Although my years with her were few, I attribute a lot to my grandmother’s early influence. As a principal, she exposed me to home-schooling which allowed me to excel once I was of age to attend regular school. This resulted in skipped grades/standards and really excelling in those formative years. In hindsight, I think this helped me to be more confident in my abilities from a young age, something I think a lot of kids are robbed of.
My family was involved in many things outside of the classroom. My mother taught violin, my father was a singer and VP of our local kickboxing council and my grandmother was involved in scouting and music. So, my involvement in extra-curricular activities was pretty much mandated. This balance of academics and extra-curricular activities from an early age, made me become something of a polymath. At times, it may have been quite difficult to fit into cultural norms but it has shaped me for the better and helped me to appreciate the journey, just as much as the destination.
I lived with my father and he did not have an easy job. Instead of stifling my interests, he embraced it. I have no idea how he found the time, but he would take me to the library every Saturday. I’d get books on how to build model airplanes, learn about football coaching drills: whatever I could get my hands on. He allowed my mind to explore as many new things as time would allow. Like many families, we didn’t have it all. In fact, in hindsight, things were more challenging than I ever knew because my father really shielded us from that.
However, while we weren’t well off, he did everything in his power so that we weren’t severely disadvantaged by what we couldn’t afford.
I grew up in the city of San Fernando for most of my upbringing and attended Presentation College, San Fernando for my secondary school education. Pres is an institution that I think really continued the work that my family had started. It’s the kind of school where you can have a Math olympiad competition in the morning, football match in the afternoon, cadets in the evening and maybe make it for the mixed choir. It was the right environment.
After secondary school, with the help of a private scholarship, I attended The UWI, St. Augustine campus to pursue a Bachelor of Science degree in Management Studies Special. After my first degree in 2008, I immediately started a Master’s degree in Marketing but decided to take a leave of absence after the first year. I never returned. Life took a bit of a different turn, which led to the path I’m on today.
“I’ll never really know what he saw in me”
At The UWI, there was a lecturer by the name of Simon Fraser. He observed a mock-up I did as part of a team project for an E-commerce course and encouraged me to learn web development. I’ll never really know what he saw in me that made him do that but his invitation to pursue that course changed the direction of my career for the better. While on break from my master’s degree, I began delving more deeply into the development and customisation of content management systems. At that time, systems like Joomla and Drupal were popular while WordPress was still just gaining traction.
“The experience was definitely a blessing”
My interest in web development and tech directed me to roles that maximised digital and leveraged technology to solve various business problems. My roles with two companies in particular are what really helped me discover the career path I sought. The first was with a German company called Stepstone GmBH. There, I got the opportunity to explore digital marketing at a more granular level, while working closely with persons who were hyper-focused on subspecialties like SEO, PPC and to hone skills that would help me develop into more of a full stack digital marketer. The experience was definitely a blessing and contributed a lot to where I am today.
It also afforded me the opportunity to interact with younger minds at career fairs across the region. That planted the seed for what would eventually become Wourkly.
The second career-defining role was with a company that operates out of Trinidad and Ireland called SCG Digital. This is a small but dynamic company in which I had an opportunity to work alongside great minds and to develop as a MarTech professional.
This time, the WHY was different
Four years ago, I developed a platform to connect freelance professionals, but I re-built it several times. What made this last re-build different? The WHY was different. Loss has been prevalent in all forms during this pandemic and for many, every day of closure, brings both hope and despair. I’ve been in those shoes.
