Tag: Self Development

Nothing Has Ever Stopped Me From My Personal Development, 9 – 5 Also Couldn’t

February 13, 2021 / David Alade

One of the common questions I get is how do I manage to do all that I do (and I do a lot) with my 9 – 5 job. I know a lot of people want to do the same but they’ve not been able to for a reason known to them and which I will reveal here.

To those who struggle to do things to develop themselves alongside their traditional employment, it’s like the proverbial words from the Bible, “the spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak”. I will share with you in this article, how I strengthen my flesh.

Someone asked me the question again recently and I took time to answer it. The following was my answer.

The Enquiry

I want you to shed more light on work and burn-out. I admire how you can balance work and your personal development. One doesn’t affect the other.

I am finding it difficult to do so, especially on weekdays and weekends doesn’t seem enough to achieve everything I want to do.

Please is there a way to manage work and personal life without one impeding the other so much?

My response

First, one thing that you should note is that “I take my time.”

What do I mean?

Our work requires urgency, that’s what we are being paid for and we must deliver to time.

However, personal development does not require that kind of urgency. So I take my time a lot in any area in which I want to develop myself. I have a sense of urgency only when it’s absolutely needed.

The number one thing a lot fail at is that. We don’t take our time. We usually think we must get the personal development done now and here. Putting a sense of urgency on what is not necessary.

And what an unnecessary sense of urgency causes is that it weighs us down easily. We soon get tired and think of ourselves as unserious or unsuccessful. Then we settle for that definition and instead of developing ourselves, we start to look for a cure or a hack or some other motivation to get us up again.

It’s a reinforcing cycle if one does not realize this. If the spur to develop oneself comes again, we will get urgent about it again and fail again.

Until we start to take our time and realize that “we have all the time”, hence, we can do it slowly one day at a time, we tend not to do personal development sustainably.

So that’s the number one secret or hack or revelation. 😊 I just take my time. As long as I have another job that requires urgency.

It will be different if I didn’t have a job that requires urgency. Then I would take my personal development as a matter of urgency.

Now the implication of taking my time is that personal development tends to become a habit

Taking my time over the years has allowed me to build a habit around all development areas that I care about.

When I pick a book to read, I am not under any pressure to finish it. But I make sure to pick it up again and again.

When I started writing, I didn’t put myself under any pressure. I only write when I want to (I have put pressure on this now because of what I’m working on).

There are times that I am interested in studying a new phenomenon, for this as well, I take my time.

The process of taking my time helps me to build a habit around these things and habit my friend is what will take us far.

You must have heard, habit is more important than motivation because motivation is perishable. You become your habit on the other hand.

So right now, I don’t know what else I would be doing if I’m not doing those development things. It is now part of me, my identity.

The other implication of taking my time is that I do the important but not urgent things

If you’ve read the book “7 habits of highly effective people”, you will understand this.

Stephen Covey in the book said the most effective people in the world are those who do things that are important but not urgent.

Your personal development is important but often not urgent (it can be urgent some times). But doing it will help you in the short and long run.

Now this will tie back to the point of taking my time. Whatever area I want to develop myself in, it is often not urgent but it’s always important.

Training myself to act in that realm is the reason why a lot of people think I’m highly effective. And maybe I am by the definition of highly effective.

Lastly, on that point, taking my time also means I play sometimes instead of working. Yes, I’m not a nerd. I have a social life and keep up with things that interest me. I see movies on Netflix a lot especially since the lockdown began.

Where do I get the time from despite my work? I avoid being a donkey

About getting the time for all this, I believe you’ve gotten some hints already (taking your time, no urgency).

But I want to mention something else.

Don’t be a donkey.

Here’s the story of the donkey:

This Donkey was both hungry and thirsty. To help it quench both, a plate of food was placed on the right and a bucket of water on the left and the Donkey in the middle.

But you know what, out of being overwhelmed and not knowing which one to go for first, the donkey died on spot.

