
# TALENT MASTERY SERIES

# Table of Contents

Title Page

THE | INCUBATION | OF | GREATNESS | HOW TO GROOM AND UNVEIL YOUR TALENT

MARK SHANA

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ABSTRACT

PART ONE | THROUGH THE REFINERY

I've always considered myself to be just average talent | And what I have is a ridiculous insane obsessiveness | For practice and preparation. | Will Smith

CHAPTER ONE | GIVE IT ALL THE TIME IT TAKES

INCUBATION SECRET 1 | Going through the course of time to realize your dream will see you through many stages, there may be many lonely nights when you will wonder if the day will ever break.

INCUBATION SECRET 2 | Fulfilment is seldom a function of how early or how late you accomplished your goal. It is about how sweet the victory is, how remarkable it is to you, and how much impact it makes.

INCUBATION SECRET 3 | Evaluation is critical, without this, most projects will fall short of excellence.

APPRAISAL

CHAPTER TWO | TAKE SMALL STEPS EVERY DAY

INCUBATION SECRET 4 | Intelligence must be cultured in the right environment, or it won't result in anything phenomenal.

INCUBATION SECRET 5 | If you cut corners, you may find that the journey takes longer.

CHAPTER THREE | RE-ORIENTATE YOUR SELF FOR EXPLOIT

INCUBATION SECRET 6 | Never work for money, work consistently towards greatness.

APPRAISAL

CHAPTER FOUR | IF YOU WANT TO FEEL THE WAVES, STAND WHERE THE WIND BLOWS

INCUBATION SECRET 7 | Greatness is not a function of genetics but a function of alignment.

INCUBATION SECRET 8 | In the absence of a mentor, most talent will miss their way.

APPRAISAL

PART TWO | RULES OF EFFECTIVE WORK | Your talent is God's gift to you. | What you do with it is your gift back to God. | Leo Buscaglia

CHAPTER FIVE | WORK ON THE PREMISE OF A NEW IDEA

INCUBATION SECRET 9 | It's not enough to read or study, take something that fascinates you beyond mere interest and make it an occupation. Make it an obsession, live it, practice it and become one with the art.

CHAPTER SIX | THINK BEFORE YOU WORK

INCUBATION SECRET 10 | Your imagination is necessary for outstanding results.

INCUBATION SECRET 11 | Good work is not just about the time committed but about the thinking demonstrated before and after the work is done.

APPRAISAL

CHAPTER SEVEN | WANT MORE SUCCESS, WORK SMART, NOT HARD

INCUBATION SECRET 12 | Be ready to tear down the walls.

INCUBATION SECRET 13 | Let go of your imperfections

INCUBATION SECRET 14 | Focus on the people who need what you have.

INCUBATION SECRET 15 | Focus on what you can do, not what others can do for you.

INCUBATION SECRET 16 | Focus on an idea that validates your current office.

CHAPTER EIGHT | WORK WITH A STRATEGY

INCUBATION SECRET 17 | Know your destination and what it means to have arrived at it.

INCUBATION SECRET 18 | Researching on the challenges you're likely to face in a venture before you start can radically improve your level of success.

INCUBATION SECRET 19 | Work with the user in mind.

CHAPTER NINE | WORK AT YOUR PEAK LEVEL OF STRENGTH

INCUBATION SECRET 20 | To get the best out of your talent, it is important that you seek to create, and not reproduce.

INCUBATION SECRET 21 | Be willing to hunt down the dragon.

INCUBATION SECRET 22 | Study when you're most energetic and alert.

INCUBATION SECRET 23 | Take breaks if you're fatigue, but don't stop the good work.

INCUBATION SECRET 24 | Uphold your creative schedule.

PART THREE | SECRETS BEHIND THE MOST SUCCESSFUL UNVEILING | To bury up your gift is to do yourself and the world a disfavour | Mobile Motivators

CHAPTER TEN | BE WILLING TO SEE WHAT'S BURIED UP IN YOUR SOUL

INCUBATION SECRET 25 | Talent without responsibility is like a car without wheels. Start the engine and it will make a lot of noise, but it's going nowhere.

