5 WAYS TO DISCOVER YOUR TALENT
In this lesson I am going to discuss five ways you can use to discover your talent.
WHAT DO YOU LOVE DOING:
Make a list of all the things you think you can do well, and also in another sheet list out the things love doing, then compare the two list. Is there any similarity between the two? Now this what you are going to do, ‘tear off the sheet that contains the list of all the things you think you can do well’, let us now focus on those things you love doing.
Let me tell you a little story, I was raised in a local area, there was this Mr. Solomon that was my neighbor then, he had a son by name Oscar, his neighbor Mr. Emma had one son too, by name Ubong-Abasi, the two young boys both attended the same school, the same class and the same age, they grew up together in the same compound, but the different between both of them lies in this, everyday Mr. Solomon son, Oscar will have to play around with little children in the compound, he had up to six hours in a day to play before his father would return, his father always returns late in the evening, he rarely comes back by 7 pm, he was living with a step-mother who care more less for him; but Mr. Emma’s son, Ubong-Abasi would not even be allowed to go out after school, Oscar would do anything he feels like doing, he play all sort of play a young child could play, starting from hide-and-seek, play drums made from local wood, old containers and bottles, he will act mum and dad drama, construct houses made from mud, run after grasshoppers, in fact, this boy play all his life after school and during holidays. The other boy was always forced by his parents to read, he was forced to always look at his books even when he was not reading, all what his parents want, was for them to make sure that their son reads to become an Engineer or a medical Doctor one day, it was not a bad idea no doubt. To cut the story short, the last time I visit the village, Oscar was one of the most popular boy in the village, school, church and among peers, why? He was so talented in many fields, in the village, if you are looking for the best drummer, the best pianist, the best footballer, people will always refer you to Oscar Solomon. This guy was more than a master in these areas; no sensible person would doubt that he has talent. He told me that after secondary school he would study music. He has already defined his path to follow. Now his mate Ubong-Abasi after secondary school, failed to be admitted into the university twice; he is now hopeless, not even knowing what to do next, this is the person that can tell you, that God gave his friend more talent compare to his own. Yes, but God gave the two of them the same thing, one was only being opportune to use his own, while the other one his parents were preventing him to explore his world.
My brothers and my sisters, I belief that those people you call talented are not inheriting or buying this talent, they pay more attention to what they love doing than what others think they should do. Look at Ronaldinho, C. Ronaldo you know many of them, more so, that is why we have more successful people that are school dropout, these are the people that pay more attention to what they love doing than what others think they should do.DON’T FOLLOW THE MULTITUDE:
A father once ask his boy
“Do you know Abraham Lincoln”
The son said, “yes”
“Bill Gate”
“yes”
Father, “do you know Mark Zuckerberg?”
Son “yes”
The father ask again “do you know AkpanAmarti”
Son “no”
Then the father told him, why he knew the first three people and did not know the last one.
He said, ‘the first three people did not follow multitude, but the last did’. Thank God, you now know AkpanAmarti, because he is no longer following the multitude.
If you had done what I ask you to do in the first step, you will discover that you are unique, now step out of the multitude, what is right for the other person may not be right for you.
In fact if it is necessary for you to stop schooling, do it, start to learn, get educated. Don’t make the classroom to be your world, instead make the world to be your classroom. Let your profession come out of that thing you love doing, read about it, spend more time on it, let people start paying you for that thing you love doing; do this, you become the next talented person among your peers, people would start to celebrate you.GET THE BASIC EDUCATION:
In my secondary school days, one of my friend, told me ‘he is tired of everything about school’, he insisted on dropping out, I asked for his reasons for conceiving that kind of idea, he told me he just want to drop out, after all, there are people that drop out of school and they still make it big in life, like Bill Gate; I ask him, ‘ do you know whether Bill Gate was able to read and write before he drop out? He said, ‘yes’, I now ask whether he was able to write and read fluently, he was so ashamed of himself, because in senior secondary two he was unable to read, even to spell some common words. But I thank God for him, he is doing well.
The fact is, most of us are like this. The primary function of education is to prepare us to find our talent and the job that will help us support our self and provide for any family that we may eventually have. The basic education is necessary when it attains to developing our God given talent. In this fast growing world of technology, no matter what your talent amount to, without education, you are doom. It is through education, that you will learn how to express yourself clearly and logically, it would improve your problem solving ability, through education, you will discover that you are talented in many fields. So get educated you will never ask what your talent are.CHALLENGE THE CHALLENGER THAT CONFRONT YOU:
Any problem is a program for progress, that is what I know, Robert Schuller said “any problem is an opportunity”, there’s no smooth way to success; ask any successful person, the more you overcome your challenges the more the list of your achievements increases. In the way to success will always come challenges, I call them “test”, because the more you pass them, the more you are promoted to the next level. I have tried to write many times, but I always stop on the way because of one thing or the other, I used four years to learn guitar before I was able to run a full note smoothly, the hardest thing for me to do then was for me to stand before people to do anything. But after I sum up courage to “challenge the challenger” that always confront me in those areas, today people now read my articles, they want to hear me speak. I was shock, the day my choir master told me that nobody plays the bass guitar in the church, anytime that I travel. I don’t know whether you are learning any lesson. The hardest way is always the best way.CONSIDER WHAT RESOURCES ARE AVAILABLE:
Think outside the box, do not consider the resources in your hand, look at the world and the resources around you, see how you can combine this with the right course you have chosen, make a talent out of it. Don’t think of money to start with, money, skills and energy will come if you put your time and brain power to work. Pray that God should open your eyes to see opportunities around you; I read a story of new company who want to establish a branch office in an interior part of a particular country, so the company sent out two of their staff f to this interior village for market survey. One of them return to tell the company that there will be no purchase, because the people don’t wear shoe at all, then the other tell the company to do anything possible to establish the company in the land before another company steals the opportunity from them, ‘that the people there don’t wear shoe at all’. Have you learned anything? Consider the people around you, consider their problem, consider the opportunities around you, consider the natural resources around you, use your brain power you will surely be the next talented person.
I hope you enjoy the lesson. Thank very much for taking time to read this, I hope you have learn something today.
