A TRUE LIFE STORY

Hello!! dearest Steemitians, today i bring you
A true life story about Linda Ifeoma Ikeji. Bear with me, this post is long even though the story is summarized. But you will be glad if you read it till the end. You will see a bit of how she used the creative power of her minds and her words to make it, despite years of suffering. Hard work, persistence, consistency, thinking up new ideas, never giving up…

Linda started hustling at age 17 to support her family. Family of 7 children (1 boy, 6 girls) from Imo state.

Got admission into UNILAG in 1999 at age 18 for English even though she wanted to study Mass Comm. Started modelling at 19 in 2nd year, to have money to eat & send home. Made very little – had money to eat sometimes, other times she begged people around. Did modelling jobs, ushering jobs, got a job at a hotel where she sold beer from 1pm till 10pm. If she had lectures during that time, she would miss them. It was hard, but she had to survive.

She had friends who had aristos, but she said to herself, “the day I sell my body to a man for money, may God strike me dead. I must make it on my own, I will never let any man take my dignity. I would rather starve or beg for food than give my body to a man for money.”

Early in year 2000, Linda didn’t have money, didn’t have jobs & hadn’t eaten for days. Her sister called her to please send money because there was no money at home. She wondered what to do. She remembered her friend’s boss/oga who was chasing her. Anytime she went to see her friend at the friend’s office, the oga(owner of the company) would tell her, “I like you, I will take care of her, stop behaving like a child etc”, and usually dashed her 5k. Rich married man in his 50s.

She decided to call him & lie – tell him she was very sick and needed money for hospital. He told her to meet him at a hotel. She thought about it, and was worried about meeting him in a hotel. Then she said to herself, “he won’t rape me. And there’s no way in hell that I will sleep with him. At least he will give me transport money.

She borrowed money for transport and went. He bought food for her, she ate – her first meal in days. She told him the sickness story. He started making advances, she kept pushing him away. He got angry, asking “Are you a child? Why did you come here? Why did I waste money buying food for you? etc” and got up to leave. She followed him begging that she didn’t have tfare back to school. He ignored her, got into his car and drove off.

All she had left on her was 15naira. She stood in front of the hotel thinking. Saw a young guy and told him what happened. He pitied her – gave her 100 naira. Wasn’t enough for her transport but better than nothing. She entered bus, stopped where her money could take her and trekked the remaining distance.

As she trekked, with tears in her eyes, she said to herself, “one day I’m going to make something of myself. All the money I make in this world would be my own hard earned money. I don’t care how bad it gets, no man is ever going to take away my self-respect – it’s all I have”.

And that’s the way she lived. Determined to make it in life. On her own terms. As her own woman. I kept struggling and struggling until God finally blessed.

In 2004, she finished with university. Got different jobs. Started a company – it failed. Started another company, it failed. Started a magazine, it failed. Wrote a book, it failed – didn’t sell many companies. For years, she went to banks and companies with her proposals, looking for sponsorship for her ideas.

She didn’t get any sponsorship. She cried herself to sleep every night. But the words she poke to herself kept her going.

Started blogging in 2006 because it was something she loved doing; she didn’t know she would ever make money from it. In 2008/2009, she started asking people to place their adverts on her blog for free.

In 2010, people started asking her how much she charges for them to put their advert on her blog. She was surprised. She asked other bloggers, they told her how much they charge and she set her own price.

Now she makes at least 5 million naira every month from the adverts on her blog alone. She has a media company. Bought a house for herself worth about 700 million naira in Lagos, and a car of about 70 million naira. Bought a house for her parents.