Bishop T.D. Jakes interview with Mrs Folorunso Alakija

hello everybody this is TD jakes and we are alive in the bishop's village I'm here in Accra Ghana and I am so excited I'm having a wonderful time I'm learning all the customs and getting all the clothes and eating all the food and food and everything it's absolutely amazing amidst all of the rich traditions of this area and this continent I have found a rare jewel a discovery to many of us but not a discovery to the world she is a woman in her own rights who has built somewhat of an empire I dare say a dynasty of which I think women around the world should be inspired by as well as men I'm talking about Figueroa Sir Alec Keisha how'd that do with that thank you very much I'm so going to Hannah thank you this woman is a Nigerian woman who has made history she is recorded to be the wealthiest black woman in the world she surpassed Oprah Winfrey in terms of her net worth and value her business industries are vast and varied going from oil to fashion to printing you've got your hand in just about everything and so many people when they see somebody like you how do you manage all of those different areas in your life I managed through the grace of God I let God be my guide I have learnt so many ingredients to life and to how best to make it work for you I have seen things done things experienced things that have taught me lessons lessons that have brought me this far I come from a background of Muslim parents and family I was born into a family of 56 children well eight wives well I'm child number eight of course unfortunately there are only 45 of us left but I wasn't deep in the Muslim religion mm-hmm my father and my mother they built mosques but I give glory to God that by the time they they died I was able to meet my father to Christ what a few days before he died my mom became a born-again Christian a year and a half before she died and we were a close family in it that's why the fact that there were so many children I've come from a family of entrepreneurs traders basically in textiles okay and we were deep down in the marketplace how did you coming from that background you've been raised around entrepreneurs obviously have a strong work ethic to be involved in textiles and then to translate that into fashion was there a bridge between the textiles that brought you into your knowledge and an obvious gift with fashion well I had started off as a secretary okay by the time I left the bank where I worked where I'd spent 12 years I knew that my life would have something to do with fashion because I had always been passionate about fashion as you know as I was growing up I loved beautiful dresses even as a little girl oh my - my mother's children but talented and creative in terms of art so I knew I had the artistic talent and I wanted to seize that opportunity I had always loved beautiful things around me and I put two and two together and the fact that I wanted to be a business when anyway mm-hmm so I wanted to get into the fashion industry okay and I felt I said to myself okay how do I do this I'm coming from from while I've gone into different sectors of the bank and I ended up as a banker when I was leaving so he was a Mac wait you went from being secretary yes to ended up being a banker yes to the millions of secretaries who are watching us right now they're sitting there do you our typing did when you were a secretary did you have any idea that this level of greatness was inside of you I knew that the Lord had spoken to me years back and said to me that if you go into business you will be greater than your your father Wow God had said that to me many years were on her back and I had my focus on business ever since you had your focus on it yes I'm doing business business is I would think that business is about product of building relationships with the business community and understanding how the business works obviously growing up around entrepreneurs you you grew up in an environment where business worked every day that's right how did you begin to develop the kinds of contacts that thrust you from the background into the spotlight I would say that was when I started my fashion business when I went back to England the second time around because I'd gone to England when I was 7 gone to school there for about four years came back carried on with my education got married when I came back the second time I got married after three and a half years of courting and I decided that okay I'm setting up my business when I left the bank and I you know went back to England to study fashion design and I came back and I set up my fashion business we then within a I'll take a few months I had made I had begun to make my mark because after three weeks of launching my label I entered into a competition the fashion competition which brought me into the limelight well because it was a fashion competition that was a national one and I won the competition I came home with no that's real prostitution that was a turning point yeah yeah that was a turning point and that brought me into the limelight okay and brought so many people from all walks of life come to patronize me well and I enjoyed their patronage not only locally but also internationally because I started exporting some of my clothes and people would even come and order clothes and go and sell them abroad from you know by placing the orders with me however I continued doing that and I I got to know many people during how important is relationships in your business relationships are good because you make friends mm-hmm you make friends you're making them look good mm-hmm and they love that you right right and and you come closer mm-hmm so that that that that was good for me it was good for my business and people would get accolades for you know wearing yes and it would be okay where did you get that so mike mcclain Selby's was expanding and I got to know a lot more people in social that helps it's social media a part of your way of marketing have you benefited from social media now no no I stopped doing any form of merchandising or anything with the fashion industry because when I was 50 when I was 50 I packed up my fashion business that