One of the few words that best describe Natassia Kim Beja is ‘risk-taker’ who always wants to carpe diem or seize the day. She taught herself to take risks and boldly go while understanding that life can be a bumpy road, but at least it is leading her somewhere.
In 2015, she started her overseas journey in Abu Dhabi as a travel consultant. Since then, she has been striving hard to fulfill her dreams and goals in life. In that particular work, she loved the travel industry, especially when she was able to help her fellow Filipinos travel successfully from the Philippines to the UAE and fulfilling their travel dreams.
As someone who loves challenges, she embraced a new culture and work environment—she thought it was very different from what she witnessed in the Philippines. So, she made some adjustments in coping with the pressure both at work and personally.
When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, it made a complete 360 degrees change as she worked in the travel industry. Natassia had to change the course of her career and did a lot of freelance jobs, including working as a reservation manager and storekeeper, just to survive during the lockdown for more than six months.
“I had to work something in order to meet my daily living expenses. Surviving that time was my main goal,” she recalled.
Since the pandemic has affected almost all sectors across the globe, the travel restrictions have caused millions of redundancies.
“The situation for the past two years was very difficult yet I am very thankful to God that he was able to guide me to the path where I was able to survive and put food on the table,” she said.
Natassia has literally sent hundreds of CVs to various organizations in the capital in the hopes of securing a nice-paying job until she was called for an interview by a travel agency. At first, she was hesitant due to the current situation; however, she saw the light at the end of the tunnel when the UAE was gradually lifting travel restrictions.
With perseverance coupled with a lot of patience, she was able to save up. This also paved the way for opening her dream travel agency in the UAE. Now only 30 years old, Natassia is fully committed to her newly established travel agency named Byahero Travel and Tourism.
“I chose to fight and stand on achieving my goals. I lost my job and worked hard on achieving what I have right now,” she added.
The employee-turned-entrepreneur said she wanted to grow her company and thrive it to success.
“In living abroad, the number one person you can trust is yourself. Love and care for yourself first. Since working abroad you can only depend on yourself. Other people even your family and friends have also other battles to fight for. Never doubt your capabilities. Aim for your happiness and success but never forget those people who were there during your ups and downs. Especially, To God for always making you strong. As during my very lows, prayers is one of the strongest armor of my success,” she concluded.