APPRAISAL

CHAPTER ELEVEN | SIMULATE A SPARKLE BY STAYING VISIBLE

INCUBATION SECRET 26 | Don't just mirror after what is good, mirror after the best.

INCUBATION SECRET 27 | Learn to continually spread the word about your talent in a cool and non-threatening way.

APPRAISAL (FOR MANAGERS)

THE VISIBILITY INDEX | APPRAISAL (FOR EMERGING ARTIST AND ENTREPRENEURS)

CHAPTER TWELVE | IF THE AUDIENCE DON'T COME, GO TO WHERE THEY FLOCK

INCUBATION SECRET 28 | When talent produces a flame, good management will set it ablaze.

INCUBATION SECRET 29 | A script will guide you to evoke the perfect delivery and even do better than yourself.

APPRAISAL

CHAPTER THIRTEEN | DON'T TRY TO PLEASE, SEEK INSTEAD TO OFFER A THRILL

INCUBATION SECRET 30 | What makes successful talent is not exactly their skills but the moments they create while showcasing their works.

APPRAISAL

INCUBATION SECRET 31 | Your personality and your overall gender appeal can make you a fortune.

APPRAISAL

PART FOUR | RULES FOR MAVERICKS

It is impossible to be a maverick or a true original if you're too well behaved and you don't want to break the rules. You have to think outside the box. That's what I believe. After all, what is the point of being on this earth if all you want to do is be liked by everyone and avoid trouble? | Arnold Schwarzenegger

CHAPTER FOURTEEN | BE IN CONTROL OF YOUR CREATIVE PROCESS

INCUBATION SECRET 32 | While the novice is controlled by his gift, a master is in control of his gift.

INCUBATION SECRET 33 | To control your gift, you have to study what triggers it, and learn to harness its power the right way.

INCUBATION SECRET 34 | The inspiration is within, don't be so destabilized, propelled or excited by an external influence, that you forget your manners, your composure and your civility.

INCUBATION SECRET 35 | A typical idea can be represented in any way you deem fit, and can translate into just anything, provided you have the skills to make them work.

INCUBATION SECRET 36 | Learning the gambits is not the same as learning the trade.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN | LEARN HOW TO PROPERLY INTERCEPT YOUR IDEAS

INCUBATION SECRET 37 | Your experiences day to day are unique, and your interpretation and expression of these events can help birth originality.

APPRAISAL

INCUBATION SECRET 38 | The ideal innovative idea is original and will either cut you a good portion or get you out of the rat race.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN | DON'T BE AFRAID TO DO SOMETHING FOR THE FIRST TIME

INCUBATION SECRET 39 | No child is born great, greatness is cultured.

INCUBATION SECRET 40 | Having a support group can help your talent to blossom.

INCUBATION SECRET 41 | Walk with a crutch if you need one and let it go after some time.

INCUBATION SECRET 42 | Overcome your alienation effect.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN | CHANNELLING YOUR MAVERICK TENDENCIES TO PROFITABLE USE

APPRAISAL (FOR MANAGERS)

PART FIVE | DEALING WITH THE OPPOSITION

True miracles are created by men | When they use the courage and intelligence that God gave them | Jean Anouilh | French dramatist (1910-1987)

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN | ANYTIME YOU START DOING SOMETHING NEW, YOU ARE ASKING FOR TROUBLE

INCUBATION SECRET 43 | An impressive result speaks for itself.

CHAPTER NINETEEN | DON'T LET GO OF YOUR VISION

INCUBATION SECRET 44 | Total acceptance has nothing to do with greatness. If you get the approval of everyone, you're either an hypnotist or a chameleon!

INCUBATION SECRET 45 | The bigger the fire, the better the light.

CHAPTER TWENTY | STICK AROUND FOR ANOTHER DAY

INCUBATION SECRET 46 | To do the heroic, you have to stick to the path. You must be fearless and walk on in the shadows, when other people cower in fear.

INCUBATION SECRET 47 | If you're working uphill and your effort is shunned, don't be dissuaded, look at the sun, it puts on a wonderful display at sunrise, but quite a lot of people in the audience keep on sleeping till midday.

