⭕️ Weak Ties are Your Strongest Ones

Hey there,

Ah, I lost my streak again. I didn’t manage to put out a newsletter 2 weeks in a row since I was in Colombia with our client International Baccalaureate (IB) (check out the trip highlights here) and then had so much catching up to do when I was back.

I am so sorry but I promise it was worth the wait because today’s newsletter has lots of gold.

In 2020, I had an opportunity to work with Africa’s Youngest Billionaire - something I haven’t shared alot about publicly before. Today, I share how that happened and an important lesson I learn’t about relationships through it.

p.s: you may have noticed that the email came from a different email today. That is because a lot of our previous emails weren’t going through. Can you do me small favour and reply what your favorite part of the newsletter is.

What to Expect:

• Opportunities: Google, Ashoka Challenge, Aspire Leaders

• Deep Dive: Weak Ties are Your Strongest Ones

• Featured Partnership: Innovation Program for High School Students

read time: 8 mins

This week’s newsletter is powered by d’Skills Dispatch - one of our clients. With them, we are building a weekly newsletter for students where we simplify the world of tech and AI, and how you can use it to start your own project - be it art, nonprofit or business. I have a goal of reaching 3000 subscribers in a couple weeks (we’re currently at 1500) so definitely check them out here.

p.s: I get paid with every unique click on the link and that’s how I am able to support myself whilst building this community. Definitely consider checking out the above especially if you’re interested in starting your own project.

Opportunities This Week

In addition to these, here’s the living document of 50+ Youth Leadership Opportunities.

Weak Ties are Your Strongest Ones

It’s 2020, peak pandemic and my nonprofit is scaling to numbers I had never experienced before.

I was in Tanzania and was looking to get funding to expand our impact there.

Who better to go to, than one of the richest people I had heard of - Mohammed Dewji - the youngest billionaire in Africa.

But how can I get to him as an 18 year old nobody?

I always believed in the 6 degrees of separation - which basically is a theory that suggests you’re 6 people away from anyone in the world.

Keeping that in mind, I followed Mo’s sister Fatema Dewji on Instagram.

She was the Marketing Director of their company and I started consistently engaging with her content - sharing her posts, commenting, replying to her stories, you name it.

I knew she knew me because she followed me back but I didn’t want to reach out to her directly.

So I asked my family and friends if they knew of her and asked them to ask around as well.

Eventually, I found out that my mum had a mutual friend with her assistant and I managed to get the assistant’s contact.

I reached out to the assistant and set up a time to meet Fatema. I prepared this amazing pitch - which included a detail budget and a sponsorship package to request for funding.

The day arrives, I go to the top floor of this tall building and enter this massive boardroom.

A couple mins later, Fatema walks in with two other people my age.

Without asking too many questions, they all take a sit and I go on to give the group my best pitch asking them to fund our nonprofit in Tanzania.

As soon as I end, Fatema asks me “do you know who these two people are?”

With my confused expression, she shares “these are Mohammed Dewji’s kids, they are here for the break and are loooking to work on a summer project in the menstrual health space - this is why we wanted to meet with you”.

Fast forward to the end of the summer, I got to work with them (and meet their dad) and we supported 200 girls and built 10 washrooms in Tanzania.

So why do I share this story?

Reflecting back, this experience showed me the power of the Weak Ties theory.

Developed by Stanford Sociologist in 1973, the Weak Ties theory suggests that people who are your far acquaintances and loose connections are way more helpful in your career than your inner circle.

In my story, the assistant (who was my mum’s mutual friend) was way more helpful to me than people in my circle.

When I first found this out, it felt quite contrary.

Shouldn’t your closest friends, family and connections be the most helpful to you?

In the Defining Decade book (which I highly recommend you read), the author suggests that your strong ties are like you: They think like you, have similar life experiences, or are from the same places. Therefore, they have little to add to your journey,. They know the same things and the same people you know.

However, your weak ties can give you access to information and people you don’t otherwise know. Your weak ties don’t have overlapping contacts, ideas and life experiences. They are like bridges that you cannot see all the way across, so you cannot tell where they can lead.

So how do you build weak ties?

The good thing is it’s not 1973, and it’s easier than ever before to make new connections.

I can honestly write a whole newsletter about how to do this. But for starters, grow your personal brand, cold reach out to people you look up to, try to meet someone new each week.

What do you think of the Weak Ties Theory? Do you currently apply it in your life?

Featured Partnership

We just partnered up with The Knowledge Society (TKS) - the World’s Top Innovation program for students ages 13-17. The program was developed with top CEOs and global leaders, modelled after curriculums from Harvard, Stanford, and MIT, and designed to train young people to make a dent in the universe. TKS is looking to recruit the best students for the program and offers up to 100% tuition support. If this is something you’re interested in, learn more here.

We are also running a referral program where if you could earn $5 for every person you refer to apply. If this is something you’d like to participate in, reply to this email and I will send you next steps. 

My friend, as much as my life on social media looks all roses and butterflies on here and social media, it’s nowhere close to it. Last week, I felt so overwhelmed by everything and reached a tipping point where I broke out of character and snapped at my brother/co-founder.

I am sharing this with you because I want you to know that we’re all just figuring it out. No matter where you are in your journey, take it a step at a time and know that you are not alone. If you ever want a soundboard, someone to share ideas or just rant to - don’t be afraid to write to me. I reply to every single email from our community. For now, wishing you all the best in everything you’re working on.

See you next week,

With love,

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One of the goals of Leaders of Today is to ensure we democratise access to opportunities. But in order for us to do this, we all have to come together. Keeping this in mind, I would love for you to forward this with your network. Whether it’s your friends, classmates or colleagues. It would truly means the world.