Getting through those frustrating early years
If you are anything like me, you must be introverted, and starting your career must have been tedious. You can do the job, but Uncle timidity won’t just let you rest, following you everywhere. So much to say but you can’t express it as it is in your head.
This is coupled with making career choices and decisions and sometimes you are caught up between what you think you can do and what others think you can do because of your personality.
Welcome to the club, it can be daunting but there is always a way once you keep learning and evolving and taking those strides. Typically, your inner strength and resolve are top-notch, so it is consistency left to play with as you learn, unlearn, and actualize your goals despite seemingly `shortcomings`.
In this article, I will share what helped me in those early years, some may seem philosophical but hey, I think they work and are still working for me….so you might want to try them out.
Clarity on the direction of what you want to do. Your Purpose. This is very important, there probably is really no you without clarity. You will just be in limbo. It is the first light that shines through the path, and it is important to seek it out if you are not lucky enough to discover it early on. I sought mine out, from wanting to be a scientist to living with the image of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala in my head and having certain company logos on my wardrobe door when I was younger, some prayers included especially when rejections set in repeatedly, but I finally found some clarity and direction.
Followed closely is Self-Awareness, mehn! Too many distractions everywhere. Know thyself and to thyself be true will always ring out loud. You may be lucky enough to know your strengths or sometimes people around you spotlight them to you early on. It is super important, so you are not in a rigmarole. In the workplace, feedback from peers, supervisors can help; it is important to seek out feedback as well if you are not introspective enough.
Being aware of your weaknesses is also key — we don’t see all our blind spots, so we need them to be called out. I call them gaps and my default mode always is that it needs to be filled. Being self-aware or seeking feedback on your strengths and weaknesses is essential to daily living. The gaps you fill take you to the next level of growth! Those you ignore can stunt you. It is always better to grab the bull by the horn early so it doesn’t haunt.
Thirdly, building the right relationships is very important. I didn’t learn this early enough but making progress now. Your network is your net worth, may sound cliché but it holds true. Relationships are truly the currency that makes the world move. In the workplace, I always say that you may be able to get through your career with mentors, but you need sponsors definitely in form of your peers, line managers, or supervisors across the hierarchy. The only way to get them is to cultivate relationships. You need them to recommend you for tasks, projects, and speak up for you in your absence.
In recent times, visibility has become a very important topic. Social or professional media platforms have democratized access to an audience, and this means you can craft your own narrative. As a deep-rooted introvert, I struggled because of the age-old belief that people that make too much noise just smoke no real fire underneath- weak or no fundamentals as it is said in the investing world. But visibility is key and needs strategy, for those recommendations and elevated positions you seek it is important to accept this truth early and start to act. If you are still struggling with it, think about it this way you already work so hard, why do you think you shouldn’t shine the light on it even if it means just helping someone come up the ladder.
Put yourself out there, find your niche in the noise!
Most importantly, having a mindset shift is important to survive those slow and underpaid early years of your career. It is important to keep everything in perspective, everything starts and ends in the mind. Focus on taking full responsibility for your life. Once you make that mindset shift, you start to take pragmatic steps to actualize your goals and dreams and the universe starts to open up paths and people that lead you there.
The mind houses everything and it is key to keep it guarded for the next level of your growth. There is light at the end of the tunnel!
