Tech executive and entrepreneur John Imah knew from a very young age where his passions lay. At age 7, he completely disassembled the family’s first computer, much to the dismay of his parents.
“I was so infatuated with this machine. I had a feeling this was my calling,约翰说, who on Thursday shared his journey as the keynote speaker for Heidelberg’s final HYPE Career Ready® program this academic year.
While young John may have been enamored with his living room project, his parents … not so much. They immediately told him to reassemble it. Through tears, he successfully complied. That was the first of a great many successes in technology.
By his preteen years, John had taught himself coding and had started “to transform into a true nerd.” His parents insisted that he enroll in college but the tech world soon came calling, 约翰解释说. At 15, he started his first tech company and navigated its acquisition shortly after.
在那一刻, 我的父母很兴奋, but they still insisted I was going (to college),约翰说. 大约在那个时候, 他沉迷于游戏, 制作了一款手机游戏, 他也卖掉了, 16岁时.
“When you’re an entrepreneur, you really believe in your product,” he said.
He did ultimately enroll in college, although he wasn’t very excited about it. Students on his campus quickly sought him out to fix their computers and professors enlisted his help teaching classes and tutoring. Then came a career fair his freshman year and an unsolicited visit by some Samsung “suits.”
John met with them and they offered him a job on their team that was building Samsung’s Galaxy product. “I was very unsure at the time how to perceive an opportunity like that. But it was a once-in-a-lifetime thing and those don’t usually come on your terms,约翰说.
所以他抓住了这个机会. The first-generation Nigerian became one of the youngest employees at Samsung, and although he felt out of place, that motivated him to work harder. Although it was out of his comfort zone, 他成了“三星约翰”,” accepting an offer to be the face of promoting the new product to celebrities and high-powered people around the world.
John’s Samsung gig was the first of a lengthy string of tech opportunities that have included Take Two Interactive, 一个启动, 抽搐, 和脸谱网, 举几个例子. 在脸谱网——嗯, Meta – he gained the confidence that he “could hang with the big dogs” and manage teams. He even was named Employee of the Year, congratulated during a surprise meeting with an on-screen message by Mark Zuckerberg.
“That showed the journey I’ve had. It was very validating for me,” he said.
Validating, sure, but John still felt a bit unfulfilled. “I loved being in corporate America but my true calling was as an entrepreneur. I was good at identifying key trends and solving problems.”
John decided to pair his love for tech and fashion, creating an online platform that gave users an in-store shopping experience. 通过这个项目, he learned a lot about himself and life, including some valuable lessons he shared with Heidelberg students:
• Never take no for an answer.
•这是你的路. You’ve got to move through it.
• The people you surround yourself with make up who you are. Choose people who can help take you to the next level.
“For me, there have always been people better than me. I challenged myself to learn from them,” he said
“不要放弃. Find your motivation in life and draw inspiration from it.”