Nigerian golf pioneer Georgia Oboh: 'I want to be on the path to world No 1

The 19-year-old brushed off prejudice during her ascent through England’s golf scene. Now she plans to blaze a trail for others

Georgia Oboh doesn’t bother with mediocre ambitions. Should the 19-year-old hit even a fraction of her immediate targets, the world of golf will owe her a debt of gratitude. When the Nigerian is asked about her aspirations, the rescheduled Tokyo Olympics feature heavily. So, too, a rapid rise. “Gaining my LPGA Tour card, winning on the LPGA, winning a major,” Oboh explains. “I like to set my goals high but attainable. I want to be on the path to No 1 in the world.”

Even more intriguing than these bold claims is that Oboh embraces her role as a pioneer. If South Africa is well known for its golfing heritage, the remainder of the continent has had no noticeable status at all; especially among women. Oboh wants to lead from the front.

“I want to show that Africans can compete in sports usually dominated by other countries,” she explains. “These are all just building blocks for juniors to look up to. Being a role model for Nigerians and Africans is one of my goals as a professional golfer. It is not just about me being successful, it is also to help grow the next generation following me. Having a role model really helps with motivation.”

Oboh’s own was Lorena Ochoa, after an encounter at the 2009 Women’s Open. “She spotted me in the crowd and threw me a golf ball. That’s when I knew was going to be No 1 in the world.”

This week, the first Nigerian to earn a card on the Ladies European Tour will tee up in the Ladies Scottish Open. Oboh was “honoured” to receive a sponsor’s invite. Characteristically, she aims to compete at the summit of the leaderboard.

Having spent the majority of her childhood in London and Manchester, Oboh could have played under an England flag. She instead remained true to her heritage. Oboh’s parents, so integral to her sporting journey, had emigrated in their 20s. “At the time Nigeria was still under military rule,” she says. “They did their master’s in England after doing degrees in Nigeria. A lot of their friends and family also moved to England.

“Culturally we are strong Nigerians. As I got older I really started to connect back with the country. I see the differences I can make representing Nigeria. It would have been an easy choice to play for England or Great Britain but nothing comes easy. I feel Nigerian at heart, it is in my blood. That’s never going to change, it is part of who I am. I am a Nigerian first and foremost, we don’t shy away from our roots.”

Georgia’s father, Godfrey, was introduced to golf by his mother as a means to alleviate the stresses that came with owning a convenience store in central London. Soon the sport became a key part of his life. “He brought my mum in and they became very competitive,” Oboh recalls. “It was a family game for us. I ended up being in the buggy at three or four years old because they were playing about an hour from home in London and otherwise they would be rushing back to let the babysitter leave.”

If this all seems perfectly normal – endearing, even – it belies the fact that British golf is dominated by white males. Attitudes remain, in some cases, prehistoric. “If younger people were the majority of members at clubs, they wouldn’t be this way,” Oboh says.

It seems inevitable the Oboh family would have endured a few horrible moments. “I am sure my parents felt like the odd ones out back then,” Georgia adds. “They don’t mind the stares, they don’t mind looking ‘odd’ or people asking questions. They just wanted to play golf and to be as good as they could possibly be at it. They wanted me to be challenged. Golf is a game of great challenge. We have been through a few things together. Maybe because we moved clubs a lot, when one thing happened we brushed it off and moved along.

“I never felt that different from anybody else. I wasn’t recognizing any differences, whereas now I look back and think: ‘OK, that’s what was really happening.’ It differs by club and environment. Sometimes there was a bit of discouragement from the ladies’ section or I would feel alone playing with boys.

“I do feel like now there are more people of African descent playing. At my home club, Whitefield in Manchester, a few days ago I ended up playing with a guy from Zambia. He told me they now have their own association of African golfers in Manchester and Sheffield. So things are changing. It is going to take time and persistence. We have to keep on striving to do better. It takes time to change perception but the fight is still on and the spirit is high.”

There is no denying Oboh’s own. Her journey will make for compelling viewing.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/aug/09/golf-nigeria-georgia-oboh-interview

How to Align Your Career With Your Personal Definition of Success

As a former Goldman Sachs banker, I’ve been accustomed to thinking in dollars and cents. But as I’ve progressed in my career, I’ve realized that making more and more money wasn’t exactly what I considered success. The financial upside of a job, without a sense of pride and achievement in the work, can feel hollow, and my career in private equity the better part of a decade ago had left me feeling unfulfilled. So I left.

Folk wisdom has long held that money can’t buy happiness, but it’s more complicated than that. Recent research shows that while higher incomes are correlated with longer life expectancies and greater satisfaction, there’s a tipping point: Once our immediate material needs and desires are met financially, making more money doesn’t produce more joy. I’d reached the point when I wanted to create something tangible that combined my passions for wellness with my desire to improve people’s lives.

