Here is an excerpt from the interview below:
May we know you?
Dave: I'm Dave Ozoalor, programmer, public speaker, black belter and musician.
Black belter? Are there any racks to that?
Yes, i have represented Nigeria in taekwondo in sevveral west african countries over the years and won some medals too. But i'm no longer active in sports, its no longer a priority.
Lets start with the origins of the site
Braintem was started as the social network for Braintemple Association. Braintemple was started in september 2009, and has spread to several different institutions. It started as an association of information technology inclined people where people gather weekly to share any information about anything they gathered over the week.
Everything was running smoothly and it was growing fast until we noticed a problem - there was no way to properly document all the invaluable information and ideas presented or shared by members. So we decided to build an online portal that would do that. Its unlike any other so we had to build it from scratch.
So what makes Braintem.org unique?
Many things. We built it from ground up with a view to solving perculiar problems facing us as individuals and as a continent. Users of Braintem.org can create and deploy online shops straight from their account. They can deploy blogs, posts, diaries, anaonymous posts, date, chat, discover and connect with new people and lots of customer service relationship features.
Braintem also enables people who want to host an event or carry out a poll to create custom online forms that their customers or attendees can fill.
How many members does Braintem have currently?
Braintemple Association currently has over 2000 members across institutions in the country. Braintem.org social network currently have over 100,000 members mostly Nigerians.
Who are your main competitors?
Facebook, twitter, linkedIn, badoo and these are very big names and players in the industry. Once you mention that Braintem is a social network, people want to mentally compare it to facebook, twitter and the likes, not knowing its way different.
What do you think has set Braintem.org apart from other online systems?
People want to be given enough tools and freedom to create and share information that concerns them. Thats a big problem facebook and other players have solved. But there is a part they have left out. After updating your status with a very nice piece of quote or a great article, where does it go? Most of the times, it dissapears after you get one or two likes and a few comments, that's it.
Users are involve with Braintem.org because it solves this problem in a very unique way. People want to be able to rich back to all the posts they made under 'jokes' , 'news' , 'inspiration' and so on and even create multiple other personal diaries and thats what Braintem has provided.
Most people eventually end up writing books with Braintem because apart from displaying their posts as status updates, it packages each of their posts into a book they are writing. At the end of the month or week, anyone can check back into the book and see what they have written so far. Its just amazing what people have documented with Braintem.
Whats your level of education?
I have first degrees in Electrical Electronics and Computer science respectively, now preparing for Masters. I am not a book freak in anyway at all, I just study things I find interesting. Infact, I respect everyone who has finally made the decision to drop out of school and pursue a dream. The truth is except you really know what you are looking for and how to balance time, education in school could be pretty time wasting for someone who has somewhere to go in life.
You recently warned people about dropping out of school, what are your reasons?
Statistics have it that just like in music, less than 1% of people who start out in life by dropping out of school eventually make it to million dollar status in life. What research and motivational books doesnt explain so far is the reason why this is so.
Many young men and women after reading books and biographies of rich men all around the world decide who quit school to become billionaires are motivated to drop their school bags too. Many they continue in this less troden path until they become blatant failures in life without knowing why.
Using Nigeria as a case study, I would mention some of the major less mentioned reasons why most people who drop out of school never made it:
1. They drop into loneliness: What many people dont know is that about 98% of the people who dropped to become billionaires did it in pairs - they had close friends who dropped out with them and started the journey together with them.
a. Bill gates fouder of microsoft had Paul allen
b.Mark Zuckerberg founder of facebook had Dustin Moskovits, Eduardo Saverin, Chris Huges, Sean Parker
c. Steve Jobs founder of apple had Steve Wozniak
d. Sergie Brin founder of Google had Larry Pages
And so on. Many Nigerians who drop out of school, attempt to start out alone - this is usually disastrous though a few number of people have succeeded that way.
Here are the few number of people who have succeeded alone:
a. Matt Muttenweg founder of wordpress
b. Seun Osewa founder of Nairaland.
2. They drop into confusion: Not knowing what to do in life to make a living is a big problem. Most people who drop out of school drop into complete confusion because they had no plan before dropping out. The whole path to the future become a complete maze. They never planed what to do after school. Contrary to this approach, billionaires who dropped out of school were already pretty certain on what to be after school. Founder of virgin atlantic airways already owned a newspaper coy by the time he was droping out of school.
3. They drop out of laziness: Most people who fail in life woefully after droping out of school actually dropped out of school as a result of sheer laziness. They couldnt just study hard enough to pass so take the usual excuse that most billionaires around the world dropped out of school to become billionaires. Funny enough, most billionaires who dropped out of school were actually workaholics by the time they were dropping out of school. Bill Gates already landed a software production contract with IBM before he said goodbye. Mark Zuckerberg had already built 'TheFacebook' before he called it quits.
"When I called my mum and told her i was dropping out of school, she laughed and said she knew I was never going to finish school when she saw the way I worked" -Mark Zuckerberg founder of facebook.
So why quit school if you can still continue.
4. They drop into thorny grounds: Most billionaires who dropped out of school had a soft landing. They had rich or average parents who provided some sort of key support for them after they dropped out. Bill Gates had a well to do magistrate as his father and a mother who helped him secure the big contract at IBM. Mark Zuckerberg's parents supported him with $85,000 loan when he started. Aliku Dangote, had a rich uncle who helped set him up in business and supported him through the early stages.
There are few exceptions to this though, people like steve jobs the founder of apple and Atiku Abubakar, one time vice president of Nigeria actually started from the bottom. But there is something else to look at - they had a condusive economic climate. Things usually go as planned. Softwares and softwares dont get pirated as much. Its easier in their respective countries to find 1 million people who can easily buy your product online for $1 just to test it.
Its far easier to find investors there because of enlightenment. Generally, most people who made it landed on soft grounds.
5. They drop out of school and out of learning: Most people who fail after dropping out of school actually dropped out of school and out of studying. The truth is that no one can succeed without self education. Learning new tricks of the trade, under standing the stock market, studying econmics and accounting and so on. Quote me anyday, Self education is priceless.
6. They drop into a non profitable business or idea: Before dropping out of school, most people who did, actually had a profitable business that was already making some sort of income or gaining traction. Nairaland had 300 members in its first month. Facebook was already the talk of the town with over 20000 members before Mark Zuckerberg quit. Wordpress was already the blogging CMS with a community.
Most people who loose in life after quitting school actually never had a working idea before quiting, they quit then try to work it out - wrong.
So if you are planing to quit school or know any one who is planning to quit using my one simple self-examination question "do i already have a profitable business that will suffer if i continue school?" . If your answer is know, my good friend, its not yet time to quit school. Try to keep running the business while pushing forwared in your academics. Strike a balance between business and study hours and keep moving.
Here is my one simple line advice for anyone who intends to drop out of school. "Dont drop out of school until it is absolutely impossible to continue" Or "dont drop out of school before your monthly business income surpasses your school fees".
When do you think was the tipping point for Braintem?
When we hit our first 10,000 users, i knew there was no stopping again.
What do you think is the future for Braintem?
Very bright, everyday we here about new online systems breaking into billions of dollars. Its because they are unique and solve a unique problem, Braintem.org has that pottential too and we are drawing closer everyday.
How do people access Braintem if they want to?
Braintem can be accessed by visiting http://braintem.org.
TO enjoy the full features new users are encouraged to signup by clicking on the 'register' button or visiting http://braintem.org/users/register
Thanks for Joining us Mr. Dave
Thanks alot.
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