Let me tell you my story

I am originally from Nigeria, West Africa. I grew up in a middle-class family of 5. Dad was a project manager and Mom an elementary school teacher. Being the first child, I was showered with a lot of love and attention from a very young age. I learnt early on to go for what I want.

Coming from a Christian home, I learnt and believed that anything is possible with God. So, I would often dare to do things because I felt I was unstoppable.

When I was 18, I started university to study Civil Engineering. In a class of 70 students, we were only 5 girls. It was tough and challenging. This was the time I learnt that it is not enough to want something, If you really want to succeed at anything, you have to make committments to take the right actions. So, I studied really hard and gave it my all. 

My social life was very minimal, but the good thing was, my facinations of numbers and analytics kept me going. For as long as I can remember, I was a nerd, who always love building things, I always want to understand how things work, the process it takes to put together a project and solutions and how products can be improved.

This experience and background I believe, is what has led to my passion for supporting organizations that are creatively innovating outstanding products for all human benefits. 

Following the norm

Now school was almost over, and everyone kept asking, who is the guy? When will you get married? As a young African woman it seemed like there was a set pattern that you have to follow, and if you don’t you will be a center of attention.

As with most people, I knew that I needed to set out a goal for myself. At this point I understood purpose and how it fits into creating a happy and fulfilled life, so I set out my goal and wrote down the steps to achieve it. Guess what, it worked 💃💃

I met my husband Johnson, and for the first time in my life, I didn’t feel alone anymore, I had someone that shared my values, and we will always have something to talk about, and in 2005, we got married and it was perfect.

My yearning for more

In 2007 we relocated to South Africa from Nigeria, in search of greener pasture. I had my first daughter that same year and 3 years later a second daughter. Suddenly the responsibilities of caring for my kids overwhelmed me and I lost control over my career.

My finances were not aligning with my internal goals, there was never enough time to do all the stuff I wanted to get done. There were so many unknowns and fear totally gripped me. I knew something had to change, I knew I needed clarity and the right strategy.

I even set out to do a master’s degree, and majored in environmental sustainability, because I refused to accept my status quo and the norm that every other immigrant was living with. 

But was that enough?

No, it didn’t seem so, as life was getting tougher in South Africa, Johnson and I made another leap, and relocated to Canada…

Unexpected challenges - I need to GROW 🤔

This time it was worse, as my degree was not recognised as viable, and as always, I referred to what every other person was doing, Get a survival job!

In my head was thoughts like, "it’s better to be here than back home..." "You should be happy you have opportunities" and so much more...

But I was not happy, because my life had no meaning. Although I was helping an organisation out, it was not really what I wanted to do. I knew deep within, that I am a planner, a “get things done” person. I wanted to be more innovative and creative.

I needed a place to build on my skills and grow to be my best self. While these were my deep thoughts, at that time it didn’t seem like there was something I could do about it. Needless to say, I now had 3 kids with my son arriving in 2013.

Then I remember the words of my dad, everyone have to always choose to carry their cross, because when you do you will be able to know your capability and identify who can help. Desired Opportunities show up for those that are prepared, and preparation means being Intentional while Investing on the right path