My first successful endeavor as an entrepreneur did that by offering nutritional supplements that would fulfill that purpose. Even after a few more business successes, I still have time to see my family, travel the world a couple of times a year, and generally do the things that contribute to my happiness. It started with a simple realization: I was lying to myself about what success is. I became less interested in how much money I could make and more interested in how much impact, time and happiness I could create with that money.

Don’t let happiness be the cost of ‘success.’
Once I realized that my personal metrics for success were happiness and fulfillment, it dawned on me how much time I had wasted chasing the wrong goals. Now, I help my employees and other entrepreneurs discover what defines their own success—aside from money—with these three strategies:

1. Align your current trajectory with your life purpose.
Ultimately, we all seek to find meaning in our lives, and it’s fundamentally different for all of us. For some, life means raising children or giving back to the community. For others, it means getting to introduce the coolest new piece of tech to the world. There’s no right or wrong answer for everyone—but there is a correct and incorrect one for you. That’s why your first step must be determining what gives your life meaning and assessing whether your current path will let you realize those outcomes.

If your life’s purpose isn’t to be at the top of your current field, then you’re at odds with whatever’s most important to you. When I really took stock of my life, I asked myself whether sitting in my boss’s boss’s chair 10 or 20 years from now would make me happy. The answer was a resounding no. That’s not to say I might never return to finance; it’s impossible to know whatpurpose will define my life for the next 30 years. Finance was misaligned with my individual purpose for this stage of my life, but it may well realign in the next. To that end, try to think in five-year increments. Your goals and aspirations can—and almost certainly will—change over time.

My real desire—the ways I would know I was successful—was knowing I was having a positive impact on people’s lives, the feeling of accomplishment from building a self-sustaining and profitable business, and the satisfaction of bringing together a team to have fun while doing something worthwhile. Clearly, I had the entrepreneurial bug. Not scratching that itch would have left me wondering “what if?” for the rest of my life.

2. Assign economic worth to your values.
Your values guide the series of decisions and trade-offs you make between life and your career. The best way to decide what’s worth trading is to assign an economic value to each decision. If comfort and time at home give your life meaning, you might value wearing jeans to work or working remotely. Ask yourself: Is it important enough that I’m willing to lose a few thousand dollars of annual comp to keep it? Give those benefits a value so you can determine whether casual dress is the ultimate comfort or is one you would sacrifice for a higher salary that could provide you with more home comforts. When you’re comparing cash to benefits, give the benefits a comparable value.

At the same time, determine which values are non-negotiable, meaning no amount of money is worth sacrificing them. For most major decisions, even several minor ones, I make comparative lists. When I first decided to work in finance, being in New York (where I felt I was meant to be) and walking to work were worth more to me than a higher salary in a different city. When I realized I could do that and still have a career I found meaningful, the choice was clear.

3. Make moderate changes first.
Once you’ve listed your values and assigned them a relative economic worth, force rank them and seek opportunities to maximize your time spent on the top few. Before you make any drastic changes, first figure out whether subtler shifts will do the trick. If you want to work remotely, ask your boss if it’s possible. If not, then consider whether finding a remote position would be worth taking a pay cut. You may be trading some values unnecessarily, in which case, happiness and success may be closer than you think. Ranking your values will clearly show you what changes you need to make in order to align with them.

You may be able to achieve the most important, highest-value goals on your list in your current career, something worth exploring before you hare off onto a new career path. These explorations will also lay the foundation for your next moves. For example, I took nutrition courses and advised a friend’s early-stage startup while still in my role at a private equity fund. Getting a preview of the entrepreneurial path while building expertise in a new field were the steppingstones to my passion projects.

Being successful (by most of society’s standards) and feeling successful (by your own metrics) don’t always overlap. But you can choose your own adventure and chart your own course. The one thing that I know doesn’t work is lying to yourself. If your metrics for success include the values that are important and meaningful to you, then true success will always feel just out of your grasp, no matter how much money you make. But it’s funny: When you do work you love that’s meaningful to you, financial success tends to follow—you may end up maximizing your bank account alongside your happiness.

By Colin Darretta
https://www.success.com/how-to-align-your-career-with-your-personal-definition-of-success/

I AM LOSING YOU

I am losing you
You are too far away
The heat of your love
Is what is driving me insane

But how can I put myself together?
If the day is not the same
Wish I can go to the market
Buy me a new kiss

You are a part of my dream
Yet I am losing sleep
My heart is in peril 
If you are far away

I am torn between my past feelings
Clinging every moment to be closer to you
Wish you are home with me tonight
I would not longer wear a scar

All Rights Reserved c) @ Akan Udofia 2020