A popular stigma about school dropouts is that they are ‘never do wells’ and infact totaled as failures except they become impactful much later in future, only then will the world reconcile with and celebrate their successes. Being a school dropout from whatever level doesn’t make you any less; it only gives another opportunity to embrace a new career path.

During my secondary school days, many of my classmates already knew which university they’d love to go, infact they bragged about it with emphasis on their course of choice. For me, it was just a prayer; I wasn’t so sure I’d make it up to that level because I was considering where the money was going to come from;  no one ever told me the tuition in universities wasn’t so expensive. So I kept to myself and prayed. Few years later, I realized that I’m actually done with my university education but what has happened to these brags of classmates?

Actually, they couldn’t make it to the university but they were doing so well. Two of them are currently serving in the military, the other has learned a line of trade and already, he is doing so well. I still remember Oliver; he bakes and is soon to get married. Now, we all started the race somewhere together in high school, we didn’t all finish up the race in the same part but we are all headed to the part of success.

If you’ve become a dropout for whatsoever reason, I want to introduce you to some lucrative career curves that will really payoff if you are poised to give your best. They are not just lucrative, they are very much en vogue many years ahead.

Programming

Our contemporary society has accepted technology and its accomplice with both hands and so far, everything- education, business, religion, health, economy etc. seems to revolve around it. If you decide to be a programmer (web developer or web designer or whatever in this category), you stand the chance to be one of the worlds needed talents in which ever area you want to specialize. Building computer science project codes is an area that is still fresh and has attracted little attention. Infact, among many project websites across Africa, only few can build computer source codes conveniently. You can build on that; you have a lot to gain.

Currently, we have a good number of programmers but very few are really good at it. If you get into this career curve, you must be good at it to make good fortune out of it. Good programmers prefer to be contracted except the salary is really promising. Otherwise, you can always build a business out of your programming career.

Affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing is when you earn some commission by promoting other people’s business. People do that physically but the more rewarding aspect of affiliate marketing is online. In this case, you can market for two, three and more websites and get paid for each customer you bring into the business. Sometimes it could be in form of digital advertisement, referrals or more. Recently, associating the word ‘referral’ with online businesses sounds fishy because it has been abused. Nevertheless, there are very genuine ones out there that can benefit you meaningfully.

Fashionpreneurship 

Obviously, there are many people in this line of business but very full have made good fortune out of it because they build business ideas around it. Do you know you may not really know how to sew but it’s possible you run a fashion establishment and maintain it; and if you learn how to sew and design, that makes it even better.

You do not really need to open a store and then wait for people to bring you clothes to sew; you have to make them come to you with positive impression, how? Make and design good clothes, do a fashion showcase at occasions within your reach (if you have the money). If not, sew and wear your designs so that when people ask you “who made these clothes for you, I love them” , you let them know you actually did. You sell your brand.

Do you know you can also collaborate with someone who is already popular in fashion within your immediate environment? If you take time and learn how to sew and design clothes, you can collaborate with someone who sews for the opposite gender; i.e. if you specialized in sewing for ladies, you can attach yourself with a popular fashion designer who sews for men.

Freelancing

Freelancing offers you the opportunity to pursue your career without committing yourself to an employer for long. A lot of business opportunities are available online for freelancers, especially since the introduction freelance websites into the global online market. It basically has to do with your skills; you perform minute jobs for people to get paid for each task.

Visit oyerr.com, the Nigeria freelance service and online marketplace to register your skills.

Wrap up

I hope you are not intimidated by the big names above, they may sound big but what makes it really big is the ideas that you back it up with. When you hear of Mark Zuckerberg, he didn’t start big, he started as a dropout and because he had a vision, he made it come true; you too can make it even bigger.