This is part of a series, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5.
You often hear in graduation speeches something along the lines of, “The world is your oyster.”
Cool.
But can you eat it?
People always laugh when I say that.
Some even guffaw.
But trust me, it’s not funny when you’ve spent a lifetime working to get a degree only to discover that you can’t make a living out of it for whatever reason; maybe you’re in a different market, or your industry is downsizing. It’s also not funny when your parents have sold their house and cows to invest in your education with the expectation that your degree will be that silver bullet for employment.
I recently met Wangu Mwenda who could easily be the poster villain for university. When it was time for her to enroll, she profusely refused, telling her parents to give her two years to figure things out on her own. During our conversation, it was interesting to discover how the thing that society deemed as her Archilles’ heel (not having a degree) ended up being her source of strength.
Build Skills and Work Portfolio
The problem with fresh graduates from local universities is they tend to ride on their degree, thinking it will do all the work for them, speak for them, be a proxy to how effective they are. They expect it to act like Aladdin’s magic carpet, hoping it will help “show them the world”.
And though, it might help get them through the door, it doesn’t necessarily guarantee their stay in the room.
Also, cheating in universities is very rampant in Kenya. Both grades and projects can be paid for.
Because ours is a culture that puts degrees on the pedestal, this young woman always understood that the world of work would be more challenging for her than her fellow degree-holders, so she actively makes up for it by continuously learning, building her skills, portfolio, and network.
One advice she gives is, young people need to know how to pitch themselves, how to add value to an organization, and how to quantify and measure their work to build their portfolios.
“When you know that you want to add something to your portfolio beforehand, you’re able to set metrics that you want to achieve, or you’re able to set a hypothesis that you either want to validate or invalidate. A lot of times the problem is we don’t do work thinking that we’re going to put them out on our portfolio. We usually do our portfolio, edit, and then think, ‘What work have I done?'”
Learn to Deal with Rejection
Ironically, one rejection that actually hit her hard came from the African Leadership Group itself (specifically, African Leadership Academy). She had really wanted to get in, but the rejection came on Christmas. But then she realized the thing that attracted her to ALA was how students were taught to be proactive and courageous, traits she figured she could develop on her own.
That made me think, how do you learn to deal with rejection though?
You can rationalize it as much as you want, and post all the platitudes where you can visibly see them.
“This rejection is a detour to something better.”
“Stop looking at a door that is closed and focus on the open one instead.”
Yada yada yada.
It still hurts.
So I wondered, is there a process that leads to not being fazed by a rejection?
Develop a calloused mind. It is known that your mind is your most powerful weapon, so know how to sharpen it. Or rather, make it more calloused. In his memoir, “Can’t Hurt Me,” David Goggin gives a few challenges to help do exactly that;
- Step Out of Your Comfort Zone: Write all of the things you don’t like to do and the things that make you feel uncomfortable, then do one of them every day.
- Taking Souls: Identify a competitive situation, work harder than you’ve ever worked before, and crush your competitors’ standards.
- Remove the Governor: Gradually increase your physical and/or mental exercise sets. Break through your self-imposed ceilings by pushing yourself to the point where you are so exhausted and in pain that your mind is begging you to stop.
- After Action Reports: Write out all of your failures, describe how you handled them, what you learned from them and how you can fix things. This is your After Action Report (AAR).
Have multiple opportunities at the same time. When I asked him how he handles rejection, one of my friends who does BD and fundraising for his startup says that at any one time, he has so many open conversations with potential clients and investors that it’s hard to find the time to dwell on any one rejection.
Some may agree this applies to dating as well.
Last but not least, approach life with an abundant mindset. Always believing there’s always more out there as long as you’re willing to put in the work to find it. Funny enough, we come back full circle to the idea of the world being your oyster and all.
So, can you eat it?
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