Dunni, was a mid-level manager with a multinational company up until the Company decided to shut down its operations in her country of residence. With the looming recession, she knew it would be an uphill task to get a similar job. Both the microeconomy and macroeconomy were in dire straits and she was in confusion as to what to do. She had three children in secondary school and her husband’s engineering firm had taken a severe battering from the battered economy. Her parents had since passed, and she had a lot of dependants in the person of her siblings. Today, she celebrates ten years of running a successful clothing line. She casts her mind back to how it all started as she addresses her audience, gathered to celebrate with her. She is in visibly high spirits as she starts:

“During the recession, having lost my job, rather than wallow in self-pity, my brain did a reset and I remember thinking along the following lines:

1. The children would need to become day students to reduce the school fees.
2. I would need to resume driving myself and relieve myself of the cost of maintaining a driver.
3. I must earnestly seek God’s face regarding what I could do, and the answer stared me right in the face – I had always had a passion for designing clothes.”

Dunni had always stood out in her designs which she gave to her favorite tailor who was meticulous and paid attention to her every detail. Her friends had always envied her elegant style which was always in tandem with the occasion. From her secondary school days, she had always designed her clothes and would sketch every detail of the style she intended to sew. Her designs were brilliant as they considered body shape, colour of fabric, design, and texture of fabric as well as the occasion for which the outfit was intended. She had brought all these parameters to bear in her brand which was highly personalised and further considered the personality and skin colour of the individuals in addition.

She had started the business by selling her service to her circle of influence who had always admired the way she was attired. These were mostly colleagues and friends in her church, societies, professional circle, etc. The more she satisfied her customers, the wider her reputation grew until she not only sustained her family but was able to set up a fashion institute for training young people.

As she rounded up her story, she advised the young persons in her audience ” Never give up on yourself. When the going gets tough, the tough get going. A recession or depression is an opportunity to unleash the tiger in you and boldly follow your passion. Undoubtedly, there will be challenges faced as you embark on a start-up, but if you keep at it relentlessly, putting in ingenuity and effort, your efforts will be rewarded. If at first you do not succeed, try, try, try again”. She further encouraged the youth “to embark on multiple streams of income and not wait till they were boxed into a corner by the loss of a job or a depressed economy. Start a side hustle preferably related to a passion or talent and commit it to God’s hands for growth.”

Havilah opines that in times like this when there is global inflation and financial crisis, it is important to think outside the box for solutions to economic and financial challenges. While committing our plans into God’s hands, introspection into discovering our God-given gifts and talents is important. There is no one without a gift from God. Let us discover/uncover our gifts and use them.

Love

Havilah