My Life Story
As a young entrepreneur, I’ve always had a vision to achieve success, especially growing up as an ordinary East London teenager witnessing crime and violence within my own community. I felt the need to be different and take the path not travelled. This motivated me to set up a web design business at 14 years of age. I ran the company for a period of two years. I was still studying at school and the business generated a healthy income. But because it was becoming a ‘very common’ business venture, I decided that it was best to leave the web design business when I turned 16.
I’ve always believed that once you create opportunities for yourself people will come back to you, maybe in a few years’ time, to provide you with new experiences and opportunities which may be beyond your biggest dreams. Having left the web design business at such a young age, I quickly discovered the benefits of risk-taking. With a passion for networking and with strong organisational support, I became a junior trader at 16 years of age when Merrill Lynch gave me the opportunity to live and learn to trade in New York.
With a wealth of knowledge and experience as a young entrepreneur and investor, I felt the need to inspire young people across the nation. This led me to my next project; to write my first book - The World at Your Feet – at just 17 years of age. The launch of my first book presented me the opportunity to become a motivational speaker and so in nine months, I shared my story of being a young entrepreneur at 379 events and sold over 42,500 copies of my book.
I believe that a journey always starts with inspiration. However, there must be some form of education involved to be able to learn what entrepreneurship is and how it really works. This is why I wanted to inspire young people and more importantly educate them about the world of entrepreneurship and what taking risks is all about. With this experience under my belt at 18 years of age, I was able to invest £20,000 of my own money into developing and launching my own business board game – Teen-Trepreneur. The game has been sold in 14 countries around the world and is now used as part of the BTEC (Business and Technology Education Council) Qualification in over 450 schools across the United Kingdom. Alongside my board game, I also launched my second book – The World at Your Feet: Three Strikes to a Successful Entrepreneurial Life.
I named my second business venture after my first book - The World at Your Feet – and the business consists of many small enterprises and programmes that provide inspiration, empowerment and entrepreneurial initiatives. One of these initiatives is called Teen-Speakers, and this project is all about bringing together the ‘World’s Best’ young influential speakers aged 16-25, onto a single platform where they can inspire and empower a global audience.
Alongside Teen-Speakers, I also launched Teen-Publishers, a platform for young writers aged between 5-25 years to get their books professionally published and sold over online retail channels. I also launched the Teen-Trepreneur Success Kit, a training program to help nurture youth to become successful entrepreneurs.
I’m now 21 years of age and my vision to inspire young people has expanded globally having already reached out to millions of people in the past two years across the United Kingdom, Europe, United States of America, Nigeria, South Africa, Japan, Botswana and the Maldives. After visiting and speaking in all those countries, I launched, in May 2011 the Inspire1Million, with a vision to not just reach out to millions of people but to inspire, engage and transform the lives of 1 million people in 20 countries within 12 months.
The tour started in the Maldives in May 2011 with the launch of the www.inspire1million.org website, which allows every inspired person to upload an image of themselves. After spending 12 months travelling to countries such as India, Sri Lanka, Nigeria, South Africa, Botswana and many others, my aim is to see one million faces on a single webpage. This will mark the Inspire1Million legacy of inspiring one million people around the world.
No matter how simple or difficult an idea is, it’s important that people from around the world are creating positive change, acting as role models for others and guiding each other towards their dreams and goals. As long as you do this, you will be recognised and rewarded for your successes and achievement. In the past years I’ve received many accolades. I became an honouree of the JCI Ten Outstanding Young Persons of the World 2010, which was awarded in Osaka, Japan and also received the Mosaic Entrepreneur of the Year 2008 Award which was presented by His Royal Highness Prince of Wales and Her Royal Highness Princess of Jordan.
Though I’ve experienced quite a journey so far, I still see myself as an ordinary 21 year old, East London Youth. However, I do believe that everyone’s purpose is to succeed in life. I also believe that what I’m doing and the journey I am taking will inspire, educate and provide opportunities for millions of ‘ordinary individuals’ to become extraordinary citizens of this world. |
