“If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under theme.” Henry David Thoreau
This article is extremely long – I wrote it in 2008. If you have something important and urgent doing, don’t bother reading it now! I am sure you will enjoy it though:
Reality shows in Africa have become the mainstream in our media airwaves; each reality show vying for the most talented candidates from the “Apprentice Africa” exposing young business leaders to “Idols East Africa” sourcing for performing vocal singers. These reality shows are quite entertaining, competitive and fun to watch but how real are these shows? Are these shows set out to expose the talents of its participants or just out to entertain the viewers? When one develops a followership habit for any of the competition, it is indeed an emotional involvement and one gets to wonder what the organizers set out to achieve. The disappointment on the faces of the participants that loses speaks volumes to me; it’s as though they have lost their lives by losing the competition.
There is a strong paradigm that is re-enforced by these reality shows that gets me panicky and much concerned; it is this same paradigm that has enveloped our youths going for a job interviews or an average Nigerian investor looking for the next available scheme to join. This flawed paradigm slips through our consciousness saying “with position comes power” clouding the age long truth that it is “power that gives position”. The unutilized power is called talent while the developed power is called skill. It is not the talent that gives you a position of economic abundance, social influence, etc but the skill which is the ability to do something very well followed by an accumulated experience and training. There are so many talented individuals who refuse to be skilled so they enter competitions hoping to win; they simply gamble and are not ready to face the unfavorable outcome.
There is a way the Holy Scriptures interpret the old age truth that many Nigerians seem not understand. Proverbs 18:16 says “a man’s gift makes room for him and brings him before great men”. After crosschecking and counterchecking various bible versions and Strong’s Concordance, I realized that gift that the bible speaks off is the refined gift (skill) not the potential gift like I always assumed it was. If your gift is not refined (trained and constantly engaged), you are not different from someone who does not possess the same gift. I have been watching Idols East Africa from DSTV channel 198 for a while now and I have developed various ways of laughing but apart from the humorous side of this entertaining show, I have come to see very talented people kick out of the competition. You will definitely not be pleased with the judges for sending such talents home but on close inspection, you will realize the talented guy did not prepare enough. If you don’t prepare enough, you will meet people like SCAR (one of the judges in Idols East Africa) or Simon Cowell (one of the judges in American Idols) to dash away the confidence you have about your singing ability.
Lets move to a new concept called “preparation”. I made an earlier point which is worth recapping that without preparing (training and engaging) your talent, you are not different from the person who does not have the talent. I am sure everyone knows the talents, he/she possesses because talent is a natural ability to do something well. We are all conscious of what we are good at but we know we are not exceptional. In order to be exceptional, we must identify, isolate and develop our talent. It is a must to be exceptional at what you do for the greater good of all men and primarily for yourself; improve self worth and all kinds of independence from financial to social independence. Your talent is the power that you possess that can get you to any position you choose; position can be economical or political. How do we begin the process of identifying, isolating and developing our talent to make for exceptional prowess?
I will deal with the above question in the part 2 of this article. Now there is this adage that I come across in books when it comes to preparation. It says; “when preparation meets with opportunity, success is achieved”. This adage introduces the concept of time which means at a time space, preparation would meet opportunities, and then I would succeed. If I know I sing very well because my colleagues, friends, families, etc tell me so. I know I have a talent so I started developing the talent by associating myself with similar talents, engaging my talents through practice and showing it off where ever I have the opportunity. This adage tells me that if I have prepared enough, I have to wait for the opportunity to come like idols or project fame competition before my success can be achieved. This is definitely a faulty premise because opportunities abound everywhere, at every time.
