First of all Happy New Month and Welcome to the second half of the year 2013!
We are as usual very delighted to announce our Opportunity Desk Young Person of the Month of July who we describe as ‘very humble and enterprising’ – Wale Olajumoke from Nigeria. Wale tells his story intuitively – its a long one. He takes us through this humble background and journey through life and how against all odds, he has decided not to give up on his dream. We are sure this would interest you!
WALE OLAJUMOKE
Wale Olajumoke is a 26 year old entrepreneur from Nigeria. He is the founder and Executive Director of Finem Ventures, a growing ICT company that specializes in Web Development, Hosting, Internet marketing, Enterprise solution and ICT training. He is also the Founder of Concise Value, a human capital development firm that focuses on equipping individuals and organization in business consulting, career management, recruitment and Project Management.
How he started his journey to entrepreneurship
Wale grew up with the mentality of meeting people’s need. At age 7, he usually provided snacks for his peers in Primary school during the break. At home, he engaged the teenagers in his neighbourhood in football competition where he was able to help some of them to divert their energy to sport instead of Juvenile delinquency. He had to hawk the streets to support his schooling while in secondary school.
While growing up, he developed passion for ICT but could not afford to enroll in a computer school. Though studied computer science in the university, he had no computer of his own until when he was about to graduate from the university because he could not afford it. Most times, he learnt using Cybercafe and a friend’s laptop. He remained focused despite the challenges and decided that he will not give up on his dream. He then embarked on self-education. He learnt most of the things he knew today personally.
While in school, he kept on adding value to himself. He usually read all through the night and most times traveled long kilometers to attend training. He later started web design training for his colleague in school from which he was able to pay his tuition fee, feeding, accommodation and other expenses.
From this time onward, many schools, NGOs, Religious bodies, Corporate Organizations and others started engaging him on personal development and entrepreneurship training. He also facilitated training for different batches of the Nigerian National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in Plateau State.
On what inspires Wale
Wale tells Opportunity Desk that the need to add value to people is what inspires him. He knew he could not achieve this except he first added value to himself. He also derives inspiration from books, his environment, other people’s success stories and God’s word. He believes strongly that irrespective of one’s background and life challenges, there is no reason why you cannot be who you want to be. Wale became strong through challenges. He loves learning new things and undergoing challenging task because they bring out the best in him.
Achievements
Wale Olajumoke has been featured in Under35CEO, Lagos Business News, Finance and Investment Watch, iShine Magazine and other publications. He hopes to have a youth development centre by 2014 where youths can access resources and undergo training on vocational skill, personal development and entrepreneurship.
On his final words to the Youth
Wale writes, “Take responsibility for your life. Your parent and circumstance may put you at a disadvantage; however, you can start from where you are and become whoever you desired to be. When you make God your source and excellence your goal, the sky will be your starting point. Lastly, keep adding value to yourself wherever you are, with whatever you can, as long as you can. NO EXCUSE!”
Find out more about Wale here and his company Finem Ventures.
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Who will be the Next Young Person of the Month?
You can be the next Opportunity Desk Young Person of the Month! All you have to do is get a friend to recommend your work or fill out our nomination form here. We want to use the platform to recognize and celebrate the efforts of amazing young people around the world. O! Did I forget to add – that you must be an active Opportunity Desk member, either as a fan, reader or subscriber? Yes!
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