My Hectic Journey in TBS

A story 4 years in the making.

This article is going to be personal. It is the first time in which I don’t talk about ICO reviews, cryptocurrencies or blockchain technology!

Okay, maybe not my first time. I did write some articles about Africa. It was a part of a series entitled #emPOWER_Africa but that doesn’t really count since I had to refer to some demographic data and to actually dig deep to get the most accurate stuff to have it later filled with emotions for “sensitization purposes”… Frankly, it was a little boring for me since I’m not exactly a “ MAMA-Africa-Heritage-proud-girl”. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying I hate Africa. I just can’t label myself with something I’m not entirely aware of! So for now, I’m just Tunisian..

Enough with all of that, let’s talk about more important stuff: My experience in TBS.

I’m Wejden Khachaa, 23 years old, 5th generation of TBS, and I proudly say that I have managed to build-up an interesting “curriculum vitae” while being a student. Yes, I did miss that one year and now I have to graduate in 5 years instead of 4. Believe me, my “Extra-activities” or professional experiences had nothing to do with it, I simply failed one year because I was too stupid, too distracted, and too LOST.

Going through 7 years of “pioneer school” or more properly 7 years of successive studying and taking studies too seriously, I had to take a break — I unintentionally did: I wasted my freshman year in doing absolutely nothing. Some days, I remember going to school without actually going inside, I literally spent the whole year at Issam’s.

That year, I failed Microeconomics (obviously), I’ve never been to the course, so it kind of made sense. But to actually fail Management because I overslept the day of the final exam and CS120 because I chose not to pass the final exam as I presumed the teacher hates my guts and will probably fail me anyway… Now that didn’t make sense at all: Again, I was stupid, irresponsible and I regret that.

So yeah, my freshman year was an epic failure for me, I even remember joining the AmCham TBS (American Chamber of Commerce) just so I can go to their boot camps and conferences and have fun! Very shallow, I know!

My second year, or what we call in TBS “the suffermore” year, I said to myself, enough fooling around, it’s time for you to study, and so I did…at first!

Shortly after that, I figured that studying wasn’t enough.. I had to do something else.

I was eager to learn something new.. something that can actually add up to my personal development.. by that, I mean something other than the academic courses that I was “compelled” to learn so I can get good grades, make my parents proud and blah blah blah…

It wasn’t long until the opportunity presented itself to me, the chairman of an “AmCham conference” in which I was an “OC”, called me on the phone for an internship interview in his startup. I nailed it, not because I look good, but because I had what it takes for the job: communication skills, the one thing they don’t teach you at school.

I then became a sales manager and was able to sign about 36 contracts with 36 different partners.

See, one day I go to school to study, the next day I go to a meeting to pitch the product to a 60-years old professional and eventually have him/her sign the contract.

I have to admit, working in that startup (Exclusive Tunisia) did distract me from school, not because it was time-consuming, on the contrary, my time was very flexible, but because I was so taken by the idea of working in a startup and being “out there”. Anyway, I quit the job later, Yet I learned hell a lot from the experience!

The next year was sort of a mix between sophomore and junior courses, I was determined to study and study only!

Nope, that didn’t happen. I was offered some other position: External relations director at Hult Prize 2017. I took it, I had to! As much as I’m not a big fan of NGOs, the Hult Prize was a fruitful experience that I personally advise everyone to go through, whether by participating or organizing. It’s like a TBS legacy. I mean, we’ve been organizing the Hult prize in TBS since 2012!

After the Hult Prize was over, I chose my major and minor in the second semester: Marketing/Finance. The combination did not exist, but I chose it anyway…

Afterwards, I started discovering how fun it is to study! The specialty courses were so different from the common courses, that’s when I started attending all courses — or almost. I kept the same routine for the next year as well. I had a particular passion for the corporate finance course and the Consumer Behavior course.

Studying made more sense: I was actually learning some real shit! I then realized that I was attending courses because I wanted to, not because I had to, and that got me a 3.4 GPA in that semester, I didn’t really work hard or study a lot, I just loved what I was studying.

After that, I found myself another distraction called “blockchain technology” but this time I managed both: studies and work (I even found the time to teach my neighbor’s son English courses for some extra pocket-money). Having three major tasks at a time was really consuming but God it felt good!

With Za7af’s endless case studies (MRK) and teaching a 12 year-old kid with ADHD, working as an editor for a French magazine that is devoted for blockchain and cryptocurrencies news, was a milestone in my professional life which was relatively full of other stuff too.

For instance, working with Evenplans, another brilliant startup that I was proud to be part of in summer 2017, being in a coworking space like Cogite (third best coworking space in the world) and building the network I have now, all of that contributed to making me the person I’m today.

Still, it doesn’t compare to being an editor, after having to go through a 2-month accelerated training, reading lots and lots of articles and whitepapers, spending hours in finding relevant topics to write about and rewriting rejected first-versions: definitely the highlight of my year!

The next highlight was in June when I received a slack call from the CEO asking me to prepare “the marketing strategy of Electrify Network’s ICO sale” that will take place in September…

Me? Undergraduate me? ICO sale? Are you kidding me? No he wasn’t.. and yes indeed I had to read more than 50 articles on “How to Market your ICO in 2018”, before I was able to prepare the marketing strategy it took me years to write (20 days or so), I therefore became an actual Marketer!

All in all, existing in the collegiate world and working at the same time can be very stressful. I have had to learn to adapt to it, which didn’t come easily, and my grades have suffered on occasion, but in the end, I believe it was the right choice for me…BIG TIME! (because now I know almost everyone in the ecosystem and they know me.)

That was my story as a TBS student who is graduating in 5 years instead of 4. The moral of the story is: Studying should always be one’s priority, however, it’s only one ingredient in one’s self-development recipe.

Good luck everyone!