Everyone created by God has specific talents
and strengths. But it's
one thing to discover your talent and another to
use them to impact
your world. Its a fact that majority of people who
have succeeded in
working with their God given talents went
through tough times in their
early days. From Michael Jackson to Michael
Jordan to Muhammed Ali to
Max Lucado to Arnold Schwarzenegger to
mention but a few. In fact, God
only promised good success and not a cheap
one. Any cheap success
doesn't last because tough times helps us to
develop backbones that'd
sustain not just our talents but also all aspects
of our lives. Most
people who've gone through tough times always
came out stronger,
wiser, more refined, more responsible and better
than when they first
started. "Tough times never last, tough people
do." (Robert Schuller).

- REMEMBER WHY YOU STARTED

So the big question is, why did you decide to
work with your
talent(s)? Asking ourselves this very important
question will help us
know where we stand. It has been proven that
most people who fall out
in the pursuit of their God given talent started
with a wrong motive.
If you venture into music because Jay Z earns
millions per show, then
you're bound to quit when the money doesn't
pour in.
While in my 4th year in the university I decided
to help people with
tips that they could use to heal their wounds. So
I started a
motivational radio program. And for a whole year
I couldn't get a
dime from it either through sponsorship or
speaking/training
invitations. But I still stayed put because of the
passion I had to
help people and the calls
and emails I received weekly from my listeners
who'd been blessed and
inspired by my program. But now, I don't pray for
speaking invitations
they just come and when they do, I'm always
excited. Not because of the
fees I'd receive, but I see it as another
opportunity to touch lives
one more time.
One of the amazing things ever said on earth is
Jesus' statement "He
that is greatest among you shall be your
servant."

- LOOK AND SEE.

What can you see of the future for your career?
As a man sees in his
heart so he will become. If you can see yourself
performing to a huge
crowd of people in the future then you can
experience it. Anytime you
feel like quitting, just look into the future and see
the rewards that
awaits you. See yourself being paid millions for
just an appearance.
See yourself receiving millions of dollars as
payments for your
endorsement from different multi national
companies.
If you can picture it, you can work towards, and
if you can work
towards it then you can achieve it. I like what
Mike Murdoch said
"Stop looking at where you've been and start
looking at where you can
be."

- WHO'S SPEAKING THROUGH YOU?

Words are like seeds, if you sow the wrong
words you will surely reap
its fruits. During the early stage of our talent
career, we'd always
be tempted to complain and whine. But an
understanding of the fact
that complaining and murmuring has the
potential of killing our
creativity, will save us.
Why add more problems to your challenges with
negative words? John
Mason writes "Your words reflects what you
believe about your future."
Stop telling everyone that nothing is working,
maybe that's the reason
while nothing seems to be working. But rather,
speak words of hope.
You may not look like it now, but that doesn't
mean you cannot become it.

- ONE STEP AT A TIME.

After I ventured into my speaking and writing
career, I went to a
former pastor of mine in my undergraduate days
and informed him of my
career path. After counseling me, he assured me
that he'd invite me to
speak in his church's youth program. For more
than three months I
didn't hear from him and I became worried. I had
started a television
program during that period and had told him
about it. So I called him
and he said "Johnspeak, relax. I haven't
forgotten about you. Just
keep doing what you are doing, the world is
taking note of you." He
later called me on a day I wasn't expecting and gave me my first
speaking gig and my first pay check. But his
words has always been
resounding in my ears. Sometimes, we get so in
haste to reap the
fruits of our labours that we end up reaping
unripe fruits. You'd
agree with me that we'd require less stress and
strength to climb a
staircase one step at a time compared to
climbing three steps at a
time. Most times, while most Talentpreneurs get
frustrated in their
careers is that they are trying to climb the rungs
on the ladder to
success three steps at a time.

- BUILD YOUR TALENT MUSCLES.

You may have been told how talented you are,
but that's not enough.
Anyone who refuses to improve on his or her
talent will soon go out of
vogue. Abraham Lincoln once said "Whatever you
are, be a good one." It
will be a waste of time, money and efforts trying
to promote a talent
that isn't good enough to compete with others.
You're not the only one
in that field that you've chosen, but what will
help you survive is
how much training and retraining you put into
developing your talents.
Attend seminars, conferences, workshops, read
books, articles etc and
very soon the world will be able to differentiate
between you and
those who doesn't.
"Everyone wants to change the world, but only
few thinks of changing
themselves." (John Mason).

- JUST PRETEND

I know we all need money to live our dream
lives: buy our dream cars,
live in the best environment, travel around the
world etc but money
shouldn't be our first priority in the pursuit of our
vision and
dreams. If you're to survive the early stage of
your talent career,
it's best to pretend as if you don't want it. At
the early stage of
your talent career, your focus shouldn't be on
the money but on how to
develop yourself, promote your talents, become a
strong force to
reckon with in your chosen field of
talentpreneurship. People who run
after money always end up frustrated, but those
who run after
impacting their world with their God given talents
always end up rich
and successful.
Just pretend as if you don't need the money, focus on being the best
in what you do and the money will flow in.

- DEVELOP NEW PLANS.

A wise man once said "The majority of men fail
because of their lack
of persistence in creating new plans to improve
those that succeed. "
What strategy have you been using to get the
best out of your talents?
Survivals don't sit down and cry about their
predicaments, they sit up
and think up ways out of their predicaments.
It's time to storm the world with new strategies
that the world has
never seen before.

- BE PRUDENT

At this level of your career, there may not be
much money coming in,
but you must learn to be prudent with the little
that comes in. This
is not the stage to show off. At this stage every
dime should count
and should be judiciously utilised. Any friend who
wants to hangout
with you should be ready to foot the bills.
Indebtedness is not a
curse, but the consequences of spending more
than you earn.

- GET A SIDE HEN

During the early stage of your career, you'd be
the one to fund your
career and not your talent funding you. You
should be ready to spend
money for the development, promotion,
management and monetization of
your talents. You must nurture and feed your
talents until they are
grown enough to feed you. Being a talentpreneur
isn't cheap, it
requires lots of financial investment most
especially if you want to
be rated among the best.
One could be lucky to get a sponsor or you could
do two things:
1. Get a job while you pursue your talent part
time or,
2. You could pursue your talents full time and
get a side hen.
A side hen means a place or legal method of
getting little funds from
your talents to meet your daily needs while you
await the big funds.
Eg performing in a place as a musician,
comedian, dancer or speaking
as a poet or motivational speaker and be paid
little fees while you
await the big bucks.

Succeed You Must.

(c) Johnspeak Uwangue
Motivational Speaker, Talent and Life Coach.

Johnspeak is solving complex issues through the wisdom of God, his personal experiences and in depth researches in the affairs of individuals, organizations and nations..

For more enquiries or talent coaching, please send an email to:
Johnspeaklife@gmail.com