PULL YOURSELF UP FROM YOUR GROUND ZERO

I will call him Sam. He was one of my Primary School Head Teacher’s many kids. Our head teacher was a brand. His name still reverberates with awe and respect. He was a tall gentleman with a knack of disciplining people at will. He put us in line. He loved hijacking Primary 7 and 8 students early morning with mental arithmetic. He was a Genius with Mathematics.

Sam, one of his sons was not ‘that’ blessed. He flanked his papers. Do not get me wrong. Sam loved school. He was disciplined. He was respected. Yet he just could not for his life make it in school. Yet, there was one more thing…Sam, with no technical knowledge could single handedly repair transistor radios, watches and other electronic gadgets. He was simply a Genius at this. What path did Sam take? The school path. His talents ignored. His Genius taken for granted, because someone somewhere had said that if you do not have a degree, you are a failure in life!

The past three posts have been passionate about having no excuses. I know, I know. If we compared he who has a degree with him who doesn’t, you would say that the former has ‘a step in the door’ as compared to the latter. That is supposedly to be true. Yet I have conducted interviews and I have seen numerous people weilding papers unable to convince me that they are up to the task. I have been on record in my past assignment to have hired an individual who did not have the said papers.

To prove that I made the correct decision, several months down the line when I was no longer involved in the project, this individual was retained and even congratulated for the good work he kept doing. Yes, the papers will give people a foot in the door as compared to those who do not have them. And Yes, we need as many people as possible to study and acquire them papers…but NO! We have no business shoving aside others that do not have papers and label them failures! We need to re-think our strategies as well as our success yardsticks.

Today, we need to consider the options available to those who were never blessed one way or another to have graduated. I am a firm believer that there must be something worth-while that someone can do. The biggest mistake that people make is when they count themselves out of the path of success, significance, wealth and greatness, just because they have no papers.

I am writing a book titled ‘My Jog To Success’, which will be released in the next few months. In this book, I explore the options available to those who find themselves down and out. Indeed the book is not just for those without papers. In the present world, there are more and more people with Degrees who cannot find employment.In fact, in order to increase their chances, more and more people are going in for the second degree and a Masters.

Some say that there are no jobs. Others say that even if they started a business, there would be no capital to get it off the ground. What options do people have when they are totally down and out? I submit that the advent of Conscious Business Entrepreneurship is here. This is where we take ‘whatever we have in our hands’ and use it to the blessing of the world, thereby making a life out of it. What you have in your hand could be your talents, your gifting, your knowledge. For me, few months ago, it was a mere session of jogging that has literally changed my life and given me what I can bless the society with.

In my coaching sessions with my clients, we take a deep introspection to understand their unique advantage in life. We normally find out that there are some things that they are so strong and passionate about, yet they take them for granted. This is the biggest impediment to Conscious Business Entrepreneurship. Taking what you love for granted. Let me say this: Never Ignore or take lightly what you know, what you love, and what you are passionate about. 

My challenge is that everyone who has been a residue of the Academia should look up, square their shoulders and pull themselves up! You are not a failure. You were never born a failure. What do you have in your hand? What are you passionate about? What are your talents? Pull yourself up! Take stock on what you have. You are a Genius. All you need is FOCUS, PERSEVERANCE, and PASSION. Take action on your strengths. Stop being bogged down by today’s meal on the table, and the end-months bills. They will always be there. Now is the time to pull thy humble self up…and by all means you can do it!

Yet we have already understood why many people count themselves out. It is because of the conditioning that we have gone through. The systems tell us to go to school, score high grades and get a good job. Therefore, from the onset, our yardstick of success has always been something of this nature: SCHOOL, GRADUATION, JOB, SPOUSE, KIDS, HOUSE, RETIRE. Then we faithfully pass the next generation through the same path. In all due honesty that is not the only path available to take. This thought is so crucial to the extend that the people who fail short of that said path normally consider themselves failures! There is lots of work to do to totally dismantle this stereotype.

I am not so sure, but I think I heard that one Eighty-Million-Pound worth of a football player is semi-illiterate. And there goes the label. Semi-illiterate…because the only measuring yardstick of genius is papers…like I said, there is lots of work to do. So, School, Graduation, Job, Spouse, Kids, House, Retire? What about Others? What about making an impact in society? What about leaving a legacy behind? I tend to think that this path that has been touted even before I was born is selfish, self-centered and motivated by fear. It is moved my a mindset of ‘survival for the academic fittest’….and sadly, it is running out of options.