The Chief Executive of Selina Beb Designs, Selina Bebaako-Mensah says she was inspired to pursue a law degree in the United Kingdom by one of Ghana’s most prominent media personalities, Kwaku Sintim-Misa, aka KSM.
Speaking on Joy Learning TV’s ‘The Career Trail’, the fashion mogul said the idea of pursuing law originally came from her father, however, upon completion of high school, she toyed with the idea of exploring different career paths because she was not quite sure what she wanted to do in the future.
“In secondary school, I decided not to do Science because I wasn’t very good at it, and because I didn’t think I could become a good doctor. I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to do, so I remember I kept toying with a few things. I was considering Journalism, or maybe pursuing Business Administration at the university. One of the things that fascinated me at that young age was Interior Design. I remember toying with the idea of becoming an Interior Designer as well”, she said.
Selina recalls admiring Oprah Winfrey a lot, and had dreams of becoming like her someday.
Her dilemma over the choice of a career path prompted her father to suggest the idea of a Law Degree. For him, Law was a good stepping stone to branch into other fields such as Journalism, since she appeared to possess a perceptible endearment towards engaging people and operating in the field of Journalism.
“He said, you know, you like talking, you like arguments, so I feel like you would be a good lawyer. And then I thought about it, and I was like okay. That wasn’t my interest – law never crossed my mind, I never dreamt to become a lawyer, but I thought okay, law is prestigious”, she said.
At the time, she recalled, KSM used to have a talk show on career guidance and development so she sought his opinion.
“So one day, I wrote to him at Vibe FM. I remember I visited Vibe FM a few times to meet him. So I remember I spoke to KSM, and KSM said if your father wants you to do law, I think you should go ahead and do it”, she explained.
In the end, she agreed to pursue a law degree and relocated to the UK at the age of 18. However, she said things did not go as planned.
“So I moved to England a year after completing secondary school. I attended Anglia Ruskin University, and that’s in Essex in the UK. And, uh, I hated it. It was difficult and it was a lot of reading. I don’t really like reading, I prefer to either listen or to talk. So yeah, instead of maybe even reading a book, I prefer to listen to its audio version. So reading all those thick law books, oh my God, just the size of the law books alone used to scare me. For every lecture, there was a tutorial, and honestly, I didn’t like it. I was quite young as well. I was immature, and I wasn’t concentrating on my studies. To cut a long story short, I messed up my law degree”, she revealed.
As expected, her father was very disappointed at the wasted prospect of his daughter turning out to be a refined lawyer after all. Therefore, in retaliation, he instructed her not to return to Ghana but rather, to remain in the UK and to hustle.
Selina, nonetheless, still had dreams of returning to school. However, those dreams had to be fully funded by herself.
“So I did odd jobs, especially with retail companies. I worked with Marks & Spencer, which is one of the oldest retail companies in England. So I worked with three different branches”, she recalled.
For her, even though her initial dream of pursuing law did not fully materialise, she still had the opportunity to build the much-needed experience and skill in the retail and fashion industry in the UK, which have proven to be very instrumental in her professional life today.
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