Imperfect Starts Are Opportunities

This morning, a previous beneficiary of one of the projects I handled for UNDP got in touch with me.

Sometimes my line of work involves looking at the unemployability in the country and thinking backwards on what can be done. So for some certain situations, we design programs concentrating on what can be done to build skills which then improves the placement potential of these unemployed/underemployed persons. Some of these programs necessarily involve partnering with employers and training organizations to provide training opportunities.

Anyway, so during one of my M&E activities some years back, I was at one of these organizations where I met this young man who expressed frustration at the skills he’s learning. He’d want to pivot to a new line of work, but his background is not in the sciences so he’s finding it difficult adjusting to the new setup and therefore making mistakes in his assignments and botching the practical sessions.

Of course, I had words of encouragement for him, and made it a point to follow up with him subsequently. (Another testimony that your chance of getting help decreases as you keep quiet)

So he chatted me up today and said his efforts have paid off. He now works with a multinational company with his new skills, and even has consultancy on the side. He wanted to show his appreciation for my interest in him and how much the encouragement and followups spurred him on.

I live for these kinds of news.

And they buttress the point that the first mistakes are never the ones that ruin us. It’s the spiral of repeated mistakes that follow because we have resolved we are unable to improve because of imperfect first attempts.

The problem is not slipping up; the problem is thinking that if you cannot do something perfectly, then you shouldn’t do it at all.