There is a direct connection between how you are wired in your essence and what you turn out to become if you are able to find yourself, develop yourself and forge a meaning out of it all.
Everything that nature has bestowed on mankind is good and not one is without its purpose but not everything is useful to you. Your ability to find and know what is important to you will lead you to become one with your purpose for being here, if you stay hungry and persist in the search for value.
A proper mix and alignment with all components that pertain to you in the physical space earns you fulfillment and accomplishment in the physical space. These components are you, your education and its prize, your skills and then your productivity.
You
Who are you? What are you by natural inclination? To acquire and secure this knowledge through discovery and development is not commonplace. A man may not have access to formal education but is able to find out what he is naturally inclined towards and develops this inclination in specific areas of interest relevant to others in the environment.
Imagine someone who is naturally inclined towards music. Such a person has to choose an aspect of music in which to develop a skill that would be of benefit to others. This is how to manifest potential into actual. It is the power of self-awareness that builds uncommon strength of productivity. If you are able to forge meaning out of life through the discovery of your natural gifts, you earn and exhibit self-actualization.
Can you define you? To define you means to say with pinpoint accuracy what your natural gifts are. To define you means to be definite about those things that you have deep interests in; the things that you are drawn towards; the things that pull at you. It does not matter if it is not initially received by others. To define you means to be able to distinguish yourself from others despite the fact that you and others received the same formal education. To define you means to tell the inner workings of your fingerprints. To have different fingerprints means you have different wiring within. There is a clear path that is within you. This must be discovered, developed and delivered to others. This is YOU.
Your education
Education is two way: formal and informal. You may be formally educated but informally educated. By informal education, you may be completely ignorant of the streets and the moral competencies with which to play in your environment. Streetwiseness is extremely important to help you navigate through your space.
If you have been to school but you are not able to relate ordinarily with the common guy on the street because he did not go to school like you did, your education is incomplete. You could have issues with attitudes like respect and being able to collaborate with others. Thus, you may be formally educated but not literate about human and other relationships.
To live a life of fulfillment and purpose, your formal education should be aligned with your natural inclination [gift/talent]. Thus, it behoves of the responsible adults in our space and lives to deliberately watch out for those things that we are naturally passionate about; those things we are naturally inclined towards and endeavour to develop them by tailoring them towards specific academic fields of study. This is the matching of nature with nurture. It is an uncommon balance that works for our success and fulfillment.
Great education is a balance between the formal and informal education. Of what benefit is a formal education that is devoid of humanity because of an uninformed mind. The mind is the consciousness of man and any human that is ignorant of the workings of his or mind may not be accounted fully educated because such a mind is not literate though the person has certificates issued by school systems.
If your education is tuned to the awakening of your imagination, your mind is open to seeing possibilities among odds where many see impossibilities. But again, it depends on what you have been exposed to. What information has filtered into your mind? A creatively imaginative mind is a treasure within and beyond you because though it's your workshop, the benefits of your inner processes, of the products of the workshop belong to the external. This education requires the fusion of nature [gift] and nurture [development].
With a fruitful imagination, you become a knowledge workshop because your mind churns out fresh and raw information. Your mind is a production center. You become a channel of productivity. The world currently rewards such minds. Where such minds become fortunate, they seek no employment; rather they create employment. You can attest the power of technology in the space today. It is the beauty of creativity to innovation.
There is something very intriguing about a qualitative and functional formal education. It does not only polish, it bequeaths the beneficiary with great documentation and writing skills. Writing great reports, writing great speeches, and delivering good business presentations are cutting-edge skills that require quality training and consistent sharpening. Talents like these are in dearth and often highly sought after in official circles whether in private or public organizations.
Ponder on the education or skill that helps you see opportunities in difficult or tough situations. The same helps you read the handwriting on the wall and intuitively leads to proferring solutions. You are able to see what the majority do not see. While the majority only go on a spree of condemning the powers that be, a few are looking at the issues more critically with only one motive in mind--to offer solutions and through that, peradventure, create wealth.
