Читать книгу Betting on a Darkie - Mteto Nyati - Страница 6

Dream your own dreams; achieve your own goals. Your journey is your own and unique.

Roy T Bennett – The Light in the Heart

When I look back, I know with certainty there are many things I should not have done. But they are part of me, part of who I have become, and they have a place in the context of my life. They are reminders that mistakes can be built on, that journeys are filled with learning and that the right path, whatever ‘right’ may mean for you, is often only a step away.

My formative years were by my mother’s side in a Transkei trading store, a business that supported her extended family and serviced a community. She shattered all stereotypes of a woman’s place in the patriarchal Eastern Cape of the 1970s and ’80s and taught her offspring that economic independence can liberate. The role my parents played in our lives is evident in the tributes from my brother and sister, included after the first chapter.

My career has been defined by challenges I approached with trepidation at first: from my first job in the ’80s, trying to cope in a stiff-upper-lip environment where I felt a bit like one of the characters in Hidden Figures, to being tasked with developing a computerised decision support system when I’d barely operated a computer, to becoming a communications salesman for IBM when my training was that of a mechanical engineer. I learned that success lay in being myself and in retaining my status as an outsider. Try too hard to blend in and you may well disappear. At Afrox I was the only black engineer. When I arrived to take up a position with IBM in Paris in the early 2000s, there was no one like me. Colleagues were unsure of how to treat me – my differences made me stand out. I decided to use what set me apart to my advantage and to take on every challenge that came my way as if it were an engineering project. Later I began seeking out those challenges and relishing them, while also developing an awareness of my responsibility as a pathfinder. It was important to open opportunities, not only for myself, but for others too. Sometimes this rested heavily on my shoulders.

Although I am a product of my circumstances, I believe we carry knowledge within us from elsewhere, enabling us to make better choices in this life. If we get the right parents, as I did, these choices come easier. Inner knowing helped me choose the right mentors in the form of brave managers who took the risk of betting on a darkie in times when people like me weren’t considered for thinking roles in business. Neil Greenfield, Mpho Letlape, Mark Harris, Ali Faramawy and Jean-Philippe Courtois showed leadership in their ability to place prejudice aside and to embrace diversity. Their gamble gave me the confidence to succeed and created an environment in which I gained courage to do things I wasn’t sure I could. There are many others who have been part of my journey and, in line with my value of ‘openness’, I invited some of them to share their perspectives and insights. I believe their contributions greatly enrich the narrative of this book.

MTETO NYATI – Johannesburg, 2019