Sir, Please Share Your Knowledge!
Everyone arrive life with something for someone else. Life is wired in such a way that we need each other and what we know is what someone else needs. The problem though has always been for most persons, how to get it out.
It’s great to study people’s books to get all they have written in your head. It’s great to listen to all those mentors and teachers. But at some point in your life, you should not just be a pot where others empty themselves into you. You are not meant to be a reservoir for life. You should reach a point in life, where you become full and overflow so that others can have a taste of what is in you.
It’s great that you are investing in yourself. The question you should answer is “when will you invest in others?” You run to the church, to that conference, to listen to that pastor or speaker. You listen to that podcast and you realize at some point that those you listen to don’t get it all right. You think you have a unique revelation or understanding, but no one is hearing about it because you have refused to release what you have.
It’s not enough to sound scholarly by virtue of what you have learnt; a time arrives when the people you are influencing with your knowledge will matter.
Before you turn forty, you should have begun the process of self-emptying and self-replication. People should thank God that you came along their path and inspired them to be a better of themselves. They should be glad that contacting you brought a unique turnaround in their fortunes.
The problem with most people is that they want an already made stage. They want to seize opportunities created by some other person. It’s great to seize opportunities but if you are not the well, you are not the well.
It’s difficult investing into people who are already tied to some other person. It will take real hardwork to change people’s mindset even if you have tangible proofs and reasons for your divergent view point.
You have to create your own stage where those who arrive to you recognize that it’s not just about what others are doing, but it’s about what you are doing. This is key.
Check out many of the pastors, teacher, motivational speakers are being celebrated today. They didn’t start today. They started in their twenties and early thirties and they’ve rose through the ranks to what they have achieved today. They took deliberate steps one after the other and then finally they hit the base running.
You may think “what do I know?” But the question I ask you is “what don’t you know?” Before forty, if you’ve been a lover of books, if you’ve been developing yourself, you should have had sufficient knowledge base or experiences that you can share to others who are running behind you.
You should have discovered that area of life where you have strength at.
If you are confused where to start from at influencing people, start with what you already know. You’d be surprise that there are people who are looking for someone to put them through on that skill that you have and are overlooking.
You can sing, pick up a few people you can impart your singing skills into. You can write, how about if you share to interested person your writing skill? Start with what you can do.
To be able to mentor people, you have to be an example. You have the responsibility to develop yourself to the point where you are able to feel confident about your capacity to impact others.
It’s about developing some degree of confidence about your capability. There are people who aren’t as gifted as you are but who are releasing all they have because they are confident about the much or little they know. They can boast about what they know and push in energy to get it out for others.
You don’t have to know the world to be able to impart the lives of people. Start with the little you know.
By forty, you should have developed your platform. Its huge work creating a platform but the right time to create that platform is now! You have the strength today to do the running around that characterizes starting great platforms. As you grow older, your strength will begin to wane. By then you should have acquired financial resources to keep the vision running.
Everyone is called to a helping ministry. You need others, and others need you. You are certainly the sum total of several inputs from people. It won’t be great enjoying all the good from others and not transferring the same to others who are less privileged.
Who are those who will carry your flame? They are the people you help. They will be the ones who will always look back and be grateful you helped them see light.
Everyone needs some person’s shoulders to see farther. If you let others find your shoulder to make that leap in your life, this is what God would love you do.
Nobody becomes anything by himself no matter how talented you are. At that talent you seem to celebrate your excellence at, someone had to open your eyes to see that what you had was a talent. Let someone use your eyes to see their own talent too.
Most people are not willing to invest in people if they won’t get anything valuable from the venture. It’s beautiful if you are paid a price for your efforts at helping people become better of themselves but it is even priceless if you help them without a price.
Making investments in people is the best gift you will ever give them whether they appreciate it or not. You want to intentionally look out for people you can help to see more in themselves.
Most mentees look up at their mentors to model their lives like their mentors. It’s great if people want to be like you. But becoming like you shouldn’t be their goal. You should allow them strive to be the better of themselves by seeing how you are striving to better yourself.
Before you turn forty, start a training center, a college for young people, and an online training program. By all means start something you will be using as a platform to share your knowledge. Most of the things we know, we learnt.
A sad truth is that most persons die with what they know. Many of them should have made tremendous impact through life and for life, but they kept it all to themselves, didn’t share and so life lost that influence, that effect they should have had.
Your goal through life should be to die empty. Get this into your head. You won’t be making sense for life if you are full with all the things you are supposed to release for life.
Develop a mentorship program. The younger you are, the more zest and energy you’d have to share or give to what you are passing down the line. If you want to create men, you do have to mentor them.
Pastors in church mentor people to become pastors too. They mentor members to become like Christ. Jesus Christ started his mentorship programme at thirty with his twelve disciples and he grew his followers subsequently. Today, more than two thousand years after, his effect is still feverishly felt.
Imagine if Jesus had died before he started the process of self-emptying, no one would have felt his impact today like we do. Christendom is what it is today because Jesus decided he had to empty all he knew of God.
As much as we think that here is still time in the future, all the time you have is now! Make the most of now. Start something, start somewhere.
One pastor Abel Damina of Power City International was asked one of his regrets in ministry. What he said was baffling. He said “he had not raised people early enough in the ministry”. He had not realized the need to raise people, but as he grew older he realized that his ministry would have grown bigger if he had mentor people to take responsibility.
If you want to reach more people a few years from now, mentor more people. They will go to the places you may not go. And you don’t have to go everywhere when others are going there. They’d naturally carry your light with them.
Even if you fear that the people you are mentoring may not directly impact you or your organization, it’s still your light they are sharing because you got them the light in the first place.
Mentorship is a powerful tool to raise and empower people. At forty, you should be running the heat, helping younger people discover their purpose for living because you have discovered yours.
Don’t turn forty and you are not impacting or influencing people. It will be a sin.