You Will Only Shine In The Area Of Your Gifting

YOU WILL ONLY SHINE IN THE AREA OF YOUR GIFTING

“Wealth does not come from your job; it comes from your personal gifting”-Myles Munroe

I will like to start this write-up by correcting a misconception among youths: Your certificate does not attract wealth; it is the creative use of your gifts, talents and unique abilities that do. Your certificate will only give you the space and platform to showcase your gifts and talents. Education without the discovery of your gift won’t take you far in life. Your education is not your secret to wealth and fulfilment; the discovery of your gift and talent is. Many people are poor because of the wrong and nonchalant attitude towards their gifts and talents. When you constantly neglect your gifts and talents in pursuit of a certificate, you will be poor! The secret to your lifting is in your gifting.

Everyone has been given an innate gift to do something unique that no one else can do; everyman is gifted for something. The core purpose of the education should be discovering one’s gifts and talents as early as possible. There is no man that is as poor and miserable as the one that carries all his gifts, talents and potentials to the grave. Real wealth is discovering your gifts and talents and making the world a better place through it. Education will never make you wealthy; it will only give you a platform to express your gift. Real wealth lies not in your job but in your gifts, talents and passion. While the poor go around looking for job with their certificates, the rich discipline themselves to DISCOVER, DEVELOP AND DEPLOY their God given talents and gifts.
Any education that does not teach us to discover, nurture and develop our gifting and uniqueness is a waste! We need to redesign our educational sector in such a way that it allows for the nurturing of individual gifts. Education cannot solve the problem of unemployment; entrepreneurship built around the discovery of our gifts and passion will.

I have often advise some of my mentees never to leave their gifts dormant while pursuing and hunting for jobs with their certificates. There must be a complementary balance in the pursuit of your passion and in the search for jobs. Everybody is gifted for something, but the winning edge comes from our ability to work on our gifts and bless the world with it. The very best way to develop yourself is in the direction of your natural talents and interest. Don’t bury your TALENT with your certificates.

The purpose of education is to stir up and ‘fan’ our gifts into flame. Real education should ignite our gifts and passion, but it is sympathetic to know that the present day form of education extinguishes our gifts and buries our talents! The Bible says in 1 Timothy 4:14, ‘’Neglect not the gift that is in thee.’’ The kind of education we practice today teaches more about things and not ourselves; it has been flawfully designed to neglect and abandon our personal gifts. One of the greatest philosophers that ever lived, Socrates, summarized the whole essence of education: ‘’Man know thyself.’’ The key to success is in discovering your uniqueness and talents. The best education should show us how to unleash our potentials and gifts. Most times the possibilities within are limitless and inexhaustible, and it is pitiable that the African form of education teaches a man to his own neglect.

One of the most famous stories of the supremacy of gift is that of Adolf and Rudolf Dassler. The evolution of modern sportswear brands started with these two uniquely gifted German boys with no formal education but with gifted hands. Rudolf and Adolf Dassler started as cobblers (shoe makers) and started making sport wears from their mother’s kitchen after the end of the devastating World War I. They started out making bedroom slippers using scavenged materials such as used tires, old helmets and ruck sacks. Adolf, a sports fanatic, began transforming the slippers into light weight gymnastic and soccer shoes with cleats. The brothers first sold a shoe made specifically for tennis players, and then began creating shoes for other sports. Their journey to international limelight and global recognition came during the 1936 summer Olympics in Berlin, and the Olympic Games gave them a platform to equip Jesse Owens of U.S.A with their wears. Jesse Owens ended up winning four gold medals in the year he wore Dassler’s magic shoes which later became the brand called Adidas!

Adidas was incorporated in 1948 by Adolf Dassler following the split between him and his elder brother, Rudolf Dassler. Rudolf later established PUMA which was registered in 1949. Adidas revenue for 2019 was $17 billion, second only to Nike ($32 billion), PUMA came fifth with a revenue of $5.1 billion. It is amazing how the story of Adidas and PUMA evolved from a woman’s kitchen with two young kids with nothing but gifted hands. The former brand slogan of Adidas symbolizes the limitless possibilities in human gifts –‘’Impossible is Nothing.’’

Myles Munroe said, “When you discover your gift, you find your area of authority in life.’’ Our individual gift is an indicator of our purpose and until we discover and nurture it, we will continue to travel another man’s journey. The educational system has prepared us to get addicted to looking for casual jobs, and we sometimes end up becoming casualties! I normally tell graduates during some of my training sessions that they are not unemployed because they can’t find a job; they are unemployed because they have not started using their gifts and talents to solve problems. Unemployment has little or nothing to do with job vacancies; it is a function of whether we are putting our gifts to use or rendering them dormant.

I want to reach out to everyone out there: make your gift your profession. Discover and monetize your gift. Whether as a full-fledged passion or a retirement plan, monetizing your gift and hobby is the most sustainable way of living. Look inward and repackage what you love doing to make money. Making money from your gift and hobby is excitation, but making money from your job alone is exhaustion. We must educate the youth to discover their latent gifts and potentials instead of wasting their precious time and ‘destiny’ looking for jobs that only exist in the figment of their imagination. The job you are looking for is not out there, it is right within your gifting.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “The purpose of life is to discover your gift. The work of life is to develop it. The meaning of life is to give your gift away”-David Viscott