THE CORRECT WAY TO SAY 'I HAVE NO JOB'

Let me ask you a question. What is the single most important thing in our present age that defines the worth of a human being? Think about it for a minute. Every time two acquaintances meet, after the usual small talk of 'What's up? How are you?', there normally arises that single most terrorizing question: "So what do you DO?". I have seen people so accustomed to this question that they normally start rumbling about its answer sometimes even before the question is popped. 

I have seen the light in people's eyes diminish immediately that subject is brought up. Others of course will look aside, ashamed to hold their friend's gaze who are waiting for an answer. I am thinking, sometimes "Would you marry me?", is less dramatic than, "So, what do you do?" In this day and age, our worth is gauged by how fast, eloquent and excited we can answer that question. Never mind those who fake it, they have already been influenced by how society's stereotype.

That being said, there are millions upon millions of woes all over the world. Those woes are faced not just once, but several times in someone's day, let alone a week. The woe is this very thing, the statement: "I have no job". Woe to you if you are to be married and you have no job. Your chances are slimmer than a cartoon that has been flattened by a train. Woe to you if you needed to be relevant in society and you have no job! Woe to you if you needed to have some 'Class'...and yet you are jobless. Woe to you if you wanted to make plans for a big life of affluence and yet you have no job! (Can you imagine the irony here?)

But wait a minute. Who gives me the powers right here to proclaim woes? Can you imagine the nerve? A man sitting somewhere in cyberspace dishing out pessimism faster than a food-processing plant. Well, if your fingers are pointed at me...I have you right where I wanted. The person to blame is not me, it is society. It is our society that expects us to excel by primarily having or acquiring a job. It is the self same society that would consider someone worthless just because 'they have no job'.

We have the whole thing backward! Instead of concentrating on WHO people are, we are more fascinated by WHAT they do! Think about this for a minute. The most impactful people around us are those who have FIRST of all understood WHO they are. Their WHO most definitely defines the extent of WHAT they can achieve! Wouldn't it be nice to replace that terrorizing question with a much better one? How about two guys meet, the normal small talk goes on and then we come to this part: "So, WHO are you man?" Ah! What a question! What a life defining question! Now wait a minute. There is still a wrong answer to that question...and guess what? It comes from the stereotype we talked about few moments back. I have seen that wrong answer time and time again especially when interviewing people for a job. "Who are you"? I ask. "Well, I went to blah blah blah University and I have a Degree in blah blah blah". (Read the Correct Way to say, "I have no Degree")

Would you shut up already! I asked you WHO you are, not what you have done! Can you answer that question faster than a Ferrari, more eloquent than Dr. Martin Luther King himself, and with much unction and conviction than TD Jakes posses when he's in the zone? If you can, I will tell you the right way to say you have no job. You ready? This is what you should say: "I am an SEO". A who? You asked. You are a Self Executive Officer! Makes no difference whom you work for or wish to work for or are not working for! Who said your worth is measured by how many hours you are able to trade your life for a paycheck?  Listen, we were all born for Life Signatures. To live to leave a Legacy and not to be forgotten soon after we 'expire'. Can a job give you a Life Signature? Well that depends on the correct way to say 'I have no Job'.

Sample this: It is a full-time job being a Self Executive Officer. An SEO is someone who knows exactly who they are. This alone takes half a life-time to find out (without relevant coaching that is). The real woe here is countless millions out there who 'have jobs' yet are as clueless as a cow on a new gate on WHO they are! Soon enough, the job is gone...kaput! Just like all jobs do. The real assessment of the story is: Do they have the job...or does the job have them? Nothing wrong with jobs. In fact, I take issue every time I have an opportunity to speak, with some 'Life Coaches and Speakers' out there who have read few lines of Kiyosaki going on crusading that jobs are useless, and we should all quit and move the the fourth quadrant! The next shut up is for such like people. Would you please shut up already!

I have always known that jobs are serious launching pads for people's destiny...if they endeavor to remain SEOs. SEOs without jobs are on the verge of a major break in their lives. Living as an SEOSEO and never resign from this post. The day you do, that is when 'you will have no job'.

So after winning the battle of a lifetime defining your WHO, the most important thing is to Accepting your WHO and distancing yourself from the stereotype in Society. That stereotype of branding who you are by what you do. It is at this level that some people become increasingly frustrated by WHAT they are doing. I have heard people with plum jobs saying, "Man, I am better than this....there has gotta be something much better I can do in life than this"! Holy Discontentment. My friend Bake calls it 'Divine Disobedience'. Selah!

Finally, the last leg as an SEO is to create yourself. This is where an Author called Jay Niblic has said that instead of changing YOURSELF to fit in a job (ever taken Engineering and ended up being a cook?), you CHANGE YOUR ROLE accordingly to fit to WHO you are. Are you jobless out there? Take  up your own vacancy and become an SEO. "How is that going to provide for food on my table and status in society"? You may ask. That is the million Dollar question. Instead of just putting food on the table and clothes on your back and a ring on your gal's finger...your reach will increase tremendously to cover the whole world.

Let me ask again: WHO ARE YOU?

PS: The latter part of this post was influenced much by Jay Niblic's book 'What's your Genius?' The SPIRIT and UNCTION behind the post is something I have always had for years on end...so you can imagine how ravenous I am devouring Niblic's Book. You are a Genius...your were born one, now you need to die one.