My mistakes made me

In the beginning, all and sundry were fearful that he was going to turn out a roadside tailor and join the bandwagon. Yomi Awoyemi, the creative director of Yormages, as he would always refer to himself, beat all odds and turned out to be among the best. He perfected his act by making as many mistakes he could. In this interview with Inspire, Yomi, a University of Ilorin graduate narrated the story of the lessons, mistakes he made on the path to success.

When did you discover your talent?

When I started, a lot of my friends in school, even in primary school said the way I designed my report cards. Though I don’t know what they use now, in those days they used report cards. They saw the way I designed my report card, the stuff, that I drew then, they usually walked up to me and say please can you help me do this? That is the way I was able to develop that instinct, I love to create things and over the years I decided to develop the talent by brushing up my skills in the art of creating things. Right now, I’m so glad that what I am creating is fashion items ranging from shoes to all kind of items you can think about in fashion.

When did you decide to be a designer?

 When I left the University, I just decided that I wanted to do fashion, I already made up my mind that I was going to do fashion. I just told my friends ‘O boy see, all of you should look out for me because I am going to be a fashion designer’ and that’s how it all started. We thank God today, it’s about 10 years that I have been in the business, glory be to God Almighty for keeping us, body and soul together, we are grateful.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve had as an entrepreneur?

The biggest challenge is what every Nigerian entrepreneur is facing. The challenge of environment we are operating in and, of course, the orientation of Nigerians, the quest for overseas products, looking down on the things that we are capable of doing here. Still on environment, when we are talking about environment, we are talking about power supply, which is inadequate in the country at the moment, the epileptic power supply, the government policy not being supportive enough, the issue of availability of materials, because most materials we use today have to be imported and that ends up affecting our prices, because the dollar is not stable, so if most of the materials we use are actually dollar-driven, then it becomes challenging to be able to give a price stability in our business. Also is the orientation of Nigerians, when we started in 2008, the challenge we faced was to convince Nigerians and let them know that we could match up with any product from anywhere across the world.

Did you work under someone?

Well, I have not been fortunate, let me use the word, to work with someone. The truth of the matter is that, I learnt in a hard way, I wouldn’t advise anyone who comes out from school today to go straight into the business without having to ask somebody to mentor you. In our own case, by the time we started, there were very few people in Nigeria who actually made shoes, indigenous shoes, there were very few brands that you can think about who are into Nigerian-made clothes as a brand, there are some, but I think they are not adequate, because if you look at what is happening today, the story is not the same, there are quite a number of brands coming up because people like us started when there were very few in the industry, so we learnt through the root, we sometimes made a lot of mistakes, we didn’t start with a very good branding, so we had to go back to the drawing board and make sure that we put things together. But today its easier, because when people want to venture into business now, that is entrepreneurship, they have a lot of people to look up to, there are many brands in the industry they can look up to, they can see as mentors and role models. So, in my own case I did not actually work for anyone, we just put up the ideas and began to work with it.

Did the mistakes you made then define you as a brand today?

Yes, ideas are not really formed when you have it but as you begin to work on it, it begins to make sense to you, when  you have an idea and you are ready to work with it, you might not understand the end of it, but what you know is that as the days go by, ensure that you do the best you can, to ensure that you are working on your goal, and as you are working on it, it begins to take shape, it begins to have form, it begins to make sense even to yourself. In my own way, with the way I started my business, it made me stronger and it kept my feet very strong in the business. When you go through the tough time and you are able to survive, you would become stronger, so the mistakes that I have made are also part of my history, they are also part of my story because what they do is to make me stronger, wiser and to get better. For us, we can’t do without history.

Was there any discouragement when you started?

It is expected that people are going to feel discouraged, a brilliant you, someone is looking forward to hearing you that you are a doctor or lawyer, professions people think can attract success. They believe that once you are a lawyer, engineer or lawyer, that is when you can be successful, that was the orientation at a time. Family would discourage you, friends would definitely discourage you, but always believe in yourself, it is good to believe in what you can do, be ready to work hard at your goals or dreams. I believe that fulfillment is about doing what you love to do, the wealth is not quantified in terms of cash or by material things, wealth is quantified in terms of fulfillment and fulfillment is a personal thing, once you set your mind to achieve something and you are able to achieve it. But the way society actually looks at success and quantify wealth is different. So for me as a person, I can say that I am living my dream.