Mashudu Mbhele is a transformation life coach, credit repair coach and social entrepreneur based in Richards Bay in South Africa’s Kwazulu-Natal province. She’s a Professional Engineering Technologist too, having been a Metallurgical Engineer for over two decades, making her an expert at process improvement and lean methods. With her name meaning ‘gift’ in Tshivenda, Mashudu loves transforming mindsets, hosting people, healing, empowering and guiding others. As she describes, her portfolio career has had its ups and downs, and she writes authentically about her own struggles, what she’s learnt, and the power of a growth mindset. Here is her story: 

​​“Looking back now, my first introduction to the mining industry, extraction metallurgy and physical metallurgy, was when I was part of the Mintek Aurora Programme in South Africa in 1995. That programme was designed to develop our mathematics and science skills as scholars – I discovered I had an affinity for extraction metallurgy and decided I wanted to study it at university. 

After passing Mathematics, Physical Science and English at school, I was offered a bursary to study extraction metallurgy. As Extraction Metallurgists, we control and design process improvements to optimise the recovery of metals and minerals from ore. 

​Professional pride is a good thing. But, it can go too far. 

On the positive side: 

• it helps us enjoy our work more, and 
• makes us much more likely to volunteer to support our professional community. 

And, we should be pleased that we've earned our qualification after all the blood, sweat & tears we invested. After all, it's a significant part of our identity. 

As humans, we naturally like to associate with others like us, and feel part of a group / tribe. And, we flock to events and love content specifically about that group. It's easier interacting with likeminded people - we can have in-jokes, and they 'just get us', without us having to explain our backstory. 

But it becomes dangerous when we allow it to:

• define us statically, or 
• hinder us from learning from and working together with other groups for mutual benefit. 

A focus on our exams and professional intricacies is important while we're studying, yes, else we won't pass! But, once we're qualified, I think we should spend a much greater proportion of our time with other professionals - sharing our expertise cross-functionally and learning from them. 

When we collaborate on challenging issues, we're far more likely to make progress using different ways of looking at problems - diversity of thought applies to professions too. 

It frustrates me when (some) professionals I interact with have an us-vs-them mindset, preferring to spend time in their professional- or practice-specific bubble, inwardly-focused, and even sometimes self-congratulatory. 

Do you agree? Or am I perhaps an outlier for saying this out loud? 

Iain Allan is now in his 70s, and shows no interest in retirement. He qualified as an actuary and spent his career in investments and banking. He took a strategic approach to his career, actively managing it to create and capitalise on opportunities at key points over the decades. Most recently, he has been encouraging more actuaries globally to consider career opportunities in banking, promoting this through the International Actuarial Association. 

In the investments domain, a financial option is an instrument which allows you to adjust the downside or upside potential of a given investment. One example of this is reducing or removing the chance of loss while retaining or enhancing the chance of gain. This ‘optionality’ allows you to benefit if things move in your favour. And, options are more valuable in uncertain situations (with ‘volatility’), when the path ahead is not clear – adapting as things evolve. 

A related concept in the world of bond (or fixed interest) investments is ‘convexity’, which involves rates of change. Simplistically speaking, convexity allows you to benefit whichever direction interest rates move – the best of everything! So, if you’re able to proactively steer your situation to give you optionality or even convexity, that’s incredibly helpful. 

Iain and John Young (one of his proteges) have written about the importance of creating strategic options, using examples from warfare and business. In their words: “Success comes from exploring many options and following up those that work best”. Read more for Iain’s career experiences and reflections, including his application of optionality in practice.