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE | LEARN TO OVER-RIDE THE OPPOSITION

INCUBATION SECRET 48 | Be willing to see beyond your day.

INCUBATION SECRET 49 | Not getting what you want helps you to bring in a better shine to your character.

CONCLUSION

THE SKY IS NO LONGER THE LIMIT

INCUBATION SECRET 50 | It at the point of tears, sprains and bruises that true masters are made.

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SUMMARY OF INCUBATION SECRETS

REFERENCES

This book was written to inspire courage and help young talents to aspire for greatness, if it inspired you, the author would love to hear from you, send your mailto: 7keypoints@gmail.com | For presentations and speaking appointment, please send inquiries to the above listed mail.

INDEX

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Also By Mark Shana

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# THE

# INCUBATION

# OF

# GREATNESS

# HOW TO GROOM AND UNVEIL YOUR TALENT

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# MARK SHANA

This publication may not be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in whole or in part, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher or the author. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

THE INCUBATION OF GREATNESS. How To Groom And Unveil Your Talent. ISBN: 9780463884362. Non-fiction/Self-help (C) 2018 Mark Shana.

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# ABSTRACT

Hard work I believe is one of the most misunderstood word in our society, hard work is a value we all extoll but what most people fail to understand are the ingredients that makes for fruitful work. Many people work hard from day to day, but they have little or no result not because they are not aware of the headlines but because they lack the details.

If you are gifted and you have people telling you to work hard, the question you should ask them is; on what? If work is done without direction, it amounts to zero work.

It is not enough to work, it is important for you to know what is working. Most gifted people think of work, only in terms of their gift, but work is manifested in other areas beside the gift itself. While working it is important to have the right mental stimulation, it is important for work to be done with a focussed approach, it is equally important for gifted people to work with their leverage. It is essential for work to be done consistently, it is equally important for work to be done with a creative and imaginative approach, with the right attitude in the right forums and with the right mindsets

Enhancing the visibility index of a young talent is work in itself. Without this, you may work so hard, have so much talent but die in obscurity. Most people work but they fail to engage a team, they fail to use a script, all this makes work to be purposeless. Most people work extremely hard through the course of time, but they fail to document their work, record or transcribe it as a proof to others and when they do, they fail to put it where it can be visible. Everybody works hard at the dawn of an audition, TV reality show, but the people who emerge as winners, are not the super gifted, but the ones who work on the right stuffs.

When work becomes overwhelming and leaves water bags, and eye shadows on the face of the gifted, how do we take back the control? Work is good, but what advice do we have for the one on the brink of physical collapse, whose drive for work has created problems in his personal and social life? This and other issues are what we examine in this maiden edition of the talent mastery series.

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# PART ONE

# THROUGH THE REFINERY

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# I've always considered myself to be just average talent

# And what I have is a ridiculous insane obsessiveness

# For practice and preparation.

# Will Smith

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# CHAPTER ONE

# GIVE IT ALL THE TIME IT TAKES

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Every talent goes through a phase of incubation; this phase is important for proper development of the talent, if you have a specific talent, it won't be immediately tenable or accepted. Talent is given to you in its raw form, it is your job to refine it.

The incubation period for each talent is fraught with disappointment, many people while they are still incubating their talents, are seeking to showcase it none the less, and at that point, they are seen to be struggling, challenged and trying to know how to access, harness and train their gift. The incubation period is not to be rushed, let your gift become refined, do your homework well enough, train properly, when your gift is ready and you've done your proper work, it has the potential of taking the world by storm.

Check out the following success stories:

John Sullivan, creator of one of the most watched TV series started as a messenger boy at Reuters and did odd jobs for 15 years, including acting as a window cleaner before getting his break with the sitcom, Citizen Smith.

Paulo Coelho, the writer behind the best-selling Alchemist, whose work has sold over 65 million copies was committed to mental asylum three times by his parent. 20 years later, he found the courage to become who he wanted to be, and his book has stayed on the bestseller list, not just for weeks but for 8 years.

