Networking has given me an opportunity to build both my personal growth and career path.

2. Chevening is looking for individuals with strong networking skills, who will engage with the Chevening ...

Networking has given me an opportunity to build both my personal growth and career path. Let me start with my mobile business. I started my mobile business in March 2015, whereby I buy nice clothes and colognes from South Africa and Zambia and then sell them locally to help myself with money for accommodation and transport. At first my business was known only by my family, close friends and colleagues but the art of networking put my small business in the map.

One of the most important skills I learned doing my business and still serves me well today is the art of networking. Through networking by just attending events, chatting on WhatsApp etc. my business is known all over Botswana. I post my products on Facebook and WhatsApp and the recognition is overwhelming. As an entrepreneur and small business owner, referrals have really picked up my business and I make up to 80-90% during a good business period. I maintain regular and consistent contact with the people in my database. We chat through WhatsApp or just normal texting.

Meeting with people in my network face to face is one of my most networking tactics so far. I hardly turn down an invitation even if it's just for an afternoon tea.

I attend a lot of social events, from birthday parties to bridal and baby showers or weddings just to name a few. One of the big highlight of networking arouse sometimes in 2007.I didn't know about the university I attended during my undergraduate studies but networking got me there. I met a friend to my friend at a birthday party sometimes September 2007 in Gaborone and she told me about this big career fair which will be hosting even universities from SADC countries the following week.

I crap the opportunity with both hands and attended the fair. There I learned more than I had expected. I even submitted my applications to few universities there including Tshwane University of Technology, my former school. It is at that event when my environmental science career started. Should I have not been invited or not known my friend's friend I wouldn't have known about the fair and probably wouldn't have enrolled with Tshwane University of Technology. This experience showed me the greatness of networking.

I make every opportunity I get to interact because the more people I know the better chance of more learning and understanding things in a different perspective.

Through effective networking collaborating with key players in my areas of expertise, combining different ideas for a good purpose had made things very achievable for me in the past. I know places that I never thought I will visit, people that I never thought I will meet in life like my former lectures and have achieved things that I never imagined I will have.

Just being a chevening scholar I will be a role model and motivation to my fellow Batswana to make a difference. I intend to join Botswana Chevening Alumni Association and participate fully to strengthen relationships among the United Kingdom, alumni and scholars.