and then remaining submitted to His principles.

I also have a strong consciousness that the end of my time here on earth is not the end of my life, but just the actual beginning because death is the passage to life in eternity.

This thought keeps me focused when life throws its distractions or challenges.

Question: ARS: You have worked with teenagers, parents, professionals, entrepreneurs and organisations. What do you think we still misunderstand about purpose—particularly in a world where young people are under enormous pressure to succeed, make money and meet other people’s expectations?

Mr. Purpose: This is a very good question.

One great misconception and misunderstanding many people have is that of misplaced priority about the concept of purpose.

Many are not aware that purpose is not what you decide; rather, it is what you discover.

A lot of people fall into the trap of making very important decisions about their lives with a lot of assumptions or imitation.

Decisions on long-term careers are made simply by checking what careers are trending or which are paying the most money, at the expense of personal fulfilment and maximising potential.

Imagine making a fish choose a career in the aviation industry for it to learn how to fly because pilots earn a lot of money.

For a person to be truly effective in life, they must be extremely selective about their choices.

Discovering your personal purpose empowers you to make decisions within the scope of your innate abilities, which makes long-term growth and personal development a much more pleasant and profitable adventure.

Question: ARS: You have taken the purpose conversation from school seminars to an academy, books, conferences, a mobile app and, most recently, the flagship How to Find Your Purpose in 30 Days course. What are you building now, and what do you hope Purpose Discovery Academy can ultimately become?

Mr. Purpose: Your questions are very thought-provoking, and I must commend you for the depth of thought this conversation has brought forth.

Mr. Purpose: Your questions are very thought-provoking, and I must commend you for the depth of thought this conversation has brought forth.

I will start from the last question.

The vision in my heart is to build a global institution that serves as a credible resource to every nation on earth when they are looking for quality answers and principles that can be replicated by anyone who is seeking to understand how to discover their life’s purpose and then transform that discovery into a valuable, viable venture that serves humanity profitably and also brings glory to God.

I believe we can scale PDA into becoming the first Purpose University from Africa that certifies other life purpose coaches around the world.

I believe we can influence the curriculum of education across the educational industry across Africa and other parts of the world.

We are currently resuming our tour across secondary schools, and we plan to go across African cities and schools within the next five years in what we have themed “The Project Purpose Campaign.”

Our strategy is to use physical and digital platforms to the best of our abilities to bring awareness, especially among youths, that the best time to discover purpose is now!

Like a Chinese proverb says, “The best time to plant a tree is 25 years ago; the second-best time is now!”

Question: ARS: After 17 years of helping other people answer the question “Who are you?”, what do you want the next chapter of your own life to be about? What would you like everything you have built to make possible for other people, and what would you ultimately like Noah AfeOluwape to be remembered for?

Mr. Purpose: The place every man must work hard never to fail is at home.

So, in partnership with my wife, we are building the Purpose Dynasty, and my focus is to ensure our children discover their purpose and potential clearly before the age of seven so they can walk and work in dominion fully from the age of 17, because it takes approximately 10 years to gain full mastery of one’s potential or talent and then focus on aligning with God’s purpose and plan.

I am also seeking to know when to build the Purpose City, a place where dreams that are uncommon are birthed and wonders become daily happenings through the understanding everyone in that city possesses about their purpose.

It is the depth of understanding we have that determines the outstanding heights we rise to as individuals in every sphere of human influence.

Ultimately, I would like to be remembered as Noah, the man who revealed God’s wisdom to his generation on how to live a life of purpose, not just through his teachings and books but by how he lived his own life: a life fully submitted and committed to pleasing God.