The Enish Phenomenon
One of my greatest joys was the day Shola opened his first restaurant in Lewisham.
When he first hinted at his intention to open a restaurant, I was rather sceptical. I shared my reservations with him, but he seemed determined to go ahead. All I could do was offer him my prayerful support.
When his search for a suitable location began in earnest, he took me to visit a few premises.
Eventually, he settled on one in Lewisham. Quite honestly, it was the last place I expected him to choose.
The building, which previously housed a Chinese restaurant, was completely run-down. It had been vacated, left unoccupied and allowed to become derelict for more than five years.
Looking at it, I struggled to see what Shola saw. Once again, I expressed my reservations. But he remained convinced that this was the place he wanted.
That moment, in retrospect, says something profound about the young man and his journey.
Vision is often the ability to see possibility where others see problems. While I saw a derelict building, Shola saw an opportunity. While I saw the enormous amount of work required to transform the place, he appeared to see the finished restaurant already taking shape in his mind.
His single-mindedness, resilience and sheer determination eventually turned that unlikely location into the beginning of something remarkably big.
The Lewisham restaurant was followed by a second in Finchley. What started as the ambition of a young Nigerian who came to Britain as a student has grown into a remarkable international hospitality brand.
Today, Shola manages a chain of high-profile, upmarket Enish restaurants, with 14 locations in London alone.
The Enish story has now travelled well beyond London, with restaurants in Dubai, Houston, Manchester, Glasgow, Accra and Nairobi, and yet, the journey is still continuing.
For me, however, the most interestingly beautiful part of the Enish story is not simply the number of restaurants or the geographical spread of the brand. It is the story behind the numbers.
There is a philosophical lesson in Shola's journey: great achievements rarely begin with certainty; they begin with conviction. The road to success is often marked by moments when others cannot yet see what the dreamer sees.
Coming from Nigeria to Britain as a student and building an internationally recognised hospitality business is no small achievement. It speaks of courage, discipline, hard work and, perhaps most importantly, an unwillingness to be defined by circumstances.
Success does not always announce itself at the beginning. Sometimes, it arrives disguised as an abandoned building in Lewisham.
The lesson is simple but profound: where others see an obstacle, the determined see an opportunity; where others see an empty space, the visionary sees a possibility; and where others see the present, the dreamer sees the future.
Shola's journey is therefore more than the story of a successful restaurant business. It is a story about the power of believing in an idea, pursuing it with passion, single-minded determination and refusing to give up when the evidence around you seems to suggest otherwise.
Now, the journey continues.
All roads lead to Birmingham as Shola adds yet another feather to his cap with the official opening of a brand-new, upmarket Enish restaurant in the heart of Birmingham on 20 October 2026.
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