Thoughts - Life After Service...

Ghana’s job market does not look very promising to the unemployed graduate but then again so are the other markets (emerging and developed democracies alike). It’s very difficult to be the driver of your own destiny on the job hunting route at this particular period in Ghana. It used to be ‘who you know now’ but that seems to be slowly making way for ‘who knows you.’

The importance of network and ‘links’ cannot be denied in professional circles. It does a world of good in helping people complete tasks faster, easier and with greater certainty. Sadly there is the other side which inadvertently sees to it that deserving and qualified graduates stay unemployed as long as it can hold them down. This phenomenon is fast becoming the status quo.

So what is my advice, start your own company, sure it’s a risk, a huge risk of time and capital but since when did men become successful without taking risks and who says getting employed is risk free. Let not the future disturb you, you will meet it, if you have to with the same tools of reason which today arm you against the present. We err, we falter, sure we will make wrong decisions but so what, experts in any field are those who have made all the mistakes there is to make, so that all they have now is knowledge and experience as to what not to do and that to me is getting ahead. The economic growth of any country to a large extent has its roots firmly planted in the small businesses established and acumen of the many entrepreneurs who dared to start something.

It’s good to dream big, but lets not forget to stop dreaming at a point in time and start living. For its only in living that we can achieve the dream. We cannot jump the staircase upwards or downwards at once but step by step and we are either down or up and not a bit decomposed. One Dutch proverb says a handful of patience is worth more than a bushel of brains. So what do we do, we start something, do some feasibility studies try to solve a problem a fragment at a time, keep our minds on the big goal of not only becoming wealthy in the process but the prospects of society benefiting. We do not stand down. We keep moving forward, do not forget not all the Israelites reached the Promised Land – a few died on the way. We can partner serious comrades who might leave at crucial moments to pursue other agendas but let not that deter you sir, no sir! Take a moment of your time and consider Irene Logan (Stars of the Future), Gideon Baah (MTN Soccer Academy), Okuraseni Samuel (TV3 Mentor), Okyeame Kwame and the many others who started out with nothing to their names. They started, persevered and look at them now!

Remember folks when you are not practicing, someone, somewhere is practicing and when you meet him, he will win. Of cos keep job hunting, don’t give up, under no circumstance whatsoever should you relinquish, but do not forget to work for you as well – that to me is much more important.

Defer not till tomorrow to be wise, tomorrow’s sun to thee may never rise. (William Congreve) .