This article is an excerpt from my book, Discover-Develop-Deploy which is available on Amazon and is the second of the series I have written on this blog, if you missed it, you can read it here Discovering Yourself. There are seven(7) ways to discover yourself and this is the second I am sharing here. No one can achieve or attain full potential without self-discovery. The ultimate goal of every man is to discover who he or she is and then maximize it to the fullest.

Your Past or Present Experiences

Our experiences tell a lot about us. Don’t throw your experiences away as they have molded you into who you have become. Our experiences build our resolves and also build our skills. Experiences may be positive or negative; this doesn’t matter. What matters is how we convert those experiences to our advantage. One of the things I can remember while growing up was that everyone saw me as a solution provider; people believed I could solve their problems and whenever I declined, they felt I didn’t want to help them. I don’t know what made them believe in me, but I couldn’t just deny that urge to solve problems. These expectations people had of me made me begin to dwell more on solving problems or providing solutions to people. This has improved my researching skills a lot and made me very inquisitive; I want to ask more questions on the challenges people are facing today and how I can solve those problems. A lot of the solutions I have found have even been turned into businesses. I have built and run several businesses because my experience has shaped me to do so. Ofcourse, I have also met people who never believed I could do a thing; some saw me as a weakling but I refused to dwell on it. Instead, I focused on the positives and decide to write my own story based on God’s script for my life, not people’s opinions.

I remember my experience while I was working in the bank. I was providing knowledge for people. I would go and research the current trends in the industry and how to become better and then make a presentation to the team. Other teams noticed what I did and asked for the same service which I offered them for free.
Let’s bring it home to some of the businesses I now manage. What I do today is from my past work experience as a banker – I run a credit company and also offer financial inclusion services. These are what I did for over 10 years in the finance industry. I have been doing payments all these years through traditional and non-traditional or digital channels. I was able to build expertise in that area and when I left the organisation I worked for, I saw the needs and opportunities in that sector; therefore, I brought
all my experiences and knowledge to play to help me succeed. In the course of my journey, I have met people who started the same business but failed because they had no experience and background knowledge or understanding of the business. For me, it was what I have always done and I found it so easy to apply it to my own business. As you can see, our experiences are very important to discovering our potential. Even though today I still consult people who have had more experiences than I do in running a successful business.

We all know people are more likely to listen to someone who has experience in a field than to someone who just started. This is a pointer to the fact that people value experience. Hence, your experience in life should never be overlooked as you must have learned lessons throughout your journey in life; you must have mastered certain dos and don’ts that will enable you to forge ahead.
Your experience sometimes tells you what you can do and what you are made up of. It tells your story. So don’t discount your experience, it is part of who you are. Every lesson you learn as you grow in life prepares you for future adventures and exploits. They will surely come in handy in trying and challenging times. Those experiences will help you to know what to do and how to do them. That’s why employers prefer to hire people who already have experience in a field or in handling a particular situation to people who don’t have, because those who don’t have experience require training and training cost money and time. Your experiences attest to the fact that you must have failed and succeeded in that endeavor and that you are the best person for that position who can be trusted to take the right decisions or handle difficult situations.

Your present experience could also lead you to self-discovery and point you to things you need to do per time. My kids and I watch National Geo-wild channel a lot. My oldest son especially loves to watch
a real life adventure program, “The Ultimate Survival” hosted by Bear Grylls. The program is a reality TV program showcasing how to survive in wild and dangerous places. The presenter used to be in the British forces as an SAS serviceman, he is a survival instructor and a honorary lieutenant-colonel. Bear uses his
experience and training to scale through some really though terrains, eat food no one would normally eat, including insects, snakes and sometimes, even drinking his urine to survive. But one thing always stands out for me when he talks; he always talks about his experience in the Special Forces and how
they did some weird things just to survive. In this TV series, it was survival or he dies trying but he always scales through at the end. His program encourages us to know that we can always do incredible things
and our experiences are connected to our survival in tough times; they come to play.

In that moment you remember how you did something that went well or that even didn’t work but which you can try again. There were times Bear even got sick trying to scale something or due to things he ate.
There were times I thought there was no way this guy was going to survive through the desert or while jumping from a plane or even wading through the most dangerous crocodile infested swamps. Only his training could have afforded him the dexterity and endurance to go through those extreme conditions and maximize his potential. I also remember another survival program on the same channel where a
realtor was invited to participate; he couldn’t complete the course, after narrowly surviving a near death experience with crocodiles in the jungle. He had no experience and had never tried that in his life, he quit after just two days in the wild.

check your past experiences and see how they have shaped your life and be deliberate going forward.

To your Success

Lawrence Obi

Your Coach

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