Often, success presents itself as blemish-free, making some people take on the assumption that a successful person has all through had an easy journey to their destination.
But this is untrue for most people and for Fisayo, an entrepreneur and developer in Lagos, Nigeria, who lost her father at the age of 7 and learned the art of sales from selling drinks with her mother before developing an app that she would negotiate and sell for many millions of naira.
Talking about her wrinkled path to success, she said: “it was so hard because I was just 7 when we lost my father. I wanted to go to school. I wanted new clothes and shoes, and rice and chicken on my plates, but all I remember is waking up one morning and finding my mother on the floor rolling.
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The next week, a friend of dad would visit us with a donation to support the family, and that’s how it began for us. That is how Mum started the small business of selling Amstel Malta to make ends and feed us”.
After secondary school, Fisayo would spend two years at home helping her mother to sell drinks and save for her college education whilst paying for the health bills of her sickle cell brother.
“I remember thinking there must be no God. My mates were in 200L, and I was at home just learning to code from the neighbor’s son. I thought I had failed at life.”
Unknown to Fisayo, the years spent out of school learning to code would help prop her above her mates and provide her with the skill set to develop an app that would make her a multimillionaire.
“Looking back now, I am so grateful for my journey. I have five houses in Lagos, Abuja, and Enugu. I am working with investors on building my mum a large restaurant chain- the biggest in Africa, I am hoping.”
Advising Nigerians in hardship to never give up, she said: “truthfully, the experience did allow me to develop my sales skills and so when I thought my app was ready, I wasn’t scared to pitch it out, because I remembered the Amstel Malta ad and recognized; My Time is Now.”
“For my first physical meeting with the buyers, everyone was drinking wine and I asked for a bottle of Amstel Malta- just to remind me of where I am coming from and how far I can go.”
