Entrepreneurship
Whether To Sink Or Swim With Kaye Bassey
What’s your backstory?
I was born in a Canadian suburb in Toronto on the 1st of January as the first baby of the year. My parents both worked as diplomats so I spent the first few months of my life in Canada and soon relocated to the stunning city of Prague, Czech Republic along with my entire family.
Growing up, I was exposed to multitude of different cultures, backgrounds and languages. I am fortunate enough to have parents who strongly believe in being well-rounded and exposed to various aspects in life. From a young age, I was given the freedom to travel, have friends from varying unique backgrounds and most importantly was taught that the sky is limit when it comes to everything in life. Thankfully, this helped shape and mold me creatively into the person that I am today.
As I grew up- I lived with my family primarily in Europe, spending a few years of my life back home in Nigeria. These years were very important to me as it exposed me to another side of culture, fashion and an uncanny appreciation for animals which still fills my heart today.
I have always had a big spot in my heart for the arts and animals- although, I had the opportunity to study International Business through University- I have come back to combine my extensive knowledge in Business while incorporating these principles to grow my business.
As I go through life there are many things that continue to inspire me. The three major things are my passion for animals (I grew up on a farm for some of my life growing up and worked with all sorts of farm animals- chickens, goats, turkeys etc), my passion to help out children (my parents both grew up as orphans and were able to make it out the situations that they were born in to and the creating in fashion & beauty.
Growing up, I have had to face a number of challenges. One was living in Berlin, Germany alone at the age of 16. It pushed me out of my comfort zone. I learned the value lesson of choosing whether to sink or swim. I chose swim and always have my whole life. Being independent and mold-able is something that I have learned overtime. This has also given me the confidence to know that I am capable of doing or achieving anything anytime.
Shedding light on animals that people typically fear or do not have much knowledge about. I am an environmentalist. On the horizon, there are projects that I am currently working on with animal rescues in Africa. Also, I am using my platform to help with awareness.
What made you decide to choose this career path?
My passion. Every since I was around 5 years old, I took a keen interest in watching the show, “Style by Elsa Klensch”. I can not even explain the influence that had on my for the years that I watched it for. It resonated so deeply with me and has definitely helped sow my creative side since a young age. Ever since then, I was hooked and knew that no matter if I studied business and had an encounter with finance and numbers, I would always go back to what I really know and love- creating.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
There are so many funny moments that I can share. I never refer to them s mistakes though, because by making errors, you learn the best. I think I will share a very light hearted funny story that happened recently. I went on a really important meeting recently and we both ordered coffees. A few minutes later, I placed my arm on the table and my whole cup off coffee went flying off the table- spilling all over the table and the floor. Luckily, it completely missed us both. I tried to apologize with a straight face but she started laughing hysterically and I did too. It was funny because that meeting was so important to me and something so silly happened- it helped to relieve the tension.
I learned something so important from that though. To take life easy! It doesn’t matter how prepared you are, sometimes you experience uncontrollable or unanticipated situations- so I have learned to let go a lot and not try to control everything so severely.
What do you think makes your company/personal brand stand out?
I think my personal brand stands out so well because I am unique and true to myself. I truly only post things that I love and work with company’s that I believe. Being genuine truly pays off and people can see easily through facades.
What’s a quote that you live by?
“Que sera, sera” translated as, “whatever will be will be”- there is actually a song about it. It was one of my favorite songs to sing. My mom sang it to me a lot when I was younger. I think for me, it is an ode to really enjoying each day and living in the moment- not overthinking things.
