Being different is fine but only special talent leaves a mark

 

US President Barack Obama speaks at St Paul, Minnesota, this week. He embodies his message with his entire being in that unrivalled dazzling manner. AFP 

By Seraphine Ruligirwa-Kamara

In Summary

• Professionals lead because of doing little things greatly everyday.

I want you to develop a completely different level of evaluating yourself. Now I need you to work with me here. I am going to take my flashlight and focus only on the areas that make you more valuable than any other person in your field.

Are you game? Too bad if you’re not — you’ll soon learn that its hard to stop me once I get started.

Right now, my mission is to improve you. Everything else like; “oh um err I’m not ready” or “you know I was just thinking…” must get out of my way.

We just moved an operation to Industrial Area. Its an adjustment. Usually its hot and dusty. There’s always a traffic gridlock some place, but today is a cool day and I hear no honking by frustrated drivers outside.

When a change like this rolls through here, we notice it in a big way. It is different. Very refreshing.

You know; in a maze of sameness, “different” brings with it a victorious accomplishment in the noisy place we call our world today.

It singles you out and gets you noticed. It piques interest and attracts everyone’s flashlight to focus solely on you. “Different” puts you on centre stage to show the world what you’ve got to offer.

I know you generally have a clue about what makes you different, but that’s just the first step. I want us to move beyond that and on to what makes you better.

When you appreciate your difference, you move towards demonstrating it — and that’s how we are going to cultivate that unique self-evaluation I promised you earlier.

Now lets get into it. Are you a professional? Well, of course you are, pardon me for asking!

When is the last time you watched any professional perform? It is a most exciting and satisfying experience. It doesn’t even matter what the professional is doing. A professional’s prowess and exactness is a riveting sight.

Take our Rift Valley brethren on a race-track for example. They keep you at the edge of your seat as they move with such calculated precision.

Their toned muscles working in total alignment with their objective and their picture of victory as they overtake all those other figures on the track to burst through the finishing line and proudly lift our flag ever so high! Oh, how, I love the slow-motion clips of this!

Consider a professional sales person gliding through a presentation with breathtaking poise and confidence, overcoming any and all objections in an unruffled manner and finally bagging a signed contract at the tail end while you don’t even recall her closing the sale.

It is splendour personified! Think of US President Barack Obama’s elegantly crafted campaign speeches superbly delivered by the charismatic man himself. He doesn’t speak the words, he delivers them.