Pretty and hardworking entrepreneur, Damilola, is the CEO of
Milolar Fashion, one of the leading brands in the fashion and skincare business
in Nigeria. She is the complete definition of beauty and brains combined. She
single-handedly built her business empire from the scratch through hard work and
dedication and today she is a force to reckon with in the industry.
In this
exclusive interview with City People's Publisher, Dr SEYE KEHINDE, she talked
about her success story, the many challenges she went through, her views on the
pandemic and what everyone needs to know and do when starting a business.
How were you able to cope with the lockdown?
Lockdown was very good for me. It began as a significant
turning point in my life in the sense that I discovered a higher and deeper
truth about myself that helped me cope well with that particular event in my
life.
It helped me discover the higher part of me that, I was not
even aware of. It helped me develop myself more so it was good for me, though I
gained more weight, which I am working to shed now.
It was a transformation period in my life. If I had not
experienced it in spirituality I would have been lamenting like lots of others.
I was able to unlock more truths about my individuality. I am now careful about
what I give so much energy to.
Fear is how people perceive events, so we need to be careful
of what we feed our minds with.
What are the lessons you learnt from the pandemic?
We need to understand that in life, there are some things we
can’t change. We should pray for wisdom, for the things we can not change and
wisdom for the things we can change and also pray to have knowledge to know the
difference.
Covid-19 was beyond the knowledge of any human being, so
your response to it determines the outcome of the event in your life, so be
careful with how you respond to it. If only we are open minded, there are
contents that are not beyond our comprehension, avoid words that are not
empowering. Lots of people said things about Covid-19 such as the world is
coming to an end, some even said it was owing to our sins, but truly, there’s nothing
like that. Everything in life follows a law and principle. When there is a
disturbance, the law is put in place to restore a balance.
I just see Corona as a way the nature and the law are
restoring balance. Take for example, whether we like it or not, regardless of
our feelings, the day will break and the sun will set in, so the issue of
Corona is not the question of if we are righteous or not. We need to know there
are some things beyond our comprehension. We should learn to be at peace with
everything. The energy we have about what is going on will significantly be our
personal experience. If you talk about post Covid, I am not where I used to be,
but I'm not in a bad space business wise but spiritually, I'm even stronger. I
experience peace, growth and increase. It may not have happened financially,
but spiritually, I have taken the best out of it. We need to protect ourselves,
keep our environment clean, take the necessary precautions and don’t invite
what we don’t want into our lives through negative confession. That is my
advice at this time. We need to work as a team and expect the best out of the
situation. A lot of people tend to rub off one negative vibe into another these
days, so we need to be careful because whatever we are doing right now is
already creating the future. I think in all, it is safer to be intelligently
ignorant than confessing negative things and making it worse than what it was
before.
How do you balance all your roles in fashion, skincare and
all that?
I just do it. I am very self conscious and very particular
about my looks and my skin. I love to take care of myself and empower people
around me. I am very good with what I do with my hands.
I was not born with a silver spoon and I'm blessed with a
very fashionable mother and she is very beautiful. I love how she puts
everything together and that rubbed off on me, so as I grew older, I wanted to
do fashion. Even when I became a beauty
queen, I was just playing round it. It was not like I had a premeditated plan
to emerge a Queen because I was really not skinny like most of the conventional
beauty queens, but I just wanted to try it and that was how I got into the
fashion industry so it became a personal thing for me to look good. So, I said
if I can cater for myself, there are lots of other women whom I can cater for
as well and that was how it all started.
When it comes to the skincare business, I never planned to
do skincare but as time unfolded and in other to pursue my dreams and fulfil my
desires, I kept discovering more about myself. So, while I was doing the
fashion stuff, I discovered there is more I can offer women. The vision was
bigger than fashion and skincare. I wanted to cater for every need of a woman
in every aspect and again it’s not all about making money, I want to be able to
create more value for women. Business is a service and once you see it that
way, you will put in your best and once you do that, it will grow more than you
can ever imagine. So, it’s something I have strong passion for and I'm managing
it so well.
How do you respond to competition from other people in the
same line of business?
I don’t see any competition. The fact that someone can do it
is an indication that you can do it too. You need to sometimes believe in
someone else’s belief to activate your own. When you see other people
succeeding, that is a proof that you can succeed too. If you are able to look
at life like that then you will understand that, there is no competition
really. It’s just an opportunity to grow as an individual. So, I don’t compete
with anybody, I don’t have any negative vibe with others doing the same
business with me. I will always encourage people to do whatever business you
want even if it’s fashion or skincare. I am always willing to teach people
because that is how I see service. I believe if am able to empower you to do
things you see me doing then that is an extension of my life. If there is
anything I would love to be in life, is
to be immortal and by being that doesn’t mean I would live forever but being
able to live in so many people long after I am gone. Such vision is not a
vision regular people have. They hide their talents and vision and don’t even
want to share it with anybody and I think it’s because we are ignorant, that is
why we approach life that way. So, by making an impact on people ‘s life you
will see it like you are collaborating with other women, not a competition. I
don’t feel threatened and intimidated, am too
stuck to be intimidated.
