Born in a small town in Botswana, Connie Ferguson moved to Johannesburg at the age of 19 to pursue a career in modelling and acting. She rose to fame playing Karabo Moroka in the hit soap opera Generations and has also starred in Soul City, The Wild, Rockville, The Queen and Kings of Joburg.
Connie has her own production company, Ferguson Films, which she started with her late husband, Shona, and her own body care range, Connie Body Care. She was also the first South African woman to launch her own fragrance, True Self, back in 2008. Everything Connie has achieved has been the result of hard work, grit and faith. And she’s picked up some valuable wisdom along the way.
1. Follow your passion
When Connie first moved to South Africa, she left a small town, a big family (she is the third of seven children), and everything that was familiar to try and make it in the entertainment business. “It was hard and there were a lot of times where I thought, should I just have gone and studied to be a nurse or a teacher and done the conventional thing, and have a salary?” she recalls. “But I always came back to myself and said, I wouldn’t have been happy because that was never my passion. My passion, even in school – the only thing that made me come out of my shell – was performing. So, I stuck it out, even when it was hard.”
2. Your turn will come
There is a lot of rejection that comes with being a model and actor, and Connie had her fair share when she was first starting out. “I cried a lot. That was one way of dealing with it! My mother kept reiterating to me that just because one person rejected you, doesn’t mean the next person’s going to reject you. You have to hold on for your turn. Everybody has a turn, so maybe it just wasn’t your turn at the time, but your turn will come. Those words kept echoing in my head. I had to keep saying that to myself and believing until my turn did come. And when my turn came, it just kept coming! Waiting is hard, I know that. But learn the art, because your turn will come.”
3. Have a purpose bigger than yourself
“My main aim was to work and be able to help my parents, because they had been working so hard all their lives. I saw how they had struggled, raising seven kids, and my main agenda was to get my mom to stop working.” She achieved it. “I was 21 or 22 when I got my mom to leave her job and at the time, I doubled her salary! I said, Mum, you’ve worked so hard. Just take a break. Do what you want to do – she loved knitting and she was very active at church. I said, do those things, what gives you purpose. So, since age 22, I’ve been taking care of my family.”
4. Prioritise your health
Anyone who follows Connie on social media knows that she loves exercise, but that’s not her only healthy habit. “I’ve never smoked, I’ve never drunk alcohol. I’ve always really taken good care of myself.”
5. Be true to yourself
“First and foremost, I have to be true to myself. I would never live a certain way to fit someone else’s standard or because it’s expected of me. I live a true life to me and whoever draws inspiration from that, for me, it’s the biggest blessing. But I don’t put myself under pressure to be a certain way because I want to be a role model – I’ve never set out to be a role model. All I really wanted was to make my parents proud.”
6. Make your own opportunities
“I wish I had known the whole structure and value chain of the entertainment industry from the beginning, and I wish I had known that certain roles are not exclusive to certain people. You think you’re an actor and that’s all you are, and you can never elevate. But you can create a space for yourself in every aspect of the industry.”
7. Everything in its time
“Sometimes you’re not mature enough to handle certain positions because they come with a lot of responsibility. And a LOT of stress! Sometimes when you’re young and you haven’t been through the ringer, you’re not ready. Sometimes you go through what you go through because you’re being cooked, chiselled, moulded. So, when it does come, you’re ready.”
Click here to shop Connie Body Care products at Clicks