The most famous work of art, Mona Lisa was painted, not in a day but intermittently through the course of 1504 to 1519, spanning a whooping length of 16 years till the sculptor's death.

J.K Rowling penned down the first drafts of the Harry Potter Series as an unemployed single mother, while grieving the loss of her mother, and at the same time, undergoing a crushing marital crisis. And upon completion was rejected by all the major publishers in London.

Harlow Daly, who is now a celebrated chess champion, became a master at the ripe old age of 85 after trying for several years.

The famous cartoon icon, Pinocchio was designed by Italian writer Carlo Collodi at the age of 54 and no one at the time, realised how transformative his work was going to be.

Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, had 5 consecutive failures in politics from 1848 to 1858 before being elected as president in 1860.

Many people believe in overnight success, they think having talent will automatically catapult them to global fame and success, but life doesn't always work that way. Just as a woman has to carry a child in her womb for 9 months, even what is evidently going to be a success story, has to go through a transition period. The trick here is to keep your hands busy, to do the right things and not to abort the mission.

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# INCUBATION SECRET 1

# Going through the course of time to realize your dream will see you through many stages, there may be many lonely nights when you will wonder if the day will ever break.

You may toil tirelessly for days or years unending without any sign of success, or growth or accomplishment of your vision, while you look at your contemporaries acquiring mass flood of wealth. But the time of our accomplishment often vary.

The race we run in life is different, and so is our time.

Some people end up accomplishing the great feat of their lives, in their early age. (Take the example of Mozart who is regarded as a prodigy and was in concert as early as the age of 6 or the case of Mohammed Ali, who at 22 won the world heavy weight championship) but for many it takes years of hard work, diligence, practice and faith.

For this set of people they are like the small seeds of the moso plant.

The moso is a completely different kind of plant; it is strange in the sense that while other plants of lesser magnitude are visible and are steadily growing over a number of years, nothing comes forth at the surface of the soil, while the moso is planted for weeks. Shout all you want, grumble all you can, add all the fertilisers you want, and apply all the irrigation techniques there is.

The first week rolls by with no event, the second week, even the third week will pass and nothing evolves. By this time, the blue berry is out of the ground and crops such as the maize and the watermelons are green with leaves, and basking luxuriously in the sun, yet there is nothing coming out of the moso plant.

But what is the attitude of the farmer? He goes all the same, and waters the spot where the moso is planted, having faith that someday, there will be a beautiful shoot.

By the end of the first month, nothing comes up, but at the end of the 6th week, a shoot become visible. Sometimes in some species, the farmer has to tarry till the third or sixth month, and this period of latency continues for a couple of years where growth is stunted and restricted, but then on the fifth year, something amazing happens. In a matter of 42 days, the moso plant towers to an height of over ninety feet, and that is the height of about nine storey building, and it's almost like you can see the moso plant growing before your very eyes. And the interesting thing is; the farmer is not surprised; he knows the potential inherent in the seed.

Those years when the seed showed little or no sign of growth, the moso plant was developing and spreading its shoot system, when it was time to grow, the sheer force of propulsion becomes powerful and noticeable in weeks.

And so it is with us, you may work hard on a vocation for years and fail several times, you may work trying to build a business for years, and may work on your relationship with little or no sign of improvement. You may pray for your family endlessly with no turn of fortune, like the proverbial man at the pool, you may have waited for forty long years with no sign of success but that doesn't mean the situation is not changing.

The stonecutter may heave nine hundred and ninety-nine blows, but the stone doesn't disintegrate until the 1000th try, but each blow contributed to the big break.

It may take long for results to show, but eventually there will be a visible change. This change may not be as sudden or as dramatic as the moso plant but it's important that you try and try again.

J.G Ballard's "Crash," a much loved but highly transgressive fiction, which is arguably the most repulsive book a nun (or monk) will ever read, was rejected several times with one of the rejection letters, reading, "this author is beyond psychiatric help. Do not publish! This novel was published all the same, and has inspired countless songs, and its film adaptation won the Jury Prize.

Author of the chicken soup for the soul, admitted that they submitted their stories to over a hundred publishers, before they got one acceptance, but one acceptance compensated for all the years of rejection.

