How the founder of OpportuniMe wrote her first book while attending her first year of college

Before heading off to college at Northeastern University last fall, Miracle Olatunji made an impact in her home community of Wilmington, where she launched the startup OpportuniMe, which, among other things, won the World Series of Entrepreneurship in Philadelphia in 2018. (She’s also written guest posts for Technical.ly Delaware.)

The Charter School of Wilmington graduate is spending her first summer of college in Denmark as part of a study abroad program, just as her first book, “Purpose: How To Live and Lead With Impact,” is set to be released on July 28.

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The book, which she started writing last summer, will be published by New Degree Press, founded by Georgetown University professor (and OpportuniMe partner) Eric Koester. Olatunji and Koester first connected with after he spoke at a Next Gen Summit event.

“It’s been a really interesting process,” said Olatunji in a phone interview with Technical.ly. “Initially, I was really intimidated by the idea of writing an entire book because I didn’t know what to expect. I was really able to express myself in a way that has been really exciting.”

The book was written to inspire people to make an impact.

“It’s for anyone and everyone who wants to make a difference to achieve excellence, not only in their own lives, but in the lives of other people,” said Olatunji. “I truly believe that everyone is here for a purpose and we all have great potential inside of us.”

One of the defining questions Olatunji asked herself as she wrote the book: “Why am I here?”

“One thing that has happened throughout my life is people hear my name is Miracle, and they’ll always be like, ‘oh, what’s the story behind that?'” Olatunji said. “In the book, I share the story and how that inspired me to think about why I’m here. When I was young I didn’t understand it; I didn’t even know what it meant. But as I got older and I became more knowledgeable, I realized that this concept of purpose. I’ve created this framework to help people start thinking about that and how they can apply that to impacting in the world.”

So, what is her secret to juggling college, a startup and writing a book? Partly by making the most of tools we all have at our fingertips:

“One way that I was able to manage my time was using Google Calendar.  I color code everything — classes in red, OpportuniMe orange, my book blue. It made it fun and I found that I was really able to balance a lot of things.”

The Kindle edition is available to preorder on Amazon. A paperback edition will be released in the fall; Olatunji hopes to also release the book in hardcover and and audiobook.

“I especially hope it will inspire fellow young women,” she says. “There’s a quote by Michelle Obama that I really love: ‘There’s no limit to what we as women can accomplish.’ I want people to realize that as human beings, we have a ton of potential and a lot of times we don’t tap into it.”