Ask just about anybody who has become successful if they have ever failed at any aspect of their journey. Chances are, you will get quite a few.
In fact, in today’s article, we have Kateki Melvin Mdabula from Johannesburg sharing with us his journey from success to failure to success.
He shares with us the exact strategy he used to overcome failure and achieve success in his journey to becoming a CA.
Why Did I Decide to Become a Chartered Accountant?
I grew up in a village in rural Limpopo, where I studied from grades 1–7 in a government school.
The life of a village kid is not very complicated.
At the age of 5, when I started school, I failed grade one.
I repeated grade one and stood first in class. This sparked a flurry of first-place finishes all the way up to grade 7.
At some point, the school principal wanted to advance me to the next grade, which would have compensated for failing grade one, but my dad said no to the offer.
When it was time to go to high school, my parents, being teachers, were not satisfied with the quality of schools in our village. So they decided to send me to a boarding school in Polokwane, which was 250 kilometres away from home.
Staying away from home and only seeing my parents once a month was a struggle.
The first term in 8th grade was very difficult as I had to adjust to my new life. However, once I adjusted, I was in the top 5 students again.
I have a very good memory and have always excelled in tests.
I achieved all these marks through short-term memory.
So I used to never write anything down when studying, not even for mathematics.
Instead, I would study 90% of the work the night before the exam. I would sleep for only 3–4 hours and study the whole night, memorising stuff.
I never saw anything wrong with it because I would get good marks and sometimes be at the top of my class in some subjects.
So from grades 9–10, I thrived, achieving top three positions all the time while developing what I didn’t know was a bad habit.
We had to start considering subject choices at the end of Grade 9, so I consulted my older brother, who was in his 2nd year of engineering.
I only had one question for him at that point: According to his knowledge, which were the highest-paying jobs in the country? He said to me that chartered accounting was one of the most prominent and well-paying jobs.
And it was the first time I’d heard of the profession—chartered accountant.
And thus began my ambition to become a qualified chartered accountant.
My Journey to Becoming a CA (SA)
My journey has been full of thorns and hard rocks and life lessons on the race track to California (SA).
I’m now on the last hurdle (APC).
It’s been 16 years since I started this journey; 9 years were just for my college degree (CTA). Yes, a record nine CTA attempts.
To become a chartered accountant with SAICA, one needs:
- to have a bachelor’s degree in accounting or equivalent
- Honors Post-Graduation Qualification (CTA 1, CTA 2)
- 3 years of articleship (this depends on whether it is part-time study or full-time study, so it can vary from 3-5 years)
- Give two written board exams (ITC and APC).
Between 2004 and 2007, I graduated or earned a bachelor’s degree.
All of you from South Africa know how important Grade 12 is.
During grades 11 and 12, I burned out terribly and was no longer in the top 10 students in the class.
I could no longer sustain studying the night before, and I struggled to even study a week before because it felt like I would forget. That is the downside of just memoricing before the exams.
Since I burned out in class 12 (this was in 2002), I had a conditional exemption.
In short, I could not enroll in a B. Com. programme unless I completed the foundation program.
In 2003, I enrolled in the foundation program. It is like a bridge course to your degree. Had I failed this, I would not have been allowed to register for B.com.
Long story short, since I strive well under pressure, I cleared this exam, but again by studying 90% of the time the night before the exam.
After passing the foundation programme, in 2004 I enrolled in B. Com. Accounting at the University of Johannesburg.
So my study method during my B.Com. was still the same:
- I wouldn’t attend class.
- If I attended class, since my attention span was less than 10 minutes, I would walk out of class and go to play pool.
- I still continued with my bad habit of only studying the night before.
- Sleep only 2–3 hours before the exam.
- And still, get a few distinctions.
In this manner, I graduated from college effortlessly, never having set foot in many classes and exceeding the entrance requirements for honors (CTA).
Post-Graduation Qualification with Honors (CTA) 2008-2018
The next step on the path to becoming a chartered accountant in South Africa is doing your post-graduation or honors work.
It took me nine years to pass my honors year 2008-18.
