On the 10th of March, 2018, I spoke at my first international event. It was the Women Will event in collaboration with Google Business Group, in Cotonou, Republic of Benin. I spoke on the topic “Building an Entrepreneurial Mindset as a Woman”. It was in commemoration of the International Women’s Day with the theme Press for Progress.
I was honoured to share the stage with the organiser Vanessa Mbamarah and Remi Owadokun, both friends of mine. Vanessa shared her electrifying story on what it means to build regardless of all the adds that were stacked against her, while Remi spoke on the importance of having mentors in life and business.
It was an interesting event for many reasons. The most important was that it was a French speaking nation and my French lessons stopped in Grade 9 in school, plus I hadn’t had any practice. We had to have a translator translate in French while we spoke in English.
After I got back to Nigeria, I laughed at myself for many reasons. The first being that speaking at Cotonou was not by accident. It was intentional because I had manifested it. While planning for my 2018 goals back in November of 2017, I decided on the theme for the new year. It was ‘Go Global’. Part of the things I planned for, was to have international speaking engagements, and to visit two new African Countries.
Speaking at Cotonou fulfilled both of these things for me. It was my first international speaking engagement and my first African country to visit in 2018. By June, I will be speaking in Nairobi, Kenya, as well as Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. I still have another engagement lined up for the last quarter of the year in another African country.
My friends, you can only predict the future when you deliberately and intentionally plan for it. Whatever happens to you is as a result of what you manifest, wether consciously or unconsciously. Things don’t just randomly happen. It is left for you to then deliberately decide what direction your life is going to go, by being intentional about your plans.
Don’t let life toss you whatever. Don’t get to your future someday and wish you were more proactive instead of being reactive. Start today to do something that your future self will thank you for. be intentional.