was 16 years ago yes I packed it up and the Lord wanted me to pack it up he said he was done with that part of my life and wanted to take me to another level that was 16 years ago that was 16 years ago you were 50 yes 66 now that's unbelievable you should be selling used sir what keeps you going forward at 66 with passion and drive and tenacity you don't seem like you're even thinking about slowing up no I'm not in fact I'm just talking oh yeah because I got work to do for the Lord yes yes it's God that brought me this far and I need to pay back mm-hmm and I'm doing that in my own way and in ways that he has guided me and spoken to me and that's that's why and how I came to looking after widows and orphans that's your philanthropic yes yes because they gave me a time in my life when I said Lord you've been doing so much for me I need to know what I can do for you and he dropped the scripture my spirit James 1:27 and we talks about you know looking after orphans and widows and I started doing that with joy gladness in my heart being able to make a difference in the lives of those who felt that they were they were outcasts and being able to wipe wipe away that is empowering them sending their children to school give them scholarships to university level and and the often same thing give me them scholarships and you know empowering them and educating them training them and helping them to be better people yes to be able to find their feet within the society to be able to hold up their heads high within the society and be somebody right now we have a about 111 alumni well yes and we set up an alumni for them and the widows we continue to teach them how to fish rather than give them fish because you give them fish get squandered yeah and it's like okay Nick I'm talking with that one next but if you train them they are able to improve on what they've done and we allow them to come back come back for a moment mm-hmm okay because we follow them we follow through with them we were busy counseling them we're monitoring then we're encouraging them praying with them training them of all the things that you have learned the way can you give us one or two things as a businesswoman that has become your mantra so to speak in terms of helping you to grow your business to the extent that it is wrong some of the ingredients that have helped me but that I use my day-to-day life in business have spelt out success mm-hmm yes for sacrificing daily to make a difference okay by going the extra mile mm-hmm you for utilizing my time and my talent to make things work because when when you do not make use of the time that you wasted and when you waste your talent you can never regain it see I consistently focus on my goals and another C for credibility and reliability mm-hmm we all know that ignorance can be very expensive people will label you when you are not credible when you are not reliable people run away from you that doesn't help your business mhm e for education educate yourself refresh yourself we train and we train and we train yourself find out information get linked up with those who can help you go online go for trainings and look for mentors just package yourself you need to do that as say no to those who would want to discourage you do not allow no to discourage you yes again for seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all other things will follow that sounds wonderful you have a recipe for success right there that if you apply that it make it applicable regardless of the type of business you're in you will increase your ability and flexibility to experience the kind of success that God intended for all of us to have regardless to how you define success I want to ask you this question because you started out as a secretary you grew up through the ranks you ended up at the top of the tier of the banking industry you have crossed over into printing and and and oil and some of everything but I noticed along the way you kept talking about educating yourself along the way how much of it is instinct gut gifting and how much of it is education my education as far as going to school every day is concerned ended up with my my my diploma in the secretarial course mm-hmm and I carried on wanting to improve myself okay especially when I came into the oil industry because I was a totally new left right and you need to you need to get yourself geared up for something you're getting yourself into otherwise you'll fall flat on your face information is knowledge knowledge is important and it is wealth mm-hmm you cannot really succeed in life without getting education and without getting information without getting yourself ready to face the world and you're going to be in boardrooms in this in this business so you you better be able to say the right things using the right language right so that it won't seem as if okay she's a pretty face but what's she doing here right absolutely so I had to do that yeah education is important to me I see it is and it is a lifelong pursuit that we all continue to educate ourselves sometimes in my life trying to educate myself to catch up to where my gifting carried me sometimes your gifting will put you in an arena that makes you have to go back and do research just so that you can earn the right to play on the next level when you start talking about being a woman and there are lots of women who are more entrepreneurial now than ever before has been a woman been an asset or a liability in business both there will be those who would say oh well let's listen out of cutsie mm-hmm and then by the time you start to talk okay it's something here mm-hmm so I guess settled I think there'll be those who may want to muffle you thinking that because she's a woman no caves what's she doing here mm-hmm you understand and there are those who are jealous mm-hmm so yeah they're all things that you have to face mm-hmm there are faced and and I thank god that's I'm not the kind of person that you can push over really you can't push me over I will stand my ground I'll make my point known I will drive it home and I'm ready to face challenges mm-hmm and I know that through the grace of God with him be my helper yes there's no challenge