The first time I found the courage to ride the bicycle my grandfather bought me, it didn’t go quite as planned. I slipped, I fell, I bruised and scraped myself more times than I could count. The seat was too high, the pedals too big, and the handlebars far too wide for my small hands.
But my grandfather’s lesson was clear: keep climbing back on and try again.
Each time I lost my footing and hit the ground, he would look at me with calm assurance and say, “Get up, dust yourself off, and try again.” And eventually, after many falls, many tears, and countless attempts, I did. I could finally cycle to and from school on that very same bicycle that had once felt like my greatest enemy.
Years later, I realised that my grandfather hadn’t just been teaching me how to ride a bike. He was teaching me how to live.
That lesson came full circle when I became the first Insurance Apprentice winner of the new decade — the first from Old Mutual Insure, and the first time the competition aired on national television.
For many entering The Insurance Apprentice for the first time, the challenge can feel overwhelming. The standard seems too high. The competition too fierce. The scope too wide. You might feel underprepared or underqualified — as though everyone else belongs, and you somehow don’t.
And yes, you will fall. You will bruise your ego, rattle your nerves, and doubt your place. I did too. But each fall, whether on that childhood bicycle or in the competition, taught me something invaluable: the only way to truly fail is to stop trying.
The truth is, all of us are a work in progress — all still learning to get back on that proverbial bike. The fall only ends when you choose to stand, to dust yourself off, and to try again.
Maybe this is the year you become the first in your family to appear on national television. Or the first to make it to the Top 10. Or even the first to claim the title of Insurance Apprentice for the 12th season. But perhaps, most importantly, this could simply be the first time you choose to believe again, hope again, and try again.
If I did it, so can you. You just need to apply yourself — and show up, every day, no matter how tough it feels. Because soon, you’ll realise that the fall wasn’t as bad as you feared. It was shaping you — teaching you resilience, humility, and strength while you were still on the ground.
And that lesson — that deep, personal realisation — can never be taken from you.
As the great Toni Morrison once said, in a conversation with Frank McCourt and Juan Williams in 2001:
“Sometimes you don’t survive whole; you survive in part. But the grandeur of life is that attempt.
It’s not about the solution — it’s about being as fearless as one can and behaving as beautifully as one can under completely impossible circumstances. It’s that that makes it elegant.”
Khaya Mashologu – Sale Team Lead: Agri – Old Mutual Insure
