There is a growing conversation about boys, but much of it begins when something has already gone wrong.
We notice the boy when he is struggling in school, when he becomes withdrawn, when he begins acting out, when he gets caught up in harmful behaviour or when the consequences of a lack of guidance have already become visible. By then, the question is often what went wrong. But perhaps the more important question is what was missing before things went wrong.
This is the problem that sits at the heart of Owolabi Williams’ work. Through Boys Lead Foundation, an international male development organisation, Williams has spent years working to ensure that boys are not only responded to when there is a problem, but intentionally developed before they reach that point.
His work recognises that boys need more than correction. They need mentorship, belonging, guidance, opportunities to discover their strengths, character formation, education, skills and healthy relationships with the adults and communities around them. More importantly, the responsibility for that development cannot rest on the boy alone.
A boy does not grow in isolation. He grows within an ecosystem. At the centre is the boy himself, but around him are his parents, family, school, mentors, friends, faith community, neighbourhood, institutions and, increasingly, the digital environments he spends time in. Each of these influences how he understands himself, how he relates to others, what he believes is possible for him and ultimately the kind of man he becomes.
This understanding is central to Williams’ work. Rather than treating boys’ development as a problem that can be solved by simply talking to boys, he looks at the wider ecosystem that surrounds them. If we want better outcomes for boys, then the people raising them, teaching them, mentoring them and shaping their environments must also be part of the conversation.
His books are an expression of that ecosystem.
Over the years, Williams has built a body of work that does not speak to boys from just one angle. Instead, his books follow the different relationships and responsibilities surrounding a boy as he grows into a man. They create different entry points into the same ecosystem, speaking to the boy, but also to the people who help shape his world.
The Art of Mentoring Boys speaks to mentors and the responsibility of guiding boys. Presence Is Not Enough turns attention to fathers and the depth of their engagement with their sons. Dear Son speaks directly to boys, while Dear Moms of Boys brings mothers into the conversation and recognises their role in understanding, raising and supporting them.
52 Days of Father and Son focuses on the relationship between fathers and sons. Boypreneur: From the Ground Up, You Got This explores boys as creators, innovators and entrepreneurs, while When Boys Lead expands the conversation into leadership and what becomes possible when boys are given room to contribute, lead and shape the world around them.
Then there is The Boys We Build, The Nations We Become, which brings the ecosystem into a larger frame, connecting the work of forming boys to the men, families, communities and nations they will eventually shape.
The book was officially launched in New York at the Boys & Men Conversation held around UNGA 81. The setting was significant. In a city where global conversations were taking place around the future of societies, technology, education and human development, Williams brought a question that has defined much of his work into sharper focus: what happens to a nation when it becomes intentional about the way it forms its boys?
The title itself offers a powerful answer. The Boys We Build, The Nations We Become is not simply a statement about childhood or adolescence. It is an argument about formation and consequence. The boys growing up today will eventually become fathers, husbands, teachers, entrepreneurs, professionals, community leaders, public servants and institution builders. The values they develop, the relationships they experience, the opportunities they receive and the understanding they have of themselves will influence the families and communities they go on to shape.
In that sense, the work of building boys is also connected to the work of building society.
This is the thinking that sits behind Williams’ work through Boys Lead Foundation, which has reached more than 20,000 boys and young men across Nigeria, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and other communities internationally. His work spans mentorship, leadership development, education, character formation, entrepreneurship, skills development and community engagement.
Seen individually, the books address different audiences and different dimensions of development. Seen together, they reveal a much larger philosophy.
Williams is not simply asking how we can help boys behave better or avoid negative outcomes. He is asking what it would look like to intentionally create the conditions in which boys can develop character, identity, confidence, skills, purpose and a sense of responsibility.
That means talking to the boy, but it also means equipping the mentor. It means helping the father understand his role, bringing mothers into the conversation, strengthening the relationship between fathers and sons, and giving boys opportunities to discover their strengths, build, create and lead.
The ecosystem matters because no single relationship is enough.
A mentor cannot replace a parent. A parent cannot operate in isolation from the school or community. A programme cannot substitute for belonging. And a conversation with a boy cannot fully address the systems shaping his everyday life.
This is why the work has continued to expand beyond books and individual programmes. Through initiatives such as the Global Boys Summit, Boypreneur and the Global Boys Development Framework, Williams’ wider work continues to approach boys’ development from multiple directions.
The common thread is intentionality.
It is the decision to look at the boy before the crisis, to ask what he needs before the consequences become visible, and to recognise that developing him requires the participation of the ecosystem around him.
Ultimately, Williams’ body of work asks us to look differently at boys. Not only as children who need to be protected from negative outcomes, but as future men whose formation will have consequences for the families, communities and institutions they will eventually enter.
That is what connects the books.
They are different conversations, but they are about the same boy.
The boy who needs a mentor. The boy who needs an engaged father. The boy whose mother is trying to understand him. The boy who needs to hear that his ideas matter. The boy who can become an entrepreneur. The boy who can lead. The boy who will one day become a man.
And perhaps that is the larger question Williams’ work leaves with us.
If a boy is being shaped by an entire ecosystem, what kind of ecosystem are we creating around him?
Because the boys we build will become men. Those men will shape families, communities and institutions.
And ultimately, they will help shape the nations we become.