Consider James Patterson whose break out was turned down 31 times. The Thomas BerryMan eventually after publication won an Edgar, and became the famed Alex Cross series.

There's a moso plant in you, waiting for your continuous effort and persistence. If you keep believing, soon enough you will see it soaring, and taking a life of its own. Remember growth is not always synonymous with what can be seen, don't measure growth by promotions, physical assets or the crowd pull alone. Some growths are internal and imperceptible. Like the inertial laws of motion, some motions are happening deep down beyond where the physical eyes can see. More like the latent heat of fusion, huge resistance are being moved. Stop comparing yourself with others, your journey is different.

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# INCUBATION SECRET 2

# Fulfilment is seldom a function of how early or how late you accomplished your goal. It is about how sweet the victory is, how remarkable it is to you, and how much impact it makes.

Many people see perseverance in the same light as suffering. Our societies inability to differentiate between the two, has led many young talents to lead undisciplined lives and to be unwilling to stay through and sustain their gifts. Those who work on their gift for years, if you ask them, will tell you, they had such a fun time doing it, other people will tag them as suffering, it isn't. The flow state as described in book 2, creates a get away feeling for the practitioner, it is almost like time no longer exist, and at this phase, they make great leaps into the future. They work hard and to them it is fun. Many people tag this as suffering, suffering however is toiling without aim, goals or emotional reward. Suffering is working hard on the wrong stuffs, toiling is any work you do, outside of your gift. Perseverance entails working and tracking your progress and making a choice not to let go until a specific result is obtained. If you want to make a mark, clarify your opinion and the attitude you have about hard work.

Perseverance comes when you understand that some progress will be made through sheer guts, brawls and persistence. Discipline is choosing to sustain your motivation.

The fact that you chose to pour your sweat, energy and soul to develop your talent doesn't mean you suffered, if you're taking work as suffering, then it means you find little or zero fulfilment in the very act itself and that means, you should look elsewhere for your talent.

The secret of success is in continuity.

Without constant dedicated work, the goal lingers indefinitely.

Perseverance is by itself a trade secret. Perseverance makes talents to stick to their ambition, work or roles for as long as it demands. The course of the journey takes them through several stages of changes, through which their skill is refined.

A talent ready to persevere, tells himself from the start, "even if it takes 12 months, 5 years, 10 years, 30 years or 50 years, I will find a way. Everything bows and gives way when perseverance is in the mix.

To stay doggedly on a fixed project or course of action even when there are interesting alternatives and ideas to explore often creates sparks of genius. Many writers plough at their art once in a while, but the secret to becoming a published author is to focus on a single idea, not just for a day or a week but for months and years, even when it looks like more projects are sizzling alongside, to ignore them and stick to one. Good ideas will always come, inspiration will always hit. Sometimes it will come like a thunderbolt and you will marvel at the ideas coming to you, but perseverance helps you to focus and reach the finish line.

Richard Hooker, who wrote the story behind one of the most watched TV episodes M*A*S*H, was rejected several times but after a revision with W.C Heinz, a famed sport writer, the book scored a publishing deal.

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# INCUBATION SECRET 3

# Evaluation is critical, without this, most projects will fall short of excellence.

A good review can help you to pay attention to the technicalities you missed.

If you want your work to improve, consult the experts and be prepared to create an improved model.

If you've worked so hard, and your work is not accepted. Take a distance and note your observations.

Put the pain of rejection back to work. Never abandon work on a great task you're set on because someone put a huge capital no in your face, don't be dissuaded because you failed or got a negative feedback.

Understand what went wrong, take the necessary precautions and get back on the task.

Keep trying every single day, and every single week of the year. That is what perseverance is.

Having flair is not enough. Peter Marshall writes, "one person with a belief is equal to a force of ninety-nine who have only interests." Listen to Jack London; he says, "you can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club."

Many FBI agents are in love with Kyle Chandler for his views on this topic, he observed, "opportunity does not knock, it presents itself when you beat down the door.

Success as expressed by J.J. Watt is not owned: it is leased, and rent is due everyday.

