Truth Be Told

If there's a question I've been asked a million times, that would be "How do you do it?". Even my mother has asked me that question and it makes me wonder how people see what I do as Mission Impossible. Brief intro of who Dedun is, for those that don't know me. I'm a final year Medical Student whoop whoop, a full time baker and hair stylist, part time cook and recently, blogger. You can follow me on IG where I shared info about the different shades of Dedun. I will be revealing how I've been able to combine almighty medical school with my businesses and it goes without saying that this is based on my experience and not something I read in a book. So please adjust and apply accordingly.

• Be time conscious: Most important point! Time is what binds everything together. If you are the president of the procrastinators club,  I don't think you will be able to handle everything successfully. You would be overwhelmed with the amount of work you have to do. Create time for books and time for business. Don't mix the two in the sense that you shouldn't be focusing on business when it's time to study for a test or exam. Needless to say, this is where balance comes in. For example, I don't ignore my business completely during exam period and it's because I know I have a short attention span for studying and if I'm truthful to myself, I won't be studying 24/7. So what I do is, the time I would have committed to catch up on series or sleep for extra hours, I divert that time to my business and yield something out of the business too. What's better? I can still catch up on my series while handling business matters. Bingo!

• Have a planner: I mentioned this point in the previous post here
  
  

It's been a long while I wrote a thankful note but randomly I just had this urge to write how I'm feeling.  I was reading up on my "I'm not worthy" post here, I wrote that over a year ago and it's unbelievable how I still feel the same way. I'm thankful that in the past year I've grown beyond my plans. I'm thankful that as growth was inevitable so was my total surrender to believe that God's got my back. The TMNS is just a column dedicated to my thoughts only and somewhat personal if you read through the posts I've written so far. Not so long ago, I reflected on life and it's meanings for more than a week and during this period, sadness and unrest filled my heart. I couldn't pinpoint it and after embarking on a journey to find out why I was sad, I realized that once again, God wasn't the priority (Hence why the I'm not worthy post rings a very deafening bell in my ears). I've been so busy in the past year chasing my happiness, focusing on my businesses and trying to get my MD degree that I forgot to chase God first. Thankfully I'm almost done with the MD program with just a few months to go and my businesses are doing great even though I want to achieve more with them but my happiness is on the flipped side. In one moment, I'm sure I'm happy deep down and in another I'm thinking "What really is happiness?".. I'm still in pursuit of happiness as far as I'm concerned but I will probably have to create an article on happiness. Back to what I'm thankful for... I'm thankful for success, I'm thankful for protection. In this last year, I've travelled a lot and after having an ocean scare in Malta, I realized I haven't been thanking God enough for saving me from the hands of death. So many death scares I've experienced but at the end of the day, that's just what they are, to instill fear in you and remind you that death is real and God is the only one that can save you from leaving the earth before you are called to His glory. I'm thankful for financial provision, thankful for healing when I was sick. I had a terrible malaria while I was in Malta. I've not been sick and bed ridden for a long while. I went to Nigeria and when I arrived, I got my antimalarial shot and forgot to take another before leaving. The way the malaria shut my body down was too quick. From sores to fever to weakness, with no antimalarial drug in sight, I was basically knocking on death's door for 3 days until I decided I was going to ask for help from colleagues and that is why I'm thankful for Dr Cherry that tried her best to get me antimalarial as soon as she could. God bless you (If you eventually see this). Still on healing, I'm thankful for the strength to believe that I have received my healing (post on that will come later). My mum will kill me for sharing this. I was told I had severe Iron deficiency anemia and hypercholesterolnemia back in 2012. I've been dealing with it even though I thoroughly hate drugs but thankfully the cholesterol got controlled and anemia persisted but to a better level than it was. Between this period and monthly bleeding, I was hospitalized for 2 nights and this is why I'm thankful that God always come through for me even when I don't ask. I would love to write more but I will keep some for later. So if you are reading this and you feel God has ignored you or vice versa, just think of many ways, no matter how little, God has come through for you. Most times we don't pay attention to His presence and blessings but I assure you that He is always there just thank Him and seek Him, He won't leave you ever. Sorry I didn't break this down in paragraphs but it's as real as it gets.

