It Takes A Stubborn Woman To Succeed In Real Estate
Shakirat Ayobami Kareem is the founder of WhiteRose International Group and a leading woman in Nigeria’s real estate sector. Recently, she stepped up her game with the unveiling of Camelot Mews By WhiteRose, a luxury property in Lekki, Lagos with varieties of apartments. In this interview, she talks about building her business and how her drive for entrepreneurship is inborn. TOMI FALADE brings excerpts.
Did your childhood prepare you in any way for what you do now?
Not at all, I am from a devoted Muslim background, I got married at the age of 18 and I had my first child from my first marriage. I decided to further my education and got my first tertiary school admission to Lagos State Polytechnic. I realised later that my ex-husband had married another wife. I was deeply heartbroken because I depended on the marriage, and he reduced the attention he was giving me. At some point, he cut off the communication. When things became difficult for me, I travelled back to meet him to sort out issues with him and accept the second wife, but I got home to realise that he has married a third wife. I returned to Lagos with the resolution that I will never depend on anyone again and that I will never go home until I am successful. I thereafter focused on my business and my education. Basically, I lost my first marriage because I decided to further my education.
The entrepreneur spirit is inbuilt, I remember when I was in Primary Three, I started saving in a piggy bank from my school feeding money and cash gifts and I used the money to start a small business in my father’s house. I was the richest amongst my siblings when I was growing up to the extent that I was being referred to as “rich woman”. My older siblings don’t beat me or send me on an errand so that I can borrow them money.
How did you get into the real estate sector?
Propelled by the lack of encouragement I received from my first marriage for desiring to empower myself as a woman, I was inspired to succeed in life through hard work. Subsequently, I saw a woman contesting for a gubernatorial position in my state and that inspired me to a great extent that I can achieve relevance as a woman. However, the environment I subsequently found myself in greatly helped me to discover opportunities in the real estate sector and I grabbed them with tenacity. I was once told before that three things will impact your life, the environment you find yourself in, the books you read and the friends you surround yourself with. I never thought of real estate until I came to Lekki.
What has the journey been like since you started?
Life is not a bed of roses, challenges are a part of life. Deterrents are put in your life to test your resilience, to bring you closer to your life’s purpose. If you don’t know failure, how could you ever relish in glory? I faced lots of challenges even after I started real estate, but as the powerful choleric that I am, I don’t give up. A choleric will survive even in their last defeat. At some point in Lekki, I was homeless because of an unfortunate incident that happened years ago when a telecommunication mast fell on an apartment which I newly paid rent for, lives were lost. I had a car and my family’s house on the mainland then, but it was a bit difficult to shuttle from the mainland to the Island daily, considering the fact that I will have to face traffic when I am coming to Lekki in the morning, and I don’t do friends. Sometimes if the traffic is terrible and I have an early morning appointment, I will look for a quiet estate to park my car, stretch the seat and sleep in my car. In the morning, I will look for a nice eatery to freshen up and start my day’s business. All my clothes were in the car as the rain destroyed my property in the house that collapsed. It was not like I didn’t have people I could run to who would help me sort my accommodation problems, but I don’t like begging, I prefer to give and I always like to be in charge of my affairs. My family was not even aware of what I was going through because I hate pity and sympathy.
What are some of the challenges you encounter in your line of work?
People underestimate my ability a lot probably because I am a woman in a business sector that is dominated by men. Another major challenge I also encountered as a beginner in real estate was access to finance. I had lots of dreams but there was no adequate fund to establish a strong business model; I was doing a one-man business.
What do you enjoy most about your job?
Real estate business gives me the platform to groom and impact the lives of many young people who desire to break free from mediocrity and poverty, and that is the inner joy that keeps me going against all odds. Looking back and seeing some persons who are equally self-reliant by virtue of being trained by me gives me so much joy. Again, I love being my own boss, real estate will give you the opportunity to be your own boss. I love to be challenged, I love meeting people and I love creating job opportunities. My job gives me all of these luxuries.
Tell us three women who inspire you.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Ibukun Awosika, and Kamala Harris. One thing that is common among these three women is that they refused to settle for anything less than the top. These women rose through the ranks, continuously beat their own success records and never got satisfied with achieving more even at the top.
Do you think women are well informed in your field?
It is a male-dominated field, it takes a stubborn, choleric woman like me to be successful in real estate. When you see a lady doing well in real estate please respect them. I must commend some women who currently dare the heights in real estate and are breaking boundaries. However, more awareness is needed to encourage more women to venture into the real estate sector rather than depending on men for survival.
What can we do better as a society to educate women in your work or initiative?
As earlier said, there is a need to create more awareness on the opportunities that abound in real estate for women. This is because majority of women believe that they can’t survive in real estate because of the fear that it is a male-dominated sector.
Again, there is need to encourage financial institutions to make access to funds easier for women in business, especially in the real estate sector. This will help in no small way to boost the productive capacity of women in real estate.
Also, there is need for adequate training platforms where interested persons can come and learn the tenets of real estate business. Some women indeed desire to be in real estate, but most of them venture into it without proper training and preparation, hence, they crash out in no time and become both a discouragement to themselves and to others.
On our part, we have currently built a platform known as Whiterose Network, that will assist in no small ways in both training and equipping not only women, but every interested person to excel in the real estate sector. To achieve this groundbreaking platform, I contacted two of my professors at the University of Lagos (UNILAG), and we were able to develop a network platform for young driven entrepreneurs who aspire to be at the forefront of Nigeria’s property market but are limited due to their financial resources and the networking. The platform is a great opportunity for beginners and a golden opportunity for people who aspire to have multiple streams of income. The network platform will also give you access to networking and all the resources you need to succeed in the business. You can recruit people directly under you to work for you on the platform and you earn referral bonus as you recruit and other bonuses like leadership bonus, performance bonus, promotional bonus and sales bonus which is the one you earn if there is any sale transaction from your down lines. It took us one year to develop the platform.
Inmarkingyourbirthdayyoulaunchedahighbrow estate in Orchid axis of Lekki, How do you feel about your laudable strides?
As people say, the greatest motivation any man can have is self-motivation. I feel very proud of myself to have delivered this audacious project irrespective of the hurdles I encountered in the process. The lizard fell from a high tree to the ground without getting hurt, it looked at itself and said “if no one praises me, I will praise myself for such a feat” so I must say I feel proud, happy, motivated and challenged to dare greater heights.
If there is one thing you could change in the real estate sector what would it be?
Structure. The real estate sector in Nigeria has no defined structure. Any person can wake up today and declare him or herself a ‘seasoned real estate practitioner’ without passing through defined regulated and informed structure that would prepare him or her to practice in real estate. The result of this is that there are many ubiquitous real estate agents out there taking so much havoc on innocent investors of real estate.
There is also need for adequate training and licensing of real estate practitioners, so as to sanitise the system and ensure the safety of investors’ investments in real estate.
Source: independent
