The Tragedy of Anything

My inbox tells the same story every week.

Dozens of messages from brilliant, recently graduated young Africans reaching out for work. The ambition is real. The hunger is real. And far too many of these messages end the same way.

I am ready to do anything. Just give me any role to work with.

I read that sentence and I know exactly what is coming next. Nothing. Not because the person is lazy. Because they have just told the universe they have no preference, and the universe, much like every hiring manager who has ever existed, does not know what to do with no preference.

I want to speak directly to the next generation of African builders, engineers, and creators reading this. I understand the economic pressure you are under. I know the environment conditions you to think about survival first. But treating your career like a lottery ticket, hoping any random hand pulls you somewhere, is the fastest way to stall your own growth before it has even started.

You cannot build a specialized career on a foundation of anything.

The real work starts in year two

There is a gap in how our universities operate. Students rarely get exposed to what an industry actually looks like until they already have the degree in hand. That needs to change at the institutional level, but you cannot afford to wait for the curriculum to catch up to you.

Your second and third years should not just be about passing exams. They should be about reconnaissance. Go find out what data engineering actually looks like on a Tuesday. What venture design or financial infrastructure or product operations actually involves day to day, not the version described in a brochure.

If you cannot get a structured internship, ask for less. Ask to shadow someone. Ask to sit in on a project meeting for an afternoon, or follow someone's workflow for a few days. You will not know what actually fits you until you have built a real comparison across a few different options, not just the one path everyone around you happens to be taking.

Narrow focus moves faster than wide nets

The urge to get a job quickly is completely valid. But the widest net usually catches the fewest fish, not the most.

Narrow your search to one specific domain and watch what changes. You stop sending the same copy paste resume to forty different companies. You learn the actual entry level requirements for that role instead of guessing at them. You gather enough understanding of that world to walk into a conversation and show a hiring manager that you don't just want a job, you understand this particular job.

Executives notice that difference immediately. A candidate who speaks the actual language of a specific problem will always outrun a candidate offering generalized desperation, no matter how hardworking that second candidate genuinely is.

Why clarity changes what you notice

I have seen this play out enough times that I no longer think of it as luck. The moment someone becomes genuinely clear on what they want, relevant opportunities start showing up in places that used to feel empty.

There is an actual mechanism behind this. A part of your brain called the Reticular Activating System, a cluster of nerves at the base of the brain, filters everything your senses pick up before any of it reaches your conscious awareness. There is simply too much coming in for you to process all of it. The RAS decides what gets through. And what tells it what to let through is whatever you have told yourself you are actually looking for.

Tell it "I just need any job" and it has nothing to search for. No signal, no filter, nothing gets prioritized. Tell it "I am building a career in fintech compliance architecture" and you have just reprogrammed the whole system.

The panel discussion you would have scrolled past now stops you. The shift happening in that specific industry starts registering. The names of the people actually building in that space start sounding familiar. The gaps in the market that were always sitting there in plain sight finally show up, because you are finally looking for them.

Nothing new appeared. You just became someone capable of seeing what was already there.

Move from survival to execution

If you are a student or a recent graduate reading this, do not let a survival environment take away your ability to think strategically about your own path.

Before you send your next message asking for anything, do the work first. Pick a domain. Understand how it actually works. Learn what it takes to get in at the entry level. Then approach the market like someone who already knows what they are looking for.

Information is everywhere right now. Execution is what is actually scarce. Stop asking for anything. Pick something specific, and give the market a real reason to say yes to you.