In the aftermath of the 2009 financial crisis, Grace Mugabe walked out of a well-paid position in the mining sector and rewired her skills towards financial literacy, management and business development.

She did so with a single mission in mind: To help underrepresented communities and businesses to improve their financial potential and infrastructure, leveling societies playing field and bringing opportunity to women and minorities.

You can only imagine how much of a privilege it was to talk with such an accomplished woman and open a window into the perspective of someone that is working hard to change the game from its very basis.

Here’s a bit of how that conversation went:

Background

The daughter of a Zimbabwean man with a South African woman, grace moved to Australia when she was eighteen after having lived in both Africa and America for most of her life.

Upon reaching the land down under, she was told by acquaintances that she would only be able to land a job at cleaning and age care, a statement she quickly proved to be wrong by landing a position at a call center and an accounting course at university.

One day, while Grace was working on her call center job, she noticed her company had posted an ad for an accounting position, though the job demanded a certain level of experience that as a student, she simply didn’t have.

That, however, did not stop her from marching up to her superiors and informing them they had an accounting graduate within their ranks, not too long after, the role of graduate accountant was created, and Grace was putting her talents to work.

She credited this achievement to her parents, who taught her from the very start that she could do and be whatever she wanted in life, an educational style that proves its worth in Grace’s story.

Before she could create opportunities for entire communities, she was creating them for herself through her sheer confidence in herself.

“I’m already different, why not go the extra mile?”

Moving On From Mining

Grace’s work in the mining industry was more than just paper pushing, and she often had to travel to the sites of mining projects, certainly not easy work, but she recalled enjoying it quite a lot, even if it created a major issue in her routine.

Grace volunteered at the multicultural women’s health center, and after work she would always have to rush over to the clinic, a game of back and forth that was draining her energy and making her feel as if she was living two separate lives.

The time to choose between the safety of her corporate position and her passion for helping those of a simillar background to her own was coming, luckily her mind was already set.

In her off-hours, Grace started formulating her “corporate escape plan”, to leave her safe (however unfulfilling) position to bring her skills to the service of those that, like her in the past, had to build a future in Australia.

Grace would work on this plan every day, starting from when she woke up at three am, until she would have to leave for her day job, and little by little the business known as “Financially Empowered” began to take form.

Financially Empowered

Financially Empowered is a social purpose business that equips women and minorities with the knowledge to, upscale their enterprises and provides them with the financial know-how to operate their companies in the Australian financial system.

She also operates a special program dedicated to those who have just immigrated to Australia called “many matters for migrants, which is focused on teaching them how the Australian financial system operates.

Grace mentions that the greatest challenge she has in the program is instructing clients that come from a social context that is entirely different from Australia in a way that is actually useful to them

“ For example, you might have a refugee who has to live from day to day worrying about whether they will live till tomorrow, and they get to Australia, and it’s like ‘here’s some superannuation that you can access.’”

Cases such as this are worked by providing the migrant with someone they can trust to instruct them about how the Australian economy works in a friendly way and will speak “to them and not at them, throwing around all these big financial terms”.

Dealing With Fear

It’s hard to speak with Grace and not be impressed at her confidence, and wonder how she could have done everything she did without being paralyzed by the fear of failing, especially when you consider some of the challenges she had to go through.

These challenges don’t include only starting her own business from scratch on her off time while dealing with the responsibilities of being an accountant in the mining sector, but also social challenges that come with being an African woman in Australia.

I asked her about this, to which she responded that while yes, she did have to deal with a certain amount of prejudice that had to be overcome, not to mention inner obstacles like the infamous “imposter syndrome”.

In overcoming such hardships, Grace highlights the importance of having a support network comprising friends and family around you that is there to remind you of why you picked the path you’re on.

She also mentioned making a list of all the things she had accomplished after moments of self-doubt, which helped to overcome imposter syndrome.

Conclusion

In my talk with Grace Mugabe, the one thing that shone through everything she said was her courage and determination, not only to accomplish her goals despite what other people may say, but the courage to be herself.

It was through this courage that she sought the things for which she nurtured true passion, to create opportunities where others could not see them, the kind of courage that truly changes the game.

This is the kind of courage that you would like my readers to have to leave this article, so for today’s mental exercise, I want to ask you a very simple question: “how would things change, if you decided to speak out? What opportunities could be created?