Transform your dreams to reality, by Yemi Adetayo

Your dreams can become realities, in spite of obvious challenges, if you know what to do and you do it. Just be bold to take baby steps. The difference between the newsmakers and the commoners is the guts to follow through despite the initial problems they face.

One good way of overcoming challenges is to read success stories. Dreams are real, they can come true if only you can be bold enough to dream and have enough information to drive you on. I will be supplying you with the necessary information you need. Please do me the favour of taking the steps that will make your dreams become a reality.

Who are you?

For your dreams to come to reality, you must discover your calling by discovering yourself. Look inwards, discover what you do with ease. The great and high and mighty took time to answer the question of who they are. That is where greatness starts off from. What do you enjoy doing either you are paid or not? What makes you happy when you are involved in it?  That, my friend, is a pointer to who you are. To birth your dream, you must discover it. It’s usually at a quarrel scene that you hear this serious but life changing question: Do you know who I am? My friend, please who are you? Have you ever taken time to ponder on that question and come up with answers? Discovering who you are is a necessary first step towards becoming great.

Find out what it takes to become great

I have seen smartly dressed people who are empty, they don’t know anything about their jobs, they don’t think about the future of their jobs. All they care about is the pay. How much are they paying? That’s a wrong question. Asking the right questions is the way to go forward, asking the right question is the route to getting relevant and very useful answers. It is necessary to find out what it takes to become great in your chosen field by analysing the requirements needed to practise what you want.

Get the requirements listed out under separate headings – Education, training, certification, experience. For instance, to practise Public Relations in Nigeria, you must be a member of the Nigeria Institute of Public Relations (NIPR), you must either have written the NIPR exams or graduated as a Mass Communication or marketing student. If it is events marketing, it is still an all comer’s affair for now, just know how to market and manage events. For standup comedy, there is no regulation anywhere in the world yet. They may learn from one another but there is no regulation yet for standup comedy. But that does not mean it is easy to break into. You must have adequate knowledge to stand out in any field. There are several comedians, but we all know the leaders. Take time to learn, find out what it takes to effectively practice your discovered passion and be ready to give it your very best shot or don’t venture at all.

Honestly analyse yourself

Another important thing you do is to honestly analyse yourself. Are you sure that with your skill set and knowledge base, you can easily make it in your field? What marketing skills do you have? What do you know about promotions? How competent are you? Do you have bad manners? What do you think may hold you back? What are your strengths and weaknesses? What are the opportunities? Are there threats? Please find out. Understand yourself and the area you have chosen well. It is very important, those who end up as local champions took self-appraisal for granted, please don’t.

Also take note of competition

You also need to understand and analyse the market. Who are the leaders in the market/what are their strengths? It may be difficult to move very fast if you don’t understand your competition well. See you at the top.

Yemi Adetayo, a success strategist and leadership expert. He can be reached at: counseloryemi@gmail.com