3 Things I Wish I Had Known in My 20’s: Courtney Adeleye

April 11, 2017 by Rebekah in 3 Things

As Founder and CEO of The Mane Choice, Courtney Adeleye built her hair empire from the ground up by incorporating her specialized knowledge base with her own curiosity. Born and raised in Detroit Michigan, Courtney was no stranger to hard work and self-motivation. She worked hard to help her family from the age of 15 and put herself through University of Michigan to become a Registered Nurse.

However, little did she know where her passion for health and medicine would take her. It all started with a bad hair color. Courtney noticed that her hair had begun breaking off, and began looking for better ways to care for it. She came to the conclusion not to add any more chemicals to her hair, and instead began searching for natural, healthy ways to style and treat it. Taking to YouTube to document her progress, Courtney’s personal healthy hair care journey became her calling, as her viewers watched her amazing progress and yearned for her self-discovered help with their own tresses.

Courtney’s unique healthy product mixes intrigued viewers and quickly garnered her a large following. Her science-based background helped her identify what products and ingredients would render the best results. She happily shared her mixing secrets, but people wanted ready-made products from her. Sensing an opportunity to help other women improve their own hair health, Courtney mixed and packaged her first deep conditioner from home and sold it.

Today, she shares with us the “3 Things She Wishes She Knew in her 20s”:

I wish I had studied more business owners and learned how they conducted business earlier in life. I learned the value of this simple, yet effective, tool later in life and owe a lot of my success to observing the failures and successes of others. I didn’t have any mentors prior to launching my company, so I decided to take advantage of books, articles, and thought leadership publications. At this stage in my life, I take full advantage of every resource I have available to me, especially free knowledge.
Keep the faith and always strive to be so good that they can’t ignore you! I think it’s especially important to focus on and hone in on your strengths and abilities. Always strive to be the best, the hardest working, and the most knowledgeable person in your respective field. It’s hard to ignore value. I would also remind he or she that in times where there isn’t a way that there is always the option to make one.
Never become so busy making a life that you forget to live. Work hard, but learn to enjoy the process, salute your accomplishments, and work harder to improve on your misfortunes rather than dwelling on them.