TMO Conversations 1.0 happens to be our first event on TMO, which was held on Whatsapp, with about 230 members in attendance. Trust me when I say it was worth it! Special thanks to our guest, Babs Michael, and to the amazing team of TMO, starting from myself, Oluwatosin Faith Kolawole, to these wonderful set of people:

• Tobi Babalola
• Boluwatife Ishola
• Victoria Adepoju
• Doyinsola Oni
• Debbie Agboye
• Eyitayo Owoeye

Below, we’ll be sharing the compiled lecture from the event. This is for those who missed out and for those who were present but will like to return to the lecture.

Read more about Babs Michael here

I’M CERTAIN WE MUST BE RAISING OUR CAPS A LITTLE ABOVE OUR HEADS RIGHT NOW; RELAX HE WILL TEACH YOU THE STEPS WHICH MADE HIM WHO HE IS TODAY.

Over to Babs Michael

|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Babs: I see over 200 role models here going to shake their generations and do exploits
I will be speaking to us on harnessing your potentials for excellence
So let’s go;

Most of us have already turned our potentials to talents and that’s good news for us and for many that have not, it’s never too late.
There are many books about potentials, that we have read…I am not here to rewrite books on potentials but to open our eyes to practical experience.

There is a popular saying that experience is the best teacher. This is true to some extent. But a wise man once remarked that, though experience is the best teacher, it is better if it is not your own experience.

This is his message:
There are certain mistakes you make in life that may put you in a shape where it is impossible to pick any lessons from them. In other words, the experience of another person is your best teacher! Pure wisdom.

Do we agree that the best experience we need is from others and not necessary ours?
On this note, I will share my personal experiences involved in discovering and harnessing my potentials for excellence.

Potential is gotten from “potent”…capable of life
God created all of us with potentials but it’s our duty to discover and unleash them. They lie dormant in us until we are ready to tap them out and use them appropriately. When we do, they become great talents that define us.

When I was much younger, I discovered that I have the capacity in me to do a lot of things, though I had not started doing them yet, they were potentials. I could draw, I could sing, I could act, I could write, I could speak….I have feelings about all these. The more I see one clearly…the more I begin to see others.

First action is to look for one of them. It will open your eyes to others you didn’t see.

Now let me give you a test of how to see what you don’t know exist around you. Find the color blue in your area, where you are now, snap it and send now

Look around for anything. That is a Good one. David I owe you one of my books (David won the eyes test)

When you discover one thing about yourself, you open the directions for many more.

Now, you are seeing more than one. Thank you all.

Let’s take a hold on that.
So until you decide to look for your potentials, you will keep saying No. It was never in your consciousness that you could have many blue like these around. So also are your potentials.

Secondly, you could see potentials and others see dangers. Others see a potential in you and you can’t see it. It all depends on how you look at it.

Here are the steps I took and I will be discussing on them:

1. I think
2. I won’t
3. I want
4. I will
5.  Yes
6. No

1. I THINK

I had to spend time and think about all these after trying to make them real. I thought of where I want to function with my potentials. I discovered the strongest in my thoughts.
I knew my strongest potent power is my speaking ability which enhanced my writing skills, so I spent time to think, to know the strength of my potentials

If you cannot say “I think” then you will not experience yourself as a separate person. Your potentials when discovered will make you a separate person, and you will be fully differentiated from others
How different are you from others?

2. I WON’T

If you find it difficult to say ” I wont”, then you are a subject to being drawn into many destructive patterns, including everything from simply over extending yourself. People will tell you what they think is your potentials. People will tell you how to use these potentials. People will advise you as they wish. But you have the right to say “I won’t, because I know who I am”.

Success is not a day job. You have got to spend time working on this potential yourself or people will make you miss steps.

A tomato fruit can be ripened in two ways. You could spray a chemical on it and you would have a ripe tomato fruit overnight. You could also allow it to grow through the maturation process. Which one do you think would taste better? Drop that microwave success mentality! It won’t get
you anywhere. Believe me!

Spend time to develop the potentials…you have got to drill them. Stop spraying chemical on your potentials because you want to make it on time.

