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NB: This newsletter is published every Monday. Point your browser to www.spontaneousdevelopment.com/sdnuggets to read at least ONE new post added to my SD Nuggets blog on a different category from Tuesday till Saturday (sometimes even Sundays) in line with this publishing schedule 
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No. 127: Master FEAR, and You’ll Achieve Mastery In Any Field
What are you afraid of? Fear is experienced by everyone. And that includes experts – be they self-employed or in paid employment. Sadly, traditional schooling teaches us little about how to handle it successfully. This issue of my newsletter offers practical insights that can help you.
You could be trying to launch a speaking service, as an expert in your field. Or maybe you’re a prospective retiree, and considering what venture to invest in.
Stop letting thoughts of possible failure, or loss, hold you back. Start small if necessary. Then gradually scale up your efforts. You’ll be better off in the end.
Here’s How/Why I Know This is True
Last week I spent time watching some of Sir Ken Robinson’s videos in which he talks about the need to overhaul our traditional schooling system to meet the needs of today’s fast changing world.
Nothing he said in those videos was essentially new – to me at least.
Like I read somewhere, degrees are now a dime a dozen.
If we, especially here in Africa, were to be honest with ourselves, we would admit the fact that universities from Europe and America are NOT just discovering potential students with intellectual competence abound in Africa. Instead, their rapidly increasing focus on recruitment from here, is (partly) a reflection of the drastic drop in enrolments happening in the societies they are based!
The truth is traditional schooling is no longer as attractive as it used to be.
Young people today have grown up with enough tools and resources to discover that on their own. Especially those in the developed societies who have ready access to eye-opening information. They are refusing to be shoved down the same paths their parents and grandparents were sent decades before.
This resistance is not simply due to typical stubbornness of youth. Instead many have increasingly observed that so many of their peers are adopting new strategies to developing real world competence, Indeed, very many have modified the original definition of success to suit their own preferences.
Like a home-schooled American teenager told his audience at TEDx, to him, success means being happy.
That (i.e. happy) is what he wants to be when he grows up.
So the purpose of the education he’s chosen (in collaboration with his parents) to get, is to identify what he can do to be happy – while being able to cater for his needs and those of any dependants.
This is the way I have always felt!
It’s why over 12 years ago I announced to close friends (and to my Montessori certified mother’s horror) that I would not let any of my kids start school before they clocked 5 years old.
I also said they would all be challenged to think outside the box, and engage in extracurricular aimed at helping them identify and nurture any talents or unique skills they possess.
My argument was that I had found very little use for my excellent academic credentials in the real world I chose to enter.
In other words, outside the controlled environment of paid employment, I discovered most of what I knew did not serve much useful purpose.
So, I had to put them aside and learn all over again.
But what really struck me was that I successfully did that, without needing to go back to a formal schooling environment.
I also noticed that while I was in paid employment, what made me most successful was NOT my academic ability, but (mainly) my ability to use my spreadsheet programming skills (developed in my spare time) to solve real life problems faced by my company.
And I noticed that the better I got at it, the greater the recognition I got.
So much so that I got sent on assignments and given opportunities that people who joined the company many years ahead of me had not been considered competent to handle.
It happened again and again.
The company apparently valued people who produced results they wanted – not just credentials!
All of that convinced me I did not need to go back for a Master’s degree.
Funny enough, I was working as a Brewer, and later Training Manager in Guinness. But I’d studied Agricultural Extension Services. So there was also the issue of what area I’d be able to obtain a masters degree in, since the company (Guinness Nigeria), had recruited and trained me as a Graduate Trainee Brewer.
That process took about 12 months.
And subsequently I sat and passed the professional Associate Membership Examinations of the UK’s Institute and Guild of Brewing (a certification I later discovered to offer ME little value outside the company!).
So when my colleagues (fellow brewers) at the office began to tell me they were running Masters Programmes, I often asked them what use they felt it would serve.
Of course they looked at me as if I was crazy.
Yet they never gave me an answer that really made any practical sense. As far as I could see, getting a Masters degree would not make them do their jobs better (in most cases anyway). Only they could decide to do that.
Many times the knowledge or information to help them do that, was available in the workplace.
Therefore the idea of going back to get an extra degree never really cut it. But they did/do it anyway.
(NB: I’m NOT saying an M.Sc I useless. Just that it’s not everyone who really needs one.)
And they closed their eyes to the glaring evidence that those of us who refused to get extra qualifications still out-performed them!
This was the most amusing part of it for me.
I thought going to school was supposed to make us think smarter?
But how come well schooled people fail (or refuse) to see this consistent trend and learn from it?
I believe it’s because they are afraid.
They are afraid to be different. To think different, and to act along those different lies.
