trong>Blog queen Linda Ikeji visited the famous Vivian Fowler Secondary school for girls yesterday, March 2 to give the girls a motivational talk. She told them of her earlier struggles blogging in poverty, which once led to her arrest over a blogging debt.
According to the self made blogging billionaire, she once borrowed hundreds of thousands of naira to invest in her blog. She sunk the money into her blogging business but the money didn’t make impact. Instead it got her into serious trouble with a creditor who got her arrested over her inability to pay up.
She only avoided detention when the police mediated the issue and they worked out an agreement between her and the creditor where she would pay up the money over a period of time. (Judging by the success of Linda’s blog today, I’m sure the creditor would wish they had instead insisted on converting the debt into a share of her blog. Anyway, back to story.)
She said that after that crisis, her father, who was deeply worried for her, advised her to abandon blogging, as it ‘wasn’t bringing her profits, just trouble’. But according to Linda, her determination to pull herself and her family out of poverty, coupled with her passion for journalism made her continue blogging.
Then according to Linda, they used to stay in room and parlor apartment. They were about 7 sharing this room and parlour. It was that bad, according to her. Linda talked about her difficult growing days in Mushin and Idi Oro. But she said the difficulties did not way her down, but made her even more determined to succeed in blogging.
Today, after much trials and tribulations, she has achieved her dreams. She is now a very wealthy Nigerian. She has been able to build houses for her family members and a big mansion for herself.
On Why She Likes Showing Off Her Wealth
When someone stood up and asked her why she often shows off her wealth on social media, Linda was like: Why not, having tasted abject poverty with little chance of escape, now that she has achieved success through hard work, she has to flaunt it and not hide it as if it is a crime. Some people seemed satisfied with her explanation.
How Linda Can Maximise Her Inspiring Message + a little criticism
Some students listened intently to what Linda had to say, but our Correspondent feels this kind of rags to riches message would resonate more in cheap government schools where girls from struggling homes are so many. Talking about your early struggles in poverty to the kind of children who attend rich schools who were born with silver spoons in their mouth will not make much impact because a lot of them do not know what poverty is, or how it looks, and therefore won’t understand your message.
Linda, you should have talked to them instead about how to manage a successful business. That would have interested them more. Because a lot of them are just waiting to finish school to start managing one big company or the other. Others have been slated to marry into rich homes where money is just a word.
One thing I do when I want to make a speech is this: I ask myself: Who is my audience? I find that this helps me connect with them because I realise the things that they will connect with and the things that won’t interest them much.
All the same keep it up, Linda Ikeji. You are an amazon. You are a great example to many women who would otherwise think that dependence on men and sacrificing of their morality is the only route to wealth.
Really? Such is life.
Happy for her