Blogging

Passion is Key to Having a Successful Career

BY Soko Directory Team · February 12, 2016 10:02 am

When you talk to the top personalities in the corporate world, celebrities in big careers, you will be shocked to learn that they found themselves in the wrong careers. Some got into the careers they’re in to fulfill the desire of their parents and what the society deems is good.

For the case of Mark Maina,who graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in engineering, changed and ventured into blogging. For him, he believes that passion can be a great driver to a fulfilling life and a greater output in one’s job investment and riches without limits.

Kevin narrates how his parents, relatives, engineering mentors and supervisors are worried and disappointed by his decision of ditching a high esteemed career to what they term as unpredictable.

“Why did you waste your five years in college only to switch careers. Why would you move away from a safe career in engineering to the media industry which is unpredictable?” he says these are some of the questions he is asked daily

He says that through his blogging career he has made networking and interactions with different kinds of people and this made him get invited to a high paying job opportunity while in second year and is now paid to use his expertise to developing programs that get to positively impact their viewers and listeners and as well writes for a couple of magazines at a fee.

“I used to write just about everything during my early days until one of the editors to a magazine I used to write for boxed me into lifestyle and relationships. At first I didn’t like it since I felt restricted but thanks to him after specializing in these two areas I was able to grow my readership tremendously, with one of my blogs “Kenya Middle-Class Nightmare” garnering over 200,000 views I even shot a documentary about it in partnership with Taifa Summit,” he adds.

Besides blogging he works at Africa Insight Ltd, a media company full of young, highly talented and motivated people. “ I also produce the Nation Drive show on Nation FM and spearhead the Vocal Nation, a program on the same radio station that brings together the best radio presenters from universities across the country who compete be crowned the premier campus presenter,” Maina added.

Maina says that his blog gets about 1,500 views a day, but whenever he publishes the numbers jump to 10,000- 60,000 views in 24hours because of the great and inspiring content he publishes which are enough to make him money to run his investments.

“The response has been overwhelming as I get lots of emails from readers and sometimes have people walk up to me in the streets to say how much they love my work and how they have been inspired to rise above their fears and go after their dreams. Once a while I get scathing criticism, people who feel I’m a terrible writer, surprisingly that never discourages me,” he added.

He explains vividly how blogging can make money even when someone is asleep or doing other activities.

“Most people around me don’t understand why I would spend 5 strenuous years in campus only to end up in a different field. For the record I love civil engineering, the reason I decided to focus on blogging is because I’m able to touch many lives compared to practicing engineering. I also like how challenging the media industry is compared to engineering where you follow codes and everything is structured,” he adds.

He says that he has inspired lots of people and tries to pick things from them but ultimately he wants to be different by creating a niche for himself in this world and actually make a difference in Africa.

“The person I admire most is Dr. Manu Chandaria, he is not only a shrewd entrepreneur but also a philanthropist. Ohh and he pursued engineering in campus,” the blogger said.

Maina revealed that he has got enough money from blogging and will soon go to a media college in order to sharpen his skills and is also working on growing his readership to continental level.

“I would like someone in Egypt or South Africa to be able to relate with my blogs and be inspired by them just likes my Kenyan readers” added mark.

He said that what inspires him is his readers who give him prompt feedback and encourage him to inspire them and continue with the content.

The blogger now gives a message to those who are unemployed and still looking for jobs that If they are beginners, they should be optimists, get dedicated and be someone who gets things done without giving excuses then employers come looking them.

“Just because you pursued BCom in campus doesn’t mean you restrict yourself in that field, do what you love, pursue your passion/talents and with time it’s going to pay off. Currently employers don’t really care about what you pursued in college rather your attitude towards life,” Maina said.

Article by Vera Shawiza.

About Soko Directory Team

Soko Directory is a Financial and Markets digital portal that tracks brands, listed firms on the NSE, SMEs and trend setters in the markets eco-system. Find us on Facebook: facebook.com/SokoDirectory and on Twitter: twitter.com/SokoDirectory