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Hello beautiful people! Welcome back to my space. I am so excited to be presenting this post to you, and I hope you will patiently read to the end.

A Little Background

I started working on this post about three weeks ago as part of my entry for the on-going collaboration between CreativeWorkHr and Dreemport. To refresh your memory or get a hang of what this is all about, I would like to suggest you read my previous entries 👇👇
Week 1 post.
Week 2 post.

It has been an amazing 3-week journey, and so today, I bring you the full story. Hehehe, "writing one post for 3weeks?" Yes, you heard me right! I did it, y'all! Now, just enjoy the story as it unfolds below, because I am writing about The Gold Inside Me.

My Early Years And Big Dreams

There are times when I feel like I could give anything to relive those years again. Unfortunately, I can only visit them in my mind as they have now become history. They have become part of my memories.

Those were days and years of laughter and joy. I never knew what pain was, perhaps because my Dad and my Mum did their best to take care of my brother and I. Those were days I dreamt of travelling the world and living in castles, dining with Kings and Queens.

Ours was not a very rich family, but we were not poor either. Maybe what some people will call middle-class. But our needs were well taken care of, and we were content and happy... until I lost my Dad, and I was only eight years old.

Facing Adversity

The loss of a father can bring untold hardship to the family he left behind. In my part of the world, the widow and her children may even be left with nothing as the man's family (parents, siblings and other family members) struggle among themselves to grab whatever they could from what the man left behind.

In my own case, my maternal relatives were very helpful and supportive. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for my father's family.

My mum began to work extra hours in her job which meant that she gets home late and tired. At a point she started making snacks for sale, and also opened a tailoring shop (because she had the skills to bake and sew). She had to employ someone to manage the shop while she was still planning her exit from her paid employment.

My brother and I watched the stress our mother was going through in order to provide for us and send us to school, and there was only little or nothing we could do to help.

The Search Begins

What can I do to make money so that things would be better for us, and so that our mum could breathe? That was the big question on our minds then.

We were already doing very well in school, coming out top of the class...but how many more years before finishing school and looking for or finding a job that pays (by this time were in high school and haven't even gone to the university, hehehe). What kind of job do you think pays a high school leaver very well?

Being an ardent reader, I read books that talked about starting a business. But when I thought about businesses that were booming around us then, they all required a lot of money to start. Me that was looking for money? Hehehe!

Somewhere Along The Line

I heard a teaching that changed my perspective about making money and wealth creation. By this time, I was already in the university. Guess where I heard this teaching? In the church! And it came from this passage in the bible 👇👇

Screenshot taken from the King James Bible app

That was not my first time listening to a message from the above passage, but the way it was presented this time made me stop and think... and then came on the light bulbs.

I Found My Gold

It took many years for me to understand that what I was looking for all over the place was already in me! Don't forget, I had been on a long search for what I could do to earn money so that my mum would not be overworked.

So, the teaching I mentioned above opened my eyes to the fact that I already had a very huge potential on my inside waiting to be tapped. This was in the form of gifts, skills and talents that I possessed.

It doesn't matter if you say that the 'talent' in that Bible passage was a form of currency used in those days. For me, 'talent' means talent, as in literally. Take it, or take it, haha.

Exploration And Mining

No matter how deep something is hidden inside the earth, there would always be indicators to show that they are present. Think of all the crude oil and solid minerals found in different parts of the world, if there wasn't anything on the surface to show that they are present in a location, no one would bother about looking for how to bring them out from the depths of the earth.

Image generated by prompting Bing powered by DALL.E 3

The same goes for the treasures we carry on our inside (after all, we are formed from the earth). So it goes without saying that the things you can do easily and much better than other people are clear indicators of your hidden talents/gold.

In My Own Case

Taking time to think about these things revealed that I had quite a few things that could called gifts or talents.
🔸️I could teach and explain things easily to others in simple terms.
🔸️I could sing very well (even being able to different parts)
🔸️I could look after younger children, keeping them happy with stories and songs.
🔸️Later on, I became skilled in cooking and baking.
🔸️I also learnt a bit of tech (first by getting a formal training, and then by personal research).

Refining And Packaging My Gold

Over the years, I have found myself getting better and better in doing those things that come easily to me. This must have been possible because I made use of opportunities to put them in practice.

For instance, when I graduated from the University, I went for the compulsory one year National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in my country. My primary assignment was to teach in a secondary school.

Also, my first paid employment was as a Faculty in an IT company where I taught different classes of individuals on how to use Ms Word, Excel PowerPoint. Then came Ms Access, Visual Basic, SQL server (I trained to be able to do this)

Leaving my paid employment, I wanted to start a company that focused on training people in IT. Unfortunately, the capital to invest was too much at that time. That was in 2003.

The next best option was to start a Private school, and this I did by establishing a crèche/daycare centre first. This happened in 2005.

Forced to relocate to my current state of residence in 2012, I tried to start the school again. It was taking time to gain traction, so I had to pull out the next strength I had: cooking and baking. And so, in 2013 I launched my Catering Business, while still running the school.

Guess what happened? I started having people coming to me to learn how to bake and cook. Of, course I added training classes to my Catering Business. But it wasn't long before I started looking for how I could offer my training classes to more people without having to bring them to my physical location and without having to physically run the classes over and over again.

At this point, I needed to get more techy than I was. So, I had to learn how to create online courses and ebooks, and I invested in coaches and mentors to be able to achieve this.

The thing is, no matter how gifted or talented you are, you still need someone to help you bring it to the point where it is refined and polished so that it becomes more presentable.

And Life Goes On

From all I have written above, you .use have seen that the major gift which can be said to be my gold is my teaching ability. Nevertheless, I haven't used it in isolation. It has helped me even other things I ventured into.
I created the Activated Bakers And Chefs Program which focuses on helping experienced Bakers, Chefs And beating business owners create more income streams by creating online courses and digital books. Currently, it is put on hold as I am making some updates to my website and the course curriculum.

I also have an ebook on Nigerian Recipes which can help anyone interested in making some Yummy Nigerian dishes. Do check it out here👇👇
Deliciously Different Cookbook

Recently I have been working on starting a podcast to challenge multi-talented individuals to start monetizing their gifts, knowledge and skills. I think I can say that I am getting closer and closer to achieving this particular goal.
I will definitely let you know when it is ready.

This is my story.

I, @ngwinndave, wrote this post. It is just one part out of the story of my life, hehehe. I want to thank you for reading to this point. The images used here are properly sourced.

Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments. I will definitely get back to you.