Owning Your Growth
“If you don’t take risks, you can’t create a future” — Monkey D. Luffy
I just finished playing about 7 rounds of Apex Legends with TKCodes, a guy I met on Twitter who has been my official gaming pal for a while now. We didn’t win any round at all and I am still yet to get my first kill, but it was a good game overall. I had the choice of either seeing the movie Everything Everywhere All At Once or just going to bed, since it’s 1:30 am. Well, my mind just flashed to a discussion I had with someone earlier, where I shared with him the link to this talk I had sometime in March, abi April. Decided to make an article out of it, maybe it might help me help more people.
I believe there are beliefs we grow up with that end up affecting us negatively. An example of such is “Opportunity comes but once”, such a belief like this would make you focused on an opportunity you lost, that you would miss out on others to come. Another problem is that we expect things to be done for us. As children, this was our privilege but as we grew older, it became obvious we were daily losing this privilege. We don’t want to leave our comfort zone, well the reality of it is that you have to unless you don’t want to leave the trenches.
What does owning your growth even mean?
Well to me it means not leaving things to fate and forging your own destiny. You know deep down, that it is easier to say, “Que Sera, Sera” than for you to carve your own part. This is a feeling you should guard against. If there’s anything that should fuel this drive, let it be the fear of sapa.
How do you own your growth?
1. Be consistent: I know we get blasted regularly about this and you wonder, “What’s the fuss about being consistent? Na by force?” Well, the truth is, it is spoken highly about a lot because it’s true. If you have something you want to achieve, you have to start with what you have and keep improving. You don’t need to have all the tools or the best quality materials, start and keep pushing. I am a living testimony that the little things add up.
2. Connect with folks in your field: This is an important part of your journey and it is with these people that you will grow. Find among your peers, people starting out in what you are interested in and have a support group. You can be sharing learning resources, learning from each other’s experiences etc. Then find people who are ahead of you to serve as mentors. Now there’s this thing that happens when it comes to mentorship that I have noticed over the years. Some people want mentors not because they want to actually learn but because they see it as access to a direct connection to juicy jobs. I personally don’t have a ‘mentor’, I learn from different people online, and most don’t even know I exist. It’s much better if you grow with your peers, you create a bond and blow together, rather than trying to become friends with ‘established’ people.
3. Search for opportunities yourself: Unless you’re not based in Nigeria and your LinkedIn profile is oozing with experience, you have to chase for jobs, especially as a newbie. Don’t worry though, life is a process, and the time will come you’ll be the one rejecting offers and holding multiple jobs. If you limit your job search to only when you see a message on the tech group you are in or your Twitter feed, you may not be using the right approach. Visit several job boards like Angelist, LinkedIn, Cryptocurrencyjobs, Startup jobs, Remotive etc. Tip: it’s preferably you apply for the job through the company’s career page. Make sure you prepare your resume well and get people to review it for you before you apply. Also, this is me recommending an excellent interview preparation channel on YouTube. You’re welcome.
4. Have a target and draw up a roadmap: At times people come to me for advice on the programming language they want to learn. The first question I ask is, “What do you want to achieve?” If you know the location you want to head to, it makes selecting the best route to get there more easily. With a roadmap of what you want, you’ll be able to make better decisions that will support your general objective. Having a target means setting out the goal(s) you want to achieve, to which your actions over the days will contribute.
5. Don’t give up, stay motivated by the fear of sapa: The reality of life is how you can do all these things listed above, yet things don’t seem like they are changing. That’s life for you but then you shouldn't give up. Why? You may ask. Well, you are already on the floor, what’s worse than that? Isn’t it better to keep pushing when you know your life would change once it clicks?
The summary of the matter is for you to trust the process. Don’t feel pressured by success stories you hear around, rather be motivated by them.
WAGMI 🔥🚀