that cannot be some surmounted you have this engaging way of interacting with people seem to be very gregarious and pleasant and outgoing but you also have an inner strength and tenacity that suggests then you don't want to rumble with me you know what a rumble with me I'd see that don't want to rumble with me kind of businesswoman who didn't know how to come out and be nice and I've seen the kind of woman who was so nice but she didn't know how to be tough how did you find that balance to know when to be a lying and when to be a lair I thank God for the for the mother that raised me she was a tough one but tough cookie yeah and that's what she did with all her children that's how she raised all seven of us she taught us everything that we needed to know she was illiterate but she knew onions she knew how to raise children mm-hmm and she was resilient you she was not a pushover she always made sure that she worked towards what she wanted to achieve and she brought us up like that and with every holiday I used to go to a store textile business I used to go to her store and I learned a lot from her over the over the years every holiday and then merchandising I learned everything I needed to know about fabrics and I learned how to relate and relay messages and whatever with the client mm-hmm so I knew how to handle the customers it has helped me a great deal in my businesses over the years and my mom always taught us that it's laziness that kills mm-hmm work will not keep so we were we were really tough children mm-hmm you understand me but we had been tough on down and we had chores everybody had their own chores for the day every morning you understand and you have to finish it and do it properly otherwise you're in big trouble right so all of that told me got me ready the way you see me I can drive a trailer yes I can tires magic tires when a flight tires and I'm driving my children to school whatever you know when there was school in England there's nothing I cannot do she trained us to you know to be like that they said with anything that comes along you're ready to face it and overcome it off camera before we started the interview you and I were talking about succession planning you have four children I believe I found four sons man children and grandchildren and you we were talking about how do we get this legacy to perpetuate itself from generation to generation if there were any one thing virtue that you had a about yourself that you look to see in your children what is it and how much do you see I think it would be tenacity yeah not giving up yes I keep drumming it in their ears never ever you give up you try once you fall flat on your face get up again and I keep telling them that listen Thomas Edison you tried a thousand times before he could commercialize the light bulb that's what we're all enjoying the electricity including that like that we that's in our faces right now so never the fact that you failed in something doesn't mean that you fail forever keep on trying do not give up this don't accept me no France that's incredible how do you manage heaven having raised four sons while you're building this business conglomerate that the whole mother thing in America and around the world women are entering into new frontiers new idioms have thought they're becoming more entrepreneurial some are going into government some are having to balance things that previous generations of mothers never had to balance before how do you get - how did you manage being that mother and the businesswoman and the wife all at the same time by planning prioritizing leaning on God holding him as my pillar and applying wisdom you have to apply wisdom you have to be ready for the work you have to be extremely hard-working you have to learn how to juggle a multitask my mom taught me multitasking if she tells you do this do that and do that and you think that's too much to handle you get a dirty slap mm oh we were all trained all the children were trained to be able to multitask me and I carried that through in everything I know it's funny I hear you talk about your mother and how she raised you a lot of my my strengths of my accomplishments I really appeared like to my mother and how she raised me those simple things that you're talking about are probably the same things that I would list as the things that I'm most grateful for when I look back on my own life and and think wow if she had not been tough you know as a parent I wouldn't have been stable as a son you know and I think that's so important I don't want to take advantage of your time I'm thrilled to do the interview with you but I'm going to ask you what people often two things one I'm going to ask you what's next for you and I'll give you a moment to think of that and before it I want to ask you if you could go back to that little girl sitting in front of a typewriter and tell her something that would help her be ready having experienced all that you have experienced what would you prefer into her ear I would say to her don't think that you cannot move from the position where you are right now make sure that you have a dream and that you plan towards your dream and make it happen and then your other question the question is having accomplished so much if you like me I I'm filled by the fight yeah best when you throw something at me and and a fighter almost needs a fight to stay going you've conquered so many fights what's next what's next is flourish Africa just a week ago I launched an online platform for women by women the platform is to encourage women to inspire them to bring them into a place like your village in for instance to put them to bring them to a place where we can interact where we can read and talk about the various experiences that we have had and how we can learn from one another and learn from those experiences and share them and be the women that God has called us to be to make a difference in the world yes - to make the world a better place to live in that's wonderful

Channel: Folorunso Alakija

Views: 115,174

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Id: Pebjv6Zsi8I

Length: 24min 7sec (1447 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 24 2018