Employment is Not Marriage
It does not matter which part of the world you were born, while government policies, opportunities for enterprise and value systems may vary from country to country, one thing is constant: human being, according to sociologists, is a social being. This presupposed that we thrive on social capital driven by quality positive relationships, meaningful engagement with the world and purposeful associations.
Unfortunately, the potential to thrive diminishes as we were growing up. Conventional wisdom says that we get wiser with age but evidence has shown that just when we graduated from Universities or Colleges and we pride ourselves as educated and struggle for jobs, our opportunity to be wealthy began to fade.
Education Diminishes Our Economic Prosperity
Well, this is debatable as it sounds counter-intuitive. Many of us in the world have become less prosperous in meeting financial needs because we were exposed to “education for jobs” as opposed to “education of self”. In simple terms, ‘education for job’ gets us job while ‘education of self’ supports individuals to create jobs after some self-discovery endeavours.
There is an ‘invisible chain’ with the ‘education for job’. It is a chain of comfort. It is associated with employee’s job conditions that kept us long enough not to exit and be autonomous. We want to be safe in someone else’s security.
I am not a superstar. Do not think I am anyway different. However, something changed a decade ago when I read controversial words of Calvin Coolidge who said, “The world is full of educated derelicts”. “Educated derelict”, could this be true? How do I convince you to think through your present life? How do I convince you to create your life as early as possible?
The invisible chain kept people long enough not to even change jobs. Do not think it was an employer’s making. No! Employers have been nice to give you a chance. You cannot get wealthy with them except for few but you get the leverage to start. It is up to you.
This is the point I want to make: Creativity (ability to create, invent, establish, pioneer and improve) was a birth right. It is the precursor to wealth and foundation for entrepreneurship.
In 1960s, when the world was preparing for breakthrough and going beyond the earth into outer space and walking on the moon, Professor George Land was commissioned to design test instruments for the recruitment of Scientists and Engineers for the space mission. He did this perfectly.
In 1968, a year before Neil Armstrong and two others succeeded with Moon landing, the same test instrument was used for children of age 5. It turned out that 98% of the children were at genius level of creativity. So in 1968, there was evidence that creativity was a birthright. It is in the twenty-first century that the world is awakened to popularize creativity.
Where did we get it wrong?
In 1985, Professor George Land went ahead to administer the test instrument to workforce. These were adults from age 25 and above. The story had changed. Only 2% of adults were operating at genius level of creativity. Probably this would give an insight into why we want to be secured in the security of the entrepreneurs or why majority constitute “Educated derelicts”.
In the United States Space and Rocket Centre, I wanted to know what had become the creativity level of the children that were tested in 1968. So I looked out for evidences. In my exploit, I found out that Professor George Land continued the research with these children at age 10 and 15.
At age 10, that was 1973, only 30% of these children had their creativity maintained at genius level. From age 5 to 10 they had declined from 98% to 30%. We all know that they would be in their elementary or primary level of education at this time. Something is wrong with education.
At 15 years in 1978, these children’s potential to create had dropped and 12% scored in the highly creative range. Probably we would begin to imagine how education had impacted negatively on our capacity for self-actualization.
In answering the question, “Where did we get it wrong”? The data implies that 98 out of 100 adults got it wrong by unlearning creativity. In order word, we grew up learning uncreative behaviour and left creativity to the artists.
Way Forward: Rethinking Employment
1. Vary your experiences
While we cannot all start out as job creators, it might be important to note this: If you do not want to live all your adult life as slave of uncreative behaviour, do not spend all your years working in one place. Remember you are social being and most of us thrive on social capital, quality associations and relationships.
Relationships do not get better if it is not mutual. This left us with a question: Does anything exist as employer-employee mutual relationship? Unless you are a shareholder, employer-employee relationship is not a marriage. Probably that was why we would be asked to leave after 35years in public service? This forced creativity on us and we began to imagine which business to start.
The more you spend in one place, the less you are open to new perspectives. You have mastered the routine of that job environment and this mastery blocked your creative juices. When I spoke to senior educators on this matter, I found out it had become a challenge for them because some feared, “Where do I start from after so many years working with one organisation? If I picked a new job, I would be asked to use new lesson plan template to design lessons when I had gotten everything here in my folder and I did not have to bother”.
Something exists as Market Value and unfortunately, increment in salary does not compensate for Market Value. I learnt so much from the expatriates who were leaders in most International organisations. One told me, “five years is the peak”. I am keen to say: Those who do not move never noticed their chains.” To get back your creativity, vary your experiences.
2. Rethink education (Invest in Self)
Four features define creative behaviour according to experts. One of those features is imagination. My best understanding of imagination came from Albert Einstein. The genius said, “Knowledge takes you from point A to B but imagination takes you everywhere.” When you are engaged in a work where someone controls your wages, most of the time, you concentrate your energy, time and resources growing your knowledge, technical skills and attitude.
The story is different when you create a system that keeps you in control of your earnings. In this situation, you extend beyond knowledge and technical skills, you dwell more in the field of core skills of imagination and strategic thinking.
This is not to say employees lack imagination. However, employees are alive with their work at work most of the time while employers are alive with their work all of the time. The game changer here is the law of growth that says, “What we focus on expands”.
Recently, a school teacher borrowed money to start food business when salary was not forthcoming for two months due to COVID-19 pandemic. In less than 30 days, debt had been repaid.
I do ask myself, 10 years from now, what will my story be? If you do not think in decade, significance and prosperity might be a mirage.
Education of self’ is not in the National curriculum and suffice to say that it is what we needed the most.
3. Rethink entrepreneurship (Know your status)
Could it be that you are in the 2% population that still have their creativity at genius level but you cannot figure it out? For those whose creativity had been unlearned, the good news is that, it can be rebuilt with the right exposure. The greatest investment in the world today that yields the highest dividend is an investment in self.
