Against the odds

Don't be discouraged by personal and professional hurdles. Challenges make life interesting and overcoming them makes it meaningful, as Lesley Meall discovers when ACCA members share their tales of adversity.

In an ideal world you would sail through your ACCA studies and get the job of your dreams. You would always make the 'right' career choices, you wouldn't have any problems gaining the practical experience you need to qualify, you would be blessed with perfect health, lack of money would not be an issue, and your personal life would never interfere with your work. Back in the real world, many of you will struggle with technical concepts, worry about your career prospects, and face numerous challenges in your professional and personal lives - but you can overcome them.

When Sekai Mbanga was studying towards her Advanced Level CAT exams, she had to juggle her revision with looking after a small baby, and she still managed to do so well in her exams that she won first prize for gaining the highest aggregate marks worldwide. When Jason Saliba lost his job, he struggled to gain the practical experience he needed to qualify with ACCA, but he persevered and found a new firm where he is now a partner. When ACCA member Lynda Aurora had to deal with a divorce and cancer in the weeks before starting a new job, the future looked bleak. But she proved to herself - and to her new employers - that she could overcome almost any obstacle.  

'You will fail'

Self-belief and determination have taken Peter Mageza from Soweto, South Africa, to the role of chief operating officer with one of the country's biggest financial institutions, Absa Bank, despite the past negativity of those around him. During his first year of a business and finance degree at the University of the North in South Africa, Mageza and his 100 classmates were told they would fail. 'Our lecturer told us that none of us would qualify as an accountant, because we weren’t good enough,' he recalls, but that assumption became a challenge. 'I wanted to prove him wrong,' he says, but before he got the chance, he was overtaken by circumstances.

During the 1970s and 1980s, the student population in South Africa was clamouring for change, and Mageza was no exception. 'The country was in turmoil and there was no sitting on the fence. Back then you were either on one side or the other,' says Mageza, who was expelled before finishing his degree. 'I was one of the casualties of the apartheid system,' he reflects, but this didn't end his dream of becoming an accountant, and after a couple of years protesting on the streets of Soweto, he got his career back on track.

'I never stopped wanting to become an accountant,' he says, so when a friend of his father helped him get to the UK, Mageza enrolled to study for an ACCA course in London. Being thousands of miles from home during such a turbulent period was an emotional strain, and he struggled to get by financially, but he was determined that his second chance to become an ACCA member would not be derailed. 'I washed dishes, cleaned offices, cycled to lessons and lived in digs,' he recalls, and after five-years' hard labour he finally achieved his ACCA Qualification.

Angela Lee Loy FCCA had to overcome the twin obstacles of poverty and prejudice to become an accountant, but today she is the founder and managing director of Aegis Business Solutions, an outsourcing company based in Port of Spain, Trinidad. 'I qualified in 1976 at a time when the profession was male-dominated,' says Lee Loy, so carving out a career in finance was not as easy as it is today. Gaining a university education would have helped, but this was not to be. 'My parents couldn't afford to send me,' she recalls, 'but ACCA allowed me to become a professional accountant with only A-levels.'

As a result, Lee Loy was able to work her way up through the finance profession: 'I eventually became a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers,' she says, but this triumph made her more ambitious, and she left to form Aegis. 'The accessibility of ACCA allowed me to build a successful career,' she asserts, despite the barriers created by her gender and lack of a university education. Now, in addition to running Aegis, she is on the board of the Trinidad Hotels, Restaurants & Tourism Association, is finance director of the Self-Esteem Foundation, and acts as Trinidad's representative on ACCA's International Assembly.

Lucky breaks?

Jason Saliba also had to overcome the constraints of his background to build a successful finance career. 'I've had to work very hard to get where I am, because I came from a children's home,' says the accountant, who now works with a London firm of associates. 'I don't believe in lucky breaks,' he says, 'you have to keep your nose to the grindstone.' But if you persevere, the profession will bring its own rewards. 'Stick with it and behave honourably in your affairs,' he says, 'and everything will work out.' Even so, there were times when this determined accountant struggled to find a positive perspective on his career.

'When I lost my job I was very depressed,' says Saliba, who felt as if his previous employer had exploited him. He was close to qualifying at the time, and needed to complete his three-years' practical work experience within a short time frame - which was not easy. Saliba contacted numerous firms with no success, until he eventually got lucky with a contact at the London firm of Michael George Associates. 'I knew the senior partner,' he recalls, so the firm allowed him in on the basis that he brought his own clients along with him.

'Michael George did me a favour,' he says, but this created a whole new set of problems for Saliba. 'I had to find clients in London, from scratch,' he says, and then he still had to persuade someone at the firm to oversee and sign off his work. For a while, Saliba felt as if he was under immense pressure, but his hard work and determination to triumph against the odds eventually paid off, and he now has a thriving business and two ACCA trainees of his own.

Although the road to success may be long and hard, if you can stay positive, maintain your motivation, and focus on the future, anything is possible; even if it isn’t always easy. 'There is no shortcut to success,' says Ghanshyam Purohit, ACCA, who is a trainer with the International Accountancy and Business Centre and an associate manager for the Ararat Gold Recovery Company in Armenia. Like many ACCA trainees, Purohit studied for his ACCA exams while working, using a distance learning provider, so meeting all of his commitments was not easy.

'The flexibility of studying by distance learning was indispensable,' he says, as was the support of his family, friends and his colleagues at the Ararat Gold Recovery Company. 'I give credit to my employer for helping me to manage my time during crucial periods of exam preparation,' he says. 'My company encouraged me and helped me to go forward,' he says, 'and my colleagues supported me and gave me the drive to carry on during hard times.'

Purohit's job involves controlling and monitoring the company's accounts as well as working with auditors and ensuring the company complies with Armenian tax laws, so maintaining the high standards necessary to do this as well as studying is demanding. But he has always been determined to give his best. 'I want to do the best by the best means,' he says, 'because I believe the greatness is in the work not the position.' And he adds: 'To achieve success one must work hard and when you do nothing pays better.'

Lesley Meall is a writer on business and technology issues