Your God given properties can speak to you. Your Imagination can speak; so can your Talent. Take this message from Talent to Nigerian youths. It is an excerpt from my forthcoming book…TruNaija

Stop talking waiting for talent hunts of companies to discover yourself. Do it and set up a platform to market your talents, your God given life force for winning. Come together, organize yourself and set up an exchange for marketing your talents. You have heard of the Stock Exchange and the Commodity Exchange.

You can set up a Talent Exchange (Tal-Ex) where you can buy and sell your talent shares. It will be a rare innovation, the first of its kind in the world. Convert your talents into shares.

Become quoted on this Exchange and trade your talents there. Tal-Ex will amplify your worth in the market more than talent hunts. Why are they hunting you? Are you dangerous animals?

Develop the structure and operational systems of Tal=Ex. Stop waiting for others to do for you what you can do for yourself. If you keep waiting, the Pharaohs will continue to waste you. If nobody wants’ you, create the demand for you. Put a value on your talents and register them on the T-Exchange, then go forth and market you. Nobody will do it for you but your talent force. Do not despair.

Many organizations are coming to empower you. Talent is not enough. You have heard that before. It is true to some extent. You need to dig it out, refine it, package it, and market it. You also need to back your talent with education, hard work, and sacrifice and persistence. What is ruling the market of young minds is now Me Plc, in networks and clusters.  This is the time of Dream-Management. This is the time of formation of Passion and Talent Clusters.

You have to become what you do. That is talent fusing with passion. Manage your dreams, not just your finance and body. If you want to manage your health, you go to a pharmaceutical or herbal shop. If a T-Jane wants to manage her body, she goes to a cosmetics shop. But if you want to manage your dreams and passion, where do you go? There are no Talent Agencies, just as you have Advert agencies.

Talent Agencies should spring up and do business and with Employment Bureaus and Job Centres. Such Agencies will know who you are, where you are going, what you want to do and assist you. There are no Dream Shops or Passion Shops. You are stuck. We can at least make it more corporate by setting up more shops.

For instance, if you are of the Creative Tribe, Design tribe, Player or Imagination Tribe, there is no shop to go to, to buy or sell what you want to develop and create your own economy. Fear not, plumb the depths of your talent and passion and propel your way to the top. That is the only way to escape from the bondage of these Pharaohs. Stop waiting for efficient infrastructure, constant power supply, good roads and more. They are delay agents that are really delaying you  from getting to your Promised Land. Stop focusing on these Pharaohs. They are difficult but not impossible to dislodge. The moment you change focus from poor infrastructure and stop complaining, you will dislodge them.

Do not despair. Rise and take charge of your life. This is my charge to you today. Stop waiting for handouts. Some of you are working without passion where your talents are either abused or mis-used, or not adequately rewarded. They pay you small wages; even to get the minimum wage is proving very difficult. How long will you continue to remain like this when your passion and talent are crying out: See me,, tap me, use me, this is the way out of your bondage. That workplace where you are poorly paid is one of the outlets these Pharaohs use in holding you in bondage. They say they are helping you, they are fulfilling their promises, whereas they are holding you in bondage. The day you go the way of your talent and passion, even through the wilderness, you will set your lives free.

Breaking free requires force. And that liberation force is Talent Force and Passion Force. That is the way to go. On this highway, your work shows who you are. Your vocation is your vacation. Transform your selves into Talent Forces (TALFOR) in units of Talent Corps. Become active corps members on the highway to the top. Appoint Talent marshals to head each TALFOR unit. Their task is to drive youth to initiate Naija’s economic rebirth and create a new nation.

The governance system you should operate in your tribe is Talentocracy. In this system you don’t hold elections, only appointments and opportunities. You vote with your talents for jobs and projects. You submit to your Imagination who gives appointments.  Use of Talent and Creativity should be the dual system of governance in your tribe.

Be encouraged. Fear not piracy. Pirates are minor Pharoahs. If you can dislodge the major Pharaohs, you can do same to the minors. Pharaohs are everywhere, of different levels, sizes and power. But your talent and passion powers, if well used, will always overcome them even with difficulties.

