A few years ago I was working with a colleague who was very difficult, for a reason unknown to me she did not like me at all. This meant that she would find a lot of faults in my work and to make matters worse she was very close to my manager and very soon my manager started to find a lot of faults in my work, Very soon I was stressed out, I was struggling to sleep and if I got to sleep i would wake up in a panic. This carried on for three whole months, I tried to do all I could to make it stop, I would stay half an hour late and not claim the time back. I did everything I did to improve things in the work place but no matter what did; things did not get any better. I went from anxious to…read more >

Samuel was a smart young man with a bright future; it looked like nothing was going to stop him. In 2013 he graduated from university with honours and he was ready to conquer the world. A few weeks after graduating from University he landed his first job; he was looking forward to putting everything he learnt into practice. However after the first few weeks he realised that a lot of people in his office did not like him, it was not because he was not good at his job, and it was because he was very good at what he did. He worked in the organisation for a year and he describes it as a nightmare, there was always someone who tried to put him down and point out what he was doing wrong. Sam knew his stuff and he knew that everything that was happening to him at the…read more >

In 2004 I was sent to a boarding school away from the comfortable town life, I was really looking forward to ir until I got there and realised that it was 24 kilometres away from the nearest town. This was not what I was expecting but I thought let’s see what this experience was going to bring. A few weeks later I visited our local New Apostolic Church and i remember the first services very well because I got nothing from it because everyone spoke Kaonde and I spoke Bemba. However this did not put me off from going to church and from learning the new language. Very quickly I built up a really strong relationship with one of the Priests who was also my maths teacher and he would take me on all his visits. One visit will always stay with me; we heard that there was a family…read more >

In my previous blog I told you about how my mum risked it all so that my brother and I can have it all, today I will tell you about how some of the young people who had this opportunity wasted it. The first thing that caught my attention was how much educational resources were available, you could go to the library and pick a book of your choice, you did not have to buy exercise books and you could get a paper round to earn yourself some money. My parents told us about the importance of using the educational opportunities that were in front of us now. Even though I was struggling to fit in and was struggling academically, in the back of mind I knew that I had been given a wonder opportunity to be successful. When we turned sixteen a lot of the people I knew started…read more >

In April 2004 my mum left our small town of Luanshya in Northern Zambia and embarked on the longest journey she had ever been on. A lot of African nurses were being recruited to the UK and a lot of them took advantage of this opportunity. At the end of the month mum started off for the UK leaving behind all the things she had collected over the years for a new life in London. She moved to a new country without knowing how things were going to work out. She had a good job as a sister in charge at our local hospital but she risked it all by going to a foreign country. She left everything behind, the only thing she had with her were her clothes and a dream for a better life for us. In 2005 my dad, my brother and I joined mum in the…read more >

It was April 2017 and I had just won the Area 11 Toastmaster speech contests which I never thought I was going to win. I had made it to the next round of the contest and I was really looking forward to deliver my speech which I thought was very good and was going to touch a lot of people. The week before the area contest I had won the club contest and I went home and I did all I could to make the speech better. However after winning the area contest I did not do a lot of work to improve my speech, even though I knew that the speeches at the divisional level were going to be more competitive I did not do anything to improve my speech, I did not do this because in my own head I had made it to the world championships final…read more >

I knew a woman who was left by her husband for another woman and even though she was heartbroken she carried on with life as normal. I remember the morning she told us that her husband had left her, she was very calm and she just thought of all the things she was going to be doing to move on. She was not angry, she was not saying anything negative about her husband, she was just doing her very best to move on with life. She looked happy and she did not go around looking for sympathy from everyone, she never stopped moving forward with life. She was doing and achieving a lot of things despite the situation in her life. I could not believe how gracefully this heartbroken woman was handling this situation; the separation did not stop her progress whatsoever. I asked my friend if she saw it…read more >

When I left university in 2013 I was not greeted with a lot of opportunities so I was very surprised when a friend of mine who had managed to find permanent job fairly quickly gave it up and got a job in another organisation on a three months contract. I was curious, well that is not true, I was furious with him, I asked why he had given up a permanent job to take up a job that was not going anywhere. I will never forget his response. “I refuse to stay comfortable on the road that leads nowhere” despite his defiance I thought he was making a mistake and I thought I was proved right when at the end of three months his contract was not renewed and he was jobless. A few weeks later he had phone call from one the customers who was so impressed with him…read more >

A young man left college and embarked on a new journey; he was working at a a garage repairing cars. He had always wanted to be a mechanic so he went to talk to one of the mechanics and this man had a lot of enthusiasm to help young people. He was told to come in two hours before he is supposed to start so that he can learn all about being a mechanic. The following day he was in 6am to learn about being a mechanic and so he did for next two weeks, however in the third week he did not turn up for the whole week. The following week the mechanic saw him doing his job and asked him why he did not turn up and told him that he was not a morning person can they do training in the evening to which the mechanic said…read more >

I had a phone call from a prospective client and arranged to meet him for coffee. We met up the next day and we discussed what he wanted from the caching session. I thought he was a very motivated Young man who was serious about changing his fortunes. However, a few weeks later he realised that most of struggles in work was because of attitude. The next day he phoned me and was downhearted about the situation, I told him that this was good thing because he could change. After talking to him I had a feeling that I will never hear from him again. I thought he was doing so well so I tried to get in touch as friend and I had no reply so I let it go and hoped that this young man will learn sooner rather later what is holding back. It is a lot…read more >