I have explained it in a timeline below:
CTA 2008–11: Studied full-time and made failed attempts
I studied full time from 2008–11 at the University of Johannesburg and still did not clear.
I was still trying to study the night before, and there is just too much volume and complexity at the CTA level to try and study everything the night before and integrate all 4 subjects with only 2 hours of sleep.
I kept doing the same thing, hoping for a different result (insanity).
It doesn’t matter how smart you are; by failing to prepare thoroughly in time, I had in fact prepared myself to fail.
I had already failed four times. I was starting to get demoralized and lose faith in myself.
CTA 2012-2014: Studied part-time and failed
After the fourth failed attempt, I knew I couldn’t continue studying full-time as the study loan balance was increasing.
I wasn’t ready to give up on my dream. So I decided to start articles and study part-time with the University of South Africa (UNISA; this is like distant learning).
I started with my articles at BDO Johannesburg.
My first attempt at UNISA was my best-failed attempt and the most painful one.
My study approach never really changed, but I think I wanted it more because studying and working were stressful enough; I needed to put my CTA nightmares to rest.
I kept failing.
The term “electronic commerce” refers to the sale of electronic goods.
When I finished my articles in 2014, I did some self-introspection and decided to take a 2-year break from studying.
My premise was simple: I had burned out.
I was 29 years old, and I have always been in school since age 5. It was 24 years of school, non-stop.
I thought to myself that sometimes I get so busy that I refuse to take a break, not realizing I am busy being ineffective.
I realized I was trying to chop down the CTA exam tree with a blunt axe. It was time to take time out to sharpen the axe.
CTA 2017-2018: resumed studies and studied part-time
Everything I ever set out to do in my life, I have accomplished except for CTA.
It was the only dream left unticked, and it ate me alive every day. I felt incomplete.
When I decided to go back and study CTA again after taking a break, I had just finished paying off my study loan, and now I was about to go back to the bank and start another loan from scratch.
For me, it was a matter of, “What’s the price tag on achieving my dreams?”
If I walked away, all my previous eight attempts would be a waste of time and money, and I would have nothing to show for it.
I found study loans had better interest rates. When you are still a student, you need to only pay off the interest until you start working, then you can begin paying the capital.
This was one of the reasons why I stopped studying full-time because I needed a job in order to get a study loan.
So I gave it one more shot, but I was very strategic this time.
In 2017, I resumed my CTA studies part-time at Monash University.
I also got married in the same year. I told my wife that if I didn’t see this through, she would be married to an incomplete man.
When I tried to study, I found my attention span lacking; it was almost as if I had ADHD.
Once again, I only passed tax and auditing after 2 years of not studying. This was because I now had all the auditing principles and tax principles embedded in my DNA.
So I stopped studying Tax and Auditing and focused solely on Accounting and Management Accounting, and yes, I finally got it.
This was also the first time in my life I had studied for something consistently.
I finally passed the CTA.
When I finally passed, it was so surreal that I kept staring at my marks every day for a week until I received the official academic record that I had passed.
It felt like the weight and oppression of battling with one thing for the past 9 years had finally lifted, and nothing was holding me back in any way.
Advice to those pursuing CA:
- I have had many friends who looked up to me and came to me for help on certain complex topics, but they studied consistently and I did not. They passed CTA on their first attempt, although some of them just barely met the entrance requirement. They understood that the CTA was a marathon, and they paid their dues daily.
- I, on the other hand, did not study consistently and tried to make CTA a sprint just before exams, and I fell flat on my face.
- What I discovered is that you can never truly master any subject unless you put in the effort day in and day out.
- When talent is not working hard, I always say hard work wins. I am proof of this. So while brilliance would go a long way, it is not a requirement; consistent hard work is.
Articleship Journey
Articles played a vital role in shaping my character and knowing myself better.
I learned to quickly manage different personalities from all the audit managers and from the client’s side.
People skills and managing personalities are very important if one is going to thrive in writing.
I was approachable, and I would approach anyone and everyone I needed to get the job done.
My approach was always based on the personality of the person in question.
