It goes without saying that times are indeed desperate because there is deprivation and lack almost everywhere. Now, some of us are used to the words "Desperate times require desperate measures" or something in that regard. What we experience right now requires nothing short of desperate measures to match the tough times.
Lately, requests for financial aid and support have become a norm and this trend has only increased and may not abate any moment soon as long as economies around the world stay in recession and depression as they are right now.
Across the divide, we find people of different age groups, gender, and the like making requests from persons they perceive have a little to part with. While I have often pondered about this situation, the thought only received impetus this moment and this is why I have chosen to write.
Like the saying goes, "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." This saying holds true today. With the increased asking in the space today, the solution is not to give fish, because that can only do so much, but the solution is to teach how to fish. Though a tougher solution to the problem, it is an enduring one because once people engage with the idea of being taught, they can travel with same to achieve learning through use.
Now, my experience with some persons, mostly the young ones, is that the majority of them are not willing to bend. They choose what they want to do. Making such a choice is good but the main question is not about resonance now; the idea is about putting food on your table while you strive to simultaneously strengthen competencies in your area of natural inclination.
In the past 5 or 6 months, I have had to go back to doing things that I stopped doing for the past 8 years. During the major lockdown and when it was relaxed, I yielded to calls to facilitate online classes to prepare high school students for the WASSCE, which have just been concluded. This happened on zoom and other online platforms.
Also, I offered face-to-face mentorship classes to teens who have just finished high school, mainly those who did Year 11, not Year 12 [SSCE] because of the kind of schools they attended [schools that offer the IGCSE]. Some of these were services I provided and the payback was good. During the period, publishing "Ascents and Descents" on Amazon and selling the e-version locally, attracted good inflow of resources to keep me in focus as I seek deeper value.
I am often amazed at some young persons and the choices they make when they are offered new opportunities which require that they have to bend a little away from what they are used to or where they have been trained. These same persons come back to make requests from you and I wonder where they think you get the resources from. They are unaware that some of the opportunities that they rejected are the same ones that you are cashing in on. And when you try to line them up, many of them are not ready to listen.
No doubt times are hard. That is the norm right now, as it is referred to as the new normal but what songs of discomfort can we sing in order to make ends meet? This has nothing to do with doing anything untoward like using what you have to get what you want. Nobody is asking you to sell your body. Neither is anyone asking you to be a gigolo. You can apply yourself to learning a new skill. You can do something honourable; something within the limits of propriety.
Recently I offered to sponsor a graduate of Mass Communications who had asked for help with a job in the area of sales and customer service. The sponsorship was in the area of customer service management, but she rejected the offer because it was not in line with how she had envisaged customer service. This is the problem with our poor education that only earns us paper qualifications, but not the skills to solve simple and everyday problems through applying our minds and imagination to situations.
I title this post "What Skills are you Selling?", because not many of us know that our skills are the fish we have to learn how to trade with. We have problems with endurance. We forget that enduring through tough situations is sacrosanct with the skill of adaptability. Unless you are able to adapt to the present realities, you would continue to be subjected to a life of misery. I do not say this to be unreasonably harsh or to serve the purpose of condemnation but this truth must be said.
I like the way Wyclef Jean puts it in these lines: "Sometimes, you have to do these transitional jobs to get to where you have to go to, but it’s okay. If you got to sell bedsheets, sell these bedsheets. Do what you have to do. Do it with pride, but at the same time, do not let any job that you do kill your dream because the only thing that can make you feel alive is your dream. Very important. You have to make that decision and say, ‘I’m going to do this.’ Not, ‘I’m thinking about doing this.’ That’s why I say you have to love it."
As I said, you can do something now to keep you going. Though it may not be in the area of your natural inclination or resonance, it will keep you sane and away from personal embarrassment. while you diligently and simultaneously work at your dream, which aligns with your depth.
