AN UNDERRATED SKILL

I remember after I dropped out from school, my dad had a job opportunity at a bank waiting for me. Despite the fact that I was not qualified, I was going to get the job anyway based on the influence of my dad’s friend. But then, I turned down the offer because I wanted to learn a skill. I discovered that My dad suffered more after he lost everything he had because he started from the connection of his own father which was what he wanted for me too. For the fact that he started working early, it was easy for him to scale up the ladder and since he started with a connection, people assumed he was from a wealthy family and that made him go higher up the ladder of success. He did not really get the opportunity to learn any hand work or serve under anyone. When he lost everything, starting again was hard because this time age was no longer on his side, he could only look for little jobs to do.

Photo by Quino Al on Unsplash

And that is the major reason I declined his offer. I wanted to be able to do something for myself just in case the odds turned against me. I wanted to be able to be proud of something I can do and I did not want that thing to be driving. I see driving as a high risk job that takes a man away from his family all in the search of greener pastures. I decided that I will learn graphics design instead because I heard it was a high tech skill. But then When I started I discovered there was more to what I could learn where I was because my boss was not into just graphics design, he was into branding and business development and that was his main focus for which designing was just a tool. I was with him for two years out of the three years I stayed home before finally leaving to work in a company.

In the two years I worked with him I learned that I could be a part of any business as long as it sells a product and needs to reach clients or customers. Branding is simply making any business more attractive to clients and 95% of business people do not know how to brand but wish their business would grow to the point where it can attract big clients. When I came to port harcourt I noticed some of my friends were doing the same thing and that was when it dawned on me that even though I did not learn a major hand work, I had acquired a soft skill in two years that can sustain me any time even in a world where there is no internet. The idea is to connect businesses to each other, So I can be able to help a yam farmer reach yam dealers and help Yam dealers get the direct source of farm products. While someone learned to till the ground, and another learned to trade, I learned to connect and make businesses visible. It might not be hand work, but it’s one that can always sustain me even at old age.

THIS IS MY RESPONSE TO HIVE LEARNER'S PROMPT FOR WEEK 173 EPISODE 1