Many celebrities refuse to show the bad side of their success or the hardships that come before being successful. Reality show star and businesswoman Chioma Ikokwu is counting her blessings and starting the year off with gratitude as she recalls how her business once caught fire while under construction.
BREAKING DOWN
Two months before completing the construction of her store, Chioma says a fire broke out. “I remember when we were two months away from completing The Good Hair Space, as we only had four months to build, furnish and make the space functional before the “Detty December” rush five years ago,” she shares. “I had taken on the seemingly straightforward task of being the entire project manager as well as still running our already existing salon,” she says. “One faithful evening I broke down. I remember crying uncontrollably on the floor because not only was I drained mentally, physically, and financially (as the project was unexpectedly costing us much more than we could afford at the time), almost everything that could go wrong was going wrong. I didn’t know how to move forward and for the first time in my life, I anticipated potential failure. I had also come to the painful realisation that I wasn’t superwoman after all.” She called her sister Kika who was in London at the time and just cried. “She’d never heard me cry like that, but she also knew I wasn’t a quitter and so the next day to my surprise Kika was in Lagos. She continued project managing and running our salon. I rested for two days."
MAKING IT WORK
On the third day, I re-joined her, and we worked hard and strong and completed the Good Hair Space in record time. It’s been a success story since then.” Chioma says she put blood and sweat into making it work. “To think that, but for the divine intervention of God and a few good men, it could’ve been burnt to the ground is still giving me chills. Our blood, sweat, and tears. Thanks to everyone of you who reached out. The show of love has been incredibly overwhelming, and I am truly grateful,” she says. “As I sat in traffic on my way knowing the fire was still burning I just kept laughing and saying to the devil you messed with the wrong one today. I declare that2023 will be a year of unending miracles as set in motion by the events of yesterday.”
