BUSINESS IS ALL ABOUT TRADE - TRADE YOUR TALENTS

Skills and Talents are a valuable resource one can possess in the market place of life. In fact, putting talent and time to use, one can get as much money as your heart can desire. I once knew a young man who travelled abroad with almost nothing save a backpack and his dreams. He was skilled and well vast in the creative space particularly media. Although it took him time to acquire a work permit and to get a good employ to work his skills at, he already got going from day one by selling his skills in exchange for the needed stability he required to settle down.

He got talking to the employment agency staff and told them about his ability to design graphic elements, posters and the like and did a few for the office there. Immediately, the lady took up his case file, giving him tips and helping him secure the best job offers. She also linked him with small businesses requiring design services, gave him hints as to what to expect and how to negotiate a good salary at the interview. His talent had opened up doors for him.

I was doing some random browsing on some international job sites and I realised that there is a huge demand for skilled labour, in fact, the Canadian embassy has a dedicated residency route for the skilled labour force to get into the country (Don't ask me how I know o!). That is the leverage you can get through your talents.

While there is a lot of variation in the distribution of talents particularly within the creative space, what I have found out is that anything can be learnt. Most times the gifted people tend to just sit on their rocking chairs, not putting in the requisite amount of effort needed to take them to the next level. You can achieve even much more with dedication and hard work.

As with the holy triad of business (TIME, MONEY and TALENT), you will require time and sometimes money to acquire talent or to develop the ones you currently have. Time will need to be invested to come into mastery of whatever endeavour you have decided to go into. The book "Outliers" estimated that you require about 10,000 hours of investment into a particular endeavour (skill) to become a master at it and prove it with a lot of examples to follow.

The first thing I will advise is to sit down with yourself and conduct an interview, get to know yourself and your proclivities. What makes you happy and gives you a sense of fulfilment. Ultimately, you need to be able to funnel all those information into deciding a skill to go into. Usually, I advise people to follow their passion, but I have realised that so many people are passionate at things they are not really good at and they keep pushing without making any tangible progress. You should understand that there are things that you will naturally not be good at. I rather advise people instead to look out for opportunities, areas where they can proffer solutions and in the last decade the opportunities that have arisen are endless.

Understand that the ultimate aim of your investment in talents is to be able to trade with it, so do not spend so much time training and training, get your hands dirty! Pick up a volunteer project that will challenge you with real-world problems and help you develop competency beyond the training classes. Particularly for soft skills, I have known people who have been able to accelerate their training process just by handling a real-life job, call it on-the-job training.

A man of talent cannot be stranded - UMA (2019). I remember vividly when I started my photography career. I had just finished my graduate studies and had not gotten a placement yet in my desired place of employ. All I did was to fall back on what I knew to do and amazingly at some point I almost felt like abandoning any prospects I had of a job and pursuing a career in photography. I made three times my monthly startup income in three days, it was that tempting. I have gone on to advise as many as I have been able to talk with to engage in developing skills that they can leverage on in the future.

Skills are broadly categorised into two - soft and hard skills. Soft skills have to do with things involving software and not necessarily handy work or craftsmanship which are hard skills. Examples of soft skills include; programming, photography, graphics design, video editing, data analysis, while hard skills include; fork lifting, sewing, plumbing, electrical wiring, carpentry and the likes. I was amazed when I realised the dwindling amount of handymen that were available. With an increase in the number of buildings and construction, there is a higher demand for builders, carpenters and the likes unfortunately like the taxi guy I took sometimes last month said, "All the youths now ride okadas (motorbikes)" and are not willing to go into any form of handy work.

Soft skills also are in high demand, most companies locally and abroad are beginning to wake up to the need for a forward thinking digital based operation, this makes the demand for programmers and data scientists very high. The creative space also in dire need of interested and passionate individuals. All you need to succeed is to be passionate, committed and dedicated and the rewards will come in no time.

If you are a student, I will encourage you to start learning a skill. You can dedicate 6 hours weekly to it and before you are through, you'll be a professional already, having something you can rely on while you navigate your future careers. I have known several people that have left their day jobs to focus fully on their "hobbies". You can also do the same, but you need to start making the investment no that you still have the time.