Maybe we should all exercise our free will like Rickman – Sqoop

I think Ugandans need to start exercising their free will like Rickman Manrick, not the political kind, please. We don’t have the budget for bail. I mean the freedom to wake up one morning and decide that the career you have been doing for five years is no longer enough. At this point if you ask him what he does, you need to give him time to scroll through his CV. The man looked at the traditional career path and said, “Why should I suffer with one salary when I can have several identities?” Meanwhile, some of us studied one course, got one job and have spent six years refreshing our email waiting for a promotion. Your LinkedIn says marketing professional but your actual job description is answering “Kindly advise” emails and attending meetings that could have been WhatsApp messages.

What I like about Rickman’s journey is that he did not allow one setback to become his entire biography. Football was supposed to be the big dream, he played in Sweden, was working towards the professional game then the ACL injury came. A lot of us would have turned that injury into a ten-year documentary. Every December we would be posting how we were was once destined for greatness until an injury changed my life. Rickman instead went into music. Suddenly the footballer was making songs, releasing Naki, Wakanda, Ebango and building another career.

Then came boxing, Rickman entered the ring to collect those dollars too, he threw hands well enough to make people wonder whether Bakuli had been running a secret WWE academy all along. Then radio joined the CV, now the man can discuss football on air, talk entertainment, make music and put on gloves when necessary. This is where I think many Ugandans need to take notes. We are obsessed with choosing one thing and then guarding that one thing with our lives. You tell your parents you want to become a photographer and they ask, “But what did you study?” You say you want to start a restaurant and someone asks, “So you have given up your degree?” You say you want to farm and suddenly everyone is looking at you like you have announced plans to leave civilisation. Our parents spent years telling us to get a degree so we could have options, only for us to graduate and use the degree to apply for one job repeatedly.

We also need to stop being afraid of looking unserious while trying something new. Ugandans are very good at protecting their reputation, even when there is no reputation, for a man that was called Kony by his ex-father in law, we need to learn from Rickman. You want to start a YouTube channel but you fear your former classmates will laugh, you want to DJ but you studied accounting. You want to write but your auntie thinks writers are people who have failed to get jobs. You want to play football at 29, yet your knees make the sound of a tuk-tuk when you climb stairs. Try anyway. The worst thing that can happen is that you fail and learn something. The best thing is that you discover another version of yourself. Rickman’s story shows that potential is not always one straight road.

Maybe that is the real lesson from Rickman: we need to give ourselves permission to evolve. You can have a career that makes absolutely no sense on paper but makes perfect sense to you. We are all sitting on talents because we are too busy asking whether they are practical. Sometimes you have to disturb it yourself. Learn the skill. Start the business. Join the football team, pick up the camera, write the book,put on the boxing gloves, although maybe consult a doctor first. And if everything fails, at least you will have stories.