Generally, entrepreneurship is a risk, and you can go for it if you are really interested in it. The world is tilting towards that, and nobody is going to give you a job again. I started my journey in 2013 while I was in University of Ibadan, in my 200 level, then I was almost a millionaire. I was a semi finalist in one of Jonathan program (YouWin) and at that point I almost won 3 million naira. What was on my mind was that after I get that money, I would leave school because I was already frustrated in veterinary medicine classes. So I had it in my mind that I would just leave University of Ibadan. I would just tell my parents that I’m sorry, that I just got some millions, and then I would do the business and start all over again. But God didn’t answer my prayer and so, I had to continue. Actually, I am happy today that God didn’t answer that prayer because immediately I left school last year; I got $250,000 from Google. It didn’t just happen like that: it was a process for me.
When I was in my final year, I got a scholarship to Lagos Business School to do any entrepreneurship course. I was chuckling LBS every week and UI for the second week, and then I was writing my project. I want you to understand that it is not an easy journey but if you are really passionate about what you can do very well. I run a company, I’ve been seeing a lot of pitches and I am really excited. I run a company that deals with models – we provide health services, we provide tools that mothers need during delivery in rural communities. When you go to rural communities, you would see that people are using rusty blade to have delivery, it is a big problem. So we have this package in which we call The HelpMum kits and we provide these to women in rural communities, and also we provide a vaccination tracker so that women can present their children for vaccination. That is the simple idea that won Google impact.
When I was a finalist at Google impact, I was competing against IITA. IITA was a finalist, BudgIT was a finalist, I was the youngest. Anytime people tell me I won Google impact, I am always jus surprised about how it happened. I know there is nothing that is impossible if you really go towards what you want to do, what you want to be, and how you want to go about it. I am not advising you to leave school when you get your big money today. You should finish school because people don’t even ask the Doctor of which I am, of which I am a veterinary Doctor but they think I am a medical doctor. Looking at the line of what I am a Doctor; it is a medical line and it is a cover up for me. Assume I didn’t finish and I won such amount, I would have finished it by now.
Dr. Adereni Abiodun is the C. E. O, HelpMum and a graduate of Veterinary Medicine, University of Ibadan. He gave an insight on the travail of entrepreneurship on the inauguration day of Students Entrepreneurship and Innovation Hub (S. E. I. H), University of Ibadan.
