We were lucky to catch up with Tim Salau recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Tim, we’re so appreciative of you taking the time to share your nuggets of wisdom with our community. One of the topics we think is most important for folks looking to level up their lives is building up their self-confidence and self-esteem. Can you share how you developed your confidence?
I developed my confidence and self-esteem from proving myself time and time again in business and in life. Even when I failed, i’ve picked myself back up. For example, when I was applying for an internship during my Master’s program, I received thousands of nos, but then Google said yes and in the summer of ‘2017, I interned at Google as a UX researcher on their accessibility product engineering team. Eye opening experience from many levels, but the most important thing is I didn’t let a thousand nos deter my focus, grit, or ambition. The same applies for me today as one of the top visionaries, entrepreneurs, innovators, and inventors in the tech industry. I am not giving up any time soon.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I am a venture catalyst and technology entrepreneur. I’ve worked in the tech industry for two decades now. I believe technology is special because with our minds, hands, and hearts, we have the opportunity to build tools that can serve and further humanity, that’s a deep and powerful opportunity for those who really take it seriously. I do. I lead a company called guideapp.co. We’re the #1 talent experience platform in the world, we help companies optimize their talent experience and deliver exceptional onboarding and training experiences for their talent. We’ve worked with organizations like Microsoft, National Owners Association, and the World Bank Group. For us, every day is simply day one.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
The three skills that were the most impactful in my journey were resilience, experience design, and active listening. I believe folks can develop or improve their competencies in the following areas is by joining emotional intelligence workshops or taking design classes online to get insight into the life of a designer. There’s an overwhelming amount of information in this era, so it’s all about looking for the right information that you can resonate with, then put your learnings to practice.
Before we go, maybe you can tell us a bit about your parents and what you feel was the most impactful thing they did for you?
I believe one of the most impactful things my parents did for me was moving us from Nigeria to America. America was portrayed as the land of opportunity, financial freedom, and independence to them. My parents emigrated here to give my sisters and I access to the best education possible, an education experience that Nigeria couldn’t ever provide us. I believe it’s so interesting because now I lead one of the top ed-tech companies in the world with guideapp.co and we’re not stopping with the world, we’re aiming for the universe.
Contact Info:
- Website: guideapp.co
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/guidehq_/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrfow/#/
Image Credits
Guide Groupe