While such education can be strengthened through learning or being exposed to specific information, such information must be subject to processing to align with intuition and the gut to forge meaning out of it all. It is more of personal education that leads to productivity. I would gladly pitch tents with two Nigerians in this wise: Ndubuisi Ekekwe of the Tekedia Institute and Olajide Abiola of Kiakia, Gidanka and more. Great minds, indeed.
Great education is total education. That is one in which beneficiaries do not only earn certificates, they are are able to apply content in context. They know the relevance of knowledge acquired and use same to function effectively in the society. Education that does not address the question of relevance in the space is not result-oriented.
Your certificate
Your certificate is your paper qualification. It is a proof that you have been to formal schools and have satisfied examiners through the process of examination. As it stands presently, much of this is classroom based and does not have much relevance to real world problems or issues.
Also, examiners or teachers may not have personally applied the knowledge they evaluate students on. These examiners or lecturers may not have practised the concepts that they teach. They may know practically nothing about how the knowledge they deliver and evaluate students on work in the real world. This is the standard or quality of the education delivered by our teachers today. They teach what they do not know how it translates to value. Relevance is a huge question. It is a systemic problem.
Your university degree does not give you skills. After you have earned your certificate, you may need to acquire problem solving skills for the real world. I guess this is one problem with the graduates today. There are jobs. There are just no resourceful persons to do them.
Certificates are good. They are a paper validation of the course of study you have undergone. They would be better if they internally validate your competence and instill in you such discipline that can make you function effectively in society through solving problems based on your field of study.
The craze for the acquisition of paper qualification is the biggest self-deceit that prevails in our environment today. Many young people are infected by that bug of going through schools and earning degrees but are not able to show personal effectiveness and competence in any aspect of life. This is the disheartening place we are.
Your productivity
Your productivity is your best, if not better than the best bargaining chip to become relevant in your space. Your productivity is hinged on your problem-solving skills. Your productivity is how relevant you are in the space where you play. It is foolhardy to base your productivity on the paper you carry.
By the paper, you are banking on the certificate you have earned in college, polytechnic or high school, without a practical hands-on experience or know-how of the workings of the courses you took. You are theoretical; not practical. This is not a good place to be in.
The question of productivity is what we have failed to address and that is why the majority of our young and energetic people are not productive and so not employed. They lack the skills to make a difference in the space they occupy. The following thoughts are to be tinkered with:
What skills do you have? That is, what problems can you solve to make an employer want to employ you? Have you practically answered this question? To answer the skills question, it is simple to put it this way: Pick an industry or two. Research their processes and know what they do. Ask yourself: Can I play in this space? Do I have what it takes? If the decision makers ask you: Why should I hire you? What would you say? These are questions many young people are not asking. When you start asking the right questions, you are on your way to solutions. You are hired for skills, not for your certificate.
Your certificate does not guarantee your productivity. You have to do more than earn a certificate. It is good to study, research and labour to earn yourself a certificate but it is better if you are able to align your natural inclination with your academic study and real world skills to be of service to mankind. Your consistency in the use of this makes you a productive person who is relevant in your space.
Young graduates of our tertiary institutions cry unemployment. They do not even understand why they need employment apart from bread and butter. To understand the need for employment begins with an understanding of the value you hold and can share with others. This value is through the skills that you have. Ask many young people seeking employment the simple question, What skills do you have? And you would be amazed at the response. They do not know what it is that they can offer anyone. They are products of non-functional education. They are in a pathetic place, indeed.
Because of the complexity of the problems in the human capacity development space, there is almost inexhaustible solutions that are required. It is extremely important for one to conduct extensive research into different areas over a period of time and one would be amazed at the opportunities that abound in the value space. These opportunities seek talents but talents unfortunately are in paucity. There are jobs out there but there are no competent and qualified hands to fill available vacancies. Indeed talent is scarce.
Great education must be results-oriented. This education solves problems with the acumen to both identify and create opportunities almost from ruins. This education is productive. It can be a combination of formal, informal, the gut, the intuition and the totality of mental faculties to direct alertness to productivity.
Leaving education at the doorstep of studying for the acquisition of certificates is the greatest limitation that the majority of our young and even many old people still suffer from. If the old are free from this mentality, why do they still push their offspring into forced formal certificate acquisition that leaves them without any relevance in the space? We have got to change this narrative and we have to do it now.
