THE BEST WAY TO SAY 'I AM NOT AN EXPERT'

"You must continue to gain expertise, but avoid thinking like an expert." - Denis Waitley

There is this day that I was being hosted on one of the premier TV stations in East Africa. My host was a top notch lady journalists who had a knack of taking scoff at ‘pretenders’, and on a live international audience she reveled in bringing ‘celeb’s down. My celeb status was from my breakthrough book titled ‘Permission For Greatness’. In this book, I talk passionately about parents and guardians training their children and not abdicating that responsibility to the ‘traditional education system’.

Now, that topic is not necessarily an easy topic. We are talking about education, a sector in which governments dedicate billions of dollars. So after my host had hyped me up well enough to bring me down, she went for the jugular, and popped up that million dollar question: Mr. Namale, seeing that you are no expert in child development, no expert in education, no expert in mentoring, what makes you think you can run with such a huge project that basically touches the lives of children?

A single moment or event, a single email or phone call, a single day or season can easily alter significantly the life and times of a Life Signatures visionary. I have also noted that a single passion, a great focus and relentlessness can lift up a visionary from every knockout punch that is thrown against them.

Our generation has had a knack for years of seeking to check out people and make sure that they are experts before trusting them. The word ‘expert’ can be rather intimidating. It can also be overly hyped, and if we are not careful, that word can lock out very many passionate people from fulfilling their Life Signatures.  Of course it goes without saying that the word ‘expert’ can open doors for you like nothing else can. 

Very many people the world over would remember a history making Kenyan woman who was awarded the Nobel Peace prize earlier on at the turn of the decade. Ms Wangari Maathai who passed on few months back is not remembered for her ‘expertise’ in the things she studied. Guess what elevated this woman to world prominence and relevance? Planting trees!!! Now, let me ask you a question: How many experts out there do we have in planting trees? How many have you heard about? For sure, there are some guys in this world who can name the botanical names of trees from front to back and back to front…yet their expertise does not affect Life Signatures in any way. That should teach us something.

This, I believe is the fifth time I am saying this on this blog: As long as it matters to you, it has its place in this world. There is nothing as empty as an ‘expert’ who has no heart energy in what it is they are championing. Someone somewhere has said that they would rather be an AUTHORITY in something than be an expert. There is a difference. I believe experts have head knowledge in a thing, Authorities have heart energy and are passionate about this even if they are not yet ‘experts’

I have read somewhere that ‘It was a group of experts that made the ‘unsinkable titanic’. It was one amateur who made the ark for more than 100 years. The unsinkable sank, 1the amateur’s ark floated’.

So next time someone sticks a microphone in your face to accuse you of not being an expert, this is what you should say: “Yes, I am not an expert in this thing, yet one thing I know: This stuff matters to me a lot. I feel this more in my heart than I feel in my head.It is important that this is done one way or another. I am not in this for accolades, I am in this to institute it and make a difference because it matters to me, it is critical to me that this happens, and I am not just about to count myself out because I lack this and that. Whatever it takes, this project will be done, and I will not be dissuaded by bystanders disqualifying me. It matters to me, and it is important for me to do this"

For the record, It did not happen of real, the TV Interview. It happened in my mind, one of those mental blocks that come to question your resolve. So let me say this, that Permission For Greatness matters to me a great deal. It is important to me...and so shall it be that I will persist until its fruition. If expertise is needed, I shall hire it. As far as I am concerned, I am the Champion of Permission for Greatness, PERIOD!