My presence in the mining industry didn’t happen by chance. Aside the grace of God, I got into this industry through many struggles, a lot of turn-downs and with a great spirit of perseverance.

I fell in love with mining just after seeing a nicely framed picture of a miner in his living room. The love grew stronger when in my second year at Cape Tech I had many friends who had come from the mining towns of Obuasi and Tarkwa.

These folks were always saying all the nice things about mining and how great it was to work in a mine. The winding road from the Cape Coast Technical Institute through the Polytechnic to the University will pass for another story someday.

My first attempt into mining was in 1998 when I traveled all the way from Cape Coast to Bogoso without knowing anyone there. All I had taken with me were a picture of one of my friends whose mum lived there and a big fat faith. Mobile phones were not for people like me in those days so after many hours of search and showing my friend’s picture to people in the Bogoso car station, I located his mum. My hopes of getting an internship with the then Bilington Bogoso Gold Ltd didn’t materialize. I brought my friend’s picture back to him but I kept my faith.

When we completed Cape Tech in 1999, my friend Richard and I set out to try again. Two days of search in three mines resulted into nothing and as if that disappointment wasn’t enough for young lads like us, we had to pass the night on tables in a market and beg for money for transportation because we had run short of cash. That was another failed attempt! I need to inform you that in all the two attempts, I didn’t make it past the security gate of any mine. Our letters would be taken by the security guards with the usual assurance that they would hand the letters over to the authorities but that had always been the end.

With all the lessons learnt, I made my third attempt. I had posed as a student representative from the Cape Coast Polytechnic who had been sent to see the HR Manager to arrange for a field trip for engineering students. This time, the security men didn’t only grant me entry into the mine, they also gave me an escort because probably in their minds, I was a VIP. This is the moment I had been struggling and praying for and I wasn’t going to let it go, I said in my mind as I entered the main administration building.

After listening to my story, the HR Officer whom I was made to see agreed to help. Even though she didn’t know me, she went to tell her boss the HR Manager that I was her cousin and that was it; I was posted to do my National Service at the Golden Star Wassa Mine. I was hired after National Service and after some time, we worked something out for my friend Richard to join me. Together, Richard and I started our mining careers in the same mine we first visited in 1999 that turned us down for attachment.

Many people give up too easily in life. Many people try once and they stop because they failed. Others don’t try at all but hope that somehow things would work out for them. Friends, the days when people got job offers before they graduated from the University are long gone. These days there are many graduates than there are jobs, so on top of your qualification add perseverance and personal branding. Don’t wait for opportunities to come knocking at your door because nowadays there are many doors before yours. Create your own opportunities and stand out of the crowd. Fight till you get to the front and get noticed.

When you have tried a few times and haven’t succeeded, don’t throw your hands in despair and wallow in self-pity, don’t settle, keep pushing and most importantly, up and better your game for every try. You were not created to be in perpetual misery, there’s something special in you that makes you unique, there’s something God gave you that when discovered and harnessed will bring you into a place of influence and then affluence. You can change the world; you can make it a better place than we met it and as Steve Jobs said during his commencement speech at the Stanford University in June 2005, ‘’stay hungry stay foolish’’ and God will bless your hustle.

Steve is a Mechanical Engineer and currently works as the Maintenance Planning & Systems Superintendent at Perseus Mining Ghana Limited. He's passionate about shaping the minds of the next generation to make our country and the world better than we met it. He's a speaker and loves to write.