I started out on the ‘safe path’. Like most, my parents encouraged me to get good grades so I could study a great degree course in the university and eventually have a prolific career. This would in turn earn me enough money to raise a happy family and live a happily ever after life. This is the only magic formula they knew, having seen it work for the post-colonial families.
Back in the day institutions would hire students with high school qualification let alone a university graduate. The jobs exceeded available applicants, and the benefits were geared at retention of this rare talent. No wonder this mindset was so ingrained in the minds of the parents; especially those who did not perform so well to land these prestigious jobs.
And so, from early primary I set out to be the best in the class. Consistently I was, and the only time I dropped to position five was when I joined a boarding school in upper primary. In an education system modelled around one major examination my targets shifted to attaining 560 out of 700 marks which would guarantee me a place in the National Schools. This proved to be tough task. I had to adapt to boarding school culture in class 7. Albeit I scored 536 marks, which is an A- on average.
My good not excellent marks found me a place in a Provincial school. A mixed one to be precise. Studying, seeing girls blossom and experiencing my own physiological changes must have derailed me for a while as I found myself at position 72 out of 160 by the end of For One. I remembered the words of my former high school principal when I took my report card home that year, “son, make sure you carry the flag of excellence back to Meru”. I was determined to reclaim my Midas touch.
Eventually, by the time I joined Form Four I was top of my class of forty and among the top five in the entire stream. I was able to maintain this position to the end, and again attained an A-…great not excellent. This was great achievement from my family member’s point of view. University and a great career were now no longer a distant dream but an ‘obvious reality’. Being invited to pursue an Engineering degree by the best University technology-wise overshadowed the fact that I had never considered engineering as my desired path. I changed my goal-posts.
Man! University was a whole different ball game. Freedom. I could do anything, go anywhere, and see anybody as long as my HELB bursary lived. Should have known I would have to pay for it with ‘blood and sweat’ later on. Achieving great grades became secondary, as the goal was to sail through and at least emerge with a Second Class Honors. I did, all this time modelling to the original design implanted by my caring parents. By this time I could see and judge reality from fallacy. My highly educated lecturers earned a fraction of what corporate managers took home. Most engineers wound up in some Indian manufacturing company and got accustomed to earning peanuts. Marketers who got B grades earned more and had a clearer path to management level positions than the handy engineers. Not so bright a future.
All the same after a year of tarmacking I landed a job in an Oil Marketing Company. Very little engineering skill was required here. I think what they were looking for was an engineer’s mind. Thankfully the training in campus focusses on problem solution, hard work and organizational skills. These are key for any supervision position. The money was okay, and the work quite rewarding but could never meet that childhood expectation. And just like that, the career dream was cut shot after four years, and I was out of a paycheck. The lower cadre engineer is easier to layoff in a downsizing than I networked marketer or a HR personnel who knows too many company secrets. So, 7 years since I stepped out of the structured educational system and two after being declared redundant I ask myself, was this the sure and safe path that I was promised to inherit if I did well in school? And the answer is a solid NO.
These are the main things I should have focused on while growing up: creating lasting, lifelong networks; developing and discovering talents and extra-curricular activities; finding a relative who thrived in business and volunteering during holidays and studying just enough to grant me access to the university so that I could build more networks and turn my now hobby into a business. My number one career choice was medicine, but as we speak Doctors have been on a strike for close to 3 months. They too were deceived by the system. In the beginning I was told a truth, which turned out to be a lie and now I have to begin thinking differently.
