Some reflections on turning 30

Tshepo T. Machele
Jul 23, 2017 · 6 min read

My name is Tshepo Machele, I am 29 years 364 days plus/minus a few hours and counting old. I was born in Lenmed Clinic in the City of Gold aka Johannesburg, South Africa. I have spent a large portion of my life in Johannesburg in various parts of the Gauteng City Region to be more accurate i.e. Soweto, Bryanston, Bramley, and most recently Sandown. It was interesting being a child of Apartheid but not being old enough to fully realise what the system was about at the time and the implications thereof as an adult now for there is a lot to unpack concerning South Africa’s history but that is not the focus of today’s article…

I am a recovering MBB management consultant and investment banker that currently works in a high growth fintech start-up called Payd which is a division of Clickatell Group as a Business Analyst and Planner based in the ‘Republic’ of Cape Town. People usually ask what do I do on a day to day basis in a start-up, I usually respond by saying “GSD” — Google is your friend if you do not know what the acronym stands for, in any case this blog’s content is PG13 and so I say again Google is your best friend or if you are an alt- person or a person of interest to the NSA Duck Duck Go or TOR is your preferred search solution.

When I was a young I always believed for some reason that when I reached 25 that I would be dead. I have no reason why I believed such but it was just one of those things, maybe it was a view based off some the media I might have consumed as a child, it’s a good thing the internet was not yet wildly distributed then. Luckily for me I can confidently say that 25 came and went without too much drama and I remember a then work colleague at Standard Bank saying at the mandatory bring-a-cake-on-your-birthday-day that “you are now much closer to 30 than you are to 20” — later today at midnight I will officially be 30, being a non-drinker now, this will be a sober and probably quiet affair.

It took a few seconds for the implication of what he was saying to drop in. A few questions popped into my mind at that time like what is my purpose on this planet, how does God expect me to live my life, am I having the sort of impact that I would like in my private world and the world at large, will the world be positively impacted by my existence or would I just be another cog in the machine, what type of person should I think about getting married to, should I continue on my current career track even though I would be saying goodbye to large amounts of money or would I be infinitely happier working on products, services and businesses in which I am building things and solving real world problems that I care about?

A few years later as I am about to enter in to my fourth decade of life I am a lot clearer on key issues though I still have a lot of open questions. Looking back at my life to date I realise that being one score and ten is a significant milestone that is usually mapped by people reaching certain milestones like reaching some professional qualification certification, getting married, having children, divorce, in some cases death and increasing maturity.

Based on a few mishaps, accidents, life events in my short life time I have come to a few realisations for myself:

1. Life is short and fleeting — I do not waste time being overly concerned with the opinions of others especially when it comes to working on or doing things that I care about or I am deeply passionate about even if it means moving laterally or downwards in terms of pay, temporarily of course.

2. Work on your health — This is the only asset I can influence, without health any other achievements or considerations fall by the wayside. What am I going to do with millions of Dollars if I am bedridden?

3. Invest time and money in relationships with family and friends — These relationships are probably more important to my long-term well-being than any amount of success or money one earns.

4. Do not search for purpose directly…you will never find it — I follow my interests and work on projects that I can contribute to. For example, if I really want to make a career transition and work in a new sector or in my dream job I must be willing to pay with my time. My contribution can be small if I lack skills initially or large if I have experience in the area that I am are working on.

5. Develop Mastery in a chosen field of endeavour — Once I found my niche it was amazing how quickly I could learn, grow and develop within a short-period of time especially if I was willing to put in the time and hard-work.

6. Welcome opportunity — I never turn down opportunities that seem to involve hard-work and bring me out of my comfort zone.

7. Always be curious, open to learning and asking the right questions — As I get older and interact with various people I can judge the quality of a mind by the questions they ask and not by what they know.

8. Develop interests and hobbies outside of work — I have varied interests outside of work. A significant body of research exists to show that employees, professionals, managers, artists, scientists or entrepreneurs etc. perform significantly better if they have pursuits and interests outside of work. A bonus is that I get to meet interesting people I would otherwise not interact with on a day to day basis.

9. Aim to do great-work — Excellence is a habit that needs to be cultivated and trained like a muscle. Put in the work and have patience. Some good things might happen. If you are good just maybe you might find yourself on a Top X under X list.

10. Be Spiritual, be mindful, be in touch with your emotions (i.e. but not controlled by them), be considerate, be kind and most importantly be human/e — I am not perfect nor is any other person on this planet except for maybe the Divine Manifestations of God (i.e. Moses, John the Bapist, Jesus Christ, Prophet Muhammad, Gautam Buddha, the Bab, Bahá’u’lláh etc). I realise I have my share of personality flaws and that I need to work on like more self-awareness and personal improvement. In any case that does not detract from realising that the brief period I have on earth is special and that I have a responsibility to do something great with it by serving others through my work and daily interactions.

I will finish off with a passage from Marcus Aurelius that helps me to navigate the day to day of life

“When you wake up in the morning, tell yourself: the people I deal with today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous and surly. They are like this because they can’t tell good from evil. But I have seen the beauty of good, and the ugliness of evil, and have recognized that the wrongdoer has a nature related to my own — not of the same blood and birth, but the same mind, and possessing a share of the divine. And so, none of them can hurt me. No one can implicate me in ugliness. Nor can I feel angry at my relative, or hate him. We were born to work together like feet, hands and eyes, like the two rows of teeth, upper and lower. To obstruct each other is unnatural. To feel anger at someone, to turn your back on him: these are obstructions.” — Marcus Aurelius Meditations

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