Today we’d like to introduce you to Emmerita Ambata

Hi Emmerita, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.

I believe the best place to start is my final year of university. I majored in accounting and finance, and while I enjoyed the field, I found myself constantly questioning why I was pursuing it. Was it because my academic path led me here? Was it for the promise of a lucrative future? Or was it simply to please my parents, teachers, and lecturers?

Many days, I’d sit in lectures, staring out at the clear blue sky, feeling lost and disconnected. While my peers eagerly charted their uncertain futures, the thought of becoming a chartered accountant—a goal I’d had since day one—felt incredibly daunting. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was experiencing burnout from years of being academically driven, compounded by a quarter-life crisis I didn’t even know existed.

After graduating, I decided to take a break. I used this time to slow down, reflect, and think about what I truly wanted. This break became my first awakening, a period where I detached from the daily grind and began seeing life differently.

During this time, I traveled to Cape Town and fell in love with its possibilities. I took my fiction writing more seriously, worked as a bartender (for one chaotic night), and a barista—I allowed myself to coast without the pressure of having everything figured out.

I often wondered what would have happened if I had jumped straight into working or pursued my master’s degree. I know I wouldn’t have shaken off the burnout or discovered parts of myself, like my capacity for creativity, something I’d always doubted.

This period of coasting kept me vacillating between staying on that path or returning to accounting. Just as COVID was becoming a reality, I was about to leave for Prague to pursue my master’s. But I wasn’t enthused. Deep down, I knew I wasn’t being true to myself or my reasons for pursuing it.

So, I switched tracks and leaned into my writing. I started freelancing as a content writer, spending most of my days writing and reading. What I didn’t realize then was that turning my passion into a paycheck would eventually drain the joy out of it. Writing became a chore, something I had to force myself to do just to stay financially afloat.

Then came another awakening. One day, I was scrolling through Twitter (X) and stumbled upon a tweet from a woman I admired: “This book changed my life.” The book was Dr. Joe Dispenza’s Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself.

At the time, I’d been diving into energy work in a spiritual sense, trying to understand why I wasn’t getting closer to the life I wanted. I had a feeling that my energy and approach were off. So, when I saw that tweet, I thought, “Maybe this is it—maybe this is the key.”

And it was.

I spent weeks learning about the brain and how we’re purely energetic beings. As someone raised in a Catholic home, much of this new information challenged my beliefs. But as Dr. Joe discussed how our personalities are shaped by our experiences and how they can trap us in cycles of behavior, something clicked.

I began to see why I’d been going in circles for years, ending up in the same place. This deep introspection led me to uncover an emotional block I hadn’t realized was holding me back. I learned that you can set all the grand goals you want, but if you’re not becoming the person who can live that life, you’ll stay stuck.

I spent weeks working on a subconscious level to remove that block. Around this time, I decided to take my startup more seriously, which brought its own challenges. But I found that the more I showed up as the person I wanted to be, the more opportunities and successes followed.

Suddenly, I was doing things I’d only dreamed of—pitching in front of crowds, serving as the master of ceremonies for events, traveling to new countries, and meeting incredible people.

Now, this is where most stories wrap up neatly, but I’m not selling a personal development book here. The truth is, it was and still is incredibly hard to switch gears. I had to get comfortable with failing publicly, moving forward even when I was scared, and trusting that I had the power within me to create the life I wanted.

This transformation was much harder than I anticipated, and it made all the other changes in my life seem like child’s play in comparison. But without it, the radical growth I’ve experienced wouldn’t have been possible.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?

It definitely hasn’t been a smooth road. As I mentioned before, working to become the person I envision myself to be has been, and continues to be, incredibly challenging. There are days when I find myself slipping back into old habits because they’ve been my comfort zone for so long. But I’ve gathered enough tools now to recognize those patterns and nip them in the bud before they take hold.

As you know, we’re big fans of Billet. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?

At Billet, we’re all about shaping Africa’s future remote workforce. Our mission was inspired by the fact that Africa’s working-age population is rapidly expanding while workforces in the US and Europe are shrinking. Discovering this, we created various solutions to tackle the issue, one of which was matching and sourcing talent from Africa to companies in the US and Europe. However, we discovered a crucial issue: practical experience. If Africa is going to position itself as the go-to for talent, we must ensure our talent meets international standards.

That’s what our web-based platform does. It prepares tech talent to take on remote roles through project-based learning. Users can access real-world projects vetted by industry experts to learn in-demand tech skills and gain quality work experience. Think of it like Coursera but for work experience. At the end of a user’s journey, they’re added to a talent pool that companies in the US and Europe can hire from. Besides allowing companies to find pre-screened talent, we also enable them to pre-screen external talent through tailored technical assessments.

Before we go, is there anything else you can share with us?

Don’t be afraid to reinvent yourself. I’ve remembered this, forgotten it, and remembered it again, but if there’s anything that has helped me get where I am today, it’s that.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisisemmerita

Image Credits

Retouch Media Solutions