Tools Needed to Stand Out: Skills

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Introduction

Intoday’s world, there are many skilled and educated people. Many are just going about doing their daily jobs dispassionately while others are cutting corners and stepping on toes to become successful.

Most extremely qualified people in the business and professional world cannot even eat three square meal a day. Being educated is no longer enough in our world. Skills is much needed. There is no margin for failure. III John 2 says “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.”

As a child of God, before you become Prosperous, You need to discover your God given assignment on Earth. Money doesn’t come to you because you are a Christian, a Pastor, a Beautiful Lady, a handsome young man, etc. It gravitates to you when you are solving a problem.

Don’t have the mentality that some are born to be rich while others are born to be poor. Everyone is born to be rich. Genesis 2:15 says “And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden – to dress it and to keep it.”

So ask yourself the following questions:

As an individual,

  • What are you created to dress, tend or care for?
  • What are you born to look after?
  • What are you keeping your eye on?
  • What are you watching over?
  • What is it that God has created you to give your strength and passion to?

Discovering Your God-Given Assignment

God brought you into this world to take care of something. What is that thing?

If 10 People are kept in a room, only two out of ten or maximum three out of ten are naturally born with their skills. Others have to discover it.

Tool #1: Skills

Skills give you the capacity to do something well; it is a technique, an ability. Skills are usually acquired or learned; natural abilities, which are often thought of as innate, but skilled abilities are learned.

It also means to have personal or practical knowledge; be versed or practiced; be an expert or dexterous.

God ordained you and separated you to accomplish an assignment on the face of the Earth. If you are doing anything outside of that, life will be full of troubles.

That you messed up doesn’t stop you from being you. All you need to do is clean up.

You are not a mistake. Whether you were born out of wedlock or not. You are a child of destiny. Know fully within you that you are wonderfully made. Know it well. Be Sure. Because no one else will know it for you.

Psalm 139: 14-18 says “I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them. How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with thee.”

Isaiah 49: 1 says “Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken, ye people, from far; The LORD hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name.”

Vs 5 says “And now, saith the LORD that formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob – again to him, Though Israel – be not gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the LORD, and my God shall be my strength”. (KJV).

If God required in your destiny blueprint that you will be a girl, He won’t have made you a man. God does not make mistakes. He gave you everything you need.

Say this prayer right now, God open my eyes to see the things that was written concerning me in your book.”

What Is Your God-Given Assignment?

You have an assignment on earth. At 17, Joseph had a picture of his future. At 12, Jesus knew His assignment.

Your beauty is not a gift. Your muscle is not a gift. When you are a successful actress, teacher or Pastor, it is an assignment. 

There is strength, wealth and glory in walking in the path of God’s purpose in your life.

If you are doing what you are called to do and it doesn’t take sleep out of your eyes, you aren’t there yet. Ordinarily, research has shown that from age 0-25 years is when you gather your skills, passion and dreams. And from 25-50 years, you give it your all. If at 25 years you are still doing trial by error, something is wrong. Your strength at 25 is different from your strength at 50.

There is no meaning to life until the discovery of one’s self. Know and learn these:

  • You cannot enjoy peace until you find out what you are called to do.
  • We are not called to do the same thing. Just like we are different, there are differences in our assignment.
  • If you need to pray, pray. If you need to fast, fast. Do whatever you need to do to fulfill purpose.
  • You are not on the surface of the earth to play. You are here to fix something. You are here to tend to a garden.
  • Discover your skills and discover the problems you can solve.
  • Those who fix problems earn more.
  • Find a need and fix it.
  • It is good to pray. But the money that will make you rich will come from fixing problems.

“Seeth a Man who is diligent in his work, He will not stand before ordinary men, He will stand before Kings.” Proverbs 22:29.

Getting formal education is good, but it only helps to enhance your skills. Education polishes you. The uneducated ones with skills hire the educated to do their jobs for them.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t go to school to be educated. I’m only showing you the disadvantages of being educated without skills in today’s world.

The world is no longer looking for educated people. The world is looking for educated skillful people.

 The Tony Elumelu Foundation offers a platform that empowers African entrepreneurs with opportunities ranging from business management training to mentoring, to funding to networking – championing their cause and giving them a global voice to actualize their ambitions. Now that’s an opportunity to raise capital to finance your idea.

When NITEL was still the major Telecoms system in Nigeria, I had to drive long hours and hundreds of miles just so I could call my folks in America. Sometimes, I had to wait for them to call back. Then someone came into power and introduced GSM services into the Nigeria telecommunication market. Now I can make an international call from the comfort of my bedroom. I no longer need to drive miles to make such calls. Why? Because someone saw a need and fixed it.

An aircraft has a million spare parts, and all those spare parts were gotten from our planet, they weren’t gotten from heaven.

Think deep. Find a problem and fix it.

Have you ever come across some of these savage nurses in Nigerian hospitals who will stab you with needle and syringe several times just because they want to draw blood sample from your body? That experience is extremely painful. There should be a machine or an app just like all these other medical machines that helps to draw blood without the use of needle and syringe. That’s a problem that needs to be fixed.

Pastor Tunde Bakare’s mother, Late. Mrs Abigail Bakare traveled overseas. What took her there? Her skills. There was a need to learn the science of making adire (Yoruba tie and dye) and because she was very good at this skill, she was recommended to travel out and teach how the tie and dye material were made locally.

Sharpening Your Skills

Once you discover your skill(s), sharpen your skills. Everything good given to mankind was given in a raw state. You need to develop your skills. Take special professional courses, go for trainings, attend seminars, etc. Don’t stop. Keep improving yourself.

As a young boy in school, I was very shy. I could not face the crowd. Once there are more than two people, there will be a problem. I become tongue-tied and timid. But an Incident helped me to overcome this shyness. This incident took place when I was in high school while I was in form two, I had a school father who had a special need which propelled me to be of service to him. This school father was the president of the school literary and debating society. One day an intra school debate was organized and my school father decided that I, his beloved school son who could not face more than two people, will be the First Speaker opposing the motion “The Pen is mightier than the Sword”.

I went to meet my school father and tried to wiggle my way out of the debate but my school Father refused. He even went as far as telling me that he will not give me points to assist me.

I sat down in one corner and cried.

Then one of my school father’s friend who was a boxer and had won several boxing trophies for the school approached me, took my hands and dragged me to the back of the boys hostel where there was enough banana plants/trees.

The guy told me to face the banana plants, see them as crowds and starting opposing my motion. I looked at him as if he had lost his senses.

He saw the expression on my face and told me something; “I did not suddenly become the best boxer in this school. I kept practicing with this banana plants and used them as opponents. So face those trees and start talking.”

And that was how I started debating with banana plants. On a daily basis. Until the D-Day arrived.

On the day of the debate, I came out with a Cutlass. Back then, I was so short that they had to put a bench on the podium so I could climb and be seen by the audience. After the first speaker from the supporting team had spoken, it was my turn to speak.  After all protocols were duly observed, I turned to the audience and said “Please tell my opponent to wait for me”. Then I got down from the bench, bent down, picked my cutlass, and rushed towards my opponent. The opponent saw the speed with which I was approaching with a Cutlass and ran off.  Then I turned towards the crowd and said “As you can all see, the sword is mightier than the pen”. That was how I won the debate that day.

That particular incident shaped my life from that moment and over the years, with the help of God, I became an eloquent Public Speaker.

Discovering your talents is not enough. Sharpening your skills is also crucial.

To be continued…

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