Even when she was down on her luck, on welfare and with no money for rent, Chioma Ikejiani was destined for greater things. She knocked on doors - those of 30 employers before she got her first break, and on 400 residential doors a day thereafter to become one of the province's top real estate agents.
Now that Ikejiani has reached the top in her field, she's looking to a new challenge: To be the Oprah Winfrey of Canada with her own talk show. "My fear is she will (get into television)," Global Television news anchor Jane Gilbert joked after Ikejiani told an enraptured gathering of women the heartwarming story of her past, as well as her future plans.
Ikejiani was one of three high-profile speakers at the Metro Board of Trade annual Today's Entrepreneurial Woman Symposium at the YMCA last week. She told the audience she arrived in Toronto from Halifax more than 10 years ago with no family here, a political science degree, and an "attitude" that saw her ask to be put on commission for "my excellent work" in her sales job at a prestigious ladies wear store in Yorkville.
Her employer refused, and she quit. "At the time, I was raking in about $100,000 in sales, and earning $10,000," said the woman who's now earning a six-figure income and owns her own home and car.
Initially paralysed by fear at what she had done, coupled with a depleted bank account and no rent money, Ikejiani pulled herself together. She maxed out her credit cards to put herself through real estate school. With no money for transit fare, she walked the 40 minutes to school and 40 minutes home. "I knew I could sell, that it was very natural for me. Also I had often been told that I have the gift of gab. When you have a reason, a consuming, energising, almost obsessive passion for what you do, it drives you, it gets you up in the morning, it really gives life meaning," said Ikejiani.
After 30 employers turned her down, she went briefly on welfare before getting her big break with Canada Trust in 1990 - when the real estate market took a dive.
Even today, she goes door to door soliciting prospective sellers and cold calls people by telephone for several hours each day. "I do not stop until I've made my quota which is to speak to a hundred people a day," Ikejiani said.
While her story reads like a fairy tale, she faced plenty of obstacles. During some of her darkest moments on welfare, Ikejiani even contemplated suicide. "But, I persisted. I never gave up. I believed in myself. As far as I was concerned it was a numbers game. I kept knocking on doors until one opened for me."
In her parting words to the symposium, she urged the women to believe in themselves and their ability to achieve, to have a strategy, a high energy level and "know your competition. "But, most of all, be passionate about your goals. It's what drives you," she added.