Gina Govender

Background

About Gina Govender

My LinkedIn bio looked something like this. Gina graduated from. she gained experience doing. she went on to achieve. & in reality I just did what most people with the opportunities & luck I had in my life should do. What made me who I am today. That's easy. When I was 10 or 11, I realised my uncle owned a Spar & would make him fetch me every Saturday morning so I could pack shelves, learn how to work the tills & sit in his office looking out over the store. Did he pay me to do this? I can't remember. Did I eat all the sweets on offer, I sure as hell did. LESSON 1: The motivation to learn exist from day 1, if you have it. After my uncle sold the store, I turned to my dad. My dad was an engineer running his own business. So school holidays was when I would go into work with him. I spent as many school holidays as I can remember in both his office (pretending I was the Editor of an international fashion magazine) or down in the factory welding components onto PC Boards. Not sure if my worked passed QC but I loved the intricacy of the task. I was also given a whole bunch of telephone wires I could craft my hearts desires with! LESSON 2: If you are willing to sacrifice the time, you start to dream the impossible. In a moment of madness I decided I was going to become a waitress. I blame my dad for not being as committed as I was to waking up at early hours of the morning to get me to work on time for this being a short lived adventure, but boy did I learn to eat humble pie during this time :) LESSON 3: Customer service ALWAYS matters! As I got older, & I became more motivated to actually earn money for all my efforts. I did two things. First, I made my dad give me "real" work. He made me do his recons & filing every Friday. And I did. My first job title, according to the pay slip he generated for me, was "Girl Friday". As I earned money, I began to realise what the relationship between earning and credit was. I applied for my first credit card. LESSON 4: The harder you work for your money. The easier it comes. The second thing was getting into retail. I worked weekends & holidays learning some hard lessons. Knee deep in stock, I fast learned the value of working systematically. After discovering one incorrect stock code on a box (possibly as a result of a lazy manager or employee), having basically completed my work, I couldn't bear the thought that I would be giving incorrect information to the owner. So I started the task from the beginning. LESSON 5: Systems matter- Still have your interest? continue reading in Life CV :)