Dad died when I was 10, things became though really though, then years later mum was retrenched from her job as a nurse, life became tougher but mum never gave up.
We had to go into farming, small farming and at a young age, my siblings and I helped mum on the farm planting cassava and corn along Taoheed road in Ilorin. Life became tougher, we started cutting trees and wait for them to dry and sell as firewood, then later we were able to buy a pickup load of firewood. Mum will buy, my siblings and I will help sell. She diversified, added charcoal to the mix, later Kerosene and we started selling chicken and eggs too at some point .
I never wanted to be an entrepreneur, me ? lai lai but by the virtue of the curve balls life throws at us, I never knew I was learning , I never knew that the school of hard knocks , knocks some life lessons that will eventually be a virtue later in life.
So if you asked me the things I’d sold before , I’ll tell you that I’d sold Puff puff and burns ( For my industrious sister Biola) ,charcoal, firewood, slippers , eggs, bread ,worked as sales boy, also as a farm assistant at Alao Farms in Basin Estate in Ilorin, sold kerosene, sold magazines ( For Ayo my brother) , sold phones , slippers and chicken at Oja Ipata and Oja Oba in Ilorin in my final year, sold “How To Fire Your Boss” for Uju Onyechewere on Allen avenue in Lagos.
I’m one without talent , I’m the one that should fail and I was constantly reminded of that by someone close that I’m not smart at all.
While life was landing those blows and hard knocks, all that was happening was helping me meet people, while selling charcoal, kerosene and phones at Ola-Sat and chicken at Oja Ipata in Ilorin, I was meeting people that I’d probably not meet again but convincing them to buy a thing or the other and be happy about it.
Those skills are field tested with smiles and replied with several “No’s” but at the end of the day, several sales were made. I was an entrepreneur already but I never knew it, I thought success is majorly determined by having white collar job.
Before heading for NYSC in 2002, I’d heard that the service year will be an experience of a lifetime, so I decided to document that experience. I bought an analogue camera Zenith Camera for N5500 and started making images and started photography while serving in Katsina State. I’d ride my bicycle to different CDS groups to sell pictures those days.
After my NYSC service in Katsina State, I job hunted for almost 4 years in Lagos, did several tests and interviews, ko werk pa paa!!. Chai ! , my brother Ayo helped me with all his connections, omo none worked . I just did not have the skill set those top agencies were looking for or maybe I was not that refined , smart or intelligent to be a part of any of those organisations. I remember now and laugh and thank God that none worked out then.
I eventually passed at an interview for an accounting firm ( I studied accounting by the way) and I was supposed to resume work the next day in Abuja, FCT . I turned the job down the next day. Why? My brothers (Ayo and Yemi) sat me down and told me that it was not worth it , plus reasons why there is a better option . They counseled that I should go with what I have already and that thing I love doing.
I asked them “What would that be ?” Ayo said “Photography” . “Photography ke?” was what I replied. I told Ayo “But you were the same person that says my best picture was the one that I chopped people’s head in the picture” . He smiled and said he was only joking those times. I told him to mention a few that had been successful in that field as an entrepreneur and he mentioned TY Bello, Body Lawson and a few others and he said I can be successful too if I study and learn. Fast forward a few years my story changed ( If you have the time to read, read bio here www.sholaanimashaun.com/about )
I did learn and never looked back. Am I where I want to be yet? No! but I understand that life is not a sprint, it’s a marathon and you have to enjoy the process to get the most of it, if you don’t learn and pay attention you will continue running in circles till you learn.
Here is the moral of my story, what people say about you don’t define you, what you say about yourself does. The tougher it is the more you will learn.
If they call you a failure, tell them that you are the next BIG success story. Here is what you should do if you don’t know what to do
- Take stock of your talent:Take stocks or note of what you love doing, especially those things that comes to you naturally , those things that you are never bored of doing creatively and you are happy doing.
- Find a niche:
Find a niche or market no matter how small, find a group or community of people to care for and meet their needs. The bigger the problems you solve , the bigger your pay cheque .
- Find what your niche market needs, not what you think they will need , then meet those needs like no one else can and be happy doing that.
- Find A Mentor. This will save you years of experience you don’t have . Find ways to grab the attention of one or serve one.
- Be a mentor : When you have give , when you learn teach.
- Give Quality:
Give quality service/ market /delivery to your clients with the best of your abilities. See, your best will still not be enough for some people, do it regardless. Let your conscience justify you always.
- Be Ready To Fail.
You get better with each experience, you will mess up at some point, even with some clients that had even given you recommendations . Not because you want to , not because you are not prepared but because you are human and lessons must be learned again.
- Fail Forward.
Get yourself up and move. Success is not in the numbers of your failures but in the numbers of times your learned from your falls and made improvements that makes and help you get better.
So last week, in spite of all my failures and life’s hard knocks , I was recognized for outstanding achievement in empowerment and entrepreneurship via the works we are doing via our storytelling video productions , photography training academy and mentoring programs we run across Nigeria .
100 Entrepreneurs were awarded the Royal African Medal and inducted into the Royal Court via the Royal African Leadership Forum of His Imperial Majesty, Ooni Adeyeye Enitan Babatunde Ogunwisi Ojaja II (Ooni Of Ife) from different industries .
So if you see the look on my face while my citation was read at the auditorium hall at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ìle-ìfe eh! , I was seeing the young me selling puff puff, firewood, travelling to sell magazines and the faces of people telling me I won’t amount to much and I was in awe of what God can do if you don’t give up on yourself when others have given up on you.
If you are going through hell, keep going. Don’t stop, keep pushing , ignore naysayers , find your purpose , it may be different from what you had thought life will be.
Follow your dream, it knows the way.
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