How to challenge your brain

After resuming, one of the first questions my senior manager asked me at his desk was ‘do you know SQL?’

I froze, pursed my lips and looked to the side. That face that says ‘I don’t know o, and I hope it’s not a problem.’

He laughed. ‘Don’t worry, it’s fine. That’s why you’re here. You will learn’

Now imagine the frantic Google search I embarked on immediately I walked away. “What is SQL?” “What is SQL used for?” “Who sent me work that I don’t know?”

Ok fine, I didn’t search the last one, but you get the gist 😅

And just so you don’t also use Google while reading this letter, SQL stands for Structured Query Language. It is used to manage and retrieve data from a database.

Let's say I have a Shopify website and I want to retrieve specific data - the email addresses of all my customers in February so far. I can use a software/app and write an SQL code to get that information. The output would be in a table, which can easily be exported to Microsoft Excel.

In the coming weeks, I learned SQL. My team, Customer Value Management (CVM), was full of supportive humans. One gave me his Udemy login details so I could start a beginner SQL course. Another sent me links to the best SQL videos on YouTube. Others stood at my desk at random times to ask me if I needed help with a task.

The first two months went well. Then came the task from Daniel. Still in the CVM team, I moved to my second sub-team - customer analytics. Before now, everyone treated me like the newbie that I was. But Daniel..

His first task for me was to get the phone numbers of a ‘base’ (a group of customers) who performed a certain activity. I can’t remember the specific criteria he asked me to filter by, but it was complex to me at the time. I had no idea what to do.

I had to consult 3 people for help, multiple times. It took me hours to finish (for context, it would take less than 30 mins for an average analyst). But I was new.

With the explanation and correction of others, I wrote the SQL and eventually got what I needed.

the most significant part of my SQL learning journey came one Saturday night, somewhere between April and May 2024. I was still in Daniel’s team.

We were working overtime to populate an Excel sheet that had to be finished by Midnight. He assigned tasks to every member of the team. My task seemed 5 times harder than than that first one.

“Ok Enose, calm down. We don’t know how to do it, but somebody can help us, right?”

Problem was, everybody was working on their own task. We all had a deadline of midnight to complete it, and everyone was busy. I couldn’t call someone from an external team either, it was past 10pm and they were probably asleep.

I reached out to the first teammate that came to mind - Mabel. She had her own task to complete, but she responded. Hopped on a video call with me and explained exactly what I needed to do.

I wrote down things she said, but immediately the call ended, I looked at the Excel sheet again and my brain went blank. Nothing she had said made sense anymore.

I tried writing a script, but I knew it was rubbish.

“Mabel, please can I call you again? I’m still confused.”

We got on a second call, she explained again, I took more notes. The call ended, and I felt more confused than before. Then came the tears.

I cried in front of my laptop, next to the only window in my apartment. The A4 paper where I took all my notes started to get wet, and I moved it and cleaned my face. I don’t remember how long I cried for, but long enough to feel like a failure and question all my life decisions. But my deadline was getting closer.

After cleaning my face, I said a word of prayer. Something along the lines of:

“Holy Spirit help me. I know I don’t think I can do this. I can’t. But you can do everything. Please just help me with this one.”

I can’t remember if my final time reaching out to Mabel was through a third call or a text, but she explained again. I took notes again. And I prayed again and started working. I tested the first script to see the result and it came out correct 🎉🎉

I smiled, a few tears dropped, and I continued. I finished my entire task before midnight.

As my teammate once said, Daniel threw me into the river with no life jacket so I can learn how to swim.

I would go on to meet two more teams like the analytics team. Tough but beneficial. In hindsight, I had the best learnings from the most difficult teams. By difficult, I mean having to learn a lot quickly because decisions depend on my output and there is a slim room for errors.

When you push yourself beyond what you originally thought was your limit, you grow.

Dear reader, today's letter is to remind you that growth comes from a place of moving through difficulty, not trying to avoid it.

So when life throws you into a hypothetical river, don't pray that it dries up around you.

Learn how to swim 💖💖