Sometimes you have to refuse to head home, buy a jacket for the cold and sit on the staircase all night and knock it out!

To transform into a legend, you have to be audacious and relentless and refuse to stop till you get the right response.

Keys to greatness

Go harder

Louis L'Amour remarked, "victory is won not in miles but in inches. Win a little now, hold your ground, and later win a lot more."

Keep making reviews even in the face of rejection.

Rejections piled up, if channelled right, I believe can lead to an overwhelming flood of acceptance.

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# APPRAISAL

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1. Are you giving up too early?

2. Are you having fun in the process?

3. Are you willing to commit years of your life to mastery of the art?

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SUMMARY

Every talent given to you often comes in its raw form, the most successful talent are those who are prepared to give their talent, the time it needs to shine through, a successful talent is one which is able to go through his incubation period without losing his cool, his zeal and enthusiasm.

Welcome to your season of exploit.

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# CHAPTER TWO

# TAKE SMALL STEPS EVERY DAY

The story is told of a man who planted a garden and worked tirelessly to nurture the young flowers. He worked for weeks and then for months, but after a year, there was no promise of returns, so he sold the farm, left the city and moved to another part of the country.

Years later, he came by and passed by the same piece of land and was amazed at the roses blossoming all around. In the same garden was a lady, the woman had took over the garden and had tendered the flowers he had planted. With patient nurturing, she had cultivated the land year after year and it had blossomed.

He couldn't claim the garden, as he knew the land was no longer his, so he gently stood by and plotted, marvelling at the beauty before him. In many domestic relationships, the story is like this.

Working towards a goal is like planting a garden, hoping to harvest or trying to walk in the shade of the trees without first planting the seed is self-defeating. Work comes first, positioning comes next, you can't just pray for the rain, sunshine or ask for a good weather, you have to bend down and plough and do the actual work.

Every seedling holds the premise of a forest, but without the right nutrients and soil support, it gets nowhere. In like manner, a strong talent may be born in the wake of the tide but it isn't getting anywhere without the right aids and the necessary support.

A solid foundation is built by doing the standard drills; it is built by intense study, effective practice and through dedicated work.

Get your foundation right

In the beginning, you must study, toil and be delighted to know all the great works that has gone ahead of you. Imitation helps you to fathom the length and breadth of it all. Going through the works of your favourite heroes, a collection of their exploits, that lays the precept. Be delighted to embrace all those who have waded the deep ahead of you. This study may be of past president, writers, or artist. As John Medina put in the brain rules, monkey see, monkey do, it all begins with deep-seated curiosity. Curiosity helps you to study, experiment and embark on a journey of discovery.

At this phase, don't cut corners.

Esther William remarked, fundamentals are like learning the alphabets, once you learn them, you develop your own handwriting style and now you have something to say."

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# INCUBATION SECRET 4

# Intelligence must be cultured in the right environment, or it won't result in anything phenomenal.

A gardener is aware that if he denies a seed the sunshine, rain and the climate it needs to blossom, the seed becomes stunted, the same thing it is with gifts, many children have the seeds of greatness in them, but because they get no supervision and no supportive climate to blossom, the walk through life, struggling.

If gifted people are provided with the right climate early enough and taught how to be disciplined with their gifts, the sky is just the starting point.

For a dream to come true in an imperfect world, a awful lot of sacrifice has to be made, and the main reason why most talents are stuck with the first level of the Malcolm hierarchy and are unable to reach for greatness, is because they keep carrying out cheap roles that breaks the structures, that can help them to develop their gifts.

To attain mastery in a third world setting, you must understand that the environment, culture and tradition is set against you from the start.

To attain any significant height, you have to delay gratification. Gratification in this sense, comes in terms of approval, cheap roles and expectations put up to you. Stop trying to satisfy every vain expectation, understand that sacrifice has to be made; pay them.

Having integrity means that if you said yes to one thing, you have to say no concurrently and persistently to various other things.

As you proceed on your journey, your skill will increase dramatically, only if you can say no to the divergence of task, duties and chores that comes in contrast with the use and mastery of your gift.

