Mrs Caroline Popoola is the Chief Executive Officer, Alpha Chains Limited and Alpha Child Care Limited, a childcare facilities and services provider, with over 15 childcare settings in the United Kingdom. She speaks with SEGUN KASALI about her life and how she has been able to navigate her journey across Nigeria and the United Kingdom.
HOW was your growing up?
I was born in Hammersmith, United Kingdom and moved to Nigeria at age seven. I lived in Lagos and then moved to Abuja. Growing up was different in the sense that when my sister was born I felt like she took all the attention (laughs). I consequently started to feel I was not needed and became an introvert. Mom was the only one available for us. She did everything. But, in doing everything, we were neglected. She was a businesswoman. So, she would go away for days. In her absence, we would get abused. For instance, I used to hawk bread. My mom would leave us with a neighbour and she would ask us to hawk bread. You can imagine growing up in the UK and when you got to Nigeria you started doing something like that because mum was stuck to her business (laughs). My mom was a wholesaler of stockfish. I remember back in Nigeria, in terms of my education, I was not very smart. I was not interested in education. My mom tried everything. I would do UTME and fail. Fast forward to now, I realised everyone works differently. Who would have thought someone that was an embarrassment would become who she is today?
Embarrassment in what sense?
[My mom] was wondering how her child would not be performing excellently. So, she felt like I should go back to the UK because, at least, no one knew her there. But in Abuja, she was well known. So, she spoke to some of her friends that her daughter would be coming to the UK and asked if they would not mind if I stayed with them. So, that was how I went back to the UK at age 16, with no ambition, having failed exams multiple times back home. So, I stayed with them. And at a time, the woman said: “Oh you British, you don’t need to go to school. So, go and work and earn so you can pay your rent.” You know unlike those who were chasing papers, I did not need to do that. So, she felt I could work then and study anytime I wanted in the future. I remember as soon as I get paid, she would display her old clothes asking, “Caroline do you like this? That is 12 pounds.” She would be selling her old clothes to me and me too would feel like “Oh I can’t wait” (laughs). Before I got paid, I would have been in debt. So, all of those things were lessons that really made me the kind of girl I am today.
But you eventually went to school…
Yeah. Prior to that, I had a flatmate who was constantly saying “let us go back to the university.” So, she went and registered. She called me “Caroline, by the way, I put your name down for PR and Communications since you like talking.” So, that was how I got my first degree in PR and Communications, because a friend put my name down and I went for it. Looking back at my whole life, I felt I was constantly unsatisfied. I liked a good challenge. For example, I worked in the city of London. It got to a stage, I was headhunted. No GCSE, but I was good at something, that people wanted. I was like may the best man win kind of thing. I was like if you can’t beat them, join them kind of thing. After my first degree, I started my business of child care.
Why childcare?
I was in the city as an insurance underwriter and got headhunted over a period of time. So, I got bored and was thinking about changing company. And after six to eight months, I am bored again. Then I felt this is crazy. It just became monotonous. One of the days they called me to my last office, I had been there for nine months and they said, unfortunately, they had to make some people redundant and I am one of them. So, they literally said you should clear your desk and say your goodbyes in half an hour. So, I did that. They got Mercedes S-class to pick me up, drop me at home and they paid me six weeks upfront. Then, I did not have any children. I had never even thought of children. But, I went to this programme we did in church called international gathering of champions. And when you come to this programme, you would be like ‘Father Lord you have to speak to me this year.’ This particular year with over 4,000 people, the pastor asked ‘If God gave you more than your wages this month, would you give the money to church?’ At this time, I was already a Christian. So, I told my friends that ‘why won’t I give it because it is more than what I am expecting’. So, we left the programme, believe you me, I was made redundant two days after. To me, I was thinking I just spent 7-8 days in church; this is ridiculous and then the Holy Spirit reminded me ‘you have just been given 8,000 pounds and you made a vow’. I was about 29 years old then. All of a sudden, I gave 1,000 pounds out of the money to church and I literally started to talk to God again. I started crying to him. And I just started hearing children, children. I was like ‘what is this about?’ And that was how the business started basically. And like they say, the rest is history.
So how did you start it?
One thing I heard clearly was that it is not the children, but the resources to do my work. So, it is not about the business but resources to do God’s work. So, I understood that, but I still didn’t have children to start the business with, and by then, no one had ever given me a child to look after. So, my neighbour had three children. One day, I called her that a particular school had asked me to come and do something in their school and asked ‘would you like to come and work with me?’ So, I told her ‘you do the child care work while I do the smart work. The passion I had for the business was what gave me the leeway not because of what I know about children.
When did you get your breakthrough?
(Laughs). When the first one started, I was fine and I felt like I could replicate it. So, we pushed it to another school for space and they said yes … within eight months of the first one. Then I asked myself, how do I get people to work with me with the help of my neighbour, what if she decided to leave? But we did the second one. I said okay, this is working, but managing people was so difficult and I thought I was never going to do it again. I said I have had enough. All of a sudden, another school approached me asking if would like to do something like that in their school. For me, I was, never again, but the Holy Spirit reminded me that it is the resources to do His work and it is important to multiply His resources. So, I had three schools approaching us one after the other. And I am thinking, it seems this thing is working.
When did you meet your husband?
I met my husband in 1998. We met in church through a mutual friend and I think the mutual friend was emigrating to Nigeria. So, we went to party with him. After the party, he offered to give me a lift home. That was the end of it. And all of a sudden, he would call to check on me and I felt like ‘oh I have feelings for this guy,’ but I was so proud, because I would never show it or say it. Aside feelings, I knew I did not like men that wear flower shirts, but he loves flower shirts and I could not stand a man with a very strong Nigerian accent (laughs). I was like ‘no way. Never’. Whilst that was going on in my head, I was listening to my pastor’s CD where he said ‘the devil has a way of highlighting the negatives and hiding the positives behind so that you would never get to see the good’. So, his advice was ‘draw a line, write the good things you like about the person and some of those bad things you can easily change’. For instance, if I dont like your flower shirt, I can easily buy you a shirt I like. So, why am I focusing on shirt? And then if I don’t like your accent, I should learn to live with it. It is just being considerate.
At what point did he ask you out?
It was between six and eight months after we began dating. Even though we were going out, we were just friends. He never asked me out and I was comfortable with that. And eventually, when he asked me out, I was like ‘wait a minute, why did it take you so long?’ At this point, I was hot-tempered but I did not know that. He needed to see that he could live with that behaviour. So, he realised he cannot change this girl, but to learn to live with her behaviour.
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