In 2017, I was invited to Chicago to receive the Michael Cangemi Best Article/Book Award, one of ISACA’s highest global honors that recognizes major contributions to the field of IS audit, security and governance publications. It was one of the best moments of my life. A year prior to that momentous achievement, I was honored with ISACA Sydney’s Best Governance of the Year Award. Since then, I have published a bestselling book, spoken at dozens of conferences and published numerous articles and blogs via ISACA. To fully understand how significant a role ISACA has played in my life, let me take you back to where I started.
I did not own my first pair of shoes until I was 12 years old.
I grew up in poverty, but I never was ashamed, and still look back upon my early years in Zimbabwe with pride. My parents were loving and supportive, and I greatly appreciate that. They were also born into poverty, but they did all they could so that we would lead better lives. Would I have loved to get my first pair of shoes much earlier in life? Of course, yes, but that was beyond my control. What matters is I managed to make do with what I had, and I have come a long way to turn myself into a successful author and cybersecurity expert.
I was the first to graduate from university in my family. As a village boy, this was a badge of honor, but it also carried enormous responsibility and expectation.
I secured a role as a networking intern at Utande, an internet services firm located in downtown Harare, Zimbabwe, that served the affluent and large corporations. But the Zimbabwean economic crisis soon exposed the fragility of my dream. Graduates were turning into black-market hustlers, profiting from short-term currency arbitrage deals. The rich managed to buy themselves out of several predicaments. But for us, there wasn’t much to look forward to.
I needed to leave the country, but I had no relatives or close friends abroad to sponsor a visa. I had already applied for several jobs overseas and got zero response. Zero. I knew that no one, except myself, was going to dig me out of that mess.
I knew that working for a Big 4 consulting firm was the most plausible path to fast track my move abroad. Big 4 firms, however, were known to target polished kids from elite schools. My chances – a graduate from a relatively unknown university who wore an olive green suit to work – were obviously slim.
I was clearly an educational and social underdog, but that wasn’t reason to lean back. I had no business worrying about entrenched biases or my inherent disadvantages , both of which I couldn’t alter. I had two strengths to build on. I was highly driven and my internship had equipped me with fundamental IT skills. Playing victim or bemoaning entrenched social injustices was vain, so I chose to focus and sharpen what I already had.
I knew that acquiring the CISA qualification would uplift my prospects of securing an IT audit role at a Big 4 firm. Fortunately at that time, there were not many CISAs in Zimbabwe. This too, however, had its challenges. My circa $100 USD monthly salary dwarfed the $500 USD required to sit for the exam. Yet still, I wasn’t going to retreat into a corner to lick my wounds. I took a side gig and started developing websites during my free time.
After several months, I raised the required amount and registered for the CISA exam. I had several important and urgent needs, but I had to risk all to start anew, deferring instant gratification to achieve my dream.
Pursuing my CISA qualification was one of the most game-changing decisions I ever made. It afforded me the opportunity to work for some of the most respected global brands and connected me with a global network of highly accomplished professionals. Mostly importantly, it instilled in me high ethical standards, essential to retain the high levels of trust and confidence the society places on our profession.
Passing that exam was a turning point. It opened immediate opportunities at Deloitte and PwC. I joined Deloitte and after just under two years, secured job interviews with PwC London, Sydney and Auckland.
Four years since the start of my journey, I boarded a Boeing 747 Qantas QF64 in Johannesburg and flew to Sydney to start a new life. That epitomized Anne Lamott’s words, “Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come.”