The Donkey couldn’t tell that it has all the time. It thought it must do both at the same time. It could have gone for water first then the food or in any order. But it died.

Don’t be a donkey. Yoruba will say “if you chase two rats at the same time, you will lose both”

The point being, don’t do everything in one weekend. Do only the little that you can do. That little is enough. Yes, enough.

Think about how that little will add up in a year time, then 5 years, then 10 years. That’s the best way to approach personal development.

I like to tell people that a lot of things that I do and enjoy dividend on now, I started some 7 years ago, others 5 years some recently of course. But doing them when they were not yet urgent was why I had the opportunity to take my time and become who I am.

Learn from me.

My 3 Steps Growth Process

January 13, 2021 / David Alade

Contrary to what some people who are acquainted with me may think, I am not special in any way. I don’t have the highest IQ, nor am I the best among the best. I am just that one person who takes his time to grow.

A lot of people know me because of writing than any other thing that may be attributed to me. Truth is when we see people learning and building in public, we tend to think or assume they are special or unique. More often than not, we all are just like you. We struggle daily and don’t always do what we set out to do.

So why the story?

The very writing that I am known for today is something that I’ve been doing for about 6 years. I have taken my time to grow into this. Although I’ve been hard on myself sometimes, you can tell that I’ve not been hard enough for the journey to have taken me 6 years. Well, that’s the point I want to make here. That on many skills, you can take your time and grow only on the pace to which you need the skill.

Not until 2019, I didn’t start taking writing seriously. And even then, I could barely write one article in a month. Now, I write every day.

How did I grow to this?

Thinking about the journey that got me here, 3 things emerged as a process. Start, “not stopping” and consistency.

I’ve always known that consistency is the goal for me in anything. It is what gives an unfair advantage. Doing hard things, things that others won’t do because it’s hard to do will always give you an unfair advantage. Consistency is hard and not a lot of people will do it. That’s why you have stopped writing, you have abandoned your side hustle, you have given up on that YouTube channel and given up on learning that skill. So I knew if I can only be consistent, if I can show up every day and be present, I will have an advantage that others won’t have. Without a shred of doubt, I was right.

But getting to be consistent was very hard for me as well. So I introduced a new step between starting and being consistent. I call it “not stopping”.

Start

The first step to growth is starting. Many people fail at this initial point. They take the advice of “keeping the end in mind” to the extreme and the thought of that “expected end” scares them away from starting. They can’t possibly imagine waking up every day and thinking about what to write on or how to finish a book or how to master a skill. It’s just scary. And they just abandon the whole thing. They refuse to start.

Starting is the most important thing and that’s what you should focus on when you are on to doing something new. Forget at first the process that will take you to mastery. Just start. A lot of people, just like you have refused to start, starting alone put you a step ahead. So start whatever that thing is. Like, start anyhow.

You should also read – Do

Not stopping

Once you start, the goal is to aim for consistency. Consistency is what brings mastery and maximum leverage. If you can achieve it immediately, congratulations to you, you have done what the majority of us can’t do.

However, if you are like me, and you struggle with getting consistent with something new, I have a trick for you. It’s called “not stopping”.

Not stopping is simply a layer between the journey from starting to consistency that says even if you struggle with getting consistent, even if you fail and suck at it, even if doing it is always like a herculean task, don’t stop. Every time you can do it again, pick it up again.

By implication, it means don’t beat yourself up if the last time you attempted it was 3 months ago. Now that you remember it again, carry it and do it. At this stage, the goal is “not stopping”. It’s not about mastery, it’s about the little incremental growth that happens every time you attempt it again.

In 2015, when I attempted my first writing, I thought it was good. But I didn’t write one more thing until after a year or so. Between the intervening months, I always wished I wrote more. But I didn’t. It was difficult and certainly, I couldn’t be consistent with it. The natural tendency was for me to stop and conclude that maybe writing isn’t for me. Then I used to think it’s the domain of those who studied English. I was wrong. More importantly, though, the next time I remembered I could write again, I wrote. I was never consistent at it. I do it only on the whims of “felt like”. But I never stopped.

