Women turn to business as a way to personal growth
From burnout to stepping out of their comfort zones, women shared how starting their businesses has become a space for healing, growth, and starting again.
For some women, business is not just about earning and making a living, it is a way to rebuild, heal, and reinvent themselves after or during life experiences.
These experiences were revealed during a recent networking breakfast at Syringa Café in Randburg on March 20. The breakfast, hosted by the South African Council for Businesswomen, featured discussions indicating each of the women’s personal journeys behind entrepreneurship.
Read more: Networking breakfast highlights women’s resilience and real-life challenges in business
The theme for the day was: Relentless resilience. For many, resilience is not about instant success; it’s about going through moments of uncertainty, exhaustion, and personal development with unwavering hope that, eventually, success will be reached.
Rita Pape is one of these women. After retiring in 2023, Pape said she had to make massive changes in her life after experiencing a breakdown. She realised that she needed to take a step back. To date, Pape said she has been gentler with herself. “I had to process everything that had happened to me. From doing that, I actually have the energy again to do the creativity that I was born to do.”
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For entrepreneur Michelle Ngwazikazana, the challenge was different, but also just as personal. Since starting her business in 2018, her biggest challenge was getting over her introverted personality in a field that requires constant interaction with others. “I was so much of an introvert, but when you own a business you become everything for your business. You need to network, and you need to do things that you are so uncomfortable doing.” She added that stepping outside of her comfort zone has helped grow both her professional and personal life.
While their experiences may differ, both women expressed resilience as a process that happens overtime, instead of something immediate.
Tanya Liebenberg, a branch leader within the organisation, said the networking breakfast is a platform where they create a safe space for ladies to come together and build connections. She added that she gets goosebumps when she sees people whose paths would have never crossed on a day-to-day environment just socialising and sharing their stories.
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