When it comes to entrepreneurial success, the best teachers are the people who started with very little, took a leap of faith, and started their own businesses. This is because they persevered through disappointment and failure and ultimately built flourishing businesses.
One of them is Tunde Olubodun-Pastor, EdifyCity Entrepreneurs Church. EdifyCity is in search of young Nigerians who have good ideas, ready to trust their guts and overcome adversity to establish striving enterprises.
His strategy is finding a niche that everyone else has failed to spot and target. Then, staying strong and optimistic despite adversity until success comes. Though an architect, he is one of those entrepreneurs at work on several fronts. He is credited with so many ventures. Indeed, Olubodun is living out the Nigerian dream. In 1998, Olubodun co-started a construction business. As a serial entrepreneur, he didn’t stop at just one great business idea. He has put his stamp on many things.
For him, starting a new business is a lifestyle. The completion of one project usually comes with the thought that, more than anything; they want to get right back into the game. They know that being out there in the thick of the chase and dealing with the uncertainty and challenge is where they have to be.
For Olubodun, entrepreneurship has become something of an addiction. His first experience as an entrepreneur was actually a failure, but he considered it a success because of how he managed it and who he became because of it. He and his business partners lost money when the construction company failed.
As the business climate supports startups, he keeps building new businesses. His latest venture, a security devices outfit, is making waves. While researching the security equipment industry, he saw opportunities: the industry was becoming attractive due to increased security concerns and increase in the demand for electronic security devices in both residential and commercial environments. He found that he could succeed at it.
He moved quickly to carve out the business. With time, his efforts transformed into increased patronage and better returns.
Seeing further opportunity, he began to work on offering integrated electronic security monitoring platform.
Over the years, he has learnt there is no guarantee of success in building businesses, even with experience. One poor decision can stop the company’s growth in its tracks.
As technology changes rapidly, he tries to keep up with those shifts and how they will affect the business.
While, it might surprise a lot of non-entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs, he noted that failure is one of the most important parts of the journey toward success. According to him, it’s the path to success and the price entrepreneurs must pay to become successful. He is convinced that majority of people who “fail” do so because they never grasp this simple concept.
Furthermore, many entrepreneurs have suffered flops, but managed to learn from their setbacks, making the experience a positive one. As his faith deepened, he gained a perspective on the struggles he had experienced. Although he didn’t know it at the time, those challenges set him up for success later in life. He believes God was preparing him for future success and his ability to help others.
Now, he’s working hard to launch viable ideas, just as he embraces each failure as it comes.
For him, failure gives one an opportunity to re-evaluate the way one conducts his business. When it was over, they had to decide whether they were going to learn from it and keep going, or go out and get jobs.” Being an entrepreneur is not easy if you don’t go lean. With over 150 million citizens as your potential clients, launching a new product without thoroughly studying the market needs is not a good idea,” he said.
But Olubodun is not your typical entrepreneur; you wouldn’t necessarily meet him at an entrepreneurship event, or watch him pitch his startups to investors. He is a pastor of a church. He wants to rip Nigerian communities of unemployment through a national entrepreneurship campaign.
He had a great education. Bagged his degree in Architecture and attended Lagos Business School. Despite all the privileges, he wondered about some of the inefficiencies in the education system that is not helping young people to start something on their own with increasing national unemployment rate.
To this end, EdifyCity is promoting the Entrepreneurs Church, it’s outreach arm setup to help new businesses grow and succeed, providing budding entrepreneurs with the necessary and important skills and tools to avoid the pitfalls and traps.