Fear not and be encouraged. Fighters of piracy are springing up. The Nigerian Copyright Commission is now roaring like an angry Tiger and waging a fierce war against piracy. The Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON) is waxing stronger to fight piracy, check abuse and mis-use of copyrighted works, and to efficiently collect all royalties accruing to works of music and sound recordings. Hope rising. There is no more free lunch for those who use and enjoy such works without paying.

I am Talent. I challenge you to be true entrepreneurs. Think and innovate. Turn things around and be different. That’s the only way you can win. Take risks, challenge the status quo, question the way things are working as problems and challenges. Then package solutions, you will prosper.

Opportunities abound all around you waiting to be discovered. Youths, because of their young age cannot see beyond the surface, When they look, what they see are problems and challenges. Opportunities seldom appear as freebies. They appear as problems. That is what you see.

It is only the entrepreneurial youth with great insight, the person with creative eyes and talent, who is passion conscious that can look beyond the surface of these problems and see the opportunities inside there, and tap them with solution products and services. This is the secret of success…Talent power, passion cover, creative eyes that can see beyond the surface, enterprise, a hard work, perseverance, and excellent products.

Jesus Christ of Nazareth taught us in the scriptures: Ask and ye shall receive; Seek and ye shall find; Knock and it shall be opened unto you. Stop looking for free lunch. There are none available. Knock on the doors of problems and challenges facing you in Naija. If they don’t open, force the doors open with your talent power and seek the opportunities in that problem. You will find them. But first, you have to open that door and enter the problem. If you are outside and complaining, the door will never open. Those who shut the doors and present you problems will continue to oppress you and hold you in bondage. This is the time for you to break free.

I am Talent. I am in you. I am the key to your freedom,  that will open those shut against you from living a good life. I am available to be used. You can use me to be free and independent and be happy. Me and my cousin Passion guarantee you that happiness. But you have to use us. Many of you don’t, that is why you are oppressed, unhappy and frustrated in this stressful world. I am Talent. Every one of you has me. I am of various sizes and shapes,  types and forms. I can be talent of singing, writing, storytelling, creating, designing, carving and sculpturing, inventing, drawing, working on metals, acting, discovering, and playing football and other games, innovating, so many. You cannot exhaust me.

I am like a raw material lying dormant in you waiting for you to discover me, refine me, polish me and put me to work. Nobody can take me from you, but somebody can be using me through you either as a staff, employee servant or helper. Nobody can use Me in You without your consent or co-operation, unless it is forced labour or enslavement. That is what many of you are crying out against.

Some of you don’t even know you have Me in You, that is why you are exploited by those who have power, or see Me in You. Why are you blind to see Me in You. Discover Me and put Me to work. When you do that, leave the rest for me. Your liberation has started, you go to the top, and your freedom and happiness begins.

The only person that can stop me is your indiscipline. Not even lack of electric power, or lack of money or lack of support, or poor infrastructure. And that is why I say to you, when I am in motion, only indiscipline can stop me. I am in you; I know you, you are my landlord, yet you don’t know me. I am your tenant, ready to pay you rent, but you don’t want to collect it.

I have not been paying you rent because you have not discovered and polished me. As your tenant, that is my obligation. The day you discover me and I start working for you, I will begin to pay you rent and you will be rich. I am not happy lying dormant in you. Even death cannot do us part. I am here to serve you, yet you have not located me. You keep looking outside only to see despair and discouragement. Look inside, you will see a life transforming force and encouragement.


Eric Okeke is a storyteller, editor, business writer, motivational speaker and author of the best selling book: I Want a Husband. He is one of Nigeria’s most experienced financial journalists. He has published several articles in local and foreign publications and in websites such as http://www.ezinearticles.com, www.ezinearticles.com and www.writingcareer.com. He is currently running Infomedia Company, a media consulting and information marketing company. Visit his blog at http://sallywantsahusband.blogspot.com

Click here to return to the index of stories for Infosynthesis


Facebook Comments
Share