Dr Ola Van Steen and Dr Ada Chime

I thought it was the end.

I got home one day from school and my mum had packed our bags, she said we were leaving. It was the war in Iraq, the 3rd war that I had to live through, and things had turned really bad. We didn't know what was going to happen next but we knew staying wasn't an option.

I was studying medicine to be a doctor at that time; once I qualified and after many applications, I finally managed to immigrate to the UK, having earned myself a job working in the NHS. That was a massive leap from leaving my home with the clothes on my back to having a job that (at that time I thought) would set me up for the rest of my life.

Being an immigrant, a woman, a woman of colour wearing the hijab at that time. I fought tooth and nail to complete my training and qualify as a dual specialist Consultant in Critical Care and Acute Medicine. I accepted my consultant job and got to work, but something didn't feel right. I had burnt out twice by now working in a dysfunctional system that couldn’t see or recognise my contributions. I was helping people live longer and better lives, but my life was put on hold and I saw it passing me by.

The pandemic was a stern reminder of how precious and at the same time fragile life could be. Due to the lockdown, I couldn't travel to see my family, I couldn’t be part of my grandmother's journey with cancer treatment and I couldn’t be there when she passed away.

One day I decided to start doing something different, if anything was to change, I had to change.

One day I decided to start doing something different, if anything was to change, I had to change. I’ve always loved to travel so I decided to explore how I can do more of that, with the hope it would give me the feeling of living that I was missing. I found an opportunity to earn from the travel I do, and help others travel more and smarter. After researching it (I am a doctor after all) and making sure I’m getting what’s on the tin from it, I decided to make a start.

I had no network here in the UK, I had zero business experience and no skills to mention when it came to marketing and growing an income from something other than a job. But I was willing to try, again, if nothing changes nothing changes! However, one day after another my network started to grow, I started to travel more, my business started to grow. Fast Forward to 2.5 years after starting my business I was able to leave my full-time job in the NHS.

Fast forward to now, 4 years after starting my business, I have been able to help 200 individuals and their families travel smart and earn an income from travel. Throughout my travel entrepreneurship journey my life has turned 180 degrees to the best, my health improved, my wellbeing improved, my bank account improved, I married the love of my life whom I met while travelling, I now travel 2-3 times a month … a lifestyle the immigrant who arrived in the UK some years back scared and alone could have only dreamt of.

One of the incredible individuals whom I’ve met along this journey is Dr. Ada Chime, who is a psychiatrist working in the NHS. She is also a single mum of three young men. Ada came to the UK from Nigeria at the age of 25, just eight months after the death of her father. He’d developed cancer about three years earlier and had responded well to chemotherapy but he suddenly died from a stroke. He had been unwell and not able to work for a couple of years, so he didn’t have money for the rent when the landlord demanded it. Ada heard from her sisters later on that he cried that night and the same night, he had a stroke.

At that moment Ada promised herself two things - she would not be a tenant and she would have passive income.

At that moment Ada promised herself two things - she would not be a tenant and she would have passive income. Ada shared this with me:

“I received regular reminders of these self-promises over the next few years of my life, for example, after leaving an abusive marriage, and becoming a single mum to three very young children, when I suddenly realised that if I was unable work for a while for any reason, I would not be able to provide for my children. I also realised I needed to earn more money at this point because though I wasn’t renting, I had a mortgage which I was struggling to pay because most of my salary was going towards paying solicitors.

It’s little wonder that I have never been satisfied to simply earn a salary from a job in the NHS. I have continually sought a source of passive income, and I had tried many business ventures unsuccessfully until I came across this travel business opportunity .It looked different, felt different and turned out to be different. With this business opportunity, I have all the support I need to build my business and all the education I need in order to be an entrepreneur because entrepreneurship requires a different mindset from employeeship (if that is a word).

Whilst being an employee is not a bad thing, it does mean that you are reliant on someone else for income, whereas being an entrepreneur means that you are not and I could take control of my finances and thus my future. This is why I have chosen to go on the entrepreneurship journey and why I am passionate about helping people (particularly women) who desire the same”.

The travel business has allowed me to generate an income through booking travel for others and also the travel I book for myself. Each travel booking has a commission built into it; that's how the travel industry operates. It either goes back to the supplier or to the agent making the booking, so by me being the travel agent I am able to earn that commission. I have since developed my skills in business and became a travel business coach teaching others how they can become travel agents and generate an income from it.

If you found yourself wondering how you too could start your entrepreneurship journey, how you could travel more and take control of your finances please reach out to us on Dezy Tours & Travels using one of the following options: Instagram, Facebook, mobile phone (+44 7955 415668) or via email (dezystours352@gmail.com).