Renowned billionaire and businessman Femi Otedola has revealed that his lifelong struggles with academics led him to abandon school and pursue a path in business.

Naijaonpoint reports that Otedola disclosed this in his newly released 286-page memoir, ‘Making It Big’, where he traced his humble beginnings and turbulent school years.

Otedola also recalled being classmates with Kola Abiola, son of late billionaire businessman and politician, Chief Moshood Abiola, during his early schooling years.

“My parents enrolled me at the University of Lagos Staff School in 1968, at the age of six.

“But there was something about academia and me; we were not compatible. I finished primary school in 1974 because I repeated a class. Even when I was allowed to pass, I consistently anchored the bottom rungs of our end-of-term examination results. My interests were definitely not in academia,” he wrote.

After primary school, Otedola proceeded to Methodist Boys’ High School, Lagos in 1974, but his difficulties with academics persisted.

“I started Form 1 at age 12 and was there for three years. The school had been founded in 1878 and had great alumni, such as Azikiwe, Mobolaji Johnson, Ola Rotimi, Fola Adeola, and Olusegun Osoba. But even there, my results didn’t improve,” he noted.

Hoping to correct his poor performance, his parents transferred him to Olivet Baptist High School, Oyo, where his siblings, as boarders, were thriving.

Otedola recalls that at Olivet, his passion for academics waned further.

His breakthrough, however, came when his father established Impact Press, a printing company in Surulere, Lagos.

“I grew fascinated with the machines and told myself that my future would be inextricably tied to them. I managed to remain in school until the Lower Sixth examination was over. And then, I was finished; I never returned for my Upper Sixth,” he confessed.

The young Otedola ignored his mother’s objections and joined the family business full-time. His rise was swift, by 1987, at age 25, he had become Managing Director of Impact Press.

‘I Wanted Independence’ – Otedola

Despite his success, Otedola said he soon craved independence. He convinced his father to allow him to work as a sales consultant for the press, earning commissions of 10–15% on jobs he secured.

“That was a significant break for me. I invested my money in buying cars for sales and marketing outreach and moved on to the next phase in my nascent professional life,” he wrote.

The mogul added that he enjoyed the smell of ink and the sound of machines far more than grappling with the Pythagoras theorem in school.

Naijaonpoint reports that what began as a dropout’s gamble turned into the foundation of a business empire that would later span oil, energy, finance, and philanthropy.