A referral from a close friend led me to sign up to be an IFA Fellow. The process was quite detailed and I got selected.
January started with a surge of energy as I prepared my mind for the Innovation Readiness Training Program. The curriculum involved Personal Branding, Design thinking, Strategic Analysis, Hard Skills lab. Personal branding taught me a lot about the importance of positioning oneself as a professional. I always thought that only businesses needed the level of branding that IFA was requesting of the fellows but this paid off on match day as employers had a lot of information on the fellows before even meeting them. As an entrepreneur who likes to solve problems and create business from the solutions, the design thinking process gave me insights for going through this process in a more constructive way.
Strategic analysis helped me with critical thinking. Carrying out SWOT and STEEPLE analysis and defining strategy for various levels of the business development process. The Hard Skills lab exposed me to various product management tools, accorded fellows the opportunity to work with businesses on real life projects and I took advantage of as many materials as I could to learn and practice.
I will ever hold on to the following values that have been greatly beneficial this last month. Collaboration, Growth mindset and Grit.
These values have helped me and the teams that I have worked in to make progress with tasks that we were given both in the Hard Skills lab and the Hackathon project.
Oh!!! Listening to our inspiring innovators was like listening to wisdom stories. These startup owners gave their time to tell us about their entrepreneurial journey, the lessons, the struggles and the victories. Fehintolu Olaogun of CredPal really impacted my thinking and I learnt from him that in entrepreneurship, you just have to keep moving forward, you will make mistakes but keep recording improvement.
Finally, the IFA team. It was a huge relief to know that they were available to offer support, mentorship and reminders. They did all these with a constant air of positivity and I am certainly imbibing this value.
It was a whole month of forming habits that will help in a startup experience or in my entrepreneurial journey. Innovate for Africa rocks!!!!!