Little Tara was born in the popular city of Lagos, located in the southwestern part of Nigeria, to John and Felicia. When Tara was 8 months old, John and Felicia had to go separate ways, so she had to be raised by her stepmother, Modupe.
Schooling for Tara was some way of escape from her polygamous home. She attended both primary and secondary schools in Nigeria. When Tara was in Form 5 (now called Year 11), she became the sanitary and “Welfare Prefect,” which helped her develop leadership skills.
While in secondary school, an interesting event happened that helped to shape Tara’s future. A speaker came to talk about advertising and a bit about entrepreneurship. With bright eyes, Tara listened with rapt attention, and this speech was a seed sown in little Tara’s heart.
Read also: We need adequate capacity building to drive Nigeria’s entrepreneurship landscape – Jimmy-Eboma
She was also inspired by her dainty and fashionable stepmother, who always looked impeccable with perfectly painted nails and almost flawless makeup.
However, Tara had other dreams— her dream was to study Law at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom and learn French and Spanish too! She also dreamed of working at one of the biggest law firms in Nigeria. Her desire was to be a person of influence—someone who would impact or inspire others. She eventually studied Law at Lagos State University in Nigeria.
While at university, Tara started applying make-up for her friends, initially for free and later for a fee. She later started applying make-up for brides and got many compliments about her work and many referrals too!
One day, Tara decided to launch her business fully in her living room with fifteen thousand Naira in 1998 (the equivalent of less than 100 dollars at the time). She was 20 years old. During this time, the makeup business was not well known or embraced—could ‘face painting’ be a business?
Tara exposed herself to a lot of books and business courses too. She believes in building systems and structures that would make her business outlive her.
Lawyer turned Makeup Artist—Tara currently owns her company, which she calls ‘House of Tara,’ with several activities, namely:
- The Makeup Studio
- The Makeup School
- Theproductt linethath makes beauty products and makeup kits
- House of Tara 100 voices on YouTube with testimonials of people who have been impacted by Tara amongst her other accomplishments.
Today, Tara can be described as the ‘Pioneer’ in the makeup and beauty industry in Nigeria and one of the most successful businesswomen of her time.
Entrepreneurship education embraces a wide array of learning experiences that equip individuals with the essential skills and knowledge needed to be more valuable to themselves, their families, and the society at large.
Research has shown that children involved in entrepreneurial activities during their formative years can enjoy tremendous benefits.
Among the many skills that can be learned are critical, creative, and innovative thinking; problem solving; decision making; goal setting; time and money management; self-awareness; self-leadership; resilience; resourcefulness; relationship building; adaptability; strong work ethics; interpersonal skills; collaboration and teamwork; a growth mindset; and a lot more. The earlier these skills are learned and capacities developed, the more they become second nature.
This form of education is particularly vital because, unlike the traditional education system that primarily prepares students for existing job markets, entrepreneurship education cultivates a certain kind of mindset that drives students to become job creators rather than job seekers.
Certainly, not everyone needs to become an entrepreneur to benefit from entrepreneurship education, but all members of society need to be more entrepreneurial.
Read also: Lagos moves to tackle unemployment with entrepreneurship drive
Simple ways to incorporate entrepreneurial activities into classroom learning could be through the following:
-telling stories of successful entrepreneurs;
-creating brainstorming sessions;
-getting the students to watch ‘Shark Tank’ or ‘Dragon’s Den’ pitching sessions featuring younger entrepreneurs;
-playing a ‘Problem Vs Solution’ game or ‘grow your money’ challenge;
– simply bringing in a speaker to talk about entrepreneurship, like happened in the case of Little Tara.
Although entrepreneurship comes with lots of hard work, risks, and working long hours, sometimes without benefits of a salary or form of stability, it can be extremely rewarding and fulfilling for those who are passionate to bring their ideas to life and make significant contributions to society.
‘Entrepreneurship is indeed for everyone,’ just as the theme for the Global Entrepreneurship Week suggests. Hence, this is a unanimous call to use every opportunity to sow the seeds of entrepreneurship education starting from the elementary levels of learning at home and in school—who knows, you might just inspire another little Tara!
Yejide Akiode (MBA) is an Education Consultant, Content Creator, Author of Kids can entrepreneur too and Entrepreneurial stories for kids’ picture book series. She is also the initiator of the award-winning Kidpreneur Klub® which morphed into the Leadership & Entrepreneurship Academy for Kids. She resides in the United Kingdom.
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