That’s it, whatever it is, don’t stop.

Consistency

If you do the “not stopping” long enough, you will realize if indeed this thing is for you or not. If you recognize that it’s for you, I assure you that one day, you will arrive at consistency. As long as you do not stop. That’s just the way it works. Hang around a barbershop long enough, and you will also get your haircut. It’s the way of the world. It’s an order that can’t be overturned.

And as I’ve said before, consistency gives you the maximum leverage. That’s like your destination but ensure you take the journey down to that.

I have never been a consistent writer until this year 2021 as I am trying to write every day this year. Such an ambitious goal. However, even with the “not stopping”, I’ve gotten a great dividend for my writing. The world is full of people who would rather wish their way into mastery than walk into it. So even for your little effort beyond what everyone else would do, the universe will reward you. Writing got me every job that I’ve done so far (directly and indirectly), writing gave me a name, writing is the reason why you all know me, with writing I’ve created a good network for myself, I can go on. And this is despite the fact that I’m not a master of the craft yet and neither have I been consistent until now.

"The world is full of people who would rather wish their way into mastery than walk into it." Share on X

That’s what I mean, the universe will reward your little steps above what everyone else will do.

So that skill that you abandoned, carry it up again, the one you are afraid to start because you can’t imagine being consistent, start it immediately. And even if you aren’t consistent yet, make sure you don’t stop. That’s how I’ve grown so far, I hope you find this helpful for your growth as well.

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Why I Read More Than One Book At A Time

January 3, 2021 / David Alade

When I started developing interest in books, I could barely finish a book. If I do, it would probably take a longer time than it should. Well, despite all that, as I recounted here, I kept on with the rhetoric of I love reading even though it was being a difficult adventure.

Things have changed over the period. I used to believe that it is wrong to carry a new book to read when I’m not done reading one. So I could go for 3 months carrying just one book around. I won’t complete it on time and I made no allowance for myself to read a new book.

Also, I will pick up some books that in reality are so boring (to me) or too much for me to comprehend at the moment. Yet, I won’t allow myself to read another one until I “finish” reading it.

I guess a lot of us do that. We do that because we want to make statistics out of the number of books read and it doesn’t make sense to count a book you didn’t finish. We are truthful and so we endure what I refer to as the cruellest intellectual torture; the reading of a book just so it could add to some statistics. It’s time to put a stop to that.

Why we read

I didn’t know why we read myself until I started reading. And when I say read, I mean all forms of reading – educational and fun, assigned by others and self-assigned, compelled or willful reading.

After a lot of reading I concluded on one ultimate reason why I (we) read; to know more. The ultimate reason for reading I believe is for the sake of knowledge. Either it’s fiction or nonfiction, when you pick a book to read, there is one thing that is sure to be accomplished in you when you are done, more knowledge.

Knowing more than you once knew means you can do what you couldn’t do before. It means you can enter rooms you couldn’t enter before. It means you can lay claim to a certificate you couldn’t have before. It means you can teach what you couldn’t teach before. It means you can make the kind of money you couldn’t make before. Knowledge is the key that opens many doors that we all covet.

What then is the essence of a reading that doesn’t amount to knowledge but just a mere statistics of book red?

Reading more than one book at a time

Since the essence of reading is knowledge, I started seeing books that way as well. No more as a statistics of book red but as a means to learn, to acquire knowledge. More importantly, I started seeing books as a conversation with the finest of the minds that ever lived or still living.

What do I mean? When you were in school (you may still be), you could have 4 lectures on different subjects in a day. You will attend them, take notes, think about what you learnt and probably even research to learn more. It never occurred to you to assume one lecturer must teach all contents of his subject before another can teach theirs.

