I took the job with the mindset of āIām going to really make a change hereā but 2 months down the line, my mindset changed to that of āI hate my lifeā
Hereās the full gist.
I got home after Church one Sunday afternoon and as I was about to jump on my bed to sleep the āsleep before house fellowshipā I got a call. It was from the office of one of my unofficial mentors (unofficial because I didnāt ask for his permission to be his mentee š).
I was told to come to the office unfailingly the next day.
Throughout that evening, I couldnāt sleep. Anxiety wouldnāt let me. I tossed and turned in my bed because why would someone that high want to see me? Heck, how did they even get my phone number? Anyway, the next day, I was already in his office. The receptionist told me to go right in and I did.
Iāll spare you the long story of how amazing his office looked like and how nice it smelled. I'll let your imagination do the imagining š.
We got talking, and my unofficial mentor told me that he needed someone who could help him create a great personal brand. Someone who would be able to manage his brand on social media and also craft a well represented website. I was happy to do the job.
He then asked that I submit a proposal to that effect the following week. In my head, the proposal was already done. In fact, immediately he started to talk about personal branding on social media, I was already in page 3 of the proposal.
I went back home to work on the proposal. I had these great ideas for how the brand would look like, I developed a great strategy for content and all of that. I typed and typed until my laptop keyboards began to squirm under my fingers.
I submitted the proposal and we did a few back and forths, refining and adjustments. I got the job, but, I was going to be a full time staff in the office. Anyone who knows me knows that I despise being confined to the four walls of an office building from Monday to Friday. But I was able to negotiate my way out of that and got an offer to work part time.
The first day was amazing because I was creating plans to implement my shining strategy. The next day was awesome. The following week was not bad, and the days went by until one day.
How do you handle a situation where someone sees you as a threat either because you are perceived as being intelligent or because you are highly skilled in something they also happened to be skilled at?
Well, we were to plan a major event, to be hosted by my unofficial mentor, and someone on his team didnāt like my ideas. Donāt get it wrong, I wasnāt flexing any muscles or anything like that o. I was just being forward thinking and reeking of good ideas (for lack of a better word).
Myself and this other skilled person, who happened to be have been working for my unofficial mentor for a while, got into a light argument about how to better deliver the content strategy for the major event we were to host in January of the following year.
If you work in the creative industry, especially in digital marketing, strategy is one major thing that drives every campaign. It informs all the steps youād be taking.
Eventually we came to an agreement and we got to work. The next time weād be having a meeting with my unofficial mentor, I was reported to have said āI know this work more than youā to the other skilled person.
How? From where did that come from? I have never and can never say those words to anyone, ever. I donāt consider myself too intelligent to get advice at all.
In fact, what happened was that this other skilled person had gone behind my back to create a different campaign and posted it on my unofficial mentorās social media page.
This caused a huge set back in the campaign and when I was being told of what I supposedly said, I was able to explain myself to my mentor, and others, that (1) I never said such and (2) the campaign had a set back because someoneās ego was involved.
My unofficial mentor ruled in my favour.
Whuuussshhh! The story is long, I may have to jump a few parts.
From that day on, I saw and experienced the real meaning of cabalism. The team that surrounded my unofficial mentor became cougars.
Even after I corrected a major flaw in his personal brand (really major, I got paid extra for it), I was still seen as a threat. I needed a lot of resources to work.
I needed materials dating back to when my unofficial mentor started his brand, but no one could provide it, either because they didnāt have them or because they were still pained.
You see, my unofficial mentor saw me as a guru, so whenever I hit a brick wall in the office, I simply reported to him. But as time went on, the cabals squeezed creativity out of me.
My unofficial mentor become more and more difficult to reach because he had a very busy schedule. So that I donāt lose my sanity, I left.
Before I left, I had a brief meeting with him, and I told him about my challenges. See ehn, well connected, highly intelligent people like my unofficial mentor know everything that happens around them.
They may not say anything, but they know. After I narrated my ordeal, my unofficial mentor smiled and said he understood.
I gave him my word that I would continue to work with him and he shouldnāt hesitate to call me if he needs anything from me.
We are still working together till date.
If I had stayed, maybe I would have gone up the ranks, dropped the āunofficialā and become an official mentee, networked with his people and blew.
Or maybe I would have been placed in a cul de sac (according to Adam Grant in Originals, a cul de sac is a situation where a person has been forced to become mediocre in a work place because of cabalsā¦I think).
You see, there is a a group of people who have great ideas and are willing to enact change, but some forces of āWeāve been here for long and we know what worksā will never let that change happen.
Itās worse if you are a millennial or gen z and you work with the gen x (some gen x, not all).
Cabals are everywhere. They are in Churches, schools, offices, NGOs, startups, behemoths, everywhere.
They are squeezing life out of young idealistic boys and girls. They keep the āThis is how it used to beā mentality.
Dear reader, Iām pleading, if you belong to the cabalistic circle, you had better change.
If you know anyone who does, tell them to change. If you are idealistic and of whatever age, squeeze back.
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