“A pitch is as good as it’s implementation. On paper it doesn’t do much.”
Coming to the end of the day, I have just gone through my emails to close out on any hanging communication streams so that I get up to a new day with no pending work, and if any, it’ll be something I know of as I get to plan for the day ahead. On skimming through the promotional emails, I got reminded of an application I did last year for a Masters Scholarship position that didn’t go through. Having invested my time, energy, and money in processing the requisite materials for the opportunity, it was painful to lose, but I processed it as much of the other loses I’ve gotten used to. On this note, the email has been a notification of a subsequent window of application for which they are sharing through their contacts list. It’s been a great refresher of the work and the magnificent pitch I created with the hopes that it’d bag me the scholarship. It unfortunately didn’t, so I accepted that result and moved on.
With the notification this evening, I got reminded of the fact that whatever it is that I put forth in that application as part of the work I’ve been committed to were true, and my aspirations were as genuine. For that matter, having not gotten the application wasn’t a reason not to work on my aspirations which I had set out to accomplish, even though to a great extent they were linked to the scholarship working out for me. On this account, I have acknowledged the fact that often times we make pitches both personal, business, and professional with the hope of attaining our goal in the moment, but in case that fails, we may as well close shop and move on. It’s good to move on but for that idea which you had and were passionate about, if only you could push on a little longer it stands a chance to see the light of day and hopefully get you closer to your dream.
Last week I wrote about “Innovation Value Chain Efficiency” where I was keen on how to support innovative ideas see the light of day. Reflecting on this, I have acknowledged that you don’t have to be within a structured organization to be able to pursue your goals and aspirations. At times, you have to be the lone wolf pursuing a dream that you so deeply believe in and hope it gets to the ultimate end you envision. During my university education, I remember participating alongside other innovators in the JKUAT Tech Expo, after which most of our projects never got taken up by the corporate market as we had hoped. This meant that our ideas would die off at this point. This is on the basis that there wasn’t an investor to take it up at the time. What if we persisted in our pursuit and hopefully landed another deal to implement our solution? It may just be the next big thing, but unless we follow through regardless of the circumstances, we are bound to never make any progress especially when we lose, as the action was pegged on winning the deal.
Whatever the pitch you make to land the deal in question, don’t let go of that vision. It might not land you the job, scholarship, sponsorship or incubation support you need right away, but with consistent and incremental contribution to it, it gets clearer and more concrete. With a concrete and more sensible vision, you increase your chances of winning with it, and even when you don’t win, you are creating a new narrative. Your story is worth telling, so create it for someone who will peg their hope on your story one day. For this matter, I’m introducing you to my idea for the scholarship which was pegged on my professional practice, African Pharmaceutical Network, a not for profit initiative designed to bring together players in the African Pharmaceutical Sector for knowledge sharing, policy shaping, and innovation nurturing discussions towards a robust pharmaceutical sector anchored on reliable access to safe, efficacious, and affordable quality medicines for the African people.