The Careers I Will Pursue

In his book Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell says that for us to succeed in something, we need to have practised it for 10,000 hours. As to how Gladwell came up with that figure is something I am yet to understand. Perhaps he was trying to imitate Jesus.

You see, when apostle Peter asked Jesus how many times we should forgive our brothers, Jesus said it should be 70x7 times which equals 490 times. Jesus must have come up with that big figure, for He knew if we start counting the sins our brothers commit against us, we will get bored of counting by the time we reach like the 35th sin and just decide to forgive as many times as possible. Or maybe He was smart enough to know that by the time we forgive our brothers for like the 52nd time, they will have already turned into good men.

Coming back to Malcom Gladwell's 10,000-hour rule of success, I tend to believe in that figure even though I am yet to understand how Gladwell came up with it. Ask anyone who has genuinely succeeded in any career and they will confide in you that they spent a considerable amount of time honing their skills. You can't start playing soccer at the age of 21 and expect to play in a FIFA World Cup. That's next to impossibility as Chinua Achebe would put it. All renowned soccer players start playing the game in their childhood years.

Actually, in addition to the two reasons I pointed out in my previous story on this blog on why I gave up on my ambition of venturing into politics, Malcolm Gladwell's 10,000 hour-rule is another reason that led me to arrive at the decision because I have never had any experience in politics ever since I was a boy. Not even when I was in school.

After reflecting on my life so far, I have figured out the areas I have spent considerable amount of time working on. They are farming, music, public speaking and writing.

I grew up in a home where I was expected to take part in such chores as weeding, planting and harvesting beans, maize and vegetables as well as grazing, feeding and milking cows. Now that I have fallen in love with nature, I am looking forward to doing some farming when I own a piece of land, God willing.

Then at the age of nine, I began learning to play the piano under the tutelage of a brilliant and dedicated seminarian named Br. Peter Assenga. I continued honing my skills on the piano at Starehe Boys' Centre where I had my high school and college education. It is at Starehe where I developed the confidence of playing the instrument before an audience.

As a boy, I also took an interest in public speaking. When I was ten, I loved to mentally rehearse narrating a story I had heard on TV. I eventually narrated the story at school on one afternoon to, well, not a real audience but columns of unoccupied desks in a classroom. But I still enjoyed the experience.

At Starehe, I had the opportunities of delivering speeches to a real audience. I gave speeches right from when I was in Form 1 to when I was in my final year in college at the school. Since leaving Starehe, I haven't had many opportunities to hone my public speaking skills but I am looking forward to becoming a sought-after speaker.

Besides farming, piano-playing and public speaking, the other area I was exposed to at a tender age was writing. I used to pen compositions for my father to review when I was eight. But it's not until recent years that I have treated my writing talent seriously. This lovely blog of mine is a testament to that effort. Boy, haven't I come to enjoy writing!

Bill Clinton mentioned in his memoir that choosing a career is like choosing a wife from ten girlfriends; even if you choose the most beautiful and the most intelligent, there is always the pain of losing the other nine. For me, writing has been all those other nine girlfriends rolled into one.

Yes, those are the areas I have spent considerable amount of time working on. I am therefore firmly convinced that God intended me for the tranquil pursuit of a career in farming, music, public speaking and writing by availing me opportunities to develop those talents and by making them my supreme delight.