I don’t think I have ever felt completely ready for any of the biggest opportunities I have been given.
Looking back, every significant moment in my career has started with the same feeling and the same question: “Can I really do this?”
For a long time, I thought growth meant becoming more confident before taking on something bigger. However, I have since learned that it is very much the opposite.
When I joined the HH Group, to be completely honest, I just wanted to do good work and go back home. I focused on learning, asking questions, staying curious, and giving my best to every task, no matter how small it seemed.
One of the first things that really stretched me was volunteering to take on additional responsibility within my team for our sustainability and CSR initiatives.
Even though I volunteered because it was a gap we needed to close, I questioned myself every day about whether I was truly ready for it. Could I take ownership of initiatives that reflected not just on me, but on the organisation?
One initiative that became especially meaningful to me was The Good Project. This campaign was an opportunity to demonstrate how the business was improving lives while caring for the environment.
As my responsibilities continued to grow, so did my perspective. I stopped seeing unfamiliar tasks as reasons to doubt myself and started seeing them as invitations to learn and grow.
Today, I lead Brand, Marketing and Corporate Communications at Transcorp Hotels Plc. It is a role that comes with responsibilities I could not have imagined a few years ago. But even now, I still find myself in situations that stretch me. The difference is that I have learned not to fear those moments.
Because I have realised that every role I have ever grown into first felt too big.
To this day, I believe the one thing that has shaped my career the most is the people who trusted me before I felt fully ready. Leaders who saw potential in me and gave me room to grow, even when I was still figuring things out myself.
I would end by saying: don’t wait until you feel completely ready. Some of the most meaningful opportunities in your career will arrive before your confidence does.
Say yes anyway.
You may discover, as I did, that responsibility has a remarkable way of helping us grow into the people we are capable of becoming.
