“It starts with a zero, minus a mentor, minus internet divided by poverty, what does that leave you with? Ambition! Multiply that by countless trips to the library, minus a few birthday parties, minus electricity, multiply that by early mornings and late nights and that will equal to 100% in mathematics, 100 % in Physical Science and a Degree in Engineering” Investec

This is a story of a girl who was raised in poverty, but against all odds she is now an inspiration to many, and an ambassador of Investec. Her story proves that it doesn’t matter where you come from, what matters is where you are going. It also proves that ambition and perseverance can solve life’s most challenging equations. Her name is Lindiwe Zono, and this was her story. But maybe since I can, let me share a little bit about my story.

From high school, I had always considered myself as this ambitious, driven and motivated girl. And I knew that coming to varsity, meant that a new chapter in my life was about to be written. Anxious and excited all at the same damn time, I was still determined to be the best in everything that I do. I was so organized that I had set goals that were to be achieved in specific time-frames, and these included the intention of completing my first qualification at the age of 21. I used to listen to people talking about failure and to me failure was something absolutely foreign, as I had never tasted its sour nature. Then came the day I had a taste of it… fail, failure, disappointment. I felt my life break into pieces, my confidence shattered against the walls and my personality smashed from within. The worst experience ever, I didn’t know how to handle it all, how to tell my family that varsity is more challenging than I ever imagined? How to even begin to tell them that I don’t even want to do this course anymore? All these questions needed answers, and only I could account to them. Now I had to make a choice, do I continue to cry and feel sorry for myself? Or do I pick myself up, put the pieces together, reconstruct my confidence, recuperate my personality and grow from the experience?

I had an opportunity to get in touch with people from different kinds of backgrounds, some came from private schools, and some from public schools just like myself, some from really poor families, and some from rich families. But we all enrolled at the same institution, we all had challenges throughout varsity, and that is why our backgrounds did not define us, or determine where we were going. What defined us was how we handled our challenges and what we did on a daily basis in order for us to achieve our goals. I learnt life principles from each of these people without any of them noticing the wisdom they were sharing with me. I’ve grown to make use of these in almost every aspect of my life, and I feel the need to share with others because it’s said that the minute we share wisdom we make this world a better place. I believe that everyone wants to be successful, but at times we find ourselves in a position where we don’t know were to begin or how to keep the goals we have alive. So below are the life principles I learnt and use as guidelines in attempting to reach that success pinnacle:-

1. Focus on your goal: Your goal should be the reason you wake up every day. It should be the reason you remain committed to what you are supposed to be doing. It should be the reason you don’t allow anything or anyone to stand on your way or distract you from achieving it. It should be the reason you see yourself in the future dancing, finally celebrating your achievements.
2. Hang around people with the right mindset: I used to study with people that would study all night, and if I ever found myself slacking I’d feel so bad knowing that I was supposed to be working. When I took part on the leadership programmes as extra-curricular activities, I found myself spending time with young people that had great ideas on how to better our institution. I started adopting the same type of mindset and that is finding solutions for existing problems, or identifying problems that no one ever thought existed, and at the same time finding solutions on how we could resolve them. So keep away from people that only think of problems and no solutions, stay away from people that find excuses for every situation they encounter in their lives. Those are bad people, they are bringing nothing but negative energy in your life. “Surround yourself with the winning team” -ET
3. What you put in, you get out. The only way I had to improve myself and get better results was to change the way I used to do things. I promised myself that I will be the best in everything that I do, but at some point I lost that. So the minute I realized that I had lost my obligation to not being average, I changed and tried to only aim for greatness. I realized that if I want to reach the next level in life, I need to be committed every day. But now the trick is there is always the next level, and the only way to be great is to apply more effort on the next level. It is that simple if you want improved results, you need to give more in order to get more.
4. Procrastination: The right time to do it is now! Unfortunately for us, distractions are everywhere, social media being at the top of the list. We find ourselves spending 80% of the time on social media and 20% on working on our dreams. Eric Thomas makes so much sense when he says, we always expect an apology from people that broke their promises to us. But how many times do we hold ourselves accountable for not keeping the promises we’ve made to ourselves. And he also mentions that we will never reach greatness if we can’t be honest with ourselves. Sometimes we don’t realize that the time that we didn’t work on our dream, that’s the time we would have achieved so much. Each and every minute counts!
5. No More Excuses: One way to live life without excuses is to hold yourself accountable for every decision you make, then you know that no matter what happens, no matter what challenges you face, you are still obliged to do what you are supposed to do. Every time you convince yourself that everything is going wrong, you are right, it is going wrong, but what are you doing about it? Do you sit around and sing the same negative song every day or you make a decision to make changes in your life. One trick I learnt is to do what you can with what you have, eventually things will come together. Sometimes making a change means waking up or even realizing that every day is a new day.
6. Be tougher than life: Whenever you go through to the next level in life, it is always accompanied by challenges. And these challenges are there to prepare you for greatness. But at times we find ourselves in a position where we feel like we can’t handle the challenge, or it is too much for us. Challenges are here to stay and that is why we must embrace them and we must embrace pain. They come in different forms, sometimes you go through the pain of losing someone you love, or a heartbreak or job loss, it doesn’t matter it is still a challenge, and you should never allow it to stop you from being successful. You must make a decision to be tough and move on, because whenever you go through it, you come out stronger.
7. Have a plan with action: When you have a goal it must be accompanied by a plan and you must act on it!!

In case you wondering how my story went? well I received my first qualification at the age of 22, and the second one at 26. Does it matter? Maybe it does, maybe it doesn’t. But I think that what matters to me is the fact that I never gave up on what I wanted to achieve. Anyways this is my story. Each and every one of us has a story. But it is up to us to make choices that will determine how our stories will end. A piece of advice from ET, “make the rest of your life, the best of your life”.

Article By Pamela Kunene

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