The Invisible Boundaries

I started 2010 by announcing an audacious mission statement for year – Going Beyond Borders; and this I’ve done to every aspect of life. As I press in making this word become flesh, I come to the increasing realization that in this age that we live in, the barriers that hold people back from reaching global impact have not just become blurred, in fact, they are now invisible. And all it takes is a ‘walkthrough-faith’.

How did I come to this conclusion?
Do I have any claims to strengthen this conclusion?

And if I did, are these claims direct products of my experiences?

My answer is yes I do, and out of many I introduce you to 3 personal experiences in the course of the year:

1. Meet by computer engineer from Pune India

In the month of June, my laptop suddenly started having a mind of its own, probably because it’s been compromised; it began drawing back my work flow. My updated anti-virus couldn’t help, online DELL support forums couldn’t help either; I couldn’t tell if the problem was a hardware or software. In a Skype chat with Damola Williams, an IT professional friend in India, he volunteered to fix the computer in the course of our conversation. I couldn’t believe this was possible at first; until he remotely accessed my laptop in Lagos Nigeria from India through TeamViewer, and before I knew it, the computer became normal again.

Because of invisible boundaries, Demola has been able to extend his market share beyond the geography of India to opening up new markets in Africa. Because I have experienced him, I have potentially become an international brand ambassador of his, publicizing this aspect of his service to my local markets. Should Damola decide to pursue this as a business model, he has insulated himself against the economic realities of India and plugged into the global economy. Damola has been able to fearlessly walk through his imaginary boundaries of geography.

2. Meet my conference speaker from Calgary Canada

In this month of October, I hosted the Global Jobs Fair 2010 Employability Seminar. The goal of the program was to open up evolving corporate professionals in Nigeria to global work opportunities through social media. To demonstrate the borderless possibilities of social media to this audience, I decided to extend an invitation to Renate Donnovan, a social media instructor and career coach in Canada, to participate in the program. Without living the comfort of her office, she was able to speak and answer questions from an audience of 120 in Lagos Nigeria through Skype video.

Because national boundaries as we know them have vanished, Renate has been able to stretch the scope of her social impact beyond the students of Bow Valley College in Canada to graduates and young professionals in Nigeria. She was able to make 120 of them see the topics of Digital Identity, Personal Branding and Social Networking from a Canadian perspective. Like Damola, Renate has walked through invisible boundaries.

3. Meet my interviewees across Nigeria

I currently coordinate a national fellowship program for Nigerian graduates seeking professional growth in the Green energy sector through the Green Collar Jobs Fellowship Program. Without the use of traditional media but just posting this opportunity to local social networking websites targeting job searchers in the country, I was overwhelmed with the volume of applications. 3 times, my company’s ISP called that I am exhausting my allocated bandwidth – this was an unexpected success wrapped with unexpected challenges.

In the spirit of creating equal opportunities to preselected, I was compelled to grant all shortlisted candidates interview opportunity, so I resulted to Skype interview. Like Renate, from the comfort of my office in Lekki Lagos Nigeria, I was able to virtually travel to more than 10 states interviewing. Like Damola and Renate, I too have walked through invisible boundaries.

These experiences support that we live in a borderless world, it demonstrates that the walls that hold people back from reaching their dreams are no more, and again, all it takes is just walking through our perceived boundaries.