What prepares you for the next level? Everything does!

The thought that everything we do prepares us for the next level is a dangerous thought, but it's also the truth.

In 2016 when I started a social enterprise at Takoradi Technical University which led me to create and produce my first podcast, the Young and Ambitious Show, little did I know that was going to be the project that would catch the eye of my sponsor Philip Ashon, and my first boss at Citi FM, Pastor Mawuli Tsikata, to get my role at Citi FM months before NSS had begun.

While at Citi FM, among the many things I did there, I had the opportunity to work with Philip Ashon to produce, design and even host a segment on the show for a couple of seasons, a key reference that got me through my application and interview into MEST Africa's flagship EIT program when I was ready to transition to tech.

These two instances, creating a podcast as a university student and producing a radio show, had little direct influence on preparing me for my supposed next level then, but guess what those two instances did? And hence why I say it's dangerous. It means we can't half any opportunity that has our names on it, and it also means every opportunity is equally important, even including the ones we don't like.

Then how do we make the most of everything as we level up?

Where to begin

1. Know your interests and recruit witnesses

To know your interests will mean you will have to try many things, to know what comes naturally or at least know what you enjoy and what you don't. This will mean picking up projects that align with your believed interests to diagnose your interest barometer.

In the university, while I was still working on my podcast, I interned at an advertising agency to test my interest barometer in working with an agency. The experience made it pretty clear to me that I wouldn't enjoy being a designer at an agency, so I scaled down on that interest.

Knowing your interests matter because, as the premise for this article says, everything prepares us for our next level, so you must ensure you are registering points in your area of interest, and then you have witnesses who see them and can advocate to make your next level happen.

Recruiting witnesses could be in the form of putting out self-initiated projects in your discipline or networking untraditionally. Both help you build reference points in people's minds, and when it's time for your next level, you can easily tap into these witnesses in the form of persons and projects.

Every season counts

2. Do your best work in every season

Life is generally in three seasons: sowing, waiting, and blooming. It is so easy to do your best work in the blooming seasons where everything is right, you are working on the perfect projects and have the nicest bosses, but guess what? All the other seasons are training grounds for bigger and better next levels.

I strongly believe every next level begins in the sowing season, where most times your efforts don't really mean much, neither does it impact much. In this moment, we may be tempted to half-ass our work; after all, no one sees us and even if we don't show, not much will change. But it is in these seasons that prepare us for the next levels, meaning we have to do our best work just as we would if we were already on our desired next level.

I joined Dexwin (the company that handles product design for MTN Ghana) in 2022 after MEST, when my company Ubadi didn't get funding from the program to pursue our idea. The first project I worked on for the team was a VAS and advertising channel for MTN. There was no Product Manager on the project, so my boss, Kelvin Tyron, suggested I lead the project as a Designer/PM short-term.

I researched the hell out of it, coordinated reviews and timelines, and managed stakeholders from all angles, MTN's internal teams, technical vendors, and designers from Dexwin. We shipped the project and life moved on.

Two years later, I joined Daakye Digital and we launched Adtones, a VAS and audio advertising platform in Ghana and with MTN Ghana. I am no longer new to VAS, neither to working with MTN Ghana's teams.

Connect the dots

3. Reflect often so you can connect the dots

It's easy to think things just happen, but if you reflect on your journey every once in a while, you will know there are always dots to connect. This knowledge, of connecting one's own dots, gives you the lived experience of knowing everything prepares you for the next level. Once you know this, you also earn the responsibility to own every move you make or do not make.

Some of the easy ways to reflect on your journey are to write end-of-year reviews and end-of-chapter reviews. These help you evaluate your input, effort, and growth. They also make you aware of what really prepares you for your next level and help you own and shape that.

Thank you for reading my note. Kindly leave a comment if you enjoyed it and share it with someone who may find it relevant.