Beautiful Nubia: Never Be Limited To The Confines Of Your Certificate

BEAUTIFUL NUBIA: NEVER BE LIMITED TO THE CONFINES OF YOUR CERTIFICATE

The solutions to problems around you will always put a demand on skills that are beyond your certificate. In order to live a successful life, you must be willing to travel and navigate beyond the confines of your certificate. The problems that you will solve on your journey to destiny fulfillment will require skills that you never acquired while in school. Education is not limited to a classroom, a structured period of time, or a formal instruction. You must be willing to navigate beyond the confines of your certificate to really make meaningful impact in life. Hear this: Graduates who don’t think beyond their certificates will ultimately be employed by those who do! Never allow your certificate to block, blanket or hinder your ability.

Mark Twain once said, “Don’t let schooling interfere with your education.” The proof of going to school is your certificate, but the proof of your education is in your ability to solve problems through innovation and creativity. The solutions to the problems that you’ve been called to solve will demand that you think beyond your degree qualifications and certificates. Don’t allow life restrict and define your ability through your certificates. You are full of limitless possibilities.

Segun Akinlolu, Nigerian-born songwriter, music composer, and bandleader, popularly known as Beautiful Nubia actually studied Veterinary Medicine at the University of Ibadan, Ibadan.  He went through school for six years to study veterinary medicine and also worked as a vet-doctor for eight years at the top level of veterinary medicine in the country. He did not allow his schooling to interfere with his unique abilities in composing music. Asides being a musician though, he is a poet, social critic and bundle of talent.

When we design our lives beyond our certificates, we will have many chances to bless the world through our unique abilities. He actually started writing songs when he was nine years old and would have loved to study Theatre Arts but his teachers convinced him otherwise because they believed that he was too brilliant to study a course meant for not-too serious minded students. He once said, “They told me that only people who aren’t brilliant study Theatre Arts. They said a brilliant child like me must be a doctor”.

The truth is that not everybody will be as lucky as Beautiful Nubia. Many kids have had their unique abilities buried for life just because they were unable to think beyond their certificates. They were conditioned by the school system to attach their identity to what they had studied in school. Some of Nigerian biggest stars in showbiz and entertainment have science, engineering, medical, and technology backgrounds. For example, Banky W studied engineering, while Kiki Omeili, Beautiful Nubia and Dr Sid have medical degrees. Okey Bakassi was once a Senior Special Adviser on Entertainment Matters to a former governor but was actually a graduate of Agricultural Engineering from the Rivers State University of Science and Technology (RSUST), Port Harcourt. Kate Henshaw studied Medical Microbiology at the School of Medical Lab Science, Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH). Kiss Daniels has a degree in Water Resources Management and Agrometeorology (Water Engineering) from the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta. Popular Nigerian singer and song writer, Sidney Onoriode Esiri, well-known as Dr Sid, completed a Dental Surgery course/degree at the University of Ibadan (UI) before pursuing his passion in entertainment. Tonto Dikeh studied Petrochemical Engineering at the Rivers State University of Science and Technology. I can go on and on with people that have medical and engineering backgrounds but ended up having deep fulfillment and making maximum impact in entertainment.

What innate skill do you have that you need to fire up? All of us have at least one innate skill but the challenge of schooling is that we don’t normally go in the direction of our innate skills. My own innate skill is ‘writing’ and I have been working on it since age ten. I did not allow my course of study in the university to choke it up as I always find time to write on topics that interest me. Discover that innate skill in you and fire it up with training and exposure. Afterwards, look for a platform to give expression to it, and it is just a matter of time before the whole world will come looking for you.

I want to give you an assignment to do as a youth: If you remove your certificate from the picture, what are those five things you can do effortlessly so well? List them out and hone them into tools to solve problems around you. This is actually the origin of entrepreneurship!

If you remove your certificate from the picture, what are those things you can do effortlessly so well? You will definitely need the knowledge you have acquired in school, but they must not define your limitation. Do not allow your certificate to put a limit on what you are capable of doing. Your education goes beyond acquiring certificate; your education is your ability to solve problems.

Your certificate may not reveal your natural endowment and unique abilities and that is why the list is endless for people who studied something in school but later found out that their circle of impact is really beyond their certificate. Do not allow your certificate to put a limit on what you are capable of doing; the world is full of limitless possibilities for people who can think beyond their certificate.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “Your education goes beyond acquiring certificate; your education is your ability to solve problems”- Gbenga Adebambo