https://instagram.com/yao_selorm?utm_medium=copy_link
I'm a young trendsetter filled with many dreams, mainly inspired by life circumstances to create a better life for myself and people around me. In my quest to establish myself, I worked on a few projects that partially failed (social media platform and agribusiness). How do you answer this honestly while also not scaring away your potential future investors, co-founder or colleagues by bringing up that time you failed? It’s a tricky situation to be in. I think failure is more than just not meeting a goal, it’s about not meeting a goal with the resources you’re given. These failures have actually taught me a lot of lessons that I'm currently applying that in everything I do moving forward. That way, I am NOT scared to start over. Currently, my focus is more on Strictly Social Africa, a media and social club network with my co-founder Cecil Ato Quarshie. We're on a mission not to just provide exciting viewing contents to our audience, but also help our ecosystem or community improve their social skills - in summary networking, creating a conversational environment and connecting from a grassroots level across Africa starting with Ghana, Nigeria and Kenya, where we currently operate.
What were the biggest initial hurdles and how did you overcome them
From a personal perspective, one of the biggest challenges I faced growing up is feeling insecure about myself as I felt others were better than me in almost everything. These hindered few good opportunities as I didn't step forward to grab them. And I also miss out on beautiful relationships with people around me. Overcoming insecurity hasn't been an easy one, I started to feel confident about myself in late 2017 by allowing myself to go through introspection and then selecting and surrounding myself with people who said positive things about me and appreciated my abilities: people who made me genuinely feel good about myself.
What books are you currently reading
I'm currently reading 21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari.
What do you know today that you wish you would have known when you first got started?
In terms of projects, I've come to realize that an idea doesn't succeed just because it's a beautiful idea, you need a clear strategy complimented with a committed team to help you implement that goal. The impact of a mentor(s) can't be understated as well and when it comes to personal life, don't belittle yourself because of your flaws and circumstances as everyone else has their own flaws and dealing with their own personal issues for we are all human beings.
What advice would you give an upcoming youth or talents locally and internationally
To any upcoming youth reading this now or in the future, I want to genuinely plead with you to believe in yourself that you're capable of doing great things. Don't let your current state stop you from being the great person you'll be and most importantly, do everything with a higher purpose in heart: God, family, society and posterity.
