A few weeks ago, I came back from my first trip to Nigeria in 9 years.
Nine years.
Nine years of learning, grinding, building, and changing in ways I didn’t fully understand until I went back.
And somewhere between the chaos of Abuja’s traffic and the peace of being home again… I realized something.
Man…what an advantage. But also, what a paradox.
The Advantage
There’s something special about being an immigrant, or really, anyone who’s ever had to start from zero.
You see two worlds. You understand scarcity and abundance.
You carry a perspective most people don’t even know exists. Your perspective gives you clarity.
Your clarity gives you resilience. Your resilience gives you staying power.
In a weird way, you learn to thrive with limited resources, and then when you finally get access to more, you move like someone who still remembers what it’s like to have none.
That’s your edge. That’s your advantage.
The Trap
But here’s the part you don’t notice:
That advantage fades fast.
When you finally get comfortable, the fire that once pushed you forward quietly goes out.
When the stakes aren’t as high anymore, urgency disappears. And slowly, you start coasting.
It’s the same thing that happens in cybersecurity careers.
You get the job, you learn the tech stack, you detect the threats, you respond to the incidents, you automate the redundant security work.
You make the multiple six figures salary.
And somewhere in between performance reviews, raises, and promotions, you lose that early hunger. The hunger that made you stay up late tinkering in your home lab, studying packet captures for fun, or learning that new programming language.
You stop chasing mastery and start chasing stability.
Now, don’t get me wrong, stability is good.
It’s okay to find peace in your work, to want consistency, to finally breathe after years of grinding.
But stability shouldn’t become complacency.
You can be content without being stagnant. You can rest without losing your edge.
Lesson Learned
The immigrant advantage, just like your early-career edge, isn’t something you get once and keep forever.
It’s something you have to protect, and you protect it by staying curious.
By building things even when no one’s asking.
By mentoring others and realizing how much you still have to learn.
By pushing yourself into discomfort because comfort is where edges go to die.
If you ever want to know where your career is headed, don’t look at your title or your pay. Look at your edge.
Is it sharper than it was a year ago?
Or has comfort slowly dulled it?
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Five Years In
This year marks my fifth year in cybersecurity.
From breaking into the field with nothing but curiosity and persistence, to hunting for threats at Amazon’s scale and helping others start their own journey, the lesson that keeps repeating is simple:
Never lose the edge that got you here.
Five years in, I’ve learned that skill can be taught, titles can change, and opportunities can evolve…but that hunger, that fire that made you chase growth in the first place, that’s what keeps you alive in this field.
The real advantage for me isn’t just being an immigrant.
It’s not being early in my career.
It’s staying hungry long after I no longer need to be.
That’s how you build longevity in cybersecurity — and in life.
Love this reflection. Nothing like a trip back home to remind you of why you started in the first place 🔨
Message well passed. You are doing really great and the wa you articulate your message is easy to digest and run with. Well done man!