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: 

​“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!

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. 

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.