I am Jacob Kwaku Gyan the Chief Executive Officer of Adroit 360. When I founded the company in 2015, the primary idea was to increase my income by providing simple web services to my immediate environment. I had just started working at the Ghana Education Service as a Regional Coordinator for Programs, student affairs and public relations of the SRCs. Prior to that, I had worked in my father’s mechanic shop, a shoe making shop near my father’s house and as a personal assistant to my mother who was at the time a hawker. These experiences gave me the “street” entrepreneurship sense I have. achieving less lofty goals to change my own World hence, I left the Ghana Education Service.
During the initial stages of building the company, I didn’t own a computer and had to borrow someone’s computer. I couldn’t write a line of code either, so I hired a personal teacher who assisted me in development.
Few months down the line, my company started doing amazing apps for huge companies in the nation and that was the breakthrough. At the moment, Adroit 360 employs over 20 people and we are doing amazingly well. As it got better, the vision eventually got bigger to affect more lives particularly that of other young and brilliant ones who needed a springboard to also grow and become financially empowered.
Today, we continue to serve our customers with quality and bespoke I.T solutions, ranging from website designs, interactive multimedia, to customized software development – building applications that solve the core business hurdles of the African businessman or woman.
My tenacity and perseverance to breakthrough has paid off so much so that I have received sterling awards and recognitions from notable national and international institutions. In 2016, we won a spot in the Ghana Multimedia incubator as a start-up tech company and I won a place as part of the cohort 3 of the President Barack Obama Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI).
The company was also featured in the July 2018 issue of the Ghana Business and Finance Magazine. I was also interviewed on Reuters Africa and The KSM Show. During the Ghana at 60 celebrations I was selected as one of the 60 Amazing Youth in Ghana under 60 in a book published by Gamelian. I am also a lecturer of Digital Marketing at the Chartered Institute of Marketing Ghana. Furthermore, I have spent a greater part of this year inspiring and challenging young people in schools, churches and seminars with the knowledge and values I have acquired over the years.
Finally, my word for the youth is that each one of us must have a passion which binds us emotionally to the extent that we can’t stop or retire until we are there. One major trait common to all these very successful individuals are their emotional commitment. Bestselling author Greene says it best, “We live in a culture that tends to emphasize intellect and going to the greatest schools and all that, but success is more dependent on a resiliency and a love of what you’re doing.” Once, you have a vision and you pursue your dreams, you will succeed. Granted things would be tough and hard but you need to have the resiliency and spirit not to stop when tired but when done! Don’t just have goals, have visions of changing the world. Don’t focus on the money, make money a tool to make things happen.