My Reflections on Andela’s EPIC Values.

My Reflections on Andela’s EPIC Values.

EPIC! an acronym for Excellence, Passion, Integrity, and Collaboration. Is obvious that the secret behind Andelans success is their ability to uphold these four values. Let’s go through it bit by bit.

The ‘E’ in EPIC stands for excellence

I have always believed that one has attended excellence when he stands out in a competition. This has left me with the mindset that even if the winner didn’t perform so great, as long as he/she emerged highest, that makes the person an excellent individual.
But from Andela point of view, excellence means when what is to be done is executed to it’s very best. Even if you are the only one doing it, it is expected that the best outcome is delivered. And the quality should not be location relative but should retain the same worth where ever is presented.

The ‘P’ in EPIC stands for Passion

Most times people only have passion for what they can do with ease. They believe that they can’t be successful with anything that gives them trouble to achieve. But here in Andela, is completely different. Andela believes that everyone can make a difference when given the opportunity. Every Andelan is always eager to learn or teach. The long for new knowledge and never shy away from challenges. Here, challenge already got a new name “Blocker” and everyone spend time unblocking and looking for more blockers.
I have come to understand that true satisfaction comes when you decide to add more value to what you already know and discover more of what you can learn.

The ‘I’ in EPIC stands for Integrity

Integrity here at Andela is the most upheld value amongst the four values of the EPIC acronym. Andela starts from the first stage of application to advise applicants on the importance of being yourself. They even have an acronym “YOYO” meaning you own your own. Andela believes that you should learn from people not imitate them. Andela insists that you live your own life not someone else life. They frown at plagiarism so much that they can even lay-off their best staff if they should be a victim of plagiarism.

The ‘C’ in EPIC stands for Collaboration

I use to think that a programmer should always be indoor writing code and debugging. I also believed that when you encounter a blocker, You should remain on your own until you are able to figure it out. I also believed that what makes a programmer great is his ability to write codes only he can understand.
But Andela thinks different. Andela believes that no man is an Island of knowledge. Every person’s opinion should be put into considerations. That’s why in Andela eventually everything is grouped into teams. Andela has an uncountable number of resources online and many learning platform eg: Andela learning community (ALC). They believe that nobody is too big to need help.
And that we can attain excellence easier when we work as a team.