LESSONS ONLY FAILURE CAN BRING

Last year my alma mater, Sisekelo High School, invited me to be the guest speaker at the valediction ceremony of the matriculating class of 2017.

I spoke to them the way I wish someone would have spoken to me. I am fascinated by failure and the lessons of rock bottom and the inevitability of it that I learnt to find the lesson in it. I’d like to share the speech I shared with them.

“12 years ago I sat where you’re sitting today. I was filled with such optimism and was ready to joke about how stressful unemployment was as soon as I finished writing my final exams and was waiting to go to university after my gap year. Much later unemployment did come but the jokes did not.

I was an average student when I was at Sisekelo. I was smart I guess but I did not really work hard. Which is why I was very shocked when the school contacted me to speak to our school leavers today.

All I did was be a great athlete, go hard in English and History and distract people during prep. I did not enjoy struggling.
Science and Maths, for instance, were horrifying academic experiences for me and I just could not be convinced to put in the extra effort that I needed to in order to grasp the concepts.

I put in enough work to pass, but never to excel if it wasn’t easy. And I want to let you know today that life is unkind to people who are entitled to easy.
I want to talk to you today about two things, two things I wish someone had told me when I was standing on the cusp of my future; purpose and failure.

There are many days that will be memorable in your lives - one of those will be the day you discover what your purpose is.
I was in my second year of university, again doing just enough to pass my Media Management class, I had procrastinated and I had an assignment due the next day. I did not make deadline.

My lecturer calmly looked at me and said “Oh that’s not a problem Nono for every hour it is late I will deduct 10 per cent off your final grade.”
That was the last time I ever submitted a single thing late.
It was as though a light switched on and my approach to the quality of work I produced was never the same again. If it is going to be attached to your name you have a duty to make it excellent.

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