From Learning to Earning

An Introduction to Skill Development

In my opinion, learning new skills is a not a luxury but a necessity. In today's world, there are 8 billion people and the competition is very high in the market. Any job that you think of, any new idea, someone has already became a pioneer in that and sometimes even the market is saturated with that line of work. But does that mean that you should give up? absolutely not!

Many of my family members and friends are always in the mindset of "It's saturated so I can't get anywhere in that!" and i honestly am exhausted of this way of thinking. No matter how flooded a field is, there is always a space for you, BUT only if this is one of your top skills or your interests. I gotta say that choosing a job merely because people say it pays well has never worked out in the long run for people who wanna be top earners. Sure you can earn money out of a job, but will you ever be wealthy if your job doesn't engage you?

As human beings, we are naturally attracted to things that motivate and reward us, and we generally avoid or distance ourselves from negative experiences that make us feel unpleasant. So if you're in a job that pays fair but the environment is toxic, even if you resist to escape, your mind will stay in a survival state the whole time. You don't have any time for self improvement, your whole reality becomes about learning how to dodge every toxicity that is thrown towards you. I used to work in an environment like this, I was being talked down to, I was subjected to sexism and always being blamed for minor mistakes that I wasn't even involved in. Eventually I left, but unfortunately I stayed far too long and my brain was fried from being constantly in a fight or flight mode. Not only I didn't have any room for improvement in the company, but also I was having panic attacks and developed many different mental and physical disorders. Was the pay good? not really but I was desperate at that time, but was it worth it, I would say maybe for the first few months but after that absolutely not!

If I had a time machine and could change one aspect of my life, I would go back to the fourth month of working there and quit on the spot. I just want to say that while it can be challenging to find a good job with great colleagues and a supportive boss, or to leave a toxic environment, taking this step is essential to beginning your path to financial satisfaction.

Now that we established that for our wealth journey we need to have a decent job, first we have to dive deeper in the world of careers and opportunities. As I said earlier, we are one hell of a planet with lots and lots of people in it. Yes I also said that if the field that you're having an interest or skill in is flooded with people you can still find your place in it, but I didn't say it was gonna be easy!

In order to get closer to gaining that specific opportunity that you're looking for, you need to sharpen your skills, or start learning new ones if you don't have any. The key in success is not in being a morning person or working long hours, it is in being persistent. Persistence is not about working 24/7 or doing hard labour, it's about patience for the reward to come.

You might ask, then if it only needs persistence, why aren't all the people doing in? and the answer to that is that most of us are usually looking for the easy way out, the fast way in, becoming rich in one night, things like that, we want fast rewards for bare minimum work and that's unfortunately not how the world works. Opportunities are about slowly building your life, your career, and your skillset from the bottom all the way to the top, and that my dear readers, requires Patience. Also let's not forget that starting from zero will in fact teach you all the little steps along the way, so even if one day you lose everything, you know your way up! That's why many people who win the lottery, usually go bankrupt in a matter of years.

Leaning into skill development

My advice is to find a good job, keep it for basic maintenance of your life and alongside that job, start learning new skills or strengthening your current ones for your ultimate career choice.

But there is still a little problem, how do you know what you're good at? Believe it or not after all these years even I am still struggling to find out my true passion(s)/skill(s)/talent(s)! Determining your strengths can be quite challenging, as this journey requires a deep understanding of oneself. There are a few ways in which you can recognise your hidden talents/skills and start your journey from there. One of the methods that I use for finding out about my skills, is the bombardment method. In this approach, I pick a piece of paper and start bombarding myself with different skills that I see people have, such as writing, teaching, craftsmanship, and so on. I try to write as many skills as I can think of. Then I get help from Google or ChatGPT to find more and more skills and when I'm finally finished, I start rating my skills from 1-10, with 10 being the mastery of that skill. Now you have a starting point.

In the future posts, I will discuss more about how to identify the skills you possess and how can you embrace and nourish them into career worthy abilities.