My First Business Adventure

I remember my very first “business” in cosmetics (yep, you read that right).

I was a 13 year old dude in JS3 who realised that because some classmates were reaching puberty, the odour oozing from most of us was dangerous.

So one fateful day as I walked around our house thinking of how to make extra cash, my nose started to twitch because of what I perceived. After realising that the scents came from the plants, I practically “skinned” those poor plants, including aloe vera, went into our bathroom, wore a pair of gloves, took a small container, extracted the juices from each plucked leaf and in about 1 to 2 hours later, I emerged with a thick oily lotion whose scent could last 4 to 6 hours. My mum couldn’t believe what I was doing.

I used my lotion on my body the next day to school. Thank God I didn’t develop skin irritation. The ladies started noticing and kept asking what cream I used.

I felt like a brand ambassador that day and the days after. Ladies and gentlemen, I sold each scoop of my lotion for N5. A few days later, I redeveloped the body lotion into a bigger container since I didn’t have many small containers to sell.

I can’t remember how much I made, but I was able to use the revenue to buy some school books. The adventure didn’t last a month anyway because my customers discovered and started buying the well branded deodorants sold beside school. Those were more legit anyway…hehehe.

You may read this and say I failed in my first business. But sometimes what we call failure isn’t really failure. It’s just an opportunity discover something new about yourself.

What have you discovered about yourself lately?