#AskOutLoud™ | #EntrepreneurialMyths

In October 2012, 14 months after migrating to Lagos, I secured a teaching job and had the first taste of the employee life. Failing twice to gain admission into my "dream" school, University of Lagos, I was a stay-at-home teenager, living with my grandma and waiting on my mom, as usual, to send cash from the North to keep me in one piece.

My aunt advised I apply for teaching at the school her kids were attending, a stone's throw away from home, so I can feed my pockets with my own naira. The thought was enticing so I embraced it. Early 2013, I quit the job, even though my boss offered to raise the monthly salary from N5,000 to N7,000!

Let's take a step back. In December 2012, I invested about N16,000, sourced from my 2-month-old job, to procure some products to begin my first Network Marketing business in partnership with Swissgarde. It's more than 5 years down the line and I still run the business with the same company! Now, why did I quit a seemingly secure job in less than 5 months but clung to an insecure business, over 5 years?

The salary was low? No! I was habitually frugal, which I realise won't change even if I earn a million! I literally walked to the bank on pay days to deposit almost all my earnings, which of course enabled me start my business. My relatives fed me? Yes, but it lessened significantly as I worked in my business over the years. My dislike for this dependence was one of my spurs to that insecure path.

I quit that job because it didn't give me a sense of self-worth and purpose. I hated waking up early, teaching all day, topics that won't really help those kids thrive and coming home late. I did enjoy the few times I spoke to the kids about life but that didn't make up for all the lost personal time.

My sense of sense of self-worth and direction was sparked, in late 2011, when I began eating into books about life and happiness. Down the line, one of them, the Cash Flow Quadrant by Robert Kiyosaki, opened my eyes to the power of Network Marketing, as the doorway into the world of business and service to humanity. It spurred me to begin my own path.

I've come to realise that WHY we do is largely more important than WHAT we do for the the degree of happiness we derive from WHAT we do is tied to WHY we do it. Many people are silently unhappy in their job or (even) business because they are primarily motivated by the "shadows" of comfort, conformity, societal love and money. Take these or some away and they all quit or hang on, miserably, to the thin thread!

Would you like to learn about what I consider the pathway to Happiness, which goes against everything you may know about it?

Would you like to learn about the 3 biggest influences that killed and still kills the entrepreneurial spirit, everyone is born with, before they clock adulthood?

I'm setting up the skeleton of my book about the Entrepreneurial Myths, wherein I'll share my thoughts on the aforementioned points and more, in details. Meanwhile, to not miss out on new broadcasts, book updates and of course, a live interaction with me, text "EMyths" to 0813 049 6612 to join my inner circle of Askers on WhatsApp!

Selah!

I've come to realise that WHY we do is largely more important than WHAT we do for the the degree of happiness we derive from WHAT we do is tied to WHY we do it.