In recent years, I have gone through a few life-changing experiences. Most of them have been personal, family, health issues and so on. I wake up sometimes, wondering about my life and what I wanted from it. I remember growing up and when we played the little game of "what do you want to be when you grow up?". My answer varied from being a nurse, a teacher, a wife or a mother. I never pinned anything down specifically. Does it mean I did not not know what I wanted to be when I grow up? Maybe!
At the same time, I love children. I always said I will have 12 kids(wow!). I loved playing with cousins, nieces, relatives. I also love to dress up and match up everything (thanks to my grandma). Something else that I loved doing - halfway through my 5th grade, I started making coconut candy and would sell them at school. It became so popular that I sought the help of a cousin in middle school. We would work till almost 11 pm every night after our homework. I will then give her in dozen-sets to take to her school and ask for the equivalent of $1 back instead of $1.20. So, she was making about 20 cents on each dozen she sold in her own school. Least did I know that I was franchising in a way. Then, my grandmother showed me how to purchase fresh coconut at wholesale. Did the profit skyrocket? Yes, of course!!
Before then, I would join my grandmother at her market stall and at a certain time in the evenings, she will put fish, melon and other food items she was selling in trays. Myself and two other relatives living with us who were learning business acumen would set out to hawk our products in the whole city. We would actually split up. One thing for sure, I would sell out first and when we got back to grandma, she would shower me with accolades that I sold out all of mine while my relatives whose only goal was to become entrepreneurs in the future would not. She would tell them that I was just helping out and had my schooling going for me. So, they better learn the art of selling as they needed it more than I do (ok grandma!).
Later on, I would corner them and took some off their trays to help, they ended up selling all of their wares and grandma was happy. See, I thought it probably was not their fault they did not have the words to use to getting their customers to buy from them. I loved chatting with potential customers, asking about their families and as young as I was then, will chat with the children, asking if they were in my school, their best subjects and so on. That made them so comfortable that they would buy what I was selling even though they still had left-overs from previous purchase. In my current company, we call it "developing relationship" with customers first. Make it about them.
After elementary school, I moved on to High School but away from home and that ended my selling. After all my schooling, I got a job and one day, I ignited the entrepreneur in me one way or the other. I started travelling to London to buy shoes, bags, head ties and dresses. When I visited US in 1985, I found out my sister in-law was ordering from Europe and selling them in Florida. I did the same and took some things back to Nigeria to sell.
I later moved and settled in the US myself and got a job(retired in 2021 after 32 years!). It was a great job, a great place to work. At the same time, something was missing. I thought my family needed extra money to stay afloat and I could do it with a second job. This did not sit well with my husband. See, we arranged that I work during the day (had no choice anyway) while he worked in the evening. So, if I had to work a second job, who would stay with the kids? Secretly though, I kept looking in the newspapers and then I found an advertisement that asked: Need Extra Income? Be your own boss, Work from Home, No Experience Needed. If this were you call this 800------".
I thought it was a position to work from home and that would suite my family and placate my husband. When I called, I realized it was not a position but an opportunity to be a CEO, an Entrepreneur. Boom! back to those days for me. I got all the information, enrolled and have been capturing the essence of life since then. Yes, it has been a tough road, no doubt, but I am doing what I love and love what I am doing. I have gotten a lot from this opportunity - friendship, mentoring and so on.
Wayne Dye said it beautifully - " Doing what you love is the cornerstone of having abundance in life". The income has been great and helpful, but the joy I have when I am working the business is priceless. Nothing else aside from my family and the thought of God gives me more joy. I love what I am doing and doing what I love. It is where your happiness comes from, be it parenting, hobby, serving God, running a business, giving back to your community, or your job.
Doing what you love will also lead you to where you want to go. "If you love a trade, carpentry, being a beautician, love cooking or even telling stories, if you do that thing so well, people would not want to take their eyes off of you" - Maya Angelou. On the other hand, "if you do not love what you are doing, you will not do it with much conviction or passion" - Mia Hamm
Remember, doing what you love is freedom, loving what you do is happiness. So, in this new month, I want to encourage you to ensure that you are doing what you love and loving what you do.
