A Letter to Any Young Person Still Figuring It Out
The Career I Have Not Been Advertising
On Uber and Zipline, six seats across four continents, and what to do with the rooms that are still open to you.
Alfred Christopher Msemo
Founder & Chairman, Aleka Holdings
Dar es Salaam, August 2026
“You cannot connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards.”
STEVE JOBS
On Tuesday, my four-year-old announced that she wants to be a doctor. Last month it was a ballerina. Before that, a dolphin. I approve of all three trajectories.
Watching her cycle through careers every eleven days reminded me that I have not been especially honest about my own.
A partnership between two former employers
A week ago, Uber and Zipline announced a partnership: one million autonomous drone deliveries onto the Uber platform. Two former employers of mine.
My career did not follow the shape a recruiter, headhunter, client, or investor wants to see. I mostly walked into whatever room was teaching me something and gave it everything I had while I was there. Steve Jobs was right that the dots only connect looking backwards. At the time it looked more like a snow globe.
Six seats
Trading in Mauritius. J.P. Morgan in Asia. Actuarial pricing in Brussels. Uber in Sub-Saharan Africa. Zipline out of London. Aleka Capital since 2019.
If you had asked 18-year-old me whether I was assembling a founder’s toolkit, I would have said “a what?” I know now that is what was happening.
A career is not a plan you write in advance. It is a set of rooms you walked into because someone left the door open, and what you did once inside them.
What I would tell a young person
Your career will not look like a plan. It will look like a series of interesting rooms you walked into because someone left the door open. Walk in. Give each room everything you have. What you give in earnest does not disappear. It compounds, quietly, and comes back years later from doors you did not know existed.
Know when to graduate from a room. Never burn a bridge on your way out. Leave every door open behind you. Nothing given honestly is ever lost.
My daughter can be a doctor, a ballerina, or a dolphin. She will figure out which one on her own. So will you and I.
Alfred Christopher Msemo
Founder & Chairman, Aleka Holdings Limited
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, August 2026