Youth Entrepreneurship: With Focus And Devotion, Success Is Possible Anywhere

Feuba Hermann, 30, a Cameroonian based in China, set up a translation and interpretation firm with 10 million FCFA from his savings as a student.

At a time when the in-thing is for young people to travel overseas at all cost in search of the proverbial greener pasture, a young Cameroonian entrepreneur based in the Chinese capital, Beijing, thinks otherwise. Feuba Hermann, 30, who holds a Master’s degree in Chinese language from the Beijing Foreign Studies University (2017), insists that you can succeed in any country so long as you are focused and devoted to what you do.

“Even if I remained in Cameroon, I will still have succeeded. Youth of today want easy life. Life is not just about making money immediately. If you focus and work hard, money will eventually come. Commitment to what you do attracts prosperity. Prosperity is first in terms of moral and spiritual standing before considering money,” Hermann explains.While still an undergraduate student, he ran an office in Yaounde for five years, doing translation and interpretation and offering language training.

As a student in China from 2013-2016, on a Confucius Institute scholarship, Feuba did freelance jobs as translator-interpreter in Spanish, English and French. His savings from these activities enabled him to register Oracle Translation Services, OTS, in 2016 soon after graduation. With an initial capital of about 100,000 Yuan (10 million FCFA), Feuba today employs two workers, paying them monthly salaries ranging from 3,000 Yuan to 5,000 Yuan (300,000 FCFA to 500,000 FCFA). They are also registered with China’s social insurance fund.

Meanwhile, OTS Services runs two offices in Beijing – Sanyuanqiao (with monthly rents of 400,000 FCFA), an area adjacent the posh diplomatic neighbourhood of ...