Who says women can’t have it all? MBA student Triesha Sing is a medical doctor, an occupational health physician, a mother, a wife, and … an accomplished mountaineer. This women’s month we salute Triesha as she tackles Kilimanjaro and doff our caps to the countless other South African women who juggle multiple roles while living their dreams.
The last book Henley MBA student Dr Triesha Sing read was David Goggins’ Can’t Hurt Me – Master your Mind and Defy the Odds. It’s the astonishing (true) story of how a depressed, overweight young man who, despite a childhood marred by poverty, prejudice and physical abuse, overcame the odds to become an armed forces icon and top endurance athlete. In the book Goggins – the only person in US history to have completed elite training as a Navy SEAL, an army ranger and an air force tactical controller – is at pains to illustrate that anyone can push through pain, banish fear and reach their full potential.
Once you’ve spent a little time getting to know Triesha, the reasons why this book resonates with her become apparent. At the time of writing she was packing her trekking gear to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, an adventure she made sure would slot neatly in between two of her MBA modules.
Mountains have always played a part in Triesha’s life. ‘Growing up in close proximity to the Drakensberg made it easy to spend time on the mountain and now as an adult I’m taking that passion to another level.
‘Last year I climbed Mount Kenya. It was tough going but I made it to the top. With climbing you have to dig deep and find strength you don’t even know you have. I believe that when you do these challenging things, you find within you a previously untapped reservoir of strength and power. And that’s what I’m looking forward to finding on Kilimanjaro.’
The third out of four children, Triesha was raised in a traditional Indian household in Pietermaritzburg. Both her parents were educators. It’s hardly surprisingly therefore that she and her siblings were encouraged to focus heavily on their academics. Although a sense of work-life balance was also maintained. This is a trait she carries with her today and is one of the things that drew her to Henley Business School when she decided to broaden her management arsenal with an MBA degree.
‘I looked at a lot of other MBA programmes, but they were too time intensive and didn’t fit into my lifestyle. I wouldn’t have had time for my two little daughters, my family, and my exercise programme, which is very important to me. I needed a course that allowed me to still be me, and enjoy the process while studying, and that’s precisely what I’ve found at Henley.’
Triesha says that while she’s not sure at what age she vocalised her career dreams, she had wanted to be a medical doctor for as long as she remembers and gained her MBChB degree at UCT’s medical school straight out of high school. She was excited to start her specialisation as a physician at a Durban hospital, but the experience was not what she had anticipated.
Not only was she embarking on her new career at a time when state hospitals were starting to collapse, but she also found that the pace was punishing.
‘I don’t believe the medical field or the country’s labour laws cater to female medical personnel who are trying to have a family or who are raising children,’ she says. ‘Although I was heavily pregnant at the time I was still expected to work overtime – something that should not be allowed because of the risk to pregnancy outcomes. The hospital sleeping quarters were unhygienic, so I used to sleep in my car, and the maternity leave policies left a lot to be desired.
‘Ultimately I left the programme for reasons directly related to the fact that I am a woman. It’s such a shame because I am not alone.’
But you can’t keep a good woman down and Triesha soon found a new avenue for her skills, reinventing herself as an occupational health doctor. ‘I’m loving it! had to do an additional postgraduate qualification in occupational health, while working as a GP and raising my children. It was chaos but totally worth it,’ she says.
In her career as an occupational health physician at Life Healthcare, Triesha applies her dual qualifications in medicine and occupational health to promote the health and well-being of workers in various industries. Adding an MBA into an already impressive academic mix is boosting her management nous and business confidence, she says.
Triesha’s drive comes from her need to push herself as far as she can go, academically, physically, mentally. Her approach to challenges and obstacles is to find a way around or over them, and it works! ‘I refuse to fall into a comfort zone, and I’m driven to continually find new things to challenge myself. I want to show other women that you can forge your own way in the world by constantly moving forward with purpose.’
Climbing Kilimanjaro is a case in point, but it doesn’t end there. ‘I have my eye on the trek to base camp on Mount Everest,’ she says, ‘But first I want that MBA safely under my belt.’
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