Ama Duncan
Corporate Trainer | Business Coach | Author | Speaker
Welcome to my blog! Here, I share valuable content on BUSINESS & MONEY to help new women in business to plan, execute and achieve their business goals.
FIND JOY IN SPITE OF
Hello! Have you ever been so weighed down by something you wanted, that you couldn’t find joy in anything else? Do you find yourself postponing your joy while you wait for something you are trusting God for? Well, in this episode of Mind Your Business I first share about such an experience in which a
MAMAA ADDAE MENSAH | 2023 iFAB SPEAKER
Hello Hello Hello, how have you been and how was your Easter? Hopefully, you were able ‘recharge’ for the rest of the year. For this week’s episode of Mind Your Business, I’ve got some juice for you! During iFAB 2023, Lady Mamaa Addae Mensah shared some tips on How to Develop Your Intellectual Wellness (the
NANA EKUA SEKYIWA DARKO | 2023 iFAB SPEAKER
Happy Sunday! Today’s a good day to listen to some powerful nuggets from iFAB 2023 Speaker, Nana Ekua Sekyiwa Darko who is currently the Head of Community Relations at the Ghana Petroleum Commission. She shared stories about how she rose through the ranks to be where she is today. Here are a few of the
One Key Lesson from iFAB 2023
Hiya, guess who’s back from a cute ‘working holiday’! Yes, I am back and resuming Mind Your Business by giving you a gist of what went down at iFAB 2023. Amidst a few family and work commitments as well as lots of rest and good food, I have had time to reflect on our 4-day
IWD AT LUV 99.5 FM
It’s been an exciting International Women’s Day today and I hope you are having a great day too! Oh and by the way, I have another reason to celebrate today; it’s my 15th wedding anniversary. To God be the glory! Anywho, iFAB 2023 ended a couple of days ago and I am still in a
MY iFAB ADVENTURE TOUR EXPERIENCE
Happy Valentine’s Day ladies and gentlemen. iFab is almost here! 16 days more 💃🏾💃🏾💃🏾 In this episode of Mind Your Business, Belinda, Emmanuella and Nana Ekua joined me to reminisce about last year’s iFab Day 4 – Adventure Tour. I didn’t exactly mention how scared I was when I first saw the canopy walk at
My Story
Dealing with low self-esteem
I was born in Sekondi to a nurse and a farmer. When I was about 5 years, we moved to Komenda, a small town in the Central Region of Ghana. Even though I was one of the best students in primary school, I always felt ‘little’ when we travelled to cities like Cape Coast, Accra and Takoradi.
I felt everyone there was more beautiful, more intelligent, spoke better English and was generally better than me. I had a similar experience in secondary school, always looking down on myself and feeling I was not good enough. Oh, how I wished I were an ‘Accra girl’ because I thought they were so cool! Yet, when my family finally moved to Accra, I still didn’t feel cool. On top of this, I didn’t even have a boyfriend! If only I could get a boyfriend, then I will be cool like the other girls… I thought.
In University, I met some really wonderful friends, some of whom were from ‘rich’ families and I thought being friends with them will make me feel cool. I didn’t. I had the opportunity to start travelling abroad, and I was certain that when I returned, I most definitely will feel cool and belong in a ‘cool girls click’. Well, I did have cool friends before and after travelling; still, I didn’t feel like I was cool and ‘there’ yet. Oh, by the way, in my third year, I finally had a real boyfriend (now my husband). Not only that, but he also lived abroad, and hence, I occasionally went to visit him, which should have made me feel cool, or? Well, guess what, I still didn’t!
Even as a career woman working in an international four-star hotel as a manager, I looked down on myself. Once my General Manager called me into his office and asked why I never came asking for a pay raise and promotion when other managers always came to him with such requests. My response was ‘I want to earn it, not ask for it’. That was a half-truth. The real reason was that I felt I was not good enough to deserve more. I convinced myself that ‘I was not there yet’. I used to look at my friends who were lawyers, doctors or pursuing something big and wished I could do that too. I also wanted to be ‘somebody’.
To make matters worse, I was just getting pregnant and fat! After having my two kids, I thought getting an MBA will make me finally feel cool and ‘important’, yet I felt no different after completion. Even with a handsome husband and two adorable kids who doted on me, I thought I had very little value. Interestingly, at various stages in my life, I would meet people who were so impressed by and thought highly of me, yet I never saw what they saw. Mostly when people even complimented me, I doubted them and thought they were just trying to be nice.
How I found my ‘cool.’
Read the rest of my story in Yarns of inspiration II