A Month in the Life of an Entrepreneur in Training (EiT) at MEST Africa

Helen Wairagu
Nov 5 · 4 min read
Photo by Maddi Bazzocco on Unsplash

We are in November already! Just the other day I was packing my bags to come to Accra. A look at the calendar just leaves me wondering, where did time go?

I happened to meet up with a former EiT the day before my flight and he told me, “Your life is about to change drastically.”

Three months into the program, I retrospect on these words and I can’t help but realize how right he was.

Clearly, life has been moving fast and I cannot be able to give an accurate account of what the past three months have been like. All the same, I thought I should take you through what October looked like from the lens of an Entrepreneur in Training (EiT) at MEST.


1. Academic

The past three months saw my mind go through some extensive intellectual stretching, and October was no different. There is so much to learn, and it is interesting how every day is a realization of the fact of how much I don’t even know that I don’t know. We are learning three units at MEST:

i. The technology class was split into two in October: core and advanced. I am in the core class and started by diving deep into HTML and CSS, some important basics that I had always overlooked. It really helped that we were using a perfectly structured resource for learning. If you are interested in getting your hands dirty with these two languages, I highly recommend interneting is hard.

ii. In the business class, we were introduced to some crucial aspects that differentiate one business from the next: market research, market segmentation, the business macro environment, and the concept of lean startups. We got to work on actual companies for each aspect to make sure that the concepts were well understood.

iii. The communication class carried us to the world of marketing from a lens of the documentary Fyre Festival. This documentary is the perfect depiction of the power of selling a story, having big dreams, and the role of influencers in marketing. We also learned about UX research, where we looked into design and the role that it plays in delivering perfect user experience.


2. Socially

It is such a blessing to have made a family out of the EiTs, and they made my social life in October particularly interesting. Some of the many social experiences that marked the highlight of the month

i. We took a weekend out on 12th to celebrate the birthday of one of us at PramPram Golden Beach. It was a weekend full of laughter, fun, games, and just having a relaxed time at the beach.

ii. We threw a surprise bridal shower for one of us who is about to say her vows. The surprise really did take her off-guard, which was such a joy!!

iii. A group of us went to Deon Recreational Center one of the Saturdays for an afternoon of bonding. Some of the activities that we did include: go-karting, swimming, skating, quad biking, and kayaking.


3. Hobbies

i. The chronological structure of interneting is hard introduced me to my newly found love for coding. I took up the #100DaysofCode challenge and my goal is to be able to develop a fully functional web application by the time I am done.

ii. I also got back to my passion for blogging after taking a break for a while. When I am not posting here, then I am definitely writing something at HeilysWorld.


4. Reading

i. I did not read as much as I would have wanted to in October. However, I got my hands on Leaving Microsoft to Change the World, which is quite a page-turner. A big shout out to Derrick for introducing me to b-ok.org, which has such a wide variety of free e-books! I now look forward to stacking up my read list.


5. Challenges

The one thing that I have been lagging behind is getting done with my Medium articles for the communication class. By now, I am supposed to have completed at least three articles yet this is my second one. In the spirit of the new month, I am now giving myself the challenge of completing at least one Medium article per week.


Key Takeaways this Past Month (featuring some fellow EiTs)

1. One thing that became clearer to me in October is the power of human will. One year ago, I would not have imagined myself as a programmer because it seemed like this unbeatable mountain. These days the first thing I open is my compiler whenever I get to my laptop. I still can’t believe that this is something that I am actually enjoying.

2. I also realized the importance of keeping a journal. As I was reflecting on the past month, it was hard to remember the things that had happened off the head. It really did help that it was the same month that I took up the habit of keeping a journal.

3. “In October I learned the importance of regularly planning your time and the need for flexibility. I figured that planning my week helps me be more productive. However, a plan for one week does not work for the other, and I have to keep planning and re-planning” — Lawrence Chege.

4. “I have always thought that art is an intrinsic skill. However, joining an art school in Ghana made me realize that anything is possible given the resources and the platform. Again, the power of human will” — Anilla Stephanie.

Helen Wairagu

Written by

Kenyan | Entrepreneur-in-Training @MestAfrica | Travel far enough to meet yourself.

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