Iris Kaingu says she used money which DSTV’s Zambezi Magic paid her for a show which was never aired to invest in her newly-opened Meno ä Ngweshi Resort.

And Iris has advised anyone with a negative past to close their ears to what people say and hang on to God’s love and their families for strength to move forward.

At a media briefing, Thursday, Iris said she used roughly US$10,000 as seed capital to kickstart her business, which recently won the first prize for exhibition in the hospitality business.

“In the beginning, I started out with roughly $10,000 but that is because I had a project with Zambezi Magic and they paid me quite a good amount of money and that is what started me up,” Iris said.

“My journey as an entrepreneur came suddenly. I didn’t think I’d be an entrepreneur…I am a big philanthropist so I thought I’d definitely go into charity Work but having worked with DSTV and Zambezi Magic, we did a whole show, 13 episodes and someone at the top of management said that they couldn’t air my show because of how much controversy I create, that’s their opinion. So in as much as they managed to film this, put it together and edit it, they didn’t show it. So in my heart, I was so heart broken, I thought, this is a family friendly show, you obviously just hate me for not wanting to broadcast it.”

She said whilst others didn’t believe in her, her father did and she went for it.

“But then, after they paid me, I said this is an opportunity. My father has already pre-invested before me, so it’s not like I just went and started it from scratch, I went and started to develop his idea. It was not how it is today because of the little development that I have given to it. So that unfortunate situation, where they say I couldn’t be on your TV screens because of personal vendettas made me decide that I’m going to do my own thing and I will start my own thing. They didn’t believe in me but I believed in myself, my father believed in me and I had the Education to back it up so I took the money, took my Education and here I am. An idea eventually comes to you,” Iris said.

And Iris advised people to forget about the negative critics and live their lives based on what they want.

“It has not been an easy journey. People in this country are very judgmental but that’s okay because you exist in a society and you can’t shut people off so for me, it has been my family and God. They have been so supportive. The one thing I need to tell people is don’t care what people say about you at all because you never know where someone is giving you advice from. It could be because they had a rough day, they just don’t like you, they think that you’re too dark, they’re so petty so when they give you advice, it is not entirely positive advice. I’m not saying don’t adhere to advice, I am just saying make your own decisions, it is your own life at the end of the day and you will be judged for your own life. Find your inner peace and find what God has purposed you to do on this earth and you’ll never look back,” said Iris.