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o I am on my bed...staring at Microsoft Word on my system. Ever had that
strong feeling to write an article but don’t know what to write about? ...that’s
the feeling. Exactly how I’m feeling at the moment.
It’s funny
because writing has never really been my thing. Well, like a thousand other
young fellas out there, I have had a zillion other things I had wanted to do
growing up. The first I think was becoming a doctor. That one was so strong. It
was as though it was my destiny. I couldn’t at the time see myself doing
anything else. But then came acting, modelling, dancing, media, the list goes
on and on. As at now, I still have a few more on my plate. There’s photography,
painting, and I still want to be an OAP(On Air Personality). But the bulk of my
passion now lies with photography.
Photography is
an interesting field, pretty much on the expensive side. So that’s on the low for now. Painting – doing that at the moment. I completed
my 7th job today. All ‘job-no-pay’ as my kid cousin
would describe it. Let’s just say I’m a nice guy who finds pleasure in pleasing
people. Of course I would love to be paid for all my services and time but I
just feel that since all 7 persons I have painted for are either family or close
friends, they ought to drop whatever the lord lays in their heart.
But since they do not, I don’t complain. My reward is in heaven...LOL. As for being an OAP, I have tried and still
intend to keep trying. I often rehearse shows in my head all in a bid to get
better. It makes me look disturbed but hey, it’s a small price I have to pay if
I want to be better in this field. I did a demo with my cousin some months ago
for a radio station in Benin. Two demos actually. But apparently, we weren’t
what they wanted at the time. They wanted, “already made stars”.
In just two
decades, all these careers have all come up on my plate. Who knows, a few more
would come up over the years and maybe one or two from the older ones would actually
be the career I would follow, one never know these things. If you paid
attention closely, the ratio of the educational field to the non-educational
field is a 10:1. I have my B.Sc Physiology in view which in a year and half or
two years most likely would be completed. Yet, in all of these so far, it
wasn’t mentioned. Contrary to what you might think, I have great love for my
chosen field of study. But, three years from now, is that what I would be
doing? A question I sincerely cannot answer. There is an awful lot of things to
do out there. A thousand more would be created in a few more years, months
maybe.
Leaving the shores of Africa, you would
discover how much career choices one is open to aside the educational field.
When you walk the streets of Benin-City, Edo State, Ring road to be precise, you
would find a shocking amount of wasting workforce with the excuse of disabilities, lack of educational
background and all what not. No doubt, all these things are limitations but
there is no crime in ‘begging for a purpose’.
Most of the beggars u see today do not beg for a purpose. Whatever money they
make today is for today with the hope to beg for tomorrow by tomorrow. The very
same reason I cannot for any reason give such beggars a penny from my pocket.
Take a look at this other beggar. She begs for two days and gets a little over
a thousand naira. She takes the money, goes to an evening market, uses a little
from it for her dinner that day and buys some oranges and pineapple with the other
depending on what fruit is in season at the time. On the morrow, she takes her
fruits to the market and sells them. She gets a little over a thousand five hundred
naira. Repeats the same pattern she did the previous day, but this time takes the
commission she makes and uses it to buy an extra variety of fruits. She sells them
and gets a better profit. She then adds pure water to her sales, then sweets, biscuits,
and keeps adding as the gain increases. In a very short time, her income would
have grown from a street beggar’s to a small time business woman’s. Now that’s
business, one that doesn’t require education or personal cash. You can become
anything successful in life with or without an educational background. All one
really needs is a functioning brain.
“If you want
to hide knowledge from a black man, put it in a book”. Yea right! I’m sure a
large percentage of you reading this article hear this a lot. Well, in a way,
this might be true. Honestly, I am not the biggest fan of books. Guess the
world can tell that by now judging from my list of future ambitions. But again,
when I come across a good book or article, I definitely would read it. From a few
lines and paragraphs maybe, I would be able to tell if it’s a good book (or
article) or not. I mean, you are reading this article now to this point. What
does that say? This is a good article. That’s why you have read it up to this
point. *wink. But on a serious note, “don’t judge a book by its cover”? pufffffffffffffffff!
Why put good stuff in rotten package? Packaging is everything, that’s the only
reason books like “7 KEYS TO SUCCESS”,”HOW TO GET RICH IN 5 SIMPLE STEPS”,
could ever sell past a thousand copies. Why would I want to learn success tips
from a book? The irony of it all is that some of the authors of these funny
books are not successful. They tell you all sorts of rules to follow when they
do not follow those rules themselves, but it’s all business. Business from an
idea. An idea from knowledge. The knowledge that Nigerians would do anything to
make money, idea to make a book to teach them how to make the money, develops.
Whether its true or not. The sales of that idea, be it true or not, fetches
money for the author.
The most important thing to note in
choosing a career is PASSION. Point number one. ‘Where your treasure is, there
lies your heart’. What you don’t love, you can’t excel in. This of cause, the
whole world already knows. Gone are the days where children go to school and
read courses because of parent’s choice. Well, it’s alright to spend six years
maybe, reading a beautiful course even when your heart isn’t there because, no
matter what passion influenced field of study to choose for yourself, it’s
always good to have something to fall back to. And that brings me to point
number two. A wise man once said, “Always have a contingency plan”. Now, if I
want to follow my photography dream full time for instance (which of cause I would),
I would need capital to start up. Now being that we are in a not so yet ‘modernized
setting’, and “my son is a photographer” is not yet what any parent wants to
brag about their children of, you need that certificate as your pillar. Both to
stand erect and to fall back to or even lean on. What I am saying in essence
is, say your parents choose your career for you for instance, even if it takes
six years to acquire the certificate, do it with all diligence. Get the degree,
and please don’t give the certificate to them as many would say. Keep your
certificate. It took you years to do it even in boredom so u can as well keep
the certificate. Of cause, because I need capital to start, I sure would need
to endure a little more of the boredom by working for some years or a few more
wit all diligence. You don’t want to get fired because that would cut your goal
short. Now, while working, you begin to save your capital for the business you
want to start because only a handful of parents would support any child at this
stage after spending an awful lot of money to get you through school. When you
think you have all the capital you need, it is still best you work some more
while going about the career to still have another source of income until your
career springs up fully. Then it is ok to start backing off from this point.
This also brings me to my third point. Now this is for the guys. Let’s be frank
with ourselves, if u had a beautiful daughter, who is of marriageable age and
comes home with a suitor who u begin to interview in getting to know him and
find out he isn’t educated how would you feel? Or a man who doesn’t have a
“decent job” as they would call it. No matter how much money the young man has,
you still would not be that approving. So this points out another importance of
that job you are using as a means for your capital. For the purpose of
marriage, you need to be a career man. Don’t get it twisted. Your chosen field of
career is still moving in full swing. All I am saying is, there has to be “a job”.
On point number four, you have to consider the life span of that career you
have chosen. A few years back, cyber cafe’s were the ‘in-business’. Today,
people barely leave their homes to access internet services. With the invention
of modern gadgets-phones, pads, laptops, and the increase in computer literacy,
people do not have to visit a cafe anymore to access the internet. Not even to
print because homes now purchase personal printers. You have to think of a career
that a very vast percent of the population need and that would be around for a
long while. Photography has been around from the days of our fore fathers and
is even appreciating in the market today and still would be for a very long
time. So durability is something to be considered.
A career is a life time thing so
mistakes in picking one is something you should want to avoid. I have run out
of words here so I will leave you in the hands of God because he alone can
direct you in the path in which you can never go wrong...
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