No microwaving of potentials. Say “I wont” to a rush!

3. I WANT

If saying “I want” is tough for you, then you are going to find yourself getting leftovers in many situations and not getting the performance out of yourself. After I was sure of my potentials, then it was time to develop them. So I want opportunities.

You have to seek opportunities. You seek first before they seek you.

• I was begging to speak to my juniors in high school
• I was trying to teach my classmates
• I taught students for free for a while

All I did was to connect to opportunities!

Years after, they seek me to speak in conferences both home and abroad. So, I know what I want!

What do you Want? Because the time will come when you will be paid fully for things you ought to do for free.

Connect to opportunities. That’s when the beauty of your potentials will be seen.

I was writing for punchyoungsters for free many years ago. I was writing for britishcouncil. All these organisations later supported my projects.

I travelled around the world with the help of these people. Do things now that will take you far in the future. Ask yourself what you are doing now?

4. I WILL

To will means a lot of things. To be inclined toward, to determine, to assent, or to choose are usually mentioned. The meaning I like the best is “to desire”, which adds a positive inclination to the mere choice to do something.

I like to think the choices we make are actually the ones we want to make

So, you must have strong desire for that potential. I will do it!

When you have strong desire, there is no going back even when people discourage you. I knew I would speak to youths of the world. It was a desire for my potential

The first time it came to reality was in Canada in 2006 where all youths of the world gathered and I spoke to them. When you have strong desire, your potentials will sprout out. Just be willing to be successful with those potentials in you. It will surely take time, but your time will come.

The lesson I learnt; success is not a day job; it is a daily job. It is not a destination, it is a journey. Success comes through the law of process. You need to calm down and give yourself time. Make sure you are in alignment with principles.

You have to process your potentials; don’t be in too much of a hurry. If you eat this fruit before it is ripe, the taste in your mouth will be a sour one and you will put your teeth on edge. Give your goals and your dreams time to come into fulfillment. That is the lesson that life taught me. Your potentials are growing

5. Yes
6. No
I will take both point 5 and 6 together

Most of the uses of the words “yes” and “no” are pretty obvious, and they are also similar to the ways we use the words “Will and Won’t”

The word “No” is especially relevant to boundaries and structures. People’s ability to say No is basically their ability to set limits, to define themselves and to establish their personal limits. Don’t say No to that potential, it’s in you.

When I was lecturing, people told me I will be a good compere; I will be a good MC. I said NO ooo. I am a serious person, I just want to motivate and lecture. I gave it a thought and I discovered I could do that.

Now, I make more money as MC than other things I do. Tell yourself “I won’t say NO”. I make solid income every weekend of the month and even weekdays. Will you say NO to that call?

Don’t say NO to that potential. It’s in you; don’t be lazy not to tap it.

I said NO to singing but it’s still in me. There are times it’s in need, so you shouldn’t kill any of your potentials, but the ones that will take you far, you will know.

My writing skill is helping me in businesses. I write proposals with ease, so all these will make you great!

Saying NO will shape your focus, but you can say NO to many negativities in life. Now is the time to say YES.
Someone shout…I say YES to my POTENTIALS!

Your potentials are calling you; it’s time to answer. Now is the time to say “yes, I am moving high with my potentials. I have allowed them to be dormant for a long time; it’s time to give them chance”.

I want you to say yes to that voice tonight; to that business you want to start. They are potentials in you.
To that book you want to write, they are also potentials in you.
To that course you want to take, they are in you.

Say yes to all what will make your dream a reality. You don’t need money to build your potentials, you need character.

I remember the words of the great evangelist, Billy Graham. He said,

“When wealth is lost, nothing is lost. When health is lost, something is lost. But when character is lost, all is lost.”

Don’t lose your character in the bid to make some small amount of money! Don’t rush after money now, it will surely come. Don’t turn your potentials to money now, build them and they will build mansion for you. Character is important in building your potentials.

