Have
you ever tried to measure your value as a person? The fact that you are present
does not mean you are valuable. Value is determined not by being present but by
making your presence positively significant. This is the game changer. If your
presence in an organization or in your world for that matter does not amount to
positive significance then you are not only a waste of space but in actual fact
an obstruction. This is because it means you are seated in the space where
someone else could have sat and made positive significance. Every agent of
mediocrity is an obstruction to agents of transformation. Every organization
has two kinds of people – the value adders and the parasites. Parasites do not
add value but live off the value added by others and the parasites are always
the first to complain about what is not working! What determines which you will
be is a choice that you will have to make by yourself. No one can do it for
you.
The
first question that needs to come to mind in determining the value that you add
is to simply ask yourself the effect of your not being there. Author and
speaker Robin Sharma wrote a book with an interesting title. It was titled
‘When you die who will cry? Frankly speaking there is no point in dying if you
never lived. The fact that you breathe does not mean that you live. The fact
that you move around does not mean you are progressing. The fact that you are
making noise does not mean you are being heard. Life is measured by impact and
not by being present. You need to have your trademark signature on everything
you do. In essence you may do what everyone does but you do it in a way that no
one else does it. This becomes your signature and this is what people will
remember. What will differentiate you from the masses is your uniqueness.
Ironically
uniqueness is one of the greatest things that has been fought by many and
indeed by society. (Yet when it thrives they claim it and celebrate it). No one
wants to be different. Everyone wants to take solace in the fact that it was
once done like this by someone else. Everyone wants to hide behind the
uniqueness of others. The difference between an ordinary stone and a precious
stone is rarity. Value is always tied to uniqueness.
I
cannot but talk about this wonderful staff of Kenya Airways that I met once at
the airport. It was one of those days when the traffic on Mombasa road was
hellish. I got to the airport late. Unlike the normal treatment where the
person at the counter begins to give a lecture on how you are supposed to be at
the airport an hour before and all that, this one spared me. She empathized and
made me relax and then went out of her way to help me. She differentiated
herself by her uniqueness.
Uniqueness
is not hard to come by. The problem is that we have copied people so much that
we have forgotten our true identity. When mediocrity becomes so entrenched to
the point of being cultural then creativity will appear to be the odd one out.
Remember, in a world dominated by fools, the wise appear to the majority as
being the fools.
You
can find your true self again. The value that you may bring – just like that
wonderful airline staff may be a smile to brighten up someone’s already
frustrated morning. The airline that can constantly give me people like this
lady will surely be the airline of choice not just for me but for many. By her
unique smile and sense of service she added value. She was not just present.
Her presence was positively significant. The next time I travel if she is not
there and the person that attends to me does not add to me, I will truly miss
that other lady. When absence is unfelt, presence was unnecessary.
Your
absence will either create a vacuum or create joy. If it creates joy then your
presence was merely tolerated and not celebrated.
Wale Akinyemi
Wale Akinyemi
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