By someone else’s standards, my 2021 may have been a fairly normal year, but in my eyes, it was more than normal; one of the best years I’ve had in a bit. For one, this was the first year that I was debt-free since I left university in 2013. And I think that made everything […]
By someone else’s standards, my 2021 may have been a fairly normal year, but in my eyes, it was more than normal; one of the best years I’ve had in a bit. For one, this was the first year that I was debt-free since I left university in 2013. And I think that made everything better. I was able to start off a few projects, explore Ghana, travel to see my family in Saint Lucia, upgrade my tech, and start a new lease in Ghana. Btw, I’m extremely proud of my new apartment because I went through so much to be able to grab something that I liked affordably in these Accra streets. But we’ll chat about that in another blog post. For now, this is what my 2021 looked like.
My New Ventures
I’m always starting some type of business. I’m addicted to the thrill of coming up with an idea and bringing it to life. This year was no different and as a matter of fact, being debt-free gave me extra space to explore even more of my ideas.
I started off the Guru Project, a group of directories dedicated to helping. Unfortunately, besides building the platforms, I wasn’t able to do much with this project in 2021. As a matter of fact, I purposely put it on hold after an incident with a sales hire discouraged me greatly. Can you imagine your girl giving the last of her funds to a young man who promised that he would be able to assist in gaining the necessary traction for the directories, sitting in your house drinking ONLY tea for two days, and at the end of the month, he delivers nothing?
Well… that was me. The things I do for my companies.
For my most successful venture of 2021, I partnered with a Ghanaian friend to start and grow a natural skin and beauty care company called Dinam Naturals. Within the space of 3 months, we retailed many many units of our products and expanded to new markets. Currently, we’ve shipped to Brazil, Canada, Kenya, Trinidad and Tobago, Saint Lucia, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany. To add to that, we started a small, growing distribution network and things went so well, that we’ve sold out all of our stock and have back orders that we never anticipated.
Now, I love what we’ve been able to accomplish with Dinam Naturals, but I’d say that my most fulfilling undertaking of 2021 is notes. At notes. we created two platforms – wasscenotes. and cxcnotes. – to provide free, structured, syllabi-tailored, high-quality, comprehensive learning resources for WASSCE, CAPE, and CXC students across West Africa and the Caribbean. The notes are beautifully illustrated and written to suit their target audience. The platform also has built-in: flash card sets, forum discussions, audio notes (in English and other local languages), and tutorial videos tailored to the WASSCE, CAPE, and CSEC curricula.
I Did Lots of Fulfilling Work
Towards the latter part of the year, I started working as a consultant with an Open Education consultancy firm out of Cambridge, United Kingdom. I gave lots of my time and diligence toward the implementation of a Learning Recovery Program across the Caribbean region, and I got something in return: an opportunity to pick the brains of some of the most experienced consultants in the open education development space. I gained tons of perspective about the steps I could take to move notes. forward, and I’m looking forward to implementing in 2022 God willing.
I Did Better with Managing My Finances
Whoo! I’m 30, and I still don’t have the whole management of my personal finances down yet; for a number of reasons:
- I loan out money; too much money. I can’t say no if someone is in need and let’s just say I have an uncanny knack for loaning money to people who always do not pay me back at the agreed-upon time.
- Because I work in the consultancy/freelance space, I don’t make a set amount of money consistently. I can have glutton months where I make tons of money and other months of famine where I make little to NO money.
Still, this year was one of my best years financially. I was able to meet my needs, and then some, and I was also able to help others to meet theirs. I gave generously. Very early on, I stopped tracking how much money I gave out because if I did I probably would have a heart attack.
I left the year with a nice chunk of savings ( I save with Esusu) even after being able to get my fam some pretty dope gifts. My bank in the US even finally convinced me to take up the dreaded “credit card”. Y’all know I don’t like credit, but my banker had a long chat with me about some of my future plans, and building my credit seemed a very good idea at the time. So… I have a credit card. One which I’ve been using very well, might I add.
Bringing the Sexy Ras Back
A long time ago, I used to wear dreadlocks, and ever since I cut them off almost seven years ago, I’ve struggled to make a decision between wearing my hair completely short, or loc’d. Well, this year, my 30th year of life, I took the plunge. I am bringing the “sexy Ras” back. I am officially 9 months locked today, and I can’t wait to show you all what my hair looks like on its first anniversary.
2021 Was A Happy Year
Since I saw my horrible Cambridge A Level grades, I’ve hated exams, and I’ve consistently battled anxiety and depression. In 2021, 11 years since the genesis of that struggle, I had one of my happiest years. I took time to do things. Besides work. I explored Ghana, hit up a couple of restaurants, and art galleries, and even took in a bit of the nightlife. I traveled. In the middle of a pandemic. On my way home, I stopped over in New York for five days and these 5 days marked literally the most amount of time that I’ve spent exploring the city for ALL of the times I’ve gone to New York.