The Hungarian Parliament, Budapest (Noble's View) Hungary is a central european country with a population over 9 million. The capital city is Budapest (pronounced Budape-sht) but I live in a city called Debrecen, second largest city in the country. I moved to Hungary seven years ago and I can say the growth the country has experienced in those years is commendable and that is why I have made a list of 10 Reasons Why I Love Hungary Hungary is beautiful  The capital city, Budapest should be on the list of top 5 European cities to visit. I can't describe it really but there's just something serene and at the same time lively about Budapest. The view of Budapest at night is truly magnificent especially if viewed from the Buda side of the Danube river. You get to really appreciate the panoramic view of the city. You can also safely walk along the river or go on a night river cruise. The cave towns (e.g Aggtelek) are also worth mentioning, and the wine towns (eg. Eger) with beautiful vineyards. Not forgetting, Lake Balaton! Since Hungary is a land locked country, the lake Balaton is like a major vacation place for locals and tourists too.  Good transport system You can connect to reconnect and connect again.  If you get lost, you probably are just bad with direction. Whether you are in Budapest or a less populated city like Debrecen, you can easily find your way around. Thankfully, google maps won't disappoint incase you are unsure. Peradventure google maps can't help you, just use google translate and show a local (Disclaimer here: Magyar is so difficult even google translate can't help you sometimes). The transport passes are students and locals friendly and a bit pricey for tourists in Budapest but if you compare with other countries that spend Euro, it's actually the same.

Egusi soup is one of those Nigerian soups that doesn't belong to just one tribe. However, I've noticed that it can be cooked in a lot of ways and this can differ based on the person cooking it or how a tribe cooks it. The choice of protein to accompany it with is endless, from seafood egusi to goat meat  egusi (best one) to plain ol' chicken (I'm sorry chicken). Also, the choice of green vegetable is based on preference and also optional especially for Egusi Ijebu (Hello my Ijebu family). Due to my current location, I can only get spinach and but I prefer to use Ugwu. Today I will be pairing mine with chicken and gizzard, let's get cooking.

Ingredients

Meat of choice (boiled,fried or grilled)
180g Egusi (grounded)
2 Onions
2 Bell Peppers
2 Tomatoes
3 Scotch Bonnets (you can adjust this according to your taste bud)
4Tbsp Palm Oil
3Tbsp Cray Fish (grounded)
350g (frozen) Spinach
450ml Stock and extra 3tbsp
1 Bullion Cube (Maggi)
1/4 tsp Salt


(NB: My recipes are measured so you can achieve a tasty dish because knowing how to cook depends on how you season/spice your dish alongside the steps. For this recipe, I didn't need the maggi
and salt because my stock was well seasoned)

Hey guys, sorry I had to take a break to focus on final year matters. Sometimes, it's not easy joggling school with a bunch of other things. Please forgive me. The last topic on the student business series was about Raising Capital, you can read it here.  I want to believe you've read the previous posts on the series and you are ready to launch your business. Let's get down to it.

• The price list should be ready: The price list is probably one of the controversial part of business planning. You are trying not to over charge because your clients will be students but don't want to undercharge because no student discounts come from buying the equipments/ingredients needed. I will advise while constructing a price list, you should put into consideration how much time and resources will go into creating an item and add a good amount percentage as profit. Also, ask yourself if you would pay that much if you were a client. Of course I'm talking about a job well done here. No mediocrity allowed. You can increase it as your skill bank develops.

• Have a planner: This is all so important. Because you have your studies to focus on, you need  to set aside special days you know you will be flexible to attend to your client's needs. Luckily because your clients will mostly be students, they will understand you won't be free every time.  

• Choose a launch date: With everything (business page with followers, tools etc) ready to kick  off, you should pick a date and build awareness towards that date. Share on all the social media pages and let the prospective clients anticipate. It builds excitement instead of just surprising them (some can argue the element of surprise can also help a brand). Be sure to include all the info on what you will offer.