MY ROAD TO SUCCESS SERIES 1: The Lesson I Want to Share with Young Nigerians-Zain Asher, CNN anchor

For Zain Ejiofor Asher (born 27 August 1983), the CNN anchor and host of One World with Zain Asher, the road to success “is not a straight line.” From a water-serving receptionist with an ambition as high as Mount Kilimanjaro, this Nigerian-cum-British news anchor is a parable in humility and stooping to conquer.

Since appearing on TED Talk where she told her story to the world, she had been inspired by the avalanche of positive responses to write a book on what it takes to succeed in life. She is one woman proud of her Nigerian and “Enugu” roots and her cosmopolitan branches. “I am a Nigerian by blood, British by birth and American by residence which gives me a unique perspective on the connective tissue that transcends cultures and continents,” she says on her CNN programme advertising. I watched her recently on Arise TV Morning Show in Abuja where she had come to publicize her new memoir, Where the Children Take Us: How One Family Achieved the Unimaginable. Excerpts from her Arise TV interview:
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Sometimes I get asked: “Which sort of bias hinders you the most? Is it being black? Or is it being a woman?” Because in the United States, you have to contend with both. I think that when you are in a position of power, for me, the most important thing as I talk about representation is making sure that we all as women use our sphere of influence to lift up other people. Yes, of course, I have a platform as a woman at CNN, but we all have platforms. It doesn’t matter whether you are on Arise TV or CNN, or you are a woman in the marketplace, we all have platforms and we all need to use our sphere of influence to lift other women up. I also think as women, we need to support each other and stop competing with one another. To make sure that every single one of us uses that position of power to pass the baton to the younger generation.
My first job out of university was as a receptionist. I was working as a receptionist for a production company for close to four years. As the receptionist, I really wanted to move up within the production company. That was my goal. Because I was the receptionist, it was my job to serve water to anyone who was coming to apply for the job that I wanted. I had to serve water to them. I really had to be genial in this business. But I think the lesson I want to share with young Nigerians, especially young girls, is that success is never any straight line. You see me on CNN and you sort of see I have my own show but it was really difficult to get there. The hustle was real. My TedTalk was actually called “Trust Your Struggle.” For that reason, you trust that despite all the pitfalls and the setbacks in your path, if you hold on, if you can continue to push and you continue to fight and you work hard—I really, really, really, worked hard to get to where I am—one day, the struggle will pay off.
One of the things I always tell people is that: if there is a way for you to start now in the job that you have, to do the job that you want, if there is a way, start doing it. If I can just share a very quick story: There is a friend of mine who started in a very junior position at CNN. He graduated from the university where I went. And he worked as a junior sort of P.A. making very little money. When the Haiti earthquake happened, a year later, he decided to go to Haiti, packed his bag and went to film one year after the earthquake—just to find how people were coping one year after the earthquake happened. Even though he was not a correspondent, he was not an anchor, he took on the assignment, came back, showed it to them, it was excellent and CNN aired it. And because of that they eventually made him a correspondent. This is someone who went from a very junior position within CNN to suddenly becoming a correspondent overnight because he did the job before he had the job. That is my advice. If there is a way for you to start now to do the job that you want, you take out the risk element and go do it for the people who would eventually hire you.
I have just written a book titled: Where the Children Take Us: How One Achieved the Unimaginable. What motivated me to write the book is the TED Talk programme I did. I got so much feedback from that Ted Talk. The TED Talk explained my journey to CNN and also how my mother raised us. My mother is a strong, strong Nigerian woman. And this book is about how women can really do hard things. Especially Nigerian women. My mother was a single mother. The book starts off with probably what I would say was the worst day in our lives. My mother gets a phone call. It was September 3, 1988. And the voice on the other end of the line basically said: “Your husband and your son have been involved in a car crash. One of them is dead and we don’t know which one.” That happened to my family.
It turned out to be my father who had passed away. But initially, they thought everybody in the car had been killed. The bodies were taken to the morgue. It was only when they arrived at the morgue and began unloading the bodies that they realized that my brother was still breathing. And that brother whom we are incredibly proud of, ended up being nominated for an Oscar Award for best actor. And the book is really about how in the wake of that horrible tragedy my mother raised us and thanks to her grit and certain specific things that she did, we ended up surpassing all expectations. Obviously I am CNN anchor, my brother is the star of the movie “12 Years a Slave,” my sister is a medical doctor and my other brother is a very successful entrepreneur. And it was only because of the kind of mother that I have.
I really want to educate Western audiences about the special grit Nigerians have, special Nigerian women. They are warriors, they are fighters. My mother is a queen. The book is a personal story. If this was going to be the first story that a lot of Americans read about an African family, I really wanted to be informative and educational. Yes, it is about my family, but this book is a celebration of the Nigerian family. One thing I say in the book is that people may not know much about Nigeria living in the West, our beaches are not featured in travel magazines, there are no safaris on our savannahs, tourists do not swarm this country to pose for pictures near monuments, but one thing that Nigerians do shine is that we have sent armies of ambitious and talented children to every corner of the world. The book is a personal story. It is not filled with statistics. But in 2013, it was stated that even though Nigerians make less than one percent of the U.S. population, in that particular year, they made 25 percent of the students at Harvard Business School. And in 2006, Nigerians were considered probably the most educated immigrant group in the United States.