Mukudzeyi Gutu is a young professional accountant and fashion blogger who loves being around family and friends, traveling and fashion. Her sense of style is simple and elegant with an edge.
What are you most passionate about in life?
I am passionate about being the best version of myself at all times. That means just making sure that I grow as a person, spiritually and mentally. Outside of that I guess I am passionate about fashion and business, and hopefully one day I can start something that brings those two together.
What/who do you treasure the most in life?
I guess, my faith, my family, that also means my friends I feel like I have a very good support system of people who are genuinely always looking out for me and want the best for me. I am very blessed to have that in the form of friends and family. I also treasure my peace of mind, I am very reserved, I keep to myself, I mind my own business for the very reason that nothing is more important than peace of mind. I feel like when you mind your own business you do better and you become better.
Where did your love for fashion come from?
I definitely would not say that I was born with it, I remember growing up I used to call myself the fashion police, so I have always liked fashion. When I was about 7, I was running around telling everyone how to dress. I feel a lot of it was influenced by the people around me like my aunts and uncles, my grandparents and my parents. They were always impeccably dressed and I think I always got that sense that how I look and how I dress is important and it’s a great way to show people who I am before I even open my mouth. I guess it was always instilled in me from a young age that fashion is important and how you present yourself is important.
Why did you start blogging?
I was doing a degree I wasn’t feeling at the time and and I was like, I need to do something that I actually like. I asked my friends and family about what I should do about my career and they were like fashion because I dress really well, I liked dressing up, but didn’t think it was that serious. One of my friends suggested starting a blog, but it took a while before I actually started.
What do you hope people will take away from reading your blog?
There are two things, the first thing is that it doesn’t really matter what your circumstances if are in school, young and old I just want to inspire people to always follow their dreams. Its important to me to inspire people to break out of their comfort zone and not care about what people think. The second thing is that less is always more, I’m a big believer in that style is eternal, dressing elegantly, less flashy, Style is timeless and that’s something I want to spread to every woman to make them feel beautiful.
What valuable lessons have you learnt in life so far?
The first is to do my best in everything, I never wanna do anything mediocre. I feel like it’s either I put everything in it or nothing at all and it’s kinda helped me come this far, I feel like I always exert a lot of effort into everything I do.
The next lesson I really like is to just take things day by day because I find myself that I can get really busy and overwhelmed like oh my gosh am I gonna get this done. I feel like the best thing is do what you can today and God will take care of the rest.
Another lesson which I really like and I kinda live by, is not to take myself too seriously, especially with blogging, I know you are supposed to make sure your photos are perfect and airbrushed and all that, but we are all human. If you do something silly, if you pose like crazy laugh at yourself have fun, there’s no point criticising yourself. You should be your own biggest fan, so don’t take yourself too seriously.
What highs and lows have you experienced in your career so far?
I have managed to work for one of the biggest companies in the world since freshmen year, for me that’s a big accomplishment. I was straight in a new country trying to figure things out and I was able to snatch a job from them in my freshman year and I have worked for them for about 5 years now. Through it I have grown so much as a person I have grown so much in my career and I’ve traveled I’ve seen the country. I work in tax, so I have learnt tax from the asset management side and international business side, it’s been such a great experience.
The lows would be just normal stuff like interviewing for something and not getting it, not doing a project as well as you would like to and sometimes getting an assignment and having no idea what you are doing and you just feel so dumb. I would say with that, ask a lot of questions, I feel like people are always there to help. Like I said before just take it one day at a time, one chunk at a time.
If you could pick one place to live in the world, where would it be and why?
I would definitely say Berlin, it’s my favourite city in the whole world, because just being there I just felt so alive. Because it’s a place where there is so much history they have been through so much, like if you think about the pre Hitler era, then the Hitler era and then East and West Germany and they got out of that and where they are now. It’s so amazing to live in a city that’s just got so much history , l just feel I’m part of something big.
Another thing is its really diverse, it has a good mixture of people from different places and I like the German language, so I would definitely say Berlin.
What is your fondest memory of growing up in Zimbabwe?
Growing up with all my aunts and uncles and surrounded by love. I feel like at any point in time I was growing up there were always people in the house like my cousins my aunts, they are super funny, a little shady, but I just feel like Zimbabweans can be so loving and so caring and also very funny and hospitable.
Picture 5 years from now, where do you see yourself, career wise and in life?
Career wise, I definitely want to have advanced in my business career, I work in accounting and finance, I want to have advanced in that. I hopefully would have opened a business that’s fashion related grown my blog, developed it more, I am still finding myself blog wise, so hopefully find my kinda path and what I’m going for clearly I have an idea, but I wanna refine it.
Then in life, I don’t know I just wanna be happy I wanna travel, hopefully married with twins, but mostly just be happy and travel the world.
What is your proudest achievement to date?
Being here and having come so far is my proudest achievement, I have graduated college, I managed to get a job, I am in a good place starting off my career. There have been so many obstacles growing up in a country like Zimbabwe where things are so tough and you don’t know what’s gonna happen and what’s not gonna happen. Through prayer and great support from family and friends I am just proud of where I am today as a person.
What opportunities have come your way because of blogging?
Mostly just working with different brands, brands approaching me and wanting to collaborate. That’s another regret I have, I am always busy with work I don’t get to do that kind of thing. I appreciate being able to collaborate with different brands and meeting other bloggers who are into the same things like fashion and expressing themselves. I think those are the best things that have come out of it.
What advice would you give to all the aspiring young entrepreneurs, bloggers out there?
Do you, do what makes you happy after all its your life and at the end of the day you need to look back and be like you know what I lived, I did this for me. Just do it, take a risk, take a chance on yourself and whatever happens, if you fail just make sure you fail quickly and move on and do something else and you will be fine.
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