Also, while you are out of lecture halls, you probably attend a church where you learn something new again from your pastor. In addition to that, you may also have a conversation on a topic (politics) entirely different from all you’ve done so far. 6 different “conversations” in just one day already.

All these are different knowledge sources and they do not conflict with each other. However, when we pick books to read, we have this sense of urgency or obligation to finish the conversation we started with this brilliant soul before we can move on to another conversation. I had to stop that practice and you should as well. If the purpose of reading is knowledge, then it should be treated as such and allowed to be acquired over time just as any other knowledge.

Here’s what you should know, just as you don’t go back to all conversations to complete them, you don’t have to finish all books as well. I say this because you need to also free yourself from the mental condition you’ve developed that forces you to finish a book.

There are different reasons why you may not finish a book at a time. One, you don’t understand it at that time. Two, it’s currently irrelevant. Three, it’s a poorly written book. The list could go in but those are my top 3.

Seeing books as a conversation with the finest mind liberated me from the idea of having to read just one book at a time. I could have a conversation with a brilliant professor, entrepreneur, spiritual leader, and an unsung person all at the same time. One knowledge won’t stop the other.

No Room For Small Dreams

January 2, 2021 / David Alade

Israel is a country to reckon with today, a world power that commands one of the best militaries, has the best agriculture and is booming with innovation and more wins.

However, it wasn’t always so. At different points in history, they’ve faced the risk of extinction. The Nazi government tried, the Egyptian attempted and the league of Arab Nations that surrounded them wage war against them.

My interest in the Israel story was a pure coincidence. I happened to just have Shimon Peres’ book “No Room For Small Dreams” on my shelf and I decided to read it.

The story of how Israel came to be is wild. However, what stood out for me in a remarkable way so far is how it is inherent in humans to be anti innovation even when that was the only way possible for progress.

Upon the declaration of the accord that granted Israel the identity of a sovereign state, they faced a lot of challenges. In the midst of those challenges, Shimon and Al, a colleague, came up with the idea of building an aviation industry in Israel.

Understandably, they were in the midst of economic turmoil, a surging population and rising unemployment with limited resources. So to require that some of those scarce resources be directed to the building of an industry with no clear prospect is indeed a big ask. However, a sound of optimism rather than a die hard pessimism would have been a better response. Hope is always better than discouragement and faith is a necessary virtue to triumph. Shimon and Al got responses like the below to their initiative.

The economist and industry experts they shared the idea with thought it laughable that they would ever be able to export planes to foreign markets. Someone shouted “our only industry is bicycles and you must know it recently shut down! What madness is it to think we can build planes when we can’t even build bicycles?”

The engineers were certain Israel lacks the technical expertise to build and manage such a complicated operation.

The cabinets responded, “with what money shall we pay for this?” Another said “Israel isn’t America in case you’ve forgotten. We don’t have the budget, the manpower and we certainly don’t have the need!”

The responses were all in such a manner. No one believed in the idea. No one encouraged them. Shimon embarked on the project with the support of the then Prime Minister.

Today the industry contributes more than 8 billion dollars to Israel GDP annually.

What does the man who went through this cruel stage not once but almost all the time in his career have to say about the experience and the lessons?

I’ve had sleepless nights and restless days because of big dreams. I’ve lost elections over them. I’ve lost some friends over them, too. But they never discouraged my imagination. Success built my confidence. Failure steeled my spine.
Experience has taught me three things about cynicism: First, it’s a powerful force with the ability to trample the aspirations of an entire people. Second, it is universal, fundamentally part of human nature, a disease that is ubiquitous and global. Third, it is the single greatest threat to the next generation of leadership. In a world of so many grave challenges, what could be more dangerous than discouraging ideas and ambition?
Throughout my life, I have been accused by many people (in many languages) of being too optimistic—of having too rosy a view of the world and the people who inhabit it. I tell them that both optimists and pessimists die in the end, but the optimist leads a hopeful and happy existence while the pessimist spends his days cynical and downtrodden. It is too high a price to pay.
Besides, optimism is a prerequisite of progress. It provides the inspiration we need, especially in hard times. And it provides the encouragement that wills us to chase our grandest ambitions out into the world, instead of locking them away in the safe quiet of our minds.
– Shimon Peres

