The Phenomenon: How to Become One by Samuel Ufot Ekekere - HTML preview

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an OPPORTUINIST: be one.

Opportunities to excel don’t come every time. The opportunities that make you a phenomenon comes even less, yet phenomenal people discover opportunities and seize on them. They create from almost nothing and become the attraction of awe. The good attribute about them is that they create opportunities for themselves and for others too.

We are often blind to the myriad of opportunities that hang around because we have this myopic view seeing only the dirty, dusty diamond. We lack the tenacity and skill to cut and so we throw our diamonds away thinking it’s no good anyway. We are uncertain of our diamonds shining because we expect that every diamond has to shine. We have lost many great opportunities in life because of these.

The phenomenon is different. I’m sure you want to be one. He picks up the dirty diamond and smiles. I will take responsibility for the cutting and package it till it becomes the multi-million dollar treasure. Opportunities and the uncommon ones are rarely packaged in very nice packs. They come dirty and they require some patience and cleaning to make them shine. But they do shine; they are worth more than all the hassles and struggles.

What’s going to stand you out as a phenomenon is your ability to recognize giant opportunities even when they look so ragged. All the giant inventors, industrial giants and their likes were people who seized on opportunity. They saw ideas that looked so worthless from the myopic eyes of other persons but converted them into money making ventures worth billions of dollars.

During my days as a teaching corps, I had a friend who was posted to the University of Osun in southwest Nigeria. He looked around to see what service he could offer in the university to get him extra income. An idea poked his head. Since he was in a university, the students would need help with their research so he came to me seeking for advice. We exchanged ideas and soon enough, he had his first seminar on tutoring interested students on the use of a statistical software known as SPSS. He got some extra income. He further provided analyzing services for those who were writing their projects for a fee. He made so much money. That wasn’t enough. Since students had photocopying needs, he quickly bought a photocopier and soon he was making so much money from the venture.

As a member of a teaching corps, I was posted to a junior high schools. I observed I had more time so I decided to make some extra money with my teaching skills. I started by providing home tutorial services. I made some contacts and before a week or two, I had clients. My whole extra time was choked with making extra money that at a point I decided to quit some so as to have some rest time.

Often I remember the words of the chief executive of a newspaper house I once worked with. The man would always say, there are opportunities every time but our attitude towards them pushes them away from us. I agree with him wholesomely. We are often attracted to finished packaged but cheap products and less attracted to rusting but valuable ones. We are not ready to sacrifice some time and energy to work on a raw idea. We want a polished and finished idea.

To be a phenomenon you have to see out of the box. Pick up the rust clean it off and bring out its spark. This idea works with dealing with people too. The best hands in any field of endeavor were not the best from birth. If you want the best from anybody however raw their talent,

• You must agree that there is so much in them which is true.
• You must help them believe in their capacity to do much more than they are doing now.
• Invest in them. It is the surest conviction that you believe in them.

There are a few things you can do to optimize your chances of succeeding when an opportunity come your way.

• Get yourself prepared. In the book outliers, Malcolm Gladwell states thus: it takes time to achieve expertise. To be precise it takes about ten thousand hours of practice to become a true proficient. Ten thousand hours is no small time investment but it’s worth it for the kind of opportunities that you desire to come your way. The opportunity you desire may not be around just now but develop the mindset that it is coming and begin to prepare for it. Start with what you have. You want to be a renowned speaker, start speaking even if it means speaking to an empty room. You want to be an accomplished writer, write even if nobody reads. You want to be a great dancer, dance even if nobody’s watching. Once you have seriously invested yourself in the kind of opportunity you are desirous of, keep your eyes open because opportunities have a way of showing up once you’ve prepared for it.
• Acknowledge that you can’t have all the knowledge you need. The fact that you’ve invested so much time doesn’t mean you’ve obtained all the knowledge that you need. What this means is that there is still chance you may fail because you haven’t had a grasp of some truth. So keep learning. You may make mistakes and that’s certain.  But understanding that mistakes are just part of the bargain eases your mind and keeps you stable. Mistakes are opportunities to learn and gain more knowledge and experience. Mark Batterson writes thus “our best days often start out as our worst days. And our greatest opportunities are often disguised  as our biggest problems”
• Put a lid on those critical voices. There are people who wouldn’t see good in the opportunity you are trying to create. That’s normal. They will taunt you and rubbish all the hardwork you are putting into that opportunity you are trying to create. The best thing you can do is shut those voices. Close your ears to their howls and treat them like they don’t count or matter. You are the boss of your life not them. If you are going to make any headway, then you’ve got to treat them like one of the stories that will be told like “when I started out, nobody believed I could do it”.
• Put up a fight and believe. There is always this fear that pokes into our head as we struggle to make that dirty diamond clean. You doubt if what you are doing is enough to make a spark or if what you even holding is a diamond. Well, every phenomenon had that fear too. Your fearful self is one part of you. There is another who is stronger, wiser and with a huge capacity to fight. Trigger that man. Tell yourself “I’ll struggle till the last, I’ll never give up.” believe wholesomely in your idea and focus in creating that opportunity. Seize on the moment and be accorded a phenomenal status

You can’t afford to quiver on opportunities when they come because truly opportunities abound and everywhere. Your strength lies in you understanding that you are worth that phenomenon you want to be and you can be that man or woman that will stand head high. Seize the moment and seize it now.