This is going to be my final article this year on this blog. The following are my major take homes from this year:

#1: Put God first in anything and everything you do. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not in your own understanding.

#2: Believe and have faith in yourself and your capabilities. Not many people will believe in you, but the confidence you have in yourself will propel you to greater heights. Keep pushing.

#3: Humility is a very important virtue in this life. You are more than your job title and your colleagues and staff are more than the name tags they wear across their chests. Respect each person for the human being they are and not the various positions they hold.

#4: Stop telling yourself and people that you don’t have enough time to do this and that. There will never be enough time in one lifetime to do everything you want to do. So create the time.

#5: Have a life outside of your work. Find yourself a hobby, hang out with your friends, have fun. You only have one life, live them.

#6: Not every door that is closed is locked, push it because it might just open. When people tell you ‘NO’ or close the door on your face, use it as an inspiration to aim even higher. Fight for your dreams.

#7: Reporting to work early and leaving very late does not make you the most productive employee. Answering ‘yes sir/madam’ to your boss all the time even though you know it is wrong does not make you the most loyal employee either. There is a very huge difference between loyalty and ass kissing.

#8: Take responsibility for your actions. When you are wrong, admit it without trying to pin the blame on other people. Stop making excuses for your failures and incompetence, instead, learn from them and improve.

#9: Be a man/woman of your word. When you say ‘Yes’, let it be a yes and when you say ‘No’, let it be exactly that. Your word is your brand.

#10: To those that much is given, much is expected. Do not wait to share only in the glory, without wanting to be part of the story. The more responsibilities, the higher the expectations, so live up to the expectations of your position.

#11: Leadership is not about titles and positions, but how much you can influence others to follow your dream. A good leader leads by example, so be the example you want your subordinates to emulate.

#12: You are only useful to yourself and family when you are alive. Take care of your health. Find time to work out, learn to eat healthy and most importantly, wear your greatest assets: a smile and confidence.

Merry Christmas to you all and let’s meet again in 2019! God bless you.

Yours Truly, AW.

It is often said that, ‘always remember that what you are currently taking for granted was once something you prayed for desperately’.

Recently, my boss took me to a motivational talk, where he was requested to speak to a group of young people about his experiences as a businessman and lessons learnt. It was a great session, I personally learnt so much. So when he was done, he said to the crowd while pointing at me, ‘…and there is my HR, in case you have any work related inquiries, see her after this.’ Unlike my boss, I’m very shy with crowds, actually, I refer to myself as ‘socially challenged’, I prefer to sit quietly in background, most of the time. So after the session, several people came up to me. Most of them were looking for employment and so I guided them through the process. Then I started to think, would all these people have the same commitment to their jobs as they have now, that they don’t have it?

Often times, when employees land their dream job, after a while, they begin to loose the passion they once had when they were looking for it. They get comfortable, they settle into a routine and then turn into supermarket attendants (I say this respectfully). The reality is, not everyday in your workplace will be exciting; there are fast days and very slow days and then there are good days and  days where everything that was supposed to go wrong goes wrong.

I have noted, in the younger generation, that most of them like the idea of having a job and getting paid at the end of the month, but not so much what it takes to have that job. They would like their peers to know they are employed somewhere, but when it comes to actual delivery, there is a disconnect. Soon after they land the job, certain unprecedented behaviors start to come out and as a recruiter, you are left wondering what really happened. You even begin to question whether the decision you made about them was the correct one.

Work requires commitment, hard work, dedication, sacrifice. Sometimes you’ll need to put in extra hours. In this day and age, it is no longer 8-5 like we know it. There is nothing good in life that comes easy, and when it is too easy, you need to ‘open your third eye’. As an employee, it is important that you not only give the bare minimum. Always yearn to give your very best, to go the extra mile. When you know in your heart that you have done the best you can, there is a certain level of fulfillment that comes with it.

However, when you report to your work place and start to behave like your employer owes you a favor, it is time to pack and go. Ofcourse some work places are not the greatest to work at, but, I am a very strong believer in making the best out of what you have. When you finally decide to leave, let it be on your own terms, knowing fully well that you have your all. Always remember to try and perform your duties with the same passion everyday as you did the very first time you arrived there.