What Failing Math in My Early Years Taught Me About Life, Passion and Entrepreneurship
I recently received NIMechE-FAFME 40 Under 40 Inspiring African Future Mechanical Engineers Award. To be honest, I was a bit surprised to have been listed for this award and the reason for this was something deeply rooted in my past. My past even before I started studying engineering.
For as long as I can remember, I’ve always to be an engineer and for the greater part of my school life, I was really horrible at arithmetic, math, calculus or whatever name you wish to call. Anything that required the crunching of numbers was a lost cause for me. I was so bad at math that in the final year of my senior secondary school while trying to prepare for the final exams, I was put into a special class for those who didn’t know math. I was so below average that I remember telling some people that I wanted to study engineering and they laughed really hard. Looking back, I really can’t blame them because they knew how bad I was.
When I got into university to study mechanical engineering, things didn’t improve. In fact, they got worse! Unlike secondary school where I could get by doing regular math and avoid Further Math (advanced math), every math in engineering is pretty much Further Math on steroids! I later discovered that lectures graduated from most complex Further Math of secondary school to more complex math by end of the first month of the first semester! The topics in the first few weeks were called Pre-Calculus, and I was already failing it even before the main Calculus was introduced. As expected, I did woefully in my first semester. It was so bad that I had to drop the math course so as not to affect my grades, I guess this was my version of “living to fight another day”.
The interesting thing about studying engineering is that there’s hardly any course that you take that won’t involve some form of math and the higher you go, the more complex the math is. I guess I didn’t get that memo. So by the time I was getting ready to take Calculus 1 again in my second semester, I had another math course waiting for me that was almost unrelated to the Calculus I had been battling with. Despite my best efforts and as you might have imagined, I failed both of them! Also, like most courses in any department, the more advanced courses make use of principles studied at the foundational courses so if you don’t pass the basic ones there is no moving forward. Things were getting desperate. The hush calls for me to quit engineering for courses that were “easier” were now becoming louder. Doubts started creeping in especially as those who had left engineering were seemingly doing well in their new departments. The options were clear- leave engineering or stay and fight it out.
My decision to stay on and fight it out is probably one of the best decisions I’ve made. This is because by my third semester even though I was taking three core math courses, I was able to pass all of them and from that semester up till this point I’ve never failed any math course. It took a lot of hard work and long hours but as I’ve come to find out in life, getting what you want isn’t always easy. I eventually got so good at math that at some point I even started organizing math tutorials for those struggling with math. I not only finished my BSc in Engineering, I did my MSc, became a certified engineer and now a recipient of an award for my contribution to engineering.
Looking back on this experience, I’m glad that I went through it because it has helped shape the way I view life and handle challenges as an entrepreneur. One thing that I’ve learnt from this experience is that there will always be challenges that would want to prevent you from reaching your goals in life and they may come in the form of finance, education, family, society, etc. Please do expect these and do not be daunted by them, just push on! I’ve had many other challenges in life and when I sometimes feel like giving up, I remember my math experience and I press on. The truth is, once you start quitting at any slight challenge, it will become a habit that will become very hard to break. Rather than develop a habit of quitting, develop a habit of resilience and persistence in the face of adversity. As they say, “Quitters never win and winners never quit!”
I dedicate this award to my family, friends and teachers who supported me during those dark times of uncertainty.