That’s it. Optimism wins at the end of the day. Don’t stop dreaming big dreams. Naysayers shouldn’t be the reason you stopped. There will be a lot of discouragement and failures along the way but keep the optimism and keep working on that dream.

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The Work We Do

December 29, 2020 / David Alade

That title was the phrase that came to my mind as I realised that it appears I’ve done a lot today while in actual sense, I have only done little.

This is an observation article. Something I learnt from my work and I thought of writing it out for two reasons. One, to be able to fully comprehend it and two, to see if this applies to me alone or it’s general.

I set out to work on what I’ve not done before and instead of allowing myself time to get it done gradually, I chose to do all the work on one seat. I was doing it until I reached a roadblock in my mind and couldn’t continue again.

Now, instead of letting go of the task and moving on to something else, considering one, I have it’s project that completing it far more important that when it is completed and two, I may need to do more reflection or research before I can continue, I chose instead to be fixated on the short timeline I gave myself.

The result was an epitome of what usually happens anytime I attempt this sprint approach to a task/project that is meant to be a marathon. I get mental fatigue, take a nap because of the fatigue and when I wake up instead of doing the reflection, thinking or research, I would usually choose to continue with the sprint.

Typically, I end up not doing much in addition to when I first had the mental stop. But by this time, the day is far well gone and I probably need lunch already or even dinner. Note, I am the type that won’t be able to do much creative work when I am too hungry. And so, my sprint approach hit another big obstacle.

At the end of a typical day like today, I tend to achieve less. That’s bad but I’m happy I am realising it now. Not just realizing it alone, I am even able to put it in words. That’s a big win. “A problem defined is half solved” goes the popular saying. And I believe mine is half solved as well. Going forward, a sprint task will remain so and will be approached so and a marathon task will be approached as such as well.

Where do I go from here?

I read an article by Mark Essien that preached radical focus on the task at hand. Mark said that “ignoring all noise and focusing on that one project until you arrived at “completion” is the best way to get maximum result.” At least that’s how he has done it.

I almost subscribed to the letter of that article instead of its spirit until my current observation. I think the most important point mentioned by Mark was the fact that before you begin your radical focus, you must define clearly what “completion” mean for that project or task because not all tasks or projects can be completely completed. I agree to that now 100%.

Let’s assume the task at hand for me was to write a guide for investment that will amount to 10,000 words. What I’ve been doing before was to wake up one morning, sit down on a spot and determine that I will get the 10,000 words written on that spot. And that would mean radical focus, since it would require me to shun every other thing beside me.

However, since I’ve concluded that’s a wrong approach, this is what the spirit of radical focus would mean instead:

Write 2,000 words per day
The definition of completion per day would mean writing 2,000 words
Once I’ve written 2,000, I can move on to another task for that day
In 5 days, I would’ve completed the marathon.

This I will do going forward and if you happen to also be like me, I think you should try it as well.

17 Radical Ideas To Get You Thinking

September 9, 2020 / David Alade

I sat down reflecting on a lot of ideas that I’ve seen successful people adopt and that I’ve adopted in my own life.

I came up with this 17 radical ideas. Some of it may hurt you, some may look obvious, some may look unbelievable and others may look impossible. But together, they are ideas that have turn unknown men to wildly celebrated men, raise people from dungeons to Palaces and allow mean men to sit before kings.

Enjoy it.

IDEA 1. Getting a job is mostly a marketing problem. In retrospect, I realized this.

If you see it indeed as a marketing problem, you will have less trouble finding someone (or a company) ready to pay you for your services.

