Ida Mwangi

I begin with an echo of the words of Enid Bagnold. Who wants to become a writer? And why? Because it’s the answer to everything. …It’s the streaming reason for living. To note, to pin down, to build, to create, to be astonished at nothing, to cherish the oddities, to let nothing go down the drain, to make something, to make a great flower out of life, even if it’s a cactus. Words. An unending life quest I continue to pursue. I have been writing for as long as I can remember; and even as I cried out to the world for a best friend, I knew words would be there for me. It’s actually kind of a paradox how I really don’t get along with theoretical subjects in school. But that’s the life of a writer, sophisticated in all manners. In all that I have jotted down, one struggle has remained constant. To write about my own career. Finance, being a world of numbers, would greatly benefit from my domain of words. I’d tell the story of data, the tale of the statistics. Yes. The numbers would be voiced; but how? Tell me how. How else can ‘a’ and ‘1’ relate except that ‘a’ is the first letter of the alphabet? Let’s begin by why finance. Well, I love it. At least that’s my feeling towards it, and the sentiments of a couple of friends who know me well. But is an emotion enough to fuel my drive for this career path? Do what you love. Love what you do. I have a deep conviction that most of us will end up in the latter. I think I might be in an in-between if there is any. Every day we read articles and newspapers; listen to lecturers and professionals; and if you’re a Medium Daily Digest subscriber like me, receive tonnes of emails. Most, if not all of these, will touch on careers. In a recent article, the writer was laying out in the open how a good chunk do not end up doing jobs in the line of whatever they studied for. Alas! It could all be for nothing. Blockchains. Forex. Financial analysis. One day you could wake up and realise that you have not thought of, leave alone mentioned, any of these things in the past year or so. Even more surprising is the possibility of not being bothered by this realisation. You’ll be happy with your life; busy rolling with “If it aint fun, don’t do it”. Looking at the other side of the coin, Monte Carlo simulations could be your order of the day. Data mining and analysis. Machine learning in finance. Ratios could be your morning cup of tea and trades your evening glass of wine. And you wouldn’t imagine a life away from all these. You’d be in the lot of “I did what I loved”. The lucky few who hit the bull’s eye in choosing their hearts’ desires. But consider this. You probably don’t know where you fall given both possibilities. You know it could go either way, but you work hard anyway. For what is life but an adventure within which great and numerous uncertainties lurk? We keep walking, knowing the direction of only our present step; and hoping that our estimate of the next one will be almost so accurate. So, keep at it. Keep going until you find where you belong. You’ll surely thank yourself for two things. One, not sheepishly following anyone; and two, spending your time doing whatever you could at that moment. You don’t start out writing good stuff. Maybe this is just my beginning in finance. It’s not easy, but I shall not tire trying.