You create your own luck in life!

And immediately I was filled with dread. The reality of going from a qualified CIMA accountant and Head of Finance leading 60 people, to not even being able to offer my knowledge of working within finance for 20 years for free was gut wrenching.

For those of you who don’t know, in August 2021 my family and I moved to Nur-Sultan in Kazakhstan. So as you can imagine prior to our move we had lots of phone calls and video conferences to catch up.

On this particular call my Wife’s new boss and I were discussing my plans. They said,

“Well, I can’t put you in procurement. Because as an expat people will see you as a walking cash machine. And our systems are in Russian so you can do that. I have an Operations Director already. Maybe you could help with the Maths lessons as you are an Accountant. But I can’t afford to pay you”

I loved GCSE Maths. But I struggled with A level. And I certainly didn’t want to attempt to teach it.

My ambition had been to move my career into a Chief Operating Officer type role within an educational institution and to be responsible for everything within a school except the education.

Not teach secondary school Maths.

Although I felt completely worthless that was a defining point for me personally.

I thought to myself, that’s ok, just focus on your strengths. What do you like to do? What do you hate doing? Then you can figure out a role which matches your skillset.

If you have not read Gallup’s “Strengths Based Leadership” read it because it’s brilliant. I used this framework and reflected upon my strengths which include:

1. Executing (fixing problems, consistency and discipline)
2. Influencing (communication and going above and beyond)
3. Relationship building (bringing people together, coaching, showing empathy and understanding)
4. Strategic thinker (data analysis, trending, providing context and having a growth mindset).

It then sparked the thought of moving into recruitment.

So I called a couple of recruiters to socialise the idea, gain insight, wisdom and potentially hope (as this was required in huge doses). One recruiter said to me “David you’ll have something I’ll never have, an Accountancy qualification. But you’ve never recruited before.” Another recruiter said “It makes complete sense but it isn’t going to be easy”.

Well it’s a good job that I like a challenge. And I don’t like to be beaten. Because that’s what I was facing.

So I decided that I would now have to focus on my technical weaknesses and learn how to “recruit”. Fast! I could leverage my point of difference as a CIMA qualified accountant with 20 years of experience at a later date.

And this led to Jammy Recruitment being set up. In hindsight it was a blessing in disguise because educational institutions are very bureaucratic and I'm a far better operator in an agile environment.

Since then I have learnt how to recruit and whilst everyday is a school day the feedback has been strong, I have repeat customers already and I’m able to keep the lights on. I have a few Raving Fans already who are promoting my services to others which is the best form of feedback.

I quite often read on LinkedIn - rejection is redirection. And in this example it is 100% true. I could end this article with the obvious, which is rejection is redirection but I’m not. Because that’s predictable. And that’s not me.

So here’s my final thoughts…

I do truly believe that you create your own luck in life. But in order to create that luck you have to be prepared to take a risk. And you will have to feel comfortable at feeling uncomfortable. If there’s one piece of advice I can give you is to have a Plan B and definitely have an exit strategy. When we moved to Kazakhstan, my Wife and I were frequently talking about “what if” scenarios. But as a result we now have plans in place and ready to go as/when required.

Lastly, in the world of recruitment it is easier to focus on the technical requirements of the role. I need X years of experience but actually if it’s not mandatory for compliance purposes, do you really? What is mandatory versus nice to haves? Because you can teach these skills as long as the person has a growth mindset, natural curiosity and desire to succeed. And in the current labour market finding the “perfect” candidate is going to be a challenge.

I do hope that you enjoyed reading this Blog. And as always I do welcome constructive feedback.

Stay lucky. Stay Jammy. Stay Safe.