IDEA 2. Everyone is a marketer and we should all seek to become better at that craft.

Read – Getting Any Job Is Hard Work And Luck

IDEA 3. Have agency.

Have an almost too much self belief.

Be hopeful.

IDEA 4. If your default settings is to always look for a reason not to attempt new and unfamiliar things, I’m sorry to tell you a bitter truth:

It will be hard succeeding in life.

IDEA 5. Here’s another thing I’ve come to accept as well

Those who always seek ease above “what needs to be done” rarely get by in life.

There’s a reward in doing what all others avoided because it’s hard.

Ease is no place for champions.

IDEA 6. Starting is all that matters at many things in life. The next thing after that is continuous improvement of what you started.

Then magic will happen on the way.

IDEA 7.. The end is not always known.

The end is not always what we imagined it to be.

The end comes when we choose it to be the end many times.

That’s why the journey must be enjoyed and what the end may look like must not stop us from the journey.

IDEA 8. Don’t be a donkey.

The tale was that of a hungry and thirsty donkey placed between a plate of food and a bucket of water but died of thirst and hunger because it couldn’t decide which to go with first.

The donkey could have gone for anyone first and the other later. It had all the time.

You have the time. Don’t be a donkey.

IDEA 9. We tell ourselves way too much lie.

Strategy isn’t what you said you will do. Strategy is what you did, are doing and will do.

That’s it. All your “I wills” amount to noting.

I did and I am doing is all we care about.

IDEA 10. You won’t be handed anything of value on a platter of gold. You’ve got to work for it. Everyone in recorded and known history worked for it.

Trust me you are no special.

Read – Engineering Luck: Can We Create Our Luck?

Do the damn work.

IDEA 11. There are gatekeepers everywhere. They will reduce to open the door for you but you must fight fearlessly.

One thing is that when it come down to it, we all have a leverage. Find yours and use it.

IDEA 12. I think free will is an illusion. But a necessary illusion. We must always think we are in control. We must always think in terms of cause and effect.

Randomness determines a lot of it, but we must hold on to anecdotal explanations of cause and effect.

IDEA 13. Help yourself

When you do, the universe rises to help you. It’s a law of nature, it can’t be confounded.

But if you do nothing to help yourself, we will all walk by you.

IDEA 14. Succeed at one thing and the universe will reward you with many more successes with little work.

The first success is all you owe the universe. Other successes will follow suit.

IDEA 15. Never have a goal not be wrong

Never have a goal not to fail

Never have goal of getting it right at first attempt

Have a simple goal to start and be consistent.

IDEA 16. Our mind is bad at understanding many things. We confuse correlation with causation at all times.

Rejection is not an indication that you are not enough. Sometimes it can be a misjudgment from the assessor.

Getting a job at PwC taught me this. I was rejected by firms that weigh less than PwC.

IDEA 17. Sometimes, deliberately put yourself in an uncomfortable condition. You won’t die. You will only learn about:

Your weaknesses

Your strengths

Your limitations

What challenges you

What makes you happy

What doesn’t move you

Basically, you learn about you.

Getting Any Job is Hard Work and Luck

July 10, 2019 / David Alade

This will be about how I landed my first job, things that I did, how I did those and the thought process that was involved. I highlighted the main points of every story as a call for action for you as you search for your own job. I concluded by stressing the fact that getting a job requires hard work, do the hard work and lady luck will favour you with time.

The common theme I noted when I was about rounding up my National Youths Service Corps (NYSC) program was that in the domain where I was searching for employment, a lot of my peers (competitors) have relevant experience to boost their CV and I had none. The second observation came from my inference, if I and XYZ are applying for a job and XYZ has relevant experience (internship), will the employer prefer me to XYZ? I answered NO to this question. From here, I knew the cards that I have shuffled to myself will not favour me if I don’t act smart.

