Asha did not get here by dancing to anyone else’s jukebox. “I have a sincere drive to win and succeed. I have always been one to take risks and bet on myself. But, I also have had good managers and mentors who have opened the door for me.”
She talks about her failures—which have been many: especially when she started her first business. She took time to understand what it takes to build a business and succeed or be an enabler of other people’s businesses. “The best advice I have received is to take a bet on myself and go for it. Some people ask, what if you fail, but ask yourself, what if you fly?”
Nothing can clip her wings. “I have worn many hats—an entrepreneur who has succeeded, and failed; an investor, employee, I have been a manager, a direct report, et al. That taught me empathy, that you show up knowing this is just one chapter and there is much more that I can and will do.”
The future, she says, is about trying different things and creating new opportunities—a little flatter—and perhaps the end of bureaucracy. “It will be less about who you know than what you bring to the table.”
"The best advice I have received is to take a bet on myself and go for it. Some people ask, what if you fail, but ask yourself, what if you fly?"
Currently studying management at the Harvard Extension School, she supports companies to realise the full potential of their teams, shuttling between Accra and Nairobi.
The Africa-based learning company equips businesses, managers, and Africa’s future workforce with the practical tools and training they need to succeed and drive growth.
She defines success as leaving a legacy. “I am more interested in depth than breadth,” she says. “In changing 20 people’s lives, than 1,000 people knowing about me.”
Have things turned out the way she expected at 35?
“It’s better than what I expected. I thought happiness was one thing, a linear scale. But now, it is combining different things and staying true to my north: impactful work and a legacy.” Her one thing was to be a business owner. Life handed her lemons; she chopped them up and started a lemon business. Well, not quite, but you get the point.
If she could tell me just one thing, she would say, that worrying has no place in your ability to do things, “…just take the first step.”
– Eddy Ashioya
