Portability & Passion: Grace Motsi's Personal Journey

Grace Motsi is a global pensions consulting actuary, who also has a Masters in Business Administration (MBA). Originally from Zimbabwe, she’s studied and worked in a number of other countries, and now lives in Atlanta in the United States – eagle-eyed readers will note her American spelling! She writes about her studies, her career, becoming a mother, and balancing work and motherhood i.e. ‘being pulled in all directions’. Ambition, perseverance, growth, values, family, and service – here is Grace’s story: 

Grace is a mentor on the Protagion platform. To experience what we offer our proteges or arrange a mentor session with her, signup as a member:

SIGN UP NOW

​“I grew up in Zimbabwe with my three siblings – who are still today three of my favorite people in the world. I never laugh as hard (or loud!) as when I am with those three! Our parents threw all they had into us and had very high ambitions for all four of us vana... 

As a teenager in high school, I didn’t know what I wanted to be when I grew up in terms of work. What I did know was that my career had to: 

• be different from what everybody else was doing (for the bragging rights) and 
• offer a strong earning potential (I had seen my parents struggle to make ends meet in their pursuit for a good education for us all and I didn’t want that for me, and I also knew they didn’t want that for any of their children).  

When I had two years left of high school, a careers advisor came to our school to talk to the seniors. My class wasn’t in that meeting, but that session still changed my life! When the senior students came out from that meeting, there was some chatter about something called an “actuary”. You had to be good at mathematics (check!), it was a unique and sought-after profession (secure – check!, earning potential – check!). Apparently, there were only 12 actuaries working in Zimbabwe at the time and 10 of them were from other countries. There wasn’t even an actuarial degree offered in Zimbabwe then… I didn’t know how, but I was going to be an actuary!

Read More