This seems like the story of almost every graduate in Nigeria, no internship experience, nothing unique to set him/her apart from the crowd, hence, no job till now.

Getting a Job is Hard Work

Once I was clear from my strategic analysis that I am at a disadvantage, the next ploy for me was devising strategic moves. I did my SWOT Analysis, and I was strict about it. I asked questions like the following:

What am I good at?
What kind of jobs can I take up?
What certification(s) do I need?
What skill(s) can I develop to set me apart?
Those that I believe are better than me what do they have that I don’t? Etc…

After asking these questions, a lot was clear to me. I needed experience (wherever that will come from), ICAN, strong MS Excel skill, financial modelling skill and writing skill. Those were what I came up with.

For the skills requirement, I paid for an online course on Udemy to learn Excel and Financial Modeling. ICAN, I was preparing for it already and for writing skills, I started writing (arguably the best way to learn writing). All those were the ‘easy’ part, how do I gain experience is a tough question? I did 3 things.

I started investing on NSE (Nigeria Stock Exchange) because investment banking was the domain I targeted. Why I did this was simple, to have a hands-on experience with securities trading. Suffice to say I lost money and made money (lol), but till today the experience remains.
I messaged someone I got to know on twitter that owns a Financial Journalism company that I will be relocating to Lagos and would like to work for him for free if he would allow me. I was glad he gave me a free ticket to show up at his office once I get to Lagos. I should quickly mention that I didn’t have to. But the gut, resilience and determination to get a job were there.
I started putting myself out to the public that I am intelligent (remember Ndubuisi Ekekwe said, “The only valuable skill are those that we know that you have”). I did this by writing ‘every day’ on LinkedIn and people were paying attention and noticing me.

Intentionality will do you more good.
Playing the victim game won’t get you anywhere.

That was my hard work.

Firstly, I understood where I was and where I wanted to be

Secondly, I diagnosed the reason for the gap between those two positions

Thirdly, I worked hard to bridge the gap

If you too will do these three things, you will be setting yourself up for landing your first job and maybe luck.

Getting a job is Luck

I mentioned earlier that in the long run, I didn’t have to work for free, that’s because hard work paid off or let me say lady luck smiled on me. I like to say lady luck favours the one who tries, that’s a fact I have come to believe.

Between all my effort to get a job, I was constantly applying for jobs advertised on mainstream media, until today, I didn’t get a reply from any of them. My strategy and luck met because of my No. 3 action point (putting myself out there by writing). If you are conversant with Tekedia, you should have come across this article, how to get a job in Nigeria. I am a product of the manifestation of what the article preached even though I got to read the article much later.

On a faithful week, two CEOs reached out to me from LinkedIn if I would like to take up a position in their firm. Coincidentally, around the time when I needed a job, they also have a position to fill, one was not in consonant with my skill, the other was and that was my luck (the skills I acquired came in handy when I started the job). I took up the position and relocated to Lagos, remember even if the job didn’t come, I still would have relocated and work for free for another CEO. You need to be much determined and strategic about your pursuit.

That was my Luck

But you see, lady luck only favoured me because I made an effort. If I had not decided to improve my writing skills which led me to writing on LinkedIn for people to see I am intelligent, I wouldn’t have gotten the two job offers.

Firstly, take responsibility for your life

Secondly, take action. Put in all the hard work that is required

Thirdly, hope that time and chance favours you and pray to your God.

I have told you my story of how I got my first job. But there is a thing I noticed among we graduate, our first problem is not knowing what we want and if you don’t know what you want, it is difficult to forge a way forward. That you studied Geography does not compel you to study the geographic space for the rest of your life, that you studied Yoruba does not mean you should teach Yoruba. Expose yourself to career options, LinkedIn will greatly help on this, one of the things I did then was to check on people’s profile and I saw the vast difference between the course of study and career part.

To land your first job or any job I must say, you need to put in the hard work and lady luck of her own accord will smile on you with time.

Originally published here