Creating A Career Path By Iteration

An exclusive from a former pilot, scientist, and runway model now turned journalist.

In 2016, I was a runway model. Can you believe it? Me? On the running, making my sexiest and most penetrative gazes, trying to chest out, chin up, smile, while I was being crushed by the deadly weight of my social anxiety.

But I was there, showing up on the runway, training models, trying to define something for myself, for about 2 years before I slowly slipped out of that phase. The right question to ask me is, “how did you get there?” and the right answer is, “it is a long story.”

Between the Bellview Airlines crash and the Sosoliso Airlines crash of 2005, I decided I wanted to be a Pilot that would be so good; no aeroplane crash would ever happen on my watch. I was in primary school when these accidents happened, and I was one of the few people in my school who knew it happened. I knew this because I had started consuming newspapers as if they were school books.

By 2007, I decided I would become a scientist and save little insects from being trampled on. What informed this decision was that on Feb. 11, 2006, my father had allowed me to use a microscope we had at home, and guided by my much older cousin, I saw an ant attack a dismembered fly. I was heartbroken at the cruelty. In a Saturday Tribune column for kids, I had read that scientists could save anything and anybody after a kid explained in the column why he wanted to be a scientist in the future.

But you see, in truth, I had been here, in the media, learning all these weird stuff. Reading Nigerian history. Knowing the names of ministers. Being the most politically current student in my school. Knowing how certain words were spelt. How they were used in a sentence. And I decided by 2008 that I was going to be in the media. I liked reading the Sunday Sun Editorial column and the Nigerian Compass Saturday Editorial, and I wanted to be like the authors of those columns. I wanted to explain headlines to people, why they needed to care about certain stories, the consequences of not paying attention to them, and their steps after processing the information. But life, and my father, had other plans.

The Law!

Five years later, I was at the University of Ilorin, trying to understand the difference between damage and damages as a Law student.

But you see, I have seen Aisha Bello on my TV as a child, I had read Femi Adesina, and without a background in Mass Communication, I knew there was more than one way to be in the media; I was going to be there, somehow. When I learned that I could be close to photographers, cinematographers, reporters and other media professionals by being a model, I did not hesitate. I was barely self-confident, had no social interaction skills; I could not even hold a conversation for five minutes without blaming myself for trying to be a cool kid. But I wanted to risk it all, to be close to the media. And I did. It was not exactly a wise decision, but I learned a great deal.

Iterating and niching down

I used my years as a model to listen to conversations by photographers. I would hear them talk about shutter speed, lights and angles. When I got a good enough phone to silhouette, I started taking as many lovely pictures as I could. I also learned how to be more confident around so many people and to allow myself as many mistakes as I could.

I did not know that these things had names, but I also learned very fast that if you have a place to reach, but you do not know how to get there, you have better chances of getting there by leaving your house and trying as many pathways as possible, or by calculating what the most likely routes would be when you talk to people who have passed the routes and can remember the routes that did not work. You are getting nowhere if you refuse to do anything.

Deciding what you want to become can be really difficult, but not trying to get there is even worse. I did not know how soon I would be working in a globally standard newsroom, but I was learning as many things as possible related to the media on my way. Everything did not have to work out, but I would know the things that did not work and the things that worked.

When I joined the Union of Campus Journalists in 300 level, I knew that my path was slowly getting defined. By then, I was skilled at phone photography, I was more confident talking to people, and I was equipped to undergo a series of investigative journalism projects. The Editor-in-Chief of UCJ, Mr Osuji Chima, was confident that I could write some of the most provocative Editorials. And I did. I wrote a truckload of them just like the Editors I read as a child had done.

By iterating at a large rate, I quickly defined the things that did not work and shed them as soon as I could. I was not perfect, but I showed up every day. By showing up and taking up new challenges, I got referred for more opportunities. I was recommended to join several investigative report teams that paid me to travel with professional journalists and cover important stories. I did not get bylines, but I learned a great deal.

By the time I was in 500L, I had iterated so much in the media that many people thought I was a Mass Communication or Journalism student.

Every phase of our life is important. Our teenage years are as important as our 20s. Your 30s are as significant as your 40s. And as long as you live, there is an opportunity for you to learn through those years by iterating. Remember that you miss all the shots you don’t take.

We are at risk of burdening ourselves with thinking that our inability to achieve certain goals or have a defined path by our 20s means we have failed in life. But you see, there are many roads to your destination, if you have not found the one that leads you home, do not stop walking. While you are in the laboratory mixing chemicals, if your interests slowly shift towards digital marketing, allow yourself to learn through iteration. Open yourself to mistakes, learn from your immediate world and slowly pick up the skills that will help you to stand out.

Finally, there is a lie that we have been fed about certain people having the answers to life’s problems. Nobody does. Through experience and knowledge gathered, everyone is trying hard to find what they think is the best solution to a problem. You can’t have that experience until you allow yourself to be vulnerable to education. It is not perfect for anyone, but you can learn how to deal with your imperfections.

Tea

Have you been starstruck? Well, I was during this past week. During the lockdown, I started writing and publishing a series on Nigeria’s heads of states who have been whitewashed through years of political propaganda (you can read the stories on my Medium if you haven’t). While I have gotten commendations and texts from notable historians and authors (including Max Siollun), nothing prepared me for the text I got on LinkedIn this past Friday.

One of the most notable Nigerian historians (hiding his name for now, please), who produced one of the most widely watched documentaries on Nigerian history, sent me a text. I almost aired the text because I thought it was one of those MBA adverts, but I replied, and he told me he discovered me on Twitter and would like to have a conversation with me. We had a phone call where we talked about his work, my work and if there was a possibility of us working together to document and tell Nigeria’s political history. It took me 24 hours and lots of anxious screaming to tell myself that I was not dreaming. This was happening.

Anyway, I hope the partnership yields positively so that I can have an even juicier tea for you when it does. Additionally, he mentioned something that I can’t get out of my head, he said; “in life, you don’t discover yourself. You put yourself out and let the world discover you.” I am still trying to comprehend what that means wholly.

Anyway, I am going to have an awesome week, and I just tricked you into saying it too. Haha, catch you next week.

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Be nice to other people, smile as much as you can, and live freely. Have a great week.