A Reflection on Posts 13–19
Looking back at Posts 13 to 19, I keep returning to the saying “hard work pays.”
I believe in hard work. But looking at my own journey, I am not convinced that hard work alone is enough.
There must be something you are working towards.
Throughout this part of my journey, the methods kept changing, but the central goal remained largely the same: complete my education, become financially independent, and put myself in a position where I could enter the job market.
That goal gave direction to my efforts.
At one point, however, pursuing the job market itself became difficult. I made what might appear from the outside to be a strange decision: I stopped applying for jobs.
I had not given up on finding work.
I had begun to understand that looking for a job had hidden costs.
An application might cost nothing to submit, but pursuing the opportunity did not necessarily cost nothing. Travelling to interviews, accommodation, and the possibility of having to relocate all required money. At that stage of my life, those were not small considerations.
So I stopped applying.
Looking back, this makes me think differently about what it means to give up.
When someone stops pursuing an opportunity, have they necessarily given up, or have their circumstances made the cost of continuing too high?
In my case, stopping the applications did not mean abandoning the goal. I changed the route.
When I could not afford to enter the job market, I continued studying.
When I could not afford Honours, we found SRC assistance and work-study.
When I completed Honours but remained unemployed, my friend and I submitted handwritten CVs looking for volunteer work.
When the municipality gave us an opportunity, even though it initially involved litter picking, we took it.
There was nothing less about that work. It was simply the opportunity available to us at that point in the journey.
Later, while working at the municipality, I worked towards getting my driver’s licence. I registered for my Master’s without giving up the municipal income that was keeping me financially afloat. I continued with my research until the university bursary and eventually NRF funding changed my financial position.
The route kept changing.
The destination did not.
So perhaps the lesson is not simply to work hard.
It is to work hard towards something.
A goal creates direction. It helps us decide what matters, what we should be preparing for and, sometimes, when a particular route is no longer working.
For a graduate, that may mean recognising that the qualification alone may not be enough. A driver’s licence may become important. Money for travelling to interviews, accommodation, or eventually relocating may become important. Experience may become important.
This is something I understand differently now.
We often talk about opportunities as though recognising them is enough. But an opportunity you cannot afford to pursue may not really be accessible to you at that moment.
That does not mean there is nothing you can do.
It means the question may need to change.
Instead of asking only:
Where is the opportunity I want?
Perhaps another useful question is:
While I am waiting for the opportunity I really want, what can I do now that moves me closer to it?
For me, sometimes that meant studying. Sometimes it meant finding financial assistance. Sometimes it meant volunteering. Sometimes it meant earning an income while studying. Sometimes it meant accepting an opportunity that did not look like the destination but nevertheless moved me forward.
This is why I now think there is an important difference between changing the route and abandoning the destination.
But there is another part of this journey that I still cannot explain so easily.
Perhaps having a clear goal creates a kind of mental schema, a framework through which we recognise things that are relevant to what we are trying to achieve.
When my friend needed a phone, for example, I already knew that I needed registration money. He had cash and needed access to a retail store account. I had the store account and needed his cash. An unfortunate situation suddenly presented a solution that could help both of us.
Would I have recognised that opportunity if I had not already mapped out what I was trying to achieve?
I don’t know.
Perhaps having a goal does more than direct our hard work. Perhaps it also prepares the mind to notice possibilities that might otherwise appear irrelevant.
But even that does not explain everything.
Some interventions in this journey seemed to arrive at exactly the moment they were needed.
Were they simply circumstances that my mind was prepared to recognise because I had a clear goal?
Was it coincidence?
Was it the hand of God?
Could it have been ancestral guidance?
Or could different explanations coexist?
I cannot prove any of them.
And I do not think I need to pretend that I can.
What I know from my experience is much simpler: I had to remain focused enough to recognise opportunities and prepared enough to seize them when they appeared.
But I also had to recognise my limitations.
There were things within my control and things that were not. Hard work could help me prepare, but it could not guarantee that funding would appear. Determination could keep me moving, but it could not remove every financial constraint. Having a goal could help me recognise an opportunity, but it could not guarantee that the opportunity would come.
So, does hard work pay?
So far, my answer is still yes, but with an important qualification:
Purposeful hard work matters, but hard work does not operate independently of circumstances.
Work towards something. Focus on what is within your control. Prepare for what you know you may need. Keep building rather than waiting passively. And when circumstances close one route, consider whether there is another route towards the same destination.
When an opportunity presents itself, recognise it and, where possible, seize it.
But perhaps we should also be careful when judging someone who appears to have stopped trying. We do not always know the hidden cost of continuing.
Whether the opportunities that shaped my own journey were the consequences of preparation, coincidence, divine intervention, ancestral guidance, or something else remains a bigger question.
Perhaps that is where philosophy begins.
Join the conversation
When someone stops pursuing an opportunity, how do we know whether they have given up or whether circumstances have made that particular path impossible? And when another path unexpectedly appears, is it preparation that allows us to recognise it, coincidence, something beyond us, or perhaps some combination of them?
Leave a Reply