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.
iFAB GIVEBACK DAY
Did you know that several ladies attend our events on partial or full scholarships every year? And did you know that several fabulous men, women (especially past event participants) and organizations make this possible by donating bigly towards our events? Today on Mind Your Business, 3 fabulous women – Obaapanin, Cynthia and Maame Ama share
MY iFAB EXPERIENCE WITH SEKYIWA, OFOSUA AND MIMI
Hello, do you smell iFab in the air? Well, the other day I got to reminisce with 3 super fabulous ladies who were at iFab 2022: Sekyiwa, Ofosua and Mimi. Listen to their beautiful stories and be motivated to tell a sister to tell a sister that iFab 2023 is approaching! Listen to this episode
iFAB SPEAKER SPOTLIGHT WITH COACH SIKA
Hi, I met Coach Sika a few years ago when I had made the decision to move to the next level of my business. She was just the person I needed to help me deep dive to ensure I wasn’t carrying any baggage to the next level. Since then, she’s been one of my go-to
WHAT QUALIFIES US, REALLY?
Hello, I’ve been thinking a lot about the matter of qualification and I thought to sort of rant about it today. You see, I have met quite a number of people who from my observation are capable of doing certain things, and yet hesitate to because ‘they are not qualified’ to do it. In other
YES, YOU CAN EAT THIS BALL OF KENKEY!
Hello! This week on Mind Your Business https://youtu.be/5TIFx6LTV_c , I am sharing with you about how a ginormous ball of kenkey taught me a lesson on achieving my goals. If you are feeling overwhelmed with a big goal planned for this year, this is one tip that works like magic: break them down into smaller
WHAT’S IN YOUR 2023 TOOLBOX?
Happy new year! In the first 3 days of this new year, I’ve had a series of experiences which got me thinking of you (I share these on this week’s episode of Mind Your Business https://youtu.be/1X7hyysRyXU ). In these experiences, I lost focus momentarily and thank God I have some tools that helped me regain
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