32 Steps: Career Success & A Life of Significance

32 Steps is a Career Manual for the African context.

You can use 32 Steps from when you are at university right up to your promotion into management.

If you diligently follow 32 Steps it is guaranteed to not only get you a job but, to keep you climbing all the way to the top. The principles enshrined here work just as much for someone who is starting out in their career as they do for a seasoned professional. So it would not be over the top to advise you to treat this book as a career manual that guides you on how to secure, grow and distinguish yourself as you excel in your field and live a life of significance and legacy.

The first three chapters set our minds right on seeing and valuing who we are and the potential we have, making sure to make the most of opportunities presented earlier in life so that it becomes the material for experience quoted as we enter the world of work.

Chapters 4-16 offer all the practical tips you need to apply for and clinch that job. You are guided right from when you first have the thought of applying for a job, to being taught how to write a cover letter and Curriculum Vitae, how to look, behave and speak at interviews, and the nerve-racking “What’s Next?” after the interview, including winning strategies to apply when you negotiate, before signing, the employment contract.

Chapter 17-26 are the defining chapters for career success. What got you your job will not get you your promotion unless you follow the advice laid out in these chapters. People literally make or break their chances of success based on how they think, act and present themselves once on the job and this is why I found it to be so crucial to advise on not only “how” but, be prescriptive about “what” brand to build for career success and significance.

In these chapters you will find detailed the peaks and pitfalls of certain conduct. Urging anyone who wants to build a career and make a lasting impact to be intentional, pay attention to detail, go the extra mile, respect the law of the farm as they reap gradual and lasting results, and get out of their comfort zone to focus on the bigger picture of living a life of purpose and not limit themselves to their job description. You will thoroughly enjoy and learn from the nuggets offered there with the sole aim of assisting you to stand out and shine to be all that you can be in your chosen career path.

Chapters 28-30 offer the secret to career staying power – networking. You will not meet a single person who has lived a life of significance who will tell you that they are a “self-made” man or woman. All successful people will tell you that their network has been their “net worth”. You will discover just how networked and powerful you already are and can deliberately continue to be as you use your network and avail yourself to others for mutual benefit and most importantly, for greater service.

Capping it all are Chapter 31 and Chapter 32 which close the career loop by saying that you would have left little lasting impact if you didn’t Pass It On. Paying it Forward is the spirit of this concluding section as it urges us to reach and teach others that follow so that they too can both enjoy the success we have but, most importantly, serve and impact the next generation of Tanzanian and African youth and, they, the next and, so on.

I truly hope you will treasure 32 Steps, reflecting on purpose, potential and path at the beginning, zooming in on ‘how to” action points when ready to make a move and cementing it all together with the minute by minute conscious and deliberate decisions we make to be patriotic, professional and ethical, no matter the odds, no matter the temptations, as we drive our individual results and together lead Tanzania to becoming Africa’s economic standard.