WORK WHILE IT IS DAY

As a tutor during my undergraduate days, I got the opportunity to interact with different categories of students. You had the ones who had just left secondary school and got admission into the university at their first attempt, those who had tried multiple times before getting in, and those who had started their careers after secondary school, and now finally got around to getting a degree to either elevate themselves professionally or just to fulfil all righteousness.

You had those who had unsuccessfully attempted getting a degree before, and were now trying again, those who had transferred from other schools, and then, you had those who had completely given up on ever getting tertiary education, until this opportunity showed up and they grabbed it with both hands. 

Grabbing it with both hands...

For many who got exposed to freedom for the first time, having been under the watchful eye of their parents for so long, being on campus was a breath of fresh air, a place where they could learn and try new things. 

These new things however, extended beyond the topics taught in the classroom, as many lifelong habits were formed as they experimented with frivolous and fleeting fascinations, with some getting so caught up with campus life that they started seeing their lectures as punctuation marks to the flow of their day. So, they stopped attending classes, only showing up when continuous assessment marks were up for grabs.

This group felt they were finding themselves for the first time, but sadly they lost more time with each new discovery they made, and before they knew it, they couldn't catch up with the intensity of intermittent tests, assignments and exams.

Night came early for a lot of them, whose failure to start well meant that the finish line was always a mile away, regardless of how fast they ran. And many of them faced with insurmountable grade point deficits decided to call it a day and try somewhere else, to put the energy they had left into getting a good start in another school, instead of having a good finish in a race they had already lost where they were.

Most of them ended up being successful after starting over, because they made their mistakes early in life. They were more focused this time around and grabbed the opportunity with both hands.

But there were those who were not so fortunate, who didn't have time on their side. They were more advanced in years when they got their first opportunity, so investing time in another one was a move that had to be carefully thought through. While some of them tried again, many others gave up and invested their time in making a living instead. 

Together with those who attempted higher education as working-class students, those who tried again after a failed first attempt were the ones that thought me one of the greatest lessons I have learnt in life.

A great lesson of life...

Without any deliberate prior planning or preparation, I had become a tutor after a classmate of mine who had sat beside me in a test, insisted I follow his ad-hoc reading group to study on the eve of a dreaded exam, and to answer some of the course prep questions, since reading materials on it were scarce to come by.

From that day, I was given the responsibility of preparing the class for exams, and that involved holding tutorial sessions with different groups of students at different times in the run in. So, I often had to teach the same thing over and over again. But soon, I realised that I couldn’t teach everyone the same way, I had to tailor my teaching to the person or group that was in front of me.

Those who had nothing else to think about other than school, easily soaked in what I taught. They wanted the whole nine yards, to glean all the knowledge available, so as to get a perfect A in each course.

But the case was different for those who were more preoccupied with their businesses, day-jobs or family demands. They just wanted to know what was required to pass well. They didn't have all the time in the world, so they wanted the most relevant and straight to the point solutions, that required the least amount of time and effort to put down. There was no time for showing off and competing with the examiner for the crown of the most-knowledgeable in the course.

Often times, with one or two of them I'd push a little harder for them to try to learn a complex topic or one that they perceived would stress them, because I felt they could easily learn it if they put more effort and I was sure it would come out in the exam. But their reply would be "Yinka, you don't understand."

Truthfully, I didn't understand. And how could I, when I hadn't walked in their shoes and tried performing their complicated juggling act.

I simply didn't understand...

That was until last year, when I registered for an academic programme for the first time in a long while. 

I thought it was business as usual, having been tutorial master and made reading notes for my classmates to read at undergraduate and postgraduate level, it was supposed to be familiar territory for me.

Until my first paper came, and I tried jotting my notes like I had always done, but this time it felt so laborious and terribly tasking. My wife came in and saw what I was trying to do and immediately corrected me, reminding me that I didn't have the time to undertake this kind of double exercise.

I, then, had to resort to reading directly from my course materials, which oftentimes I could only really afford to do a day or two to the exams. 

Soon, I had to concentrate on carefully selecting and reading the less voluminous topics, the ones that had straightforward answers with minimal explanation. I had to become more strategic with both my preparation and execution, to get maximum output with minimum input.

It was then, that Yinka really understood the great lesson he was taught over a decade ago. I had grown and become a working-class executive like those I had taught in school, and I was now multitasking, actively involved in so many ventures that there wasn't much time to devote to this amazing opportunity.

Thankfully by the grace of GOD, I was able to complete the programme, but not without learning to always work while it is day.

Dear young professionals, opportunities come in particular seasons of our lives and me must always do our best to make the most of them before the season ends and we're thrust into a new one that requires a completely different aptitude and skillset.

Do you have a great job now? Master the role as quickly as you can and develop yourself for something higher. Never stop learning new things and seeking to be better at what you do, because a time is coming when your career will require an evolution to survive.

Are you in business, explore the full potential of that idea, grow and expand into new frontiers before you're forcefully disrupted into it by changing seasons.

Are you waiting for your own big opportunity? Then, spend time preparing for it like it's arriving tomorrow and stay focused, lest it pass you by.

What counts with each season is how much you produced from the opportunities you took and not how long you've occupied the position you're in.

We may never know when seasons would change, but what we do know is that they always bring new opportunities with them and take old ones away. So, focus on continually equipping yourself and executing what you have in front of you with proficiency, being productive and making the best use of your time; for one day, the night will come and present you with a report card of how well you fared in the day.

Make every moment count!

To your success,

Olayinka A. Williams 

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