[b][/b]
Jeddy said, "After my graduation, I was so frantic about getting a job. It was not because I was not good enough but my worry was centered on the prevailing dismal job numbers. The high rate of unemployment had worried me right from my final year in school. I was desperate to get out of the university so that I could move closer to the labour market and begin to test the employment waters. You don't have to blame me because I needed to give back to the fingers that fed me and at the same time begin to build a family. I came from a polygamous family of 14 boys and 5 girls; it was a struggling everyday family where food was a bigger problem than education. I realized quickly enough that if the bigger family had to turn the table and get both education and food on the same level of priority, the older siblings, which I was part of, had to get some jobs- not just any job- pretty fast. So, you can understand the enormous pressure placed on my shoulders by this situation."

Jeddy drove into the garage. He certainly loved the Mercedez brand- in the car park were two more neatly tucked away. He continued, "Unfortunately, the harder I pushed towards getting a job, the more elusive achieving it got. One day someone talked to me about an existing vacancy. I followed-up on the lead and submitted an application. Luckily for me, the recruitment process progressed favourably. Within a few weeks of submitting my application, my new employer handed the offer letter to me. I was so excited that I had finally broken the duck until I opened the offer letter to read the terms. I was shocked when I saw an annual remuneration of N336,000($972) which came to about N28,000($78) per month. How this was going to take care of my feeding, much more my accommodation cost and other attendant needs defied logic. Regardless, I went home with the offer letter to appraise the options ahead of me. In the end, I settled for the job- not because the offer was good but for the fact that it was the only one available at that time."

He submitted the car keys to the house help and continued talking. "I completed the documentation and resumed duties the same week. The salary was inadequate but I was able to manage it for the next 12 months. I had my good and bad days but one bad day would remain indelible. It was my first act of negligence and it happened during a period my supervisor and I were on a night shift in the production room. He left to attend to some other issues while I was left to monitor the production plant. I was to monitor the set parameters to ensure that they did not go beyond the specified threshold. But I slept off. This resulted in some damages worth about N60,000($170). This loss was equivalent to my salary for three months- it was a colossal loss for me. My supervisor was alarmed by the time I brought him up to speed on the damages. He said frantically, ‘This is a very sad development. You have to look for money quickly so that we can cover this up. You need to understand why we can’t make this official. It puts your job on the line especially for someone like you who is relatively new.’ I went home that day a broken man. The only difference between a broken bottle and I was that my cracks were not visible. My heart was so heavy that my legs could not carry me anymore.”

He concluded, “This happened on a Friday evening. I got home and found comfort with my pillow. While I was on my bed crying, my phone rang. It was a friend on the line. He asked if I was fine and then informed me that he submitted the curriculum vitae that I left with him to a multinational company in the FMCG(Fast Moving Consumer Goods) space. He told me that they had completed a shortlist for experienced hires and that my name made the list. I wiped my tears immediately, picked up my GMAT, and started making preparations. Providing the fund to cover for the damages became a secondary issue at that moment. My survival instinct became activated. To cut the story short, I went for that initial test and subsequently for an interview.” With a smile this time Kieran said, “I made it. I went crazy the day I picked up my offer letter. My remuneration has moved from annual pay in six figures to eight figures. My life was for sure a roller coaster but I love how I moved from the trough to the peak. It's like a story you find in the Disney tales"

REFLECTION
As Jeddy said, life is like a roller coaster- it takes you through the lights and shades of nature until you define a path for yourself by virtue of the choices you make. Going through the story, you would realize that as life tossed Jeddy through the difficult pathway, it still vested on him the authority to make his choices. From a part of his story that I didn't capture here, Kieran went for the test with a friend but his friend rejected the offer when he saw the remuneration. But Jeddy rode his luck. That one year that he spent managing the meager salary (which his friend rejected) was what qualified him as an experienced hire for the next job.

The other interesting part is that the challenge he had at the place of work sparked the desire to change his situation. He knew that kind of life didn't suit his dreams. The moment that call came in, he knew he had to grab that opportunity with both hands. The N60,000($170) that he was asked to pay for damages gave him an insight into what was ahead of him on the job. He told me that he was awake all through the night preparing for that test with the multinational. You can see the motivation he had. You have to look at your situation and ask yourself. Is this where I should be? If the answer is NO, you don't need any other motivation to prepare you for the opportunities that abound.

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