Why I quit my job for television production – Isabella Akinseye

Akinseye

Isabella Akinseye is the founder of Yellow Tamarind Production, a television production outfit. Prior to establishing her company, the young lady had a job a lot of people are yearning for. She was under the employment of Nestle, but she quit the job to follow her passion.

In a chat with Saturday Beats, she explained why she quit a well-paying job to establish a television production outfit.

“I left Nestlé Nigeria Plc in November 2015. It was hard. I still visit and the love, hugs and smiles are so comforting and touching. I have so many fond memories of my time at Nestlé. I left to follow my dreams. As a creative person, I needed time and space to incubate my ideas and projects. Also, I now have the opportunity to pitch ideas to Nestlé without any issues of conflict of interest. I have always done several things at the same time while in school, so naturally, in my adult life, I have my hands in several pies and I’m loving it. A lot of people told me they admired my courage. They tell me that I did the right thing to follow my dreams, especially while I am still young with not as many responsibilities. A few were not so pleased with my move and thought I was making a mistake, citing that I still had a lot to do in the corporate world. Others felt the timing was not right and that I should not be giving up a job when people are looking for jobs. Not everyone understood it. I have learnt that you can’t please everyone no matter how hard you try,” she said.

Already, she has a show, Africana Literati, which is aimed at reviving the reading culture among Nigerians.

She said, “First of all, we have very few art shows out there. Abroad, arts and culture are a big deal, but here in Nigeria, it is politics, music, sports, reality and fashion. So there is a gap and Africana Literati is only too happy to fill it. We are making reading and learning cool with a touch of Mama Africa. As a teacher, it was natural that I would want to teach my audience a thing or two and I do that on the ‘Back to School’ segment which focuses on spelling, pronunciation and African slang.”