After years of exploring different career paths and dealing with the associated splashes of failures that came with them, founder of Awoye Capital, Jordan Awoye, concluded neither basketball nor medicine made him feel fulfilled. This was after he had discovered his purpose by watching a series of lectures on investment by billionaire businessman, Warren Buffet.
Prior to the realization of his purpose, Jordan’s dream was to play professional basketball after college. However, despite training hard and devoting his life to excellence on the court, he was withdrawn from his high school when he got to his senior year. Believing he still stood a chance with professional basketball, he gave the sport another shot when he got to college, but failed to impress the school’s basketball team.
When it appeared his fortunes were taking a positive twist after winning a scholarship to Eastern New Mexico University to play basketball and pursue his academic dreams, he began picking up injuries on the field, coupled with irregular heartbeats. Jordan’s eligibility on the team drew to a close leading to his eventual pullout.
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As devastating as it was, he never closed the chapter on being relevant in the NBA, and decided to turn his attention to pre-med, with the hope of specializing in sports medicine. In the midst of finding inspiration for this new career path, he began spending his nights watching Youtube content, and came across one of Warren Buffet’s talks on investments.
He soon became glued to his screen and found his purpose on what career path he was passionate about, according to this Long Island website.
Despite graduating with honors from Eastern New York University, he moved straight into the financial industry, abandoning what he had studied in college. With no in-depth knowledge of the financial sector or any connections, Jordan learned the ropes of the business world from the best financial and corporate experts.
While learning on the job, he took business courses at the Wharton School of Business. After years of practice, he decided to quit his corporate job to start his business, Awoye Capital; a black-owned fee-based financial and wealth management firm that provides insights on asset management and financial protections, according to the languages of money.
Starting a business in financial advisory services was a bold step Jordan decided to take. In the US, there are 4,196 black and Hispanic certified financial advisors, according to the latest available self-reported data from the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards.
Only five percent of financial advisors in the US are black, according to Zippia. The financial advisory industry is one that many Americans are warming themselves up to. In a recent report released by Statista in 2022, only 35 percent of Americans engage in the services of financial advisors, while 57 percent prefer to manage their finances.
Despite the prospects of the financial advisory market being slim, Jordan has managed his business well and is thriving. As of the review of the business in the year 2023, Awoye Capital managed assets worth $2.5 million, according to investor.com.
He was featured in Forbes’s list of Black-Owned businesses to support. NBA star James Harden has also partnered with Awoye Capital to provide teenagers with financial literacy skills, according to Kids Money.
Given this feat, Jordan may have failed at the beginning of his career pursuit with experimentation of his passion, however, perseverance and grit saw him through to his door of success.