Keys to greatness

Find your epicentre, and stay rooted

Your epicentre as an applied word, is a forum where the efforts you take can be endorsed, appreciated and supported. It is a place where people with similar talent are ready to welcome you, improve and cheer you forward. The question to ask in this regard is who is fanning your flames? Take an inventory to identify the people you have in your life. Who are your biggest cheerleaders? Officially induct them to be a major player and a big part of your team.

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# INCUBATION SECRET 5

# If you cut corners, you may find that the journey takes longer.

Just as civil engineers are smart enough to know that the building is not just about the height but the foundation, real legends know growth is not all about what is visible but is sometimes about depths, just as tall structures with no depth will crumble easily, fame without character leads nowhere.

To develop real character we must find another way to define growth. We often measure growth by what is visible such as a promotion to another class, a rise in paycheck, a visible award or a worthwhile achievement. But just like the Chinese bamboo, growth sometimes happens deep down beneath the surface, where no one is able to detect until something comes along to uproot or move it from its position.

Without character, talent is like a hot air balloon, all it takes to bring it down is a puncture.

Keys to Greatness

Develop a solid value base

John Maxwell observed, "if you don't have a strong character, your talents may be worth nothing. Character acts as a base for a strong talent."

Absence of strong character eventually topples talent because people cannot climb beyond the limitations of their character. Character is what they think and never share with others. It's what they do when no one else is watching them. It's how they handle failure and success; Matt McMahon.

The question to ask now is; are you developing the right foundation or trying to just show off? Are you trying to win the admiration of friends or aligning yourself with principles? The question here is; are you plagued by empty praise or seeking to actually do what is right?

Let's play on a little vanity here, and talk about what most talents are interested in. Most talents are interested in a mouth-watering deal; a big endorsement, and an award. This award appeals to talents because it reminds them of the huge benefits, and rewards that comes with the use and mastery of their gifts.

For someone just starting up, one of the first steps to secure an award is to get known. Your skill must be visible to others. It has to covey authority and become a notable influence.

Doing a simple ordinary work to just make a statement is not good enough. Experts must be aware of your activities.

Working to just scrape a living out of your gift, or putting together a work just to sell a midget quantity is not enough at this point.

Reach for more

Bagging an award under your belt means, you're willing to make a sacrifice that may cost you more money than it would have took. It means working to attain a level of excellence and a household name.

Your work by itself must stand as an epistle to others. You must be willing to exceed expectations and pour your heart into it, such that everyone recognizes it as a masterpiece.

However mastering the art and labouring all day to make it work isn't enough. To get an award, you have to think in terms of show biz and red carpet. Your objectives has to evolve. Objectives determine why you do what you do. The reason why the same people keep winning the same set of awards is because the standards in their work is impeccable, and this is because their objectives are simply different.

This difference is reflected in the style they adopt, the class of people they choose to work with, their grooming, and the level of investment they are willing to commit to their work.

At the level of a multimedia award, the award committee is looking for a champion whose lifestyle and daily routine is observable, enviable and whose work can be projected as a model.

To qualify you have to improve the quality of your lifestyle, that is watch the kind of places you are willing to go, and the kind of interviews you grant. Pay attention to where you work, what your daily experiences looks like.

Your lifestyle must be admirable and desirable, your production outfit, office and outlook has to be top notch, your lifestyle has to be worthy and belong to the higher echelon.

When you show up, you must show up right. The kind of car you drive, matters here, and how often you travel in and out of the country matters, your personal taste and grooming must reflect character and trust. This are the unspoken rules the award committee will never specify. They are the unspoken rules of the game.

With the right mindset, follow these next steps.

Build a distinct and standard work, following a laid down rule and procedure.

That is monitor and do a sample of the award giving bodies around your kind of offering, and study their requirement.

Follow the steps highlighted in the production of your work, such that it fits into a category that will be highly plausible and recognizable.

Next, find a model who has won multiple awards from those bodies and mirror your work around his. Research into his style, his manner, his networks and think about what makes him ideal and mirror some of his techniques while retaining your own individuality and style.

