A journey from the late 80's in Africa till now

I’ve always been seen as a creative—maybe it’s my fashion sense—but not necessarily what people expect from a banker. Let’s be honest, banking isn’t exactly associated with color and flow. That said, I come from a creative family: my sister is a professional designer, and my brother enjoys painting and writing. We all love dancing. Eventually, I decided to embrace that side of myself more intentionally and signed up for a 10-session painting class with a globally recognized artist.

I loved it. Beyond the fun of saying “I paint,” and stretching the right side of my brain, painting taught me some deep lessons—ones that I found incredibly relevant to business and my professional life.

I’ll share 5 lessons in 5 posts; here is lesson 1:

Perspective: Seeing Beyond the Obvious

Painting insight: One of the first things you learn in painting is perspective, how to represent three-dimensional objects on a two-dimensional surface. It requires you to step back and see differently.

Career takeaway: In business, developing perspective is crucial. Whether you’re building a strategy, managing a team, or launching a product, you need to see things from multiple angles like yours, your customer’s, your competitor’s. It’s not just about what’s directly in front of you, but how all the pieces fit in the bigger picture. Painting trains that muscle of stepping back and shifting your lens.