TAKEAWAY

• Discipline is the hallmark of success, without it you are a lousy failure regardless of your posturing.
• Try this exercise. Identify one character flaw or weakness in your life that you consider serious. Telling lies, for instance.
• Draw up a plan to work on it for the next 63 days without breaking that plan
• Reward yourself after every 21 days that you did not break the plan
• If you break for a single day, start all over again and begin that cycle of reward
• With 63 days of unbroken plan, you will become a brand new person in that area. It works. Give it a shot! It will help your potentials to grow

Character is the word
Work on that character flaw with the steps I gave you. Your potentials can grow anywhere. It is not by changing location; it’s not a country factor. It’s a you factor.

Archbishop Benson Idahosa once said that a lizard in Nigeria will not become a crocodile in America.

He was trying to address a mindset that many of us in the third world have. We say that if only we could go to the western nations; if only we could go to the countries that look so beautiful in the movies and in the magazines, then our lives would change. That is a big lie!

Build your potentials where you are and let them take you far around the world. With my speaking skills, I have been to a few countries I don’t think I would have ever been. That’s the blessing of building your potentials.

Mike Murdock once said that when two people are doing the same thing or acting the same way, one of them is irrelevant! God does not have a duplicating machine. He fashioned every one of us differently.

It’s that potential that will speak for you differently.

It is not your CREDENTIALS that make you ESSENTIAL but your POTENTIALS

I see you becoming all that you can be as you face discovering more of you. Develop it by identifying mentors and role models. Ask questions and take actions!

Please, please, and please! Do not be an over motivated underachiever. Always motivated but not achieving. Take action now!

Ladies and Gentlemen, with these few points of mine, I hope I have been able to convince and not to confuse you that as you harness your potentials, you will be excellent in life.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS!

1. How can we know the perfect role model

Babs: Role models are those you pattern your life after. Mentors are your coach. Look for one in your observed skills and learn all through.

1. How is our talent different from our potential? And what is the difference between talent and skill?

Babs: Talents vs Skills vs Potentials. Potentials have certainly to become talents if you un-tap them. They are inbuilt; they are your natural habitats. Skills could be learnt. I can learn public speaking and I can be born to be a public speaker. You will know the difference. Passion will also speak it.

1. Talking about not rushing, is it also applicable to gaining into Nigerian Universities especially after one has tried severally? Cos I think there comes a time when one has to take the bull by the horn, especially in a country like ours where Corruption has eaten deep and things are not done based on merit. Please I need a convincing answer😌

Babs: Gaining admission is not a potential. So it’s good to take alternatives when one way is not. It is a dream that we choose and we must learn to follow our dreams. And please let admission not define you. Even without admission, your potentials can begin to soar. When the time comes, you will travel faster on campus with your potentials.

1. I agree 100%. But given our environment and economical challenge, education has been the top runner in Nigeria that is, if you don’t graduate from a particular university, your parents might not consider you grown up.

Babs: You have a good point. Education is important but my point is—It doesn’t only define how far you can go. I have OND/HND/Pgd/MBA. I have not worked with any of them. I have always been flying with my skills and potentials. I run a consulting firm, I run a college, I do a lot but I have had no reference to my certificates. Build the you aside the certificate.

1. This may sound weird. What about those without talents?

Babs: Everyone have talents. You have to discover them.

1. But you can at least take a break because you have all those at your fingertips. Considering those who haven’t acquired any skill or furthered their education to another level, they feel pressurized about the future and tomorrow. Babs Michael, you really need to deal with that.
   I wish most parents would be able to acknowledge that education is not always the key to success. Some children just need the same amount of money invested in their studies into their career. What do you think Babs Michael?

Babs: You are right!

Babs Michael: I am glad a lot of us are making huge sense. We are good to go! Just take actions; do something every day to be better than yesterday. I can attend to questions personally via TMO.

• Amb. BabsMicheal
• ambassador of oneyoungworld
• ambassador of successforteens
• Executive director, Impact Centre Africa
• Governor, Reorientation advocates of Nigeria, Lagos Chapter
• Speaker | Writer | Compere | EducationalConsultant
• +2348089598526
• http://www.babsmicheal.com

TMO Conversations was a wrap! See you some other time!

Kindly leave your comments below