Embracing Authenticity: The Power of Being True to Yourself 

When 2023 started it was as if everyone, particularly business owners, had some digital product to sell. I mean everywhere I turned someone was selling a vision board, a goal setting plan, and 11 steps to becoming a billionaire by December. I’m not joking, I mean it was crazy! As if that wasn’t enough, some life and business coaches decided for reasons best known to them to attack entrepreneurs saying we were all sleeping under a rock if we weren’t monetizing our knowledge by selling online courses. They were everywhere from the jungle of Facebook to the streets of instagram. I mean It was a rampage. It didn’t take long before I started feeling “hold the phone, these guys may be right  I should be running a program too, after all I’m a leader in my industry!

So I started thinking hmmmm what knowledge should I sell ooo  If I can charge like 50 grand per course and I get 20 people register omo that’s N1m; or I charge 10 grand and 100 people register that’s same N1m but I’ll get more reach, mehnnnn this thing makes mad sense o! And I can run this course multiple times, guys I was literally counting my billions and seeing my houses in Banana Island. That’s how I started thinking ‘oya Holy Ghost what knowledge can I package’ – brethren, that’s when wahala started – Radio silence! I couldn’t come up with jack! For weeks I was brainstorming within myself, reading books and researching online courses that looked like what I could offer, I got nothing. I’m not gonna lie, after many failed attempts, I began to question myself. I started to feel maybe I didn’t have any special skill, that I was just a lucky entrepreneur. I began to think I couldn’t teach on leadership cos I didn’t feel I was a good leader, I couldn’t teach on vision boarding cos I’ve never made one for myself before, and I couldn’t teach on how to run a business because I was still struggling with structure and processes. Yes you can call it imposter syndrome, don’t judge me, it is a common struggle with many entrepreneurs. Thing is I’m naturally a strategic thinker, ideas come to me easily, maximum within a week of thinking and researching I would come up with an idea and execution plan. So I couldn’t explain why I wasn’t getting any signal, as in NADA!

Stay with me.

I concluded that I needed to seek help – I was going to take a course on how to monetize my knowledge, perhaps I will have an epiphany moment during the course and discover what skills I have. I was just about to pay for the course when I was stopped in my tracks. I heard a voice inside of me say ‘Gbemi you will just hurt yourself looking for something that is not lost! You are taking this course because you have allowed the society to define who you are and what you should be doing. The society tells you that you must have a personal brand, it tells you you must monetize your knowledge, it creates a picture for you what a successful entrepreneur looks like and what he/she should own and should be doing.” These entrepreneurs may be living their truth doing all these things that they do, training people and imparting knowledge that’s emancipating people from poverty and impacting lives for good, but the question is, is their truth your truth as well?

Let me quickly put a disclaimer here, I adore life and business coaches, like deeply sold out to some of them I can’t go a week without looking up their posts. They are immensely intelligent, talented, and they have an unwavering passion and commitment to changing lives. God bless them So no they are not the problem, it is you the listener that should receive their message with caution. You have to be like the biblical Bereans who though were zealous about the gospel, they did not thoughtlessly accept what Paul said. They would go back to search the scriptures to find out if what Brother Paul was saying was actually true… a whole brother Paul o, apostle of the Lords and Saviour Jesus Christ … toh!  – Acts 17:11

Not all messages are for you, period!

I wrote an article some years ago about a man who for me was an epitome of contentment. He was, still is a watch repairer of almost 3 decades operating from a shop in a remote street in Ojodu Berger Lagos state. He is very skilled at what he does, and he was the only one who fixed my broken wrist watches satisfactorily. But I hadn’t seen him in eight years so I wasn’t sure if he still operated from the same shop, but I went there anyway. To my surprise he was there, same street, same shop. While I sat there I kept thinking how mediocre he must be to be on the same spot for so many years. I mean here was a talented man who could potentially become a great oncologist if he was ambitious enough.  Good girl that I am I decided to help him with some pep talk and motivate him to dream big and plunge into bigger things. So I started by asking him how come he was still doing the same job in the same place after all these years, I wasn’t expecting the response I got. 

He said he was happy and grateful to God that he had the job, that the job feeds his family and has funded his son’s education who was at that time already a university graduate. Then he said something that changed my life forever, I’ll paraphrase, “I have had the honor of meeting many people doing this business, the young, old, poor and rich. Influencial people defy the comforts of their homes to come and meet me in this tiny shop, I have been a blessing to many people in this place, and I find joy in actually solving peoples time problems. I am living out my purpose, and I am happy doing it”. Brethren, that was how the teacher became a student that day. 

Where am I going with this?

Know thyself. Self-knowledge offers you a path to true happiness and fulfilment. Knowing who you are, your strengths, weaknesses, and purpose keeps you grounded and unmoved regardless of what everyone around you may be doing. On the other hand when you don’t know yourself you are at the risk of using other people’s lives as a standard, an act that leads only to frustration, errors and emptiness. You owe it to yourself to know the path that God has carved out for you, walking in that path is purposeful living, and it is fulfilling and rewarding. 

“And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers,”
– Ephesians‬ ‭4‬:‭11‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

We can’t all work or do business the same way, or at the same time; life wasn’t designed like that. And neither can we all be at the same growth levels at the same time. At some point you may be soaring, at other times it may seem like you’re tiny and hidden away. It’s okay, no condition is more important than the other, they all make up an experience that makes you a better person. Thing is everyone is a part of this Kingdom ecosystem, and every one plays an important role (If the whole body were an eye, how could it hear? If the whole body were an ear, how could it smell? God has placed each part in the body just as he wanted it to be. If all the parts were the same, how could there be a body? As it is, there are many parts. But there is only one body. 1 Cor12:) Everyone is a fraction of His image(personality), and together we form a magnificent masterpiece.

So do not follow the crowd, and do not think small of your gift, it may seem small, unpopular and uninstagrammable, but it is a significant part of God’s agenda for the earth. God is counting on it, the cloud of witnesses are counting on it, and so is humanity. 

Your vision may be valid, but the appointed time for its manifestation may be in the future.

”For the vision is yet for an appointed time; But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; Because it will surely come, It will not tarry.“ ‭‭

– Habakkuk‬ ‭2‬:‭3‬ ‭

Have you ever been in a similar situation where societal standards made, or almost made you derail from your purpose? Please share your experience.