Selling is one skill that we all have to learn to do, however inconveniencing it maybe. We have to discomfort ourselves to learn and hone it. Selling starts with selling yourself. If you do not really appeal to someone sometimes, you may not earn patronage. This has a lot to do with how you brand yourself; how you carry yourself; how you build yourself from the inside to the outside. It is your personal brand because you are a brand. You have to brand yourself on and offline through what you share.
I pay a young man I met online to look at my writings and training resources. This is despite the fact I edit documents, too. He proved himself worthy of patronage through his posts. I have had to pay others to print things, to record my events, to edit videos and such stuff because they have the skills to do those things while I concentrate on developing content, my forte.
You can learn to sew as some are doing. My best native and other clothes are made by young graduates who are professionals in different fields of endeavour. They had to acquire sewing skills. You do not have to be a tailor or fabric designer. But you can find other skills. I have a young friend who started by visiting importers on Lagos Island, snapping items and displaying on her WhatsApp status and Instagram handles.
Today, Abimbola imports her own items on order and sells. Besides that, she has learned to make clothes. I have known her for almost five years and she never asked me a dime. Tosin is another one I met on LinkedIn. She trained and worked as a teacher and exhibited great note-taking and writing skills. I profiled that based on her comments on my posts. When I needed to hire a contract staff for a 6-month consulting job I had, I reached out to her and she delivered fantastically.
I have also had to guarantee Tosin for another contract job she did for UBA and today since the lockdown, she makes grilled foods like chicken, turkey, fish and Irish potato chips for sale in Bariga. She is on the verge of opening a second outlet. These are young people doing great things and even disrupting established brands.
I have known Taiwo for over fifteen years. He presses my clothes. First, he worked for someone performing that service. But his boss mismanaged and used him without commensurate remuneration. He left to start his own cleaning outfit. His outfit has endured for more than a decade now. He has added catering services to people by serving packed lunch meals in the Akowonjo and Shasha areas. He has two outlets at the moment and working on three more. He developed this model from his aging mother who is an event caterer. Taiwo is also an event manager. Meanwhile, he has no college or any post-secondary education qualification.
Many persons are far from being selfless. They think only about themselves, about what they can get from others; never about what they can give. That mentality of always taking and never giving is going to get you where you do not want to. You keep wondering why you are stuck in a mire. Skills get developed through service. Mastery is earned through showing up consistently. You cannot become proficient without being selfless.
It is good if you think that an opportunity that someone presents to you is not worth your while; at least you know what you want. But do know that the moment you reject such a support you may not be able to go back to such a person again for handouts. The ability to help oneself out through being of service to others is an uncommon one. It means that you have developed skills that you can offer in exchange for money. Think about this a moment.
Find out what is a need in your environment. What we consume on data today has spiralled beyond what we spend on regular call charges. While the payback may not be as handsome as the personal problems we have , it is a place to look at and perhaps give a shot. Despite the lack of resources, we still spend money to pay for services and products. Some people thought we would need such products and services and they marketed them.
Times of intense need and dearth of money are also times of great discoveries of talent, gifts, creativity and innovation through the use of imagination and execution of little ideas in the delivery of value. It does not have to be something grandiose but it is something little enough not to be ignored in daily living.
Learning to listen to the problems of others is one great skill to learn and hone. An effective listener is investing huge emotional and otherwise energy like time, the virtue of patience, and connection so that through these you can earn huge feedback hearing the unsaid things from what has been said. This is not commonplace and it comes with practice.
We can go on and on about this but the important thing is for each of us to learn the art of paying attention, using observation, staying connected and engaging with others in order to gain uncommon access to them. These create pathways by which we can provide services and products to them. We must be deliberate about this and by so doing we can create for ourselves the life that we not only desire, but one we set goals to accomplish.
What are the skills that you are selling right now? And what are the skills that you can sell? The answer will lead you somewhere good and great.
If you haven't already, click here to get your e-version of my book, ASCENTS AND DESCENTS.
