Be patient with yourself, It takes time to switch from a career to a calling.

It has been hard to find my inner self over the years. Reading so many books about developing my personal brand has made nothing easier. I would get all the steps needed and start execution and the results would not show. This is because people always saw me how they wanted to see me. I would be told that certain behaviour is unlike me and not consistent with myself. So many times, I tried until I got frustrated and sought the reset button. The button was nowhere to be found. There was no clear sign of rebranding for me as articulated in the personal development books I was reading. You can’t imagine how frustrated I had been.

The Origin

My frustration started when I began my career and took an entry-level job as a financial administrator in 2008. I was promised an R40 hourly rate by a placement company. I worried not as my money was on overtime. The only way to earn more than R6,720 was to put on as much overtime as possible. Six months later the chief finance officer (CFO) and my manager who was a finance officer (FO) offered me a permanent placement for R10,000 monthly salary including benefits. My net salary was R6,500 and I was enraged. I tried convincing them to up the offer but they smooth-talked me into accepting and being a diligent worker. Starting with this low base has impacted me very much, especially when considering that some graduates were soon converted to perm with R15,000 – R20,000 monthly salaries. Being in finance allowed me the opportunity to know how much individuals earn with no advantage to convert these earning levels for me.

My Education

Universities ensured that my skills are on point while most lectures would scorn employees with titles without proper skills. I bought the idea that doing a good job would lead to success. I didn’t know that the salary you earn speaks louder about the quality of your output that the output itself. This harsh reality came when I met a CFO of a competing bank for my second interview round. He used vulgar words and chased me out of a boardroom saying I am a liar as FOs doing consolidation earn double what I was learning. Since when does salary tell the quality of your work output? This was a shocker to me. I then decided to pursue good pay to show my potential rather than my mediocrity.

Leaving Employment

Thirteen years later I left the bank feeling like I was still at the bottom of the pyramid thus being mediocre than being the titan of my career. Most executives didn’t agree with me and they convinced me otherwise. I was reminded about my good career and all that I have achieved thus far. Some arguments were very true, especially around the South African unemployment rate, the rising cost of living, and how my family is affluent. It was not long ago when I bumped into the diagram below and realised the cause of my frustrations. I had a good career, and I was trying to transition to a calling.

A Good Career

Having a good career means constantly pushing the boundaries with highly intensive goals. My seven university qualifications are a clear sign of what I have achieved in fifteen years. From (1) Bcom Finance, (2) Bcom IT Management, (3) Advanced Certificate in IT Project Management, (4) Certificate in Middle Management Programme, (5) Bcom Hons in Informatics, (6) Postgraduate Diploma in Management Practices – PgDip, and (7) Mcom in Development Finance. Getting acceptance for either of the listed qualifications is not easy at all. Nevertheless, the mention that I did so from three prestigious South African business schools. What frustrated me the most was the academic accolades didn’t match my job title. I was still an analyst and a manager of myself who has access to Exco member and management strategy offsites and other privileges. The fact that my money didn’t match up with others frustrated me and most attributed this mismatch to being a Black African male and the history of exploitation. Maybe it was more than that, maybe I just needed a calling.

My Calling

I started a company called Being An Analyst in an effort to convert as many people as possible to be an analyst. There was a clear market need given all the data we have and how little organisations understand data today. The logic was the more people know about the skill, the more they will be available even to small businesses. This is my calling rather than a hobby as no one has ever paid me to share information about this to date. My belief in this calling become evident when I handed over my resignation without another job but with faith that people need to know about being analysts. My banker’s and many financial advisors’ advice was never taken. Even my employer’s opinions. The one piece of advice that mattered was from my family as they would be impacted the most if all goes pear-shaped.

I have faith that nothing will go pear-shaped and that all I needed to do was to stop treating what I have as a hobby and a calling. In the year 2021, I have started a YouTube channel with very little growth. It was evident that the lack of growth was due to not enough attention given to the cause. Having a full-time job with numerous meetings and a full calendar was working adversely to what I wanted to achieve. The value is clear and what matters the most is that I enjoy travelling to new places and schools, being on eMeeting to chat about an analysis, recording and editing short videos to get the word out even writing articles like this one. It brings me more joy to lift others as I rise more than it did when I was growing my career. The only hope I have is that my financial calculations be right and not hit a financial step back in the next two years. This is because we, as a family, have enough funds to last me two years while I shape my calling into whatever I hope it to be.

Conclusion

The world taught me about the importance of having a good career. I never knew that starting with the “career card” in my youth would be harder to switch to a calling in my middle career years. Besides I would not blame myself because we were from poverty. My environment only taught me about being employed and providing for my family – including black tax. The “calling card” was shunned when I started. All I know not is that at one point I found my calling. A cause I am willing to put aside my only source of income for. The results are not imminent, it takes time. I might have to spend another fifteen years practising my calling before I write it off as being a hopeless option. I should align with my soul, focus on making a difference, create value and have an impact. I hope this becomes my new identity which is different to that of being a career analyst.