What do you have to say to the fact that many say you are a
combination of beauty and brains?
I am, indeed, humbled to hear that, honestly am just myself.
How did you discover yourself?
I work on myself. I try to always improve on myself through
self study and through spirituality. Everything I bring to the public is
embraced by people. For me, there’s this self force , internal drive that
propels and tells me if I can do this, then I can do far more.
Humans don’t explore all their potential, we go far, then we
stop. I do a lot of self study. I read a lot. According to one of my
motivational speakers, he said the problem with man is not that we set goals
and make it, but we set it too small. Sometimes, in our lives, we set a goal
and we achieve it, then we set a bigger goal then we are afraid, forgetting
that we set a goal and we are able to achieve it, it is an indication that we
were do better than that, but we keep doubting ourselves through fears and
doubts.
Many people don’t know they are largely responsible for the
outcome of their lives, so when we set responsibility for those things in our
lives that is when we are liberated. I am proud of my dreams and hustles.
What are those common mistakes you think ladies make in
fashion and beauty?
Mistakes are good for us, they are indications that we need
to do something differently. In life, some people just feel whatever they are
set out to achieve should be guaranteed, no that is not true.
You have to be willing to make mistakes. From day one you
should be willing to fall and willing to rise again, so your mistakes are yours
to make. As a human being, one mistake you should avoid in life is to avoid
making mistakes, you will never get ahead of by being conscious. Throw yourself
in a pool and you don't know how to swim, you will find out that you will never
sink, but rather you will swim because survival instinct is the strongest in
man. Some would say if I perish I perish, you won’t perish.
Everybody’s life is peculiar to her/him. Your mistakes and
failures are all peculiar to you but there are guidelines to follow. Take for
example if you want to go into fashion business you need to ask yourself why
you want to do it. And is your Why strong enough?
When I started I had
issues with lots of things but I never shied away from the fact that I had it
all figured out. I was still willing to try and test myself. When I started the
fashion thing I didn’t go to any fashion school. I bought machine and fabrics
and also got a lady who just finished from a fashion school, but didn’t know
much too because she was fresh. We went to YouTube, I did a lot of self training with google. That was
how I started. I made lots of mistakes, but never stopped and I kept telling
myself the only person who can stop me is me. So, by the time I conquered one
or two fears, I became fearless, bold and strong and that is all we need in
life.
After identifying your WHY, are you willing to pay the
PRIZE, are you willing to ask for help when the going gets tough? It doesn’t
make you look weak, but makes you stronger. I am not talking about begging for
money. When I had problem with my to do list, I met with Mr. Charles Otudor, he
is a very important person in my life. He said Damilola, I can help you with
that. He said every morning send me your to do list. He was my brand mentor at
a time. Every morning I will draft it and send to him, I used him as my
accountability partner, to be able to hold myself accountable for things I am set
to do. I leveraged his help to do the things I have desire to do. If you try to
do everything by yourself, you will fail so learn to leverage on other people
‘s time and resources, not in a beggy beggy way. Its very important to know why
you are doing what you are doing and why you are asking for help because life
will test you. I once worked with the Lagos State Government before I started
my fashion business. At a point, I felt my life was stagnant, no challenges. As
at the time, I got into the country after my masters I had ideas and was ready
to change the Lagos State Government by myself (laughs)!!! I wrote proposals
sent it to the governor. I had loads of ideas but the government kept cutting
me off that I was just a level 9 Officer not a director. With time, I had to
slow down everything.
After some time, I started feeling burnt out and I wanted to leave. Something
kept telling me, oh! You can still be in service and do other things but I
don’t believe in such life. If I am in service then it has to be 100 percent. I
don’t show up in a place and be quiet, my presence needs to be felt. So, I was
like if I can not give what I have here, then I need to get out. Then something
in me was like oh! Remain in service, with time you will be a Permanent Secretary.
I was like no, how can I just sit and watch till I get to that position? I
would just get old, then, how would I impact people’s lives? So, I decided to
check out and never looked back since then and it has remained one of the best
decisions of my life. I have stretched myself and achieved so much I never
imagined I could achieve.
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