Deyemi Shares Story He Heard That Completely Changed His Life

Deyemi Okanlawon is self-reportedly the most bankable actor working in Nigeria today, and it's not hard to see why. Deyemi has been in almost every single blockbuster production out of Nigeria. From Blood Sisters to Brotherhood to Elesin Oba, Deyemi has been WORKING.

During a new interview with Top Charts Africa, Deyemi opened up about how he left a corporate job to pursue a career in acting. In sharing his story, Deyemi shared a story which he heard that completely transformed the way he thinks. After reading it, I will not lie, my mind has also been transformed too because it is a very different and interesting way of looking at things. Without further ado, here is what Deyemi Okanlawon said.

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Speaking about how he left his corporate job to pursue a career in acting, Deyemi said:

As an actor I’m an entrepreneur, a creative enterpreneur. I offer a very valuable mix of services, my craft, my business experience and my brand reputation, to producers and audiences as well as brands and business partners. My first memories of acting was when I was four or five years old in primary school plays that you ever saw. On campus I got involved with a faith based drama group and I was the head of the youth drama department at my church which I took it quite seriously – it was my ministry and what I believed at that time to be my purpose and one of the many things God wanted me to do. At first I was having fun and then it became something I really truly loved and became passionate about – all the while I didn’t realize that I was honing a skill. After dabbling from 2010 and seeing an opportunity in the space, I quit my job as the head of marketing in OLX in 2013 to pursue a career in acting. My engineering mind plus my experience in sales and marketing allowed me to strategize and do things differently. I’m very methodical in the way that I approach everything from reading scripts and breaking down characters and stories, to figuring out solutions to my business chanllenges, to discovering new services I can render to producers and brands.

Speaking about the story he heard which transformed his life and his way of thinking, Deyemi Okanlawon said:

I once heard a story about a man who climbed up the ladder of success till he got to the very top having triumphed through all the challenges, having fought all of the battles. At the top, standing victorious, he then suddenly looked around and realized that all the time the ladder had been leaning on the wrong wall. That story was a constant reminder as I grew into an adult, to always be certain of the end goal in whatever I’m doing. To answer your question, I realized that while I enjoyed sales and marketing, and I was very good at it, the impact I needed to have on my world would most likely come from doing this thing I was passionte about and so I took a leap of faith and here I am today.

Wow! That story is actually really powerful when you think about it. When climbing up the ladder of success, make sure the ladder is leading you on the right path, towards the right destination. So many people are climbing up ladders they're not even meant to be climbing. Such a simple story, yet so powerful. It really taught me something this Christmas day, will not even lie. Did the story also impact you the way it impacted me and Deyemi? Let me know your thoughts by leaving a comment either below or on my Jide Okonjo Facebook post.

That's All.

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