March is the month where we celebrate the incredible contributions of women in our communities. In Tanzania and Africa at large, there is no way you can miss the name Miranda Naiman on your list of superwomen, especially in business.
With just a borrowed laptop at the beginning, things didn’t present themselves to her on a plate. It was through a journey of pain, loss and lessons. And with that, she learned how to be unstoppable in the following five ways.
Choosing your role models
When it comes to mentors and role models, we often turn to those with fancy titles and credentials. I was expecting to hear someone I know from the list of Miranda’s role models but to my surprise, it was just ordinary people close to her who contributed into the incredible woman she is. Through her history teacher, her father, and her grandmother Miranda learned the best lessons in life such as accountability and being able to lead herself.
Unwavering focus
There is so much noise out there and without firm and unshakable a focus, you won’t get far. You’ll be finished before you even get started. It takes Unwavering focus to run a company like Empower.
“I’ve been betrayed, Employees steal from me, turned down and I have been used. These are all business pains that you also need to take as opportunity on how you can learn and take yourself to the next level.”
Overcoming loss
What makes you is what you do when the storm comes. Like anybody else, Miranda has seen the other side of life. The side of loss. The side that leaves us broken and powerless. But within that moment, it is where you find your true strength.
“When you lose the person so close to you, you become fearless. There’s nothing anyone can say , do or can stop you or standing your way. In this room we all have faced financial troubles. In business, how do you take the best business pains?”
Run your own race
We are not each other’s competitors. Running your own race is about always looking toward your goals, not focusing too much on who’s next to you or who’s behind you.
“You are not here to compete or compare or criticize other people. We are here because we have our own track that we are moving in. So we shouldn’t be afraid to share our ideas and collaborate. “It’s about working together for a common cause. And that is for development of our beautiful country.”
Become comfortable in your own skin
Be true to yourself. Understand your abilities and situations. Don’t compromise your values and authenticity for anything or anybody.
This is what worked for Miranda. It is easy to assume that people like Miranda had it easy or got lucky or are privileged —but there is always a price to pay when you choose to walk down the road of success. What is working for you? What keeps you going?
Miranda offered the five facets of being unstoppable as she was giving her opening keynote speech during the opening ceremony of the 2020 Innovation Week in Dar es Salaam.
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I highly respect both the author and the subject here, but I gotta say: you can’t discount the fact that we live amongst each other. I grew up super comfortable in my own skin but jobs, failures and losses later, I realised that everybody else wants the same thing. When do we wake up to the fact that we are each other’s saving grace? That we depend on one another to live? We need to be comfortable not only in our own skins but in understanding the other’s skin as well. Compromise is a way of coexisting.