Entrepreneurial spirit is not as complicated as we think. Self-actualization Academy is established to help individuals see their potential through scientifically validated tests and maximize the results to create wealth. Wealth is a birthright. These test instruments are handy and you can benefit by sending an email to jamiu.aliyu@ymail.com
* Aliyu is the Founder, Self-Actualization Academy
GIVE YOURSELF PERMISSION TO SUCCEED
Two extreme creatures; one big and the other small. Their main goal is how they will feed themselves. You remember Abraham Maslow’s pyramid that food is one of the fundamental physiological need of living organisms.
The big organism is one of the powerful predators in the animal kingdom. So, it will wait until it is hungry before hunting for prey. However, the small organism thought of a different approach having realized its limitations. It created web of strings that captures prey when they approach it. In case you want to know which organisms we are evaluating here, the big organism is Tiger. The small organism is spider.
ENDURING SUCCESS REQUIRES STRATEGY
Geoffrey Ward, author of The Tiger-Wallahs, once asked his guide ‘why were tigers so aggressive while feeding them?’ His guide replied, “Tigers do not like to share.” So much energy is spent by Tigers locating and killing prey. Wild Tigers make a kill about once a week. See how the week is spent: Two days hunting, spent roughly two or three days to feed on a kill, rest for two days. Hunger sets in again, another cycle begins.
The story is different for the Spider, it would go to the web it had created in different locations to retrieve the prey, eats, relax and there is enough to share. The energy was invested building the web once and continually maintaining it.
STRATEGIES DO NOT HAVE EQUAL VALUE
Dwight David Eisenhower, one of the world’s greatest army general and former president of United States said, “The history of free men and women is never written by chance but by choice.”
Take few minutes to review your life. If the Tiger and the Spider were human being, and they put their strategies before you to make a choice, what decision would you make?
In 2019 in Switzerland, I found an interesting information about the World Wide Web during my training at European Council for Nuclear Research. Tim Berners-Lee, a British scientist, in 1989 invented the World Wide Web (WWW) while working at CERN. According to Tim, the web was originally conceived and developed to meet the demand for automated INFORMATION-SHARING between scientists in universities and institutes around the world.
Thank you Tim Berners-Lee for giving yourself and unborn generation the permission to succeed. What would the world look like today without the web? I could make an assumption that Tim Berners-Lee might have spent so much time gathering data about the spider model before inventing the World Wide Web.
Dear reader,
As long as you do not give your power away and share that which you were born to fulfill, you will not give yourself enough permission to succeed.
One of the greatest women ever lived, Marie curie, I am sure you know about this. She won Nobel Prize award twice, one in Physics, and one in chemistry. She told us: “We must believe that we are gifted for something, and this thing, at whatever cost, must be attained.”
WHAT SHOULD WE DO TO GIVE OURSELVES PERMISSION TO SUCCEED?
This is what I learnt from Oxfam: Exploring viewpoints and values.
We all interpret the world around us through the lenses of our own cultural background, values and experience. It therefore follows that there will be a range of perspectives on any given issues, and that we cannot achieve a full understanding on any issue without exploring all perspectives. To do so involves developing:
• awareness that our knowledge often consists of just one albeit dominant perspective
• self-awareness (i.e. awareness of our own values and assumptions)
• respect for diversity
• effective communication skills, including arguing a case and listening respectfully to other people’s viewpoints.
My job is to mentor. This is my own way of giving my power away. You do not lose anything deciding to take what I know, leverage on it and broaden your perspectives on your pathway to success. It is up to you.
When you are ready, send an expression of interest to jamiu.aliyu@ymail.com or WhatsApp number +2348039147549
knowing others and learning from them is wisdom!
Jamiu T. Aliyu
Founder, Self-Actualization Academy
U.S. Space and Rocket Academy Ambassador
European Council for Nuclear Research Ambassador
Global Scholar Ambassador @ African Leadership Academy South Africa
Core Skills Global Trainer and Education Consultant
RESKILLING
One in Two Employees may lose job 5 years from now.
This is not a joke.
I cannot operate beyond my exposure. However, I can leverage other people’s exposure to unleash my potential.
The recent research by the World Economic Forum on the Future of Jobs report revealed:
- 50% of employees will have to reskill in the next 5 years
- Critical Thinking and Problem Solving skill top the list of skills that employers believe will grow in prominence in the next 5 years.
- Employees will need at least 6 months of reskilling and equipping themselves with the top 10 skills to fit into the Future of Jobs.
WHAT ARE YOU THINKING?
I think it is cost effective to dedicate 6 months of your life to mentorship and unlock your potential. Only the Fools doubt the Proofs. Warren Buffet was loyal as a mentee to Benjamin Graham. The Law of Mentorship is not to be taken for granted.
We have the tools at our disposal to help you reskill for the uncertainty. “The best way to predict the future is to invent it” says Albert Einstein.
Self-Actualization Mentoring Academy is privileged to have access to scientifically validated instruments and toolkits you would need to claim your wealth. You have always been wealthy!
THE PARADOX
By 2025, 85million jobs may be displaced by a shift in the division of labour between humans and machines.
The same technological innovation that would deny humans of 85 million jobs will create 97 million new and emerging jobs.
THE QUESTION
Are you invulnerable?
You can benefit from the new ways of thinking by reaching out to the email address jamiu.aliyu@ymail.com or WhatsApp 08039147549
Jamiu T. Aliyu
Founder, Self-Actualization Mentoring Academy
U.S. Space and Rocket Academy Ambassador
European Council for Nuclear Research Ambassador
Global Scholar Ambassador @ African Leadership Academy South Africa
Core Skills Global Trainer and Cambridge Education Teacher Consultant
