Turn Your Passion to Money

Last weekend wasvery hectic for me. It was Youth entrepreneurship summit on saturday and it was fun. I had taken over 3 days preparing my presentation. I personally ensure that every presentation i do is to my utmost best, in whatsoever niche/topic i am to discuss on. Hence i prepare days ahead so as to ensure delivery of quality. I had been given the topic “Turning your passion into money” to speak about and it was obvious that the organiser wanted to leverage on my passion for PCs and the internet to encourage other young people to pursue their passion. I felt so calm and fulfilled delivering a presentation on this that i looked forward to writing a book on the topic.

For a brief moment, i found it difficult to choose a starting point. I had mitigating circumstances. should i speak about how i started Opportunity world from scratch dead broke without a penny?
I did think a lot about this option but discarded it when it became apparent that the last time i did, i had over 10 attendees of the seminar sending me emails, calling me on the phone to ask me for money. I can show you how to make money, i’d say, and they’d just shrug away cursing under their breath how stingy i was as an entrepreneur. And so i discarded that option.

On a second thought, should i just motivate these young people? Nope…..Motivation increases the excitement, but the reality of the harsh environment kills the zeal as soon as it is excited. Nope, Motivation is not the best solution.

And so after 5 days of deepthinking the best approach, i decided to teach. I analysed the life of 5 young people who have achieved quite a lot by simply following their passion and i have them highlighted below:

1. Kaffy: Kaffy is a dancer. She came to prominence when she broke the world record for the long marathon dance.Kafayat Shafau led a group of young Nigerians to win the world’s longest dance party record, after dancing for 53 hours, 50 minutes at the Silverbird and Nokia N91 Danceathon, which held in Lagos between Friday, 29 September and Monday, 2 October. She has since featured in the Psquare’s “Roll it” video, Olu Maintains’s Video and she was a judge at the maltina Dance Competition. Prior to this, she once danced in “Ijo Fuji” by Adewale Ayuba. Kaffy owns a dance academy and trains other young people to dance.

Lesson To learn: Your passion takes a while to perfect. It does not put you in prominence from Day one. It takes a whoe lot of refining.

2. Cobhams Asuquo: Cobhams is a producer and musician. Cobhamsloves music. Infact, he sings beautifully, rap flawlessly and plays the guitar and the piano with so much dexterity and can navigate his way round a music studio. For the sake of Asa’s Jailer Album, Cobhams was flown to france four times to record Asa’s debut which turnout to be an instant hit. This guy produced Dekunle’s “No lele” and “Lagimo” by Rooftop MCs. Will it be surprising if you find out that this guy is blind? yes He is. He won the HipHop Producer for the year 2007

Lesson To learn: As long as you follow your passion, obstacles are just challenges that makes you strong. If Cobhams can achieve this much, how about you? DO not let excuses be your obstacles to achieving a lot with your passion.

Ezinma: Ezinma shys away from publicity. I am sure she’d be surprised to read this here, however, i just couldn’t let go without talking about it. Ezinma started icanstock.com from her room. it is  aimed at providing top quality, affordable, sellable, wholesale stock direct to resellers in Nigeria. Talk of helping people start small businesses by getting stock from the UK to sell in Nigeria.Ezinma is also working round the clock to ensure her new startup which is going to carve it niche in solar electrification meet expected launch. Ezinma has a passion for Business. A passion that permeates even through her thoughts and conversation.

Lesson Learnt: You can make money by helping others to succeed and solving people’s problems. Also, your first venture is a stepping stone for bigger things. Think Big, and start small

Kayode Muyibi: Kayode is a senior partner at Nairahost. A webhosting company. From starting few years back, Nairahost has grown to become a truly Nigerian Brand. Nairahost manages thousands of webhosting accounts and is recently expanding.

Lesson Learnt: Do not despise humble beginnings.

Dayo Israel: A public speaker/youth leader who enjoys speaking and has met Nelson Mandela, Queen Elizabeth of England, President Olusegun Obasanjo etc and has travelled allover the world through his passion for youth development, public speaking etc. Dayo is still in his early twenties.

Lesson Learnt: Dream big dreams….yes, they are achievable, as long as you take the first step.

These young people analysed above, love what they do. They do it with all passion, speak about it, romance with it, eat it, sleep it etc.

I then went on to talk about identifying one’s passion. It is really possible to have so many passion. However, which one makes you tick? what are you really passionate about that you’d be willing to do over and over again without expecting any reward???

Narrow your list down to just one. Then intensify efforts to improve on that passion following the steps below:

1. Read every known book that revolves round your passion. e.g Do you love make up? Then you should buy and read books that talks about makeups. Are you into music? When was the last time you took voice training sessions???

2. Start for free: Yes, start for free. The best business success comes when you provide some services for free. I once encouraged a young lady to start making her friends up for free. If no one notices the makeup or made any comment, it simply means she needs to improve on her skills. Few days later, she called me that she got her first Job to make up a friend’s big sister at her wedding. THe big sister has simply seen her younger sisters make up and she liked it.

3. Choose a Mentor: I cannot underestimate this. When i first ventured into business, i frowned the idea of a mentor. My hatred was borne out of repeatedly hearing a lot of pastors in church saying “If not for me, you won’t be who you are”. However, as time goes on, i chose someone i respected and tested to be my sole mentor and it has kept me on  ever since. Mentors helps to to walk the path without falling. Get a mentor today and you will not have to make mistakes blindly.

4. Set Target for yourself: Targets are simply achivements within a specific time frame. Setting targets and taking action helps you improve on your time management skills and ensure you achieve a particular thing within a specific period of time.

5. Think Passion, Think Business: The more you get deeply involve in your passion, the more you should think about turning your passion to business. Be innovative & increase your wits.

6.Horne Your skills in the chosen activity & strive to be the best on a daily basis.
To get started, i offered the following tips:

Lay a firm foundation: Master every thing that needs to be known about your hobby. Be a master at it!!!.

Think Big & START SMALL. START NOW!!!!!. Remember, you do not need what you don’t have to get what you want.

Sell Your services to friends, families & people around you. They are the first to believe in you.

Advertise your business. Make do with free advertising, as you grow, use paid ones…

Be Value Driven. Ensure you deliver Value!!!

After an hour presentation, and another 30 minutes of questions and feedbacks, i left the podium, fulfilled that i have again talked on something i am passionate about.

So i challenge you today, What is your passion? Are you prepared to follow your passion and turn it into money? This is the best time to start. Take action and start writing down what that passion is NOW, follow it, and remember not to believe something is impossible, until you’ve tried it!!!