The Importance Of Going At Your Own Pace
Good afternoon digital community!
This week I want to talk about the importance of sticking at things and seeing them work out. If you know me then you know I talk about this all the time. I say things like half of success is staying at something long enough to see it work.
Presenting Mills
Milimo Banji is someone that was introduced to me in this first or second year of uni. I was only a few years older but a friend thought I might be able to help him out. We sat in my room and she shared with me lots of ideas, this vision of using drones for advertising. I nodded, not even because of the innovative idea but the sheer conviction and infectious energy mills had.
For all sorts of reasons, that idea didn’t work out, however, it was so clear to me that it was only a matter of time before he landed on something that would. Mills’ journey to where he is now has been beautiful to watch. He took his energy and passion and just kept going. Taking setbacks and turning them around and then around again.
After years of doing this, he has built up wonderful organising called TapIn, a recruitment and media agency on a mission to prepare 100 million young people for the world of work.
Here is the full-circle moment, I’m currently on a train to give the keynote address at their first major conference celebrating a massive report they have put together. So many global brands and agencies will be there celebrating the work. But remember folks, he told me about this many many years ago, in my room in manchester. And here we are! I love stories like this because it just shows that through relentless pursuit, humility and stamina you can achieve anything you put your mind to.
My full-circle moment
Another cool thing is happening this week in manchester. I will be giving some undergraduate students their degrees. As you may know, I’m on the board of Salford University as a non-exec director and so I will be part of the graduation ceremony. This is interesting because when I got my degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from manchester university in 2016, I always wondered what it would be like to be on the other side.
Fast forward 6 years and I’m the youngest ever Non-Exec Director/Council member of the University of Salford. It's the fastest-growing university in the North West, with an over 48 million pound yearly budget serving over 21,000 students.
It’s taken hard work, serendipity and God's favour for sure. But if God going to bless something, then he’s going to bless the hard work.
I’ll be documenting some stuff on Instagram and Twitter so do follow me @mikeomoniyics