This story was first published my personal Facebook page back in 2024. I’ve decided to republish it here on the blog as part of a series of posts on career development in cyber security.
A problem leads to an idea
Rewind to November 2023, I had just concluded a three-year contract with a London-based financial services organisation. Although my relationship with that entity had ended, while working there, I had encountered a technical/business problem which continued to nag me weeks and months after I had left the organisation.
Having some time on my hands in between roles (quick side note to encourage you never to waste your ‘down time’ between jobs), I decided to look deeper into this issue. Days of research and several design iterations later, I eventually came up with a possible solution which I believed could address this problem I had encountered.
I created a few digital assets, wrote up a quick summary and posted it on LinkedIn.
That post did surprisingly well, generated a LOT of interest from my professional community and gained me over 500 new connections. One of them was this guy called Frank.
An idea leads to a connection
Frank, runs a fast-growing startup. He’s very active in the London/UK cyber security professional community and is constantly working on new ideas for his business.
Frank dropped into my DMs and requested a quick call. During our discussion, he mentioned that he was currently working on an ebook series whose content would be crowd sourced from his network and industry professionals.
It turns out that my little post on LinkedIn perfectly summarised one of the chapters he needed for one of the ebooks in his planned series. He asked if I would like to join the project and contribute my piece.
First it was nice to see the public reaction to my work. Secondly it was exciting to be invited to work on this project. BUT thirdly, I wanted to know how much my contribution was worth.
A connection leads to a YES!
Frank didn’t have any money to pay his writers but promised something called “recognition”.
Recognition? What’s that? Does it pay bills?
I’d never met Frank and, at the time, I didn’t know much about his company but he was enthusiastic, sincere, technically astute and generally a decent bloke.
So I said YES.
I contributed my piece, joined a few peer review sessions and the ebook was published in March 2024.
My YES put me on that Times Square billboard
One thing I learned about Frank very quickly is that his professional network runs DEEP. Also, he operates at warp speed which makes it hard to keep up with him sometimes. BUT when he sets his mind to do something, he somehow gets it done.
Fast forward to May and I get invited by Frank to do a book signing at an industry event where his startup was exhibitting.
Fast forward to June and Frank sends me a video from New York showing ads promoting the book and his company on a billboard in Times Square.
I have NO idea how he pulled that off.
Without any forewarning (remember his warp speed ways), he had pulled an old photo from LinkedIn and in a rush mistakenly misspelled my surname on the ad. BUT as we say in Nigeria, “All die na die” (meaning it’s the end result that matters).
Times Square happened and that’s the story.
10 career lessons I took away from this experience
1. Hoarding knowledge and ideas benefits no one.
2. Related to the above, don’t be afraid to put your ideas out in the wild. You never know where they may end up or who you might meet.
3. You get recognised for the problems you solve and not the problems you create.
4. Protect and maximise your margins (ie., time and head space). That’s your creative zone.
5. Collaboration with like minded people can unlock new opportunities. Use your LinkedIn!!
6. Perfection is overrated.
7. Golden opportunities are not always presented in the most glamorous way
8. Money is important but discernment and wisdom are key to knowing when to say yes to opportunities.
9. Strike while the “iron is hot”. There is a saying that “The opportunity of a lifetime must be used within the lifetime of the opportunity.”
10. Trust your process. It could open up some unexpected doors!