My Vision for Catalyzing Impact

Steve Jobs once said we can only connect the dots looking backwards. The dots have connected for me and now I can sum up what I believe to be meaningful work as catalyzing impact. This is the third version of my life's purpose in recent time. At first I thought my life's purpose could be summed up as enabling the creation and sharing of African Stories. The idea was to highlight my belief in Africa and its long history of innovative solutions to local problems. In a world that often exports western solutions to African problems, I wanted to do my part in allowing African innovation to shine. How was I to do that? I started looking at my skillset and academic training, and given my training in decision and risk analysis, I updated my mission to supporting rational and intelligent decision-making within high-impact institutions. This mission proved quite a mouthful, and it was too narrow. It captured my aspirations to start off my career in data-sciencey jobs, but did not capture what I hoped to achieve across my - hopefully - long life. What do I want to achieve over my lifetime? I want to be a catalyst for impact, especially in Africa. Each time I say I aspire to be the President of Botswana someday or to be a Venture Capitalist in Africa, that is a metaphor for my desire to contribute towards building systems that allow us Africans to drive the solutions to some of our most pressing problems.

With the pillars of my current Life Plan - Personal Development, Meaningful Communities, Professional Excellence, and Financial Sustainability - and my core values - Creativity, Curiosity, Excellence, Growth, and Ubuntu - in mind, I plan to evaluate professional opportunities using the following criteria:

• Potential to learn and grow: Any job or project I join, should come with opportunities to improve my knowledge and skills substantially. 

• Work-life balance: Professional pursuits are just one aspect of my life, and should not impede on my ability to spend quality time with my loved ones and explore my humanity.

• Collaboration and team spirit: With 7 siblings and a Stanford MS&E background, it should not come as a surprise that any projects or jobs I join should be collaborative in nature. I have learned that I do my best work in cohesive teams. I want to work in a team of driven and fun individuals, but with enough room for individual work and the autonomy to use my creativity. 

• Impact potential: My specific role does not necessarily have to be directly super impactful, but the overall work I am contributing to should advance society towards a more sustainable and inclusive state. I hope to join mission driven companies, through which I can advance my mission to catalyze impact. 

• Fair compensation: I hope to work for and with companies that have a track record of fairly compensating their team members. In an ideal world, my compensation should be directly linked to the value I add. My use of the word compensation includes non-monetary benefits such as mentorship and additional training opportunities. 

Having laid out what I am looking for in projects and job opportunities, it is only fair that I also list out what I think my value proposition is. To projects and jobs, I believe I bring:

• A strong quantitative background: With successful completion of coursework in Mathematics, Computer Science, and Management Science and Engineering, I have a strong quantitative foundation and applied experience. I am competent in Decision Analysis, Risk Analysis, Stochastic Modeling, Bayesian Statistics, Dynamic Systems, and Convex Optimization. I also have intermediate fluency in Python, R, and MATLAB. I have some familiarity with Java and C++. 

• Experience with qualitative research: My prior work under Dr. Suzanne Gaulocher on Community Health and Social Development in Sri Lanka (in partnership with Sarvodaya) and under Dr. Tim Weiss on Technology Entrepreneurship in Kenya, have equipped me with skills and experience necessary for qualitative research. In particular, I am competent in the use of Participatory Photo Mapping as a technique for ethnographic research. 

• An entrepreneurial spirit: My humble background instilled an entrepreneurial spirit within me. Through the examples of my family and fellow community members, I have learned to believe that no problem is hard to solve. I have also learned that a creative spirit is necessary for generating new solutions to problems. My Engineering education at Stanford has reinforced my entrepreneurial spirit, with experiences in Design Thinking and Startup Garage. 

• A fairly disciplined work ethic: As a planner and someone who most of my colleagues might describe as organized, I am detail oriented, goal driven, and a team player. This is especially true within the context of collaborative teams, with exemplary leadership. 

• A dream of a better tomorrow: I am family oriented, and hope to someday bring life into this world. I want for my children and their children to grow up in a more environmentally sustainable, socially just, and healthier world. I bring a commitment to do my part, in bringing us closer to such a world. 

If my value proposition has a place on your team or project, and if you believe your team or project meets my criteria for an opportunity where I can catalyze impact, feel free to get in touch. Let us create the world we wish for.