Chris Folayen: Entrepreneur at age 7

"I started a tyre recycling company at the age of seven. Being driven to and from school, I would notice a lot of beat-up old tyres on the side of the road. One day we had a flat tyre and went to a local ‘vulcaniser’, or tyre shop. I noticed he kept old tyres, some to recycle and some to use pieces to patch tyres. I asked him if he wanted me to bring him tyres. I then got friends to join me, and they would get their parents to drop tyres off at my house. Then I would take them all to a series of vulcanisers. I made about 50 US cents an hour in today’s money but as a kid that looked like a million bucks - I could buy my own soda, ice cream and cassette tapes."

After completing boarding school, he migrated to the U.S to attend college where he taught himself various programming, design and software languages which he used as a foundation to catapult himself into various roles in fortune 500 companies, while pursuing a BA degree in marketing. Chris went on to establish and sell several global companies.

Chris is currently the CEO of Mall for Africa which is an online e-commerce platform. Today this platform is helping consumers in Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa and 12 other African countries buy merchandise from 263 western retailers including Amazon, eBay, Macy’s and Walmart. He also sits on several boards and mentors various CEO’s in companies based in Africa.

Folayen lists these 6 items as the reason for his success:

1. Knowing that failure is non-existent yet inevitable

2. Developing a family work dynamic

3. "I love to listen"

4. Making a plan and executing it

5. "Goals aren’t enough"

6. Not trying to reinvent the wheel and learning from other successful entrepreneurs

*curated from howwemadeitinafrica.com