Entry 17 by Eloho Onwah (Twitter: @Eloxie)
It was his send forth, the last
day of his internship. Tanure looked around at the people that had become like
family and sighed. Three months ago, his mum had told him he was going to be
spending his summer interning at his uncle’s firm. He had his own ideas
alongside his friends as to what they planned to do for summer, working wasn’t
one and certainly not with his uncle. Looking back now, he could hardly believe
how much he had changed. He literally said to himself under his breath
‘is me be this?’ It felt as though he had gone through his own Karate Kid
experience with lessons in every twist.
He remembered how on his first
day as he was introduced around the company, he plotted how to be the worst
behaved employee ever so he could get kicked out. He was obnoxious and
condescending and made silly comments about the office as they went
around.
First thing he noticed was how
everyone had a voice in the meetings. His uncle the CEO sat in the meetings and
encouraged everyone to speak and in those meetings was such wisdom. He
learned there and then, not to always speak. Some people sit, listening and
learning what others know. Others talk so much; they lose the wisdom they have.
Looking back, he realized that everyone needs 3 clear strata of relationships.
Older people to gain wisdom from and have strong links to leverage on today,
peers to inspire you to greatness and create potential relationships for the
near future and much younger friends to inspire freshness and to rely on in the
latter years.
He was immediately assigned tasks
and he remembered how he kept botching them deliberately. He learned to fail
forward and that was not even because he knew better but because his
supervisors stayed patiently goading him on. Nobody gave him a chance to fail
until he got to a place where failing at a task was more about failing his
supervisors than failing himself. Subtly, he was inspired to be better
and do better because in the team, he found someone to be better for. He
realized that leadership was about his person more than his position.
Oh my, he learned the strength of
relationships. His uncle was a fixer. If anything needed to be sorted, he knew
someone. Secondary school friends, university friends, former work colleagues,
they were all willing to assist. One day, he heard his uncle telling a manager,
if you need to call a contact only when you need help, you don’t have a
relationship. Nurture your contacts and make them fruitful. He saw how much work
relationships required but he also saw first-hand how much they mattered.
One day, he made an erroneous
transfer, he was supposed to seek authorization but he didn’t. He saw his team
lead own up for his error and take the fall for it. That forever changed his
perception of authority and leadership. He learned that leadership was service
and that there truly was no I in TEAM. As he warmed up to the organization, he
didn’t even know at this time what his talents were. He realized that
some people see 'you'. They see what you can do and be long before you even see
it yourself. He learned to train his ears and heart to recognize those
people. He affirmed this when he was given a project to handle. He didn’t feel
capable but he didn’t realize his bosses had seen his latent skills for project
management. With help, it turned out really successful. He learned that
God hides the 'graces' you need for your journey in people all around you. By
simply recognizing the CEO’s ability to keep relationships, Mrs Alabi’s ability
to plan and organize events, Kemi’s uncanny thing for numbers and Uduak’s thing
for presentations, he was able to learn from each of them. Truly, recognizing
and honoring what others carry was the first step to learning from them.
He learned that the things we
want the most typically have their downsides, often hidden and invisible like
the underbelly of the lizard. He learned to embrace life as it comes,
understanding that like this job turned out to be a blessing, great
things are not always packaged in our favorite wrapping paper.
His friends told him that he was
different when they hung out during the weekends. He had realized that it was
because his company had changed. Stay around older, wiser people and they drop
off priceless, life changing nuggets inadvertently. Hidden in even their jokes
are keys of life. He saw this first hand when he walked with Mrs. Salim to her
car or when he offered to help Mr. Nnamdi get lunch. There was wisdom in even
the jokes they cracked.
As he stood to say thank you to
this small team that had changed his life, he realized more than ever before
that gratitude is a fragrance so pleasant that it persists long after you are
gone and makes people want you to visit again. He was determined to give his
gratitude form in words and he saw how much it meant in the smiles in their
eyes and in the warmth of the hugs.
Who would have thought a 3 month
holiday job could change his life so much?
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