Competition itself is not a good avenue for opportunity because it promotes scarce mentality. It makes you feel that the ultimate position is the first position; this is why most people premise their happiness on the poverty of others. We feel better when we pass the interview and others don’t; we are on top of the world when our car is regarded as the best in the neighborhood; we are accustomed to keeping up with the joneses in order to please people, etc. The scarcity mindset tells you there is limited resources and you have to grab it while you can; this is why we have more than 30, 000 graduates crammed up for only 3 positions in a company. Why would 30, 000 people believe they have the same talent not to talk of skill; this is a huge menace in our society where we believe because Mr. A succeeded in doing something, Mr. B will succeed in doing the same thing. We do not understand there is no team progress in conformity; every single individual is distinct; the ability to recognize our distinction and develop it is what the world would celebrate about you.
Let’s get back to the concept of preparation vs. opportunity. What you don’t understand is that where you are at the moment is an opportunity to succeed but you cannot see it because your talents are not developed enough to see it. You may have developed your talent but it is not developed enough to see the opportunity just right in front of you. Where you are at the moments are different wave form like the radio wave or television wave but you cannot see or experience it until you have the appropriate device to capture the appropriate waveform; the television aerial cannot pick the waves of the GSM phone nor can the radio antenna pick the internet packets transmitted through satellites. In order to pick the radio waves, you must get a radio set with its antenna.
Now you may have a radio but if it does not have an antenna, it may not pick the waves clearly which signifies that you may have developed your talent but have not networked with similar talents. You may also know how to sing very well but you have not developed your signature tune just like a radio that has on AM band, it cannot pick the FM band. Now supposing you have your radio with antenna and it is on FM band to pick FM waves but it is not picking it then you have to check the spectrum of the frequency. The FM band spectrum may be from 89MHz to 103 MHz and the signal you want to capture can be transmitting at 107MHz. You may not have developed your talent to the point of recognizing the opportunity before you. The bible says it more clearly; the gift of a man makes room for him; it is your developed talent that gives you opportunity. This is opposed to the adage “when preparation meets opportunity”; preparation does not have to meet opportunity for you to succeed, it is the prepared talent that opens the opportunity for you to succeed.
It is important to note that your gift opens the door but it is your responsibility to walk through the door. Walking through the door is relatively easy compared to opening the door. The ability to recognize the right key to open the door requires commitment. Sharon Mcpherson – one of the facilitators for “the platform” this year, demonstrated the psychological effect of commitment by asking a guy to run across a path covered by 5 guys to get to her. She is the object of his desire in this mind boggling allegory. The guy tried getting to her as many times as he could but failed then she pulled out a 100 USD and told the guy that if he could get to her the 100 USD was his. Now, there was a difference in the way the guy tried to get to her; he was more patient and his commitment level was very high. Though the guy could not finally get to her but we could feel the energy in the room changed when the guy was offered the 100 USD. Most people would never commit to developing their talent unless money is dangled in their presence. This is why most people make the wrong choice of the talent to commit to.
When the word work is mentioned, what thought immediately comes to your mind? Is it a pleasant thought? Does it generate feelings of happiness and enthusiasm? Most people would laugh at the very suggestion of such an idea. For them, the groaning begins somewhere around five A.M. on Monday morning. They get out of bed and run to their jobs, behaving like doomed criminals about to face a firing squad. I ask some of these guys the question “Do you think you will ever earn MORE money working at something you dislike?” My answer is definitely “no”; it may appear as of you are making money in the short term but what you do not understand is that money is the natural by-product of doing anything well as perceived by the consumer. How can you do something well if you are not passionate or excited about what you do?
But there is a flip side to this, some guys actually go through the daily routine of work but are passionate and excited about what they do. The problem is that after some time, they lose the excitement and a plateau is established where they do the same thing repeatedly. At this stage, these guys are more arm to the company than the company would ever know. When these guys that were once excited about their job tell me they want to resign, I truly understand them having been in the same shoe but I ask them when did they start nursing the resignation and what plans they have? Before I terminated my appointment with Globacom, I had been nursing it 3 years from the day I finally resigned. I had a 5 year plan before I threw in my paper but I accomplished the plan earlier then the 5 years. I knew there was no way I was going to climb the corporate ladder to be the M.D. so I sourced for my own platform to develop my talent.
TO BE CONTINUED….
