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The escalating unemployment rate and inequality always concerned me as .............
To that end, I have employed people that did not fit the corporate script but excelled with the guidance, support and encouragement.
Now, I spend my days sharing skills, lessons learnt and opportunities with individuals and small businesses to help them grow and have the confidence to drive the economy and more importantly money into people’s pockets.
Sometime back I wrote this article https://www.charmainesoobramoney.com/post/where-are-the-promised-jobs to encourage people to take control of their destiny. " I am the Change and Free” serves as a beacon of possibilities and with the intent to propel people into ACTION!
COVID-19 has changed the dynamics and the majority of people across the globe are crippled by anxiety and fear. Currently, 22 million Americans are unemployed. The SA unemployment rate continues to rise. Each of us has the ability to influence and shape future dynamics.
It is therefore critical that we move from anxiety and fear into an acceptance phase and then into action. I am sharing Jayshree's article as I know the power to drive Change is largely in our individual control. So, please think and drive the value or solution you are meant to provide in this lifetime for the benefit, of yourself, your family and humanity.
Jayshree Naidoo, CEO of YIEDI. Jayshree impacts our world by equipping entrepreneurs and small businesses with the skills to grow their business.
Enjoy the read and make it count!!!!
"In Life, You May Lose Your Job, But don't Lose Yourself to Your Job
Are you concerned about job security, especially when the Lockdown is over and we slowly
start experiencing some sense of normalcy?
Last year thousands of jobs were lost across various sectors. As a company, we were
appointed to offer reskilling to financial services staff that were retrenched. Over a ten-month
period we delivered 13 cohorts, across 5 provinces as well as webinars that touched over 340 staff members.
These figures are important because even before this crisis hit and before we were down-
graded as a country by two rating agencies 1000's of retrenchments were already tabled
across major organisations for 2020.
We met some amazing individuals in this process, who decided that they wanted to shift their
focus into the world of entrepreneurship. I would like to share three lessons from this
journey:
1. While you are in a corporate job, take the time to grow your side hustle and acquire
the skills you need.
Many companies allow this and some even encourage it. During one of my Lets Chat Webinar Episodes I spoke to Gift Lubele about this and how he transitioned from entrepreneur to corporate and back to being an entrepreneur. He shared his lessons on how he embraced his corporate position to acquire new skills and grow his network. Gift is also a recent top twenty winner of Fast Company SA’s Most Innovative Company Awards. Corporates are also a great place to acquire much-needed skills, skills that you can use to run your business someday or grow your side hustle. The strategy tools you learn during an executive or middle management training programme and the design thinking skills workshop you attended all come in very handy when you need to grow and sustain your business. We find that some of the most successful entrepreneurs we work with are those that embraced the learning opportunities while in corporate and those that also learned to navigate the corporate world with all its politics, leadership lessons and complexities.
2. Don't let your job define you.
We found that the most difficult thing for staff to accept was not losing their jobs but rather losing their sense of identity. Over the years they lost themselves to their job, they forgot who they are and what made them tick, what made them happy. Many staff gave up their passions to earn a living and slowly over time they were consumed by the perceived power and false sense of security that comes with having a job.
I remember one staff member, who was at an executive level, he attended the training with staff that reported to him. During the first few days he almost seemed broken, in fact, he did not even want to attend the training but was persuaded by another executive who attended an earlier cohort. But by the end of the programme, he had a new level of energy and excitement, he was bold and bubbly and he was grateful that he was able to realize that he was so much more than his job. I talk about this topic extensively in a TEDx Talk I gave last year. You can view it here: TEDx Talk - https://youtu.be/tk6Gf1gdKiU People are more than the jobs they do.
3. Grow your network and your thought leadership.
I have always maintained and nurtured my network. I make the time to engage with my
followers across all social media platforms and I stay active on my LinkedIn account and
make sure I respond to messages and mentions. I do this because I realized early in my
entrepreneurship journey that people don't buy from a company they invest in a person.
especially in the knowledge economy that we operate in. Even while working in major
companies at senior levels, I continued to publish and keep my accounts active. I also take the
time to repost many of the articles on all of my platforms. Growing your network and thought
leadership takes effort and commitment and you should use every opportunity to ensure that
people and decision-makers can associate you with what you want to be known for.
Over the past few weeks while working with entrepreneurs on various development
programmes we have been advising them to take the time to work on their business and their
strategies, so that they are ready to take on the opportunities when lock-down is over and
business finally resumes.
If you are someone working in a corporate but you are keen to explore entrepreneurship, take
the time to work on yourself, your skills. Identify opportunities that align with your top skills or
your passion and start working on building your business model that can deliver. You don't
have to have everything in place in order to start, start small, test, validate and then scale.
Build based on what you know and what you are passionate about. There will always be an
opportunity for your product or service if you are satisfying a real need.
But above all remember You are So Much More, than the Job You Do! About the author: Jayshree Naidoo is a thought leader in the space of innovation and entrepreneurship. She has led the innovation and entrepreneurship functions of large corporates in South Africa. Her last corporate role was the Head of the Standard Bank Incubator. She is currently the CEO of YIEDI focusing on Entrepreneurship Development and Innovation for large corporates. She is a current Inspiring50 SA winner recognising Woman in STEM and earlier this year she was recognised as one of Africa’s Top 500, AfricanDoer. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram on @jayshnaidoo"
Thank you for stopping by:
I wish you love, light, happiness and Freedom
Charmaine Soobramoney
I Am the Change and Free - Founder
EachOneHoldOne (Eoho) - Co-founder