In my first year at university, I thought the path was simple: study hard, graduate, and then start doing real things.

That thinking didn't last long.

At some point I looked around and realized something important. Nobody was standing somewhere holding a door open, waiting for me to finish school before letting me in. Opportunities don’t work that way. Neither does skill.

You get good at things by doing them, not by preparing to do them someday when conditions finally feel right.

So I stopped waiting.

I started building before I felt ready.

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Building Before Readiness 🥶

Right now, while still in university, I lead the backend team on CuratED, a platform designed to help people discover and organize educational content without getting lost in the noise.

At the same time, I’m working as an AI engineering intern at Zummit Africa.

Alongside that, I'm building my own product, ClosetAI, from scratch. Every decision — architecture, features, direction — is mine to make because there’s nobody else to delegate to.

And through all of this, I’m maintaining a 4.97 CGPA, because discipline still matters.

None of these things happened because I felt fully prepared. They happened because I realized that preparation and action are not opposites.

You can do both at the same time.

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What Leadership Taught Me 🏆

Leading a backend team has taught me something no course ever did.

Writing code is actually the smallest part of the job.

The bigger part is making decisions that won’t create problems three months from now. It’s communicating clearly so your team isn’t confused. It’s taking responsibility when something breaks instead of looking for someone to blame.

Nobody trained me for that.

I just had to be inside the experience.

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The Weight of Building Alone 😓

Building a product alone is a completely different challenge.

There’s no team to absorb mistakes. If ClosetAI’s architecture is weak, that’s my responsibility. If a feature goes live with a flaw nobody noticed, that’s on me too.

That kind of ownership changes how you think very quickly.

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Readiness Is Mostly a Feeling 🚫

What I’ve learned from all of this is simple:

Readiness is mostly a feeling, not a real state.

And feelings are unreliable.

Most people wait for readiness to arrive before they start something. But readiness rarely shows up first.

It usually comes after you’ve already started moving.

The truth is, growth happens in motion.

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University Still Matters ✅️

To be clear, I’m not trying to skip university or pretend education doesn’t matter.

My grades are important to me and I take them seriously.

But a degree alone doesn’t show how someone handles pressure. It doesn’t prove whether you can build something real, ship it, fix it when it breaks, and keep going.

It doesn’t show whether you take ownership or avoid responsibility.

Those things are proven through action, not in exam halls.

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The Goal Before Graduation 😁

By the time I graduate, I don’t want to be someone who is about to start figuring things out.

I want to be someone who has already built real systems, led real teams, made mistakes, fixed them, and learned the lessons that only experience teaches.

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A Message to Students Waiting for the “Right Time” 😊

If you’re reading this as a student sitting on an idea or a skill you keep telling yourself you’ll develop “later,” here’s the uncomfortable truth:

There is no perfect semester break.
There is no magical graduation moment.
There is no "right time."

The window you’re waiting for is already open.

You might as well use it.

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About the Author 😎👨‍💻

Mayowa Kalejaiye

Backend & AI Engineer
Software Engineering Student
Founder of ClosetAI

Mayowa focuses on building scalable backend systems, exploring artificial intelligence, and creating products that solve real problems.

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Connect With Mayowa

• 🔗 LinkedIn↗

• 🐦 X (Twitter): @mayowa_kal↗