I took time to read and learn about people and what makes them tick so that I could approach them in the same spirit.
There is always politics in articles and among clerks, but I always shied away from politics and focused on getting the job done and also learning and personal development.
This quickly made me the go-to person amongst my peers, especially when they needed someone to explain certain audit sections or mediate with another senior, because the consensus amongst my fellow trainees was that I seemed to be liked even by the most “difficult” of managers and seniors.
Overcoming struggles and dealing with failure
Luckily for me, I started reading self-help books at the age of 14 when I was in high school, which equipped me with all the tools to get through tough times.
I learned long ago that failure is an event, not a person.
Friends and family did not understand me.
I have lost friends on this journey.
I had to break up with a girlfriend because she was a naysayer. She kept telling me that CA was not for me and that I should pursue another career!
At some point, my parents also didn’t understand the CA journey. They didn’t understand why I wanted to finish articles if I could just leave them and get a better-paying job.
I had to explain to them the bigger picture and long-term goal and to see articles not as a job but as a learning platform that is also a qualification in itself.
Many of our struggles are hardened by our families and friends’ not understanding what we are going through, as they cannot relate and don’t understand why we are so stressed all the time.
Losing my job
The journey after completing articles was also not very smooth. Just when I had decided on a 2-year study break, I got retrenched twice in that one year.
To make matters worse, I had just bought a new car and moved into a new place.
Sacrificing my passion
I have also been practicing karate since the age of 14. I’m a 1st Dan Black Belt.
I have had to sacrifice training and participating in world tournaments so I could put more time into CTA and fulfil my CA (SA) dreams.
In Conclusion
I never felt like giving up because I always knew there was nothing else for me but this.
What has always helped me is that I have always had a healthy dose of self-esteem; in fact, I’m my own biggest cheerleader and hype man.
With regards to dealing with exam failure, it came down to one question for me, which was: was that the best effort you put into your studies? Could you not have done more? “.
My answer was always the same.
I never put in enough time as required by the course, so I never gave myself a fighting chance. I could not walk away until I had given it my best and failed.
Here are a few tips from me:
- First and foremost, regardless of your grades or intellect, listen to your lecturers and those who have walked the path. You need to respect this journey.
- Give it your best and put in the required effort, or you will fail dismally time and time again.
- On the road to survival, when the winds of tough times blow, allow them to bend but never break, just like a palm tree. Bending without breaking is what resilience means to me.
- Playing a sport or having a hobby that can be an outlet for your frustrations also helps, as you will need all the support you can get.
- Try to find people in the same field who can relate to your struggles, as it will be easier to help each other.
- To the young professionals: invest time in your own development; you must be a brand for yourself.
- Before you undertake anything or undertake a task, always begin with the end in mind because that way, you know where you are going and what the destination looks like. This way, you will make sure that what you do on a daily basis builds up to that destination and does not jeopardize it.
- Be courteous to everyone you meet and learn from other people’s experiences. Seek first to understand before trying to be understood, and people will be drawn to you.
- There will never be another you, so be the best version of yourself.
- To get you started, I would recommend getting yourself these two books: “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” and “Tough Times Never Last, but Tough People Do.”
Bonus: Here’s How to Overcome Failure and Achieve Success in California.
CA Senele Mbath
“Presently I am a CFO running the Finance Department, and life is good; however, this was not my story while growing up.
Life was hard back then. I grew up in a poor community. I had tough days, however, giving my studies importance and pursuing CA from SAICA changed my life forever.
My journey to becoming a Chartered Accountant in South Africa
Taryn Raju, Chartered Accountant
“In my final year of a Bachelors in Accounting, I went through some personal issues and ended a 5-year relationship, which was honestly just as important as my CA dream.
Unfortunately, back then, this breakup crushed me emotionally, which affected my studies as well.
Read about my ten-year journey to becoming a Chartered Accountant CA (SA).
Khaleel, CA
“To be honest, I never intended to become a Chartered Accountant.
“I come from a somewhat humble background, and prior to moving to Dubai, I travelled abroad only once.”
My Journey from Becoming a CA (SA) to Living in Dubai as an Expat