They afraid of doing so and failing. To be seen to have been wrong. To be laughed at for being wrong…
To have their mistakes (or attempts to succeed via unconventional channels) criticised by close friends and relatives:
Example 1: “Haha, imagine Tayo thinking he could get paid any decent money to build Excel workbooks for people. See where that landed him!”
NB: Today, I (Tayo), get decent money to build Excel software for clients in different industries, and also sell my own custom Excel software.
Example 2: “Oh, have you guys heard? I just learnt Tayo’s saying he’s working to get paid 2,500 Euros write a research paper online while still based here in Nigeria. Does he know how many writers there are online? How can he be sure he’ll get chosen? And even if he is, will he ever see the money? What writing qualifications does he even have? Come to think of it, does he even have a Masters degree?”
NB: Today, it is on record that I DID get paid for writing that 4,000 word agribusiness Case Study by the international organisation based in Holland.
Even if no one asks them such potentially disempowering questions, they subsconsciously ask themselves!
In other words, they either sabotage themselves, or let people do it for them.
Why?
Because that’s what traditional schooling teaches those who pass through it.
You are taught to think getting the approval of others is important to your well being. That if you do not get it, something is wrong with you. That if you go alone, you’re not normal. That if you think and act different from everyone else, you’re a wet blanket…or a freak.
Dear reader, let me tell you a secret: All those things I just outlined above are myths!
Totally false and misleading stuff. And if you’re honest with yourself, YOU have always sensed it. The truth has periodically picked at your conscience. You’ve always felt something was not right about what you were being told. But that fear kept you from acting on your feelings.
As an expert in your field today, the programming done on you decades ago is very likely still working its limiting effects on how you think and act.
That’s why you want to do what others experts in your market do. You don’t want to rock the boat by trying something new, or unusual.
It’s why you put your creativity on hold so often.
It’s also why you’re scared to purchase solutions your colleagues show no interest it, but which you “feel” can help you (e.g. Burt Dubin’s mentoring service and products).
Those bright ideas you have scare you so much. You wonder what others would think if you used them.
Less (or UN) Schooled People Have Proven That Mastering Your Fears Can Yield Mastery in Life
Burt Dubin has coached some of the world’s highest paid and most successful speakers (like this one).
However, before becoming a mentor, he’d built highly successful careers in different fields (e.g. real estate, sales/sales management and public speaking).
He’s been around for over 3 decades, and has always been in the top leagues.
Yet, he points out on his website that he is a high school drop out!
The logical question for all of us who are NOT drop outs, but have had to learn from him is often:
Where did he get all this knowledge, know-how and wisdom he’s come to be renowned for over the last 3 decades?
That’s what tells us that we have MORE inside of us, waiting to be discovered, than we know!
The best educational system is the one that will help us unearth those hidden truths buried deep inside our subconscious.
The truths about ourselves in terms of the true abilities we have.
And of course the truth about fear…the fact that it only holds us back if/when we let it.
That we can, from today, learn to consciously put it aside and think/do anything we set our minds to.
The day we learn to do this, we’ll begin to effortlessly achieve mastery in any undertaking. Burt Dubin is just one example whose life demonstrates this truth. So many others exist in various fields.
You can be the next example that will inspire others.
Pursue additional schooling if you feel the need. But NEVER let fear be the reason you do that.
Otherwise, it will be an exercise in futility – and the mastery you seek could elude you…perpetually!
Have a great week :-))
Tayo K. Solagbade*
Self-Development/Performance Improvement Specialist
*Sole Agent For Burt Dubin’s Speaker Mentoring Service In Africa
Mobile: +234-803-302-1263 (in Nigeria) or +229-66-122-136 (in Benin Republic)
http://www.spontaneousdevelopment.com
Self-Development/Performance Enhancement Specialist – Tayo Solagbade – works as a multipreneurial freelance writer providing zero risk article and report writing support for website owners, while travelling slowly across West Africa as a Location Independent Multipreneur.
He’s presently based in Benin Republic, where he’s preparing an English-French Language Guide, City Travel Guides, and a Commercial Rabbit Farming Guide.
He earns multiple streams of income providing clients with performance improvement training/coaching, custom MS Excel-VB solutions, web marketing systems, freelance writing services, and best practice extension support services (for farm business owners).
In a previous life, before leaving to become self-employed, Tayo served for seven years as a high performing manager in Guinness Nigeria. He rose from Shift Brewer, to Training & Technical Development Manager, then later acted in senior management roles as Production Manager and Technical Manager.
When he’s not amazing clients with his superhuman skills (wink), Tayo works as the creative force behind his Self-Development Nuggets™ blog, and Public Speaking IDEAS newsletter (which he publishes to promote Burt Dubin’s Public Speaking Mentoring service to experts working across the African continent).
For a limited time, Tayo is available to speak to your group or organization for a moderate fee. Send e-mail to tayo at tksola dot com. You can also visit www.tksola.com to learn more.
Connect with him on Twitter @tksola.com and Facebook.
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