Im half Ghanaian and half Ukrainian, but I grew up in the Netherlands. Ive always been ambitious by doing things for myself, freelance, build businesses, fail, start over, succeed, fail etc. Until I reached a point where I almost forgot what I was doing and why. Entrepreneurship comes with a price and it takes a while before you feel like you have hit the jackpot, financially but mostly emotionally. The pressure in wanting so much for me turned into a daily routine of obsession and anxiety. I found everything boring and just came to the conclusion I lost my Mojo, and it was somewhere out trying to find me, But I was too tired to look for it myself.
My father passed away when I was 10, he moved out to Ghana 20 years ago to follow his dream and unfortunately passed away within 3 months. So i took a leap of faith this year and decided to start something for myself in Accra and honor his leap of faith. I started 2 businesses and officially launching Access Accra a city guide and platform here that will launch in February.
There for – it was only right, to share with you guys a piece of a beautiful book and a fitting name for my experience this year.
Excerpt of Manuscript found in Accra – By Paulo Coelho
There is nothing wrong with anxiety.
Although we cannot control God’s time, it’s part of the human condition to want to receive the thing we are waiting for as quickly as possible.
Or to drive away whatever is causing our fear.
This is so from childhood onward, until we reach
the age when we become indifferent to life. Because
as long as we are intensely connected to the present
moment, we will always be waiting anxiously for someone
or something.
How can you tell a passionate heart to be still and to
contemplate the miracles of Creation in silence, free of
tension, fear, and unanswerable questions?
Anxiety is part of love, and should not be blamed
because of that.
How can you tell someone not to worry when he has
invested his money and his life in a dream but has yet to
see any results? The farmer cannot speed the progress
of the seasons in order to pick the fruit he planted, but
he waits impatiently for the coming of autumn and harvest
time.
How can you ask a warrior not to feel anxious before
a battle? He has trained to the point of exhaustion for this
moment; he has given of his best. While he believes he
is prepared, he fears that all his efforts could prove to be
in vain.
Anxiety was born in the very same moment as mankind.
And since we will never be able to master it, we
will have to learn to live with it—just as we have learned
to live with storms.
For those who cannot learn to do so, life will be a
nightmare. Even worse, in an attempt to drive away anxiety,
they do things that make them even more anxious.
And the eyes of the soul are bleary with tiredness.
At that point, in walks one of humankind’s worst
enemies: obsession.
Obsession arrives and says:
“Your fate now belongs to me. I will make you look
for things that do not exist.
“Your joy in living belongs to me, too. From now on,
your heart will know no peace because I will drive out
enthusiasm and take its place. “
Therefore, although anxiety is part of life, never let it
control you. –
Thanks for reading, don’t hesitate to email or contact me or add me on social media! Im not hard to find :)
Love,
Irina Oduro
[email protected]
Accra, Ghana