If possible meet him one on one and learn a few secrets, if you can work with him, do that. Collaboration is a great way to go.

Grind and keep grinding. This is going to create attention at first, but don't count on it. With the sheer grace of your first work, your work will begin to gain ground.

If you belong to an existing body of art, contribute freely to the network of arts.

Do favours in cash and in kind. Then promote, market and advertise your work. Remember to stay visible (See Chapter 11).

If you've done your homework and you're putting your very best into your work, the word will be around, that you're the real specimen.

Next keep an eye on the award winning bodies and note when they start getting nominations, (better still get an inside person).

Get your friends, fans and network to nominate and vote you in.

Note that the background work you've done must be compelling, as most awards are giving to figures that are already larger than life, or whose lifestyle meets up to the standards of the award governing body. This is why most times, a fighting underdog is unlikely to be endorsed, and when nominated, are largely deprived of it. The politics behind the awards cannot be over emphasized, popularity matters here. The award committee have their own integrity and honour to uphold.

If you're just starting up, be sure to master your craft. Work to brush up all your rough edges. Dress right, not like someone who needs an upgrade but someone who owns the bank. Pay the experts to work for you and to teach you what you don't understand, and as time goes on, learn enough such that you're an authority.

Create the buzz that you're hot and competent. Make everything that passes through your hand, a masterpiece. If you don't have an accredited agent working with you, or you're yet to get a management offer, seek to get one.

If you don't have a recognised agent, then you must sell enough or must have showcased what you have so much that you're independent and a brand of your own.

Additionally, you must come across to everyone as person of high calibre, that is your reputation must be faultless and true.

Note that an award is not an endorsement in itself, a prominent award is often a result of several visible endorsement.

If you've done your homework and your work passes the test of integrity, several awards are just a mile away.

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# CHAPTER THREE

# RE-ORIENTATE YOUR SELF FOR EXPLOIT

During the middle ages, there was a large outcrop on the sea, on this sparse land was a light house. A certain young man along with his family was assigned the very important duty of lighting up the beacon every night.

This was to guide ships away from the sharp upturned rocks that showed up in the dry season when the waters was shallow.

Many nights, a gale would arose on the sea and ships would be tossed front and back but the light always signified hope and helped sailors to navigate the dangerous waters.

One day the pirates were expecting a wealthy merchant and they anticipated his fall, they knew if there was no one to light the lamps, the ship will eventually lose its goods in the perilous waters. Their plan was to apprehend the keeper and prevent him from lighting the lamp that night, and release him just after wards when they are gone with the loot. So they kept a watch on the light house and as soon as the keeper emerged out of the light house, they seized him.

Help!!! Help!!! Help!!! The keeper called, but the pirates had a gag on his mouth, preventing anyone from hearing his muffled cries.

That night in the castle, the little girl waited endlessly for the return of her father.

She had just recently lost her mother to a long illness and she sobbed as she was left alone in the house. Not knowing what to do, she remembered a verse her mum had taught her and decided to pray. Dear Lord, she began, holding her hands together;

Teach me how to stay afloat

when the cloud is grey and the waters comes crashing down

Teach me how to hold the anchor

when the tide rises up and the storm breaks in

Teach me how to hold on when I can't seem to go on and

Teach me how to illuminate the night

amidst the darkness of this world

Amen. She said and got up. With this prayer, she remembered what her late mother had told her.

As long as papa, yourself and I are living in this castle, it is our utmost duty to light up the beacon every night. If we don't, terrible things will happen.

Her mother had explained further but even though she failed to understand all of it, she was resolved on the task.

Knowing she was too short and her hands wouldn't reach the wick, she put little stools upon each other, and climbed gently up across the lean walls of the artic to where the lamp filament was and took a look.

The wick was dry and untrimmed, she went down the stools again and found the oil and dragged it with efforts up the way. Panting like an old woman of ninety, who had climbed a flight of stairs, she scrubbed the windows and took a good look at the sea. It was all dark and misty but just as the hour struck twelve, she struck the matches and lit the seven lamps, and immediately the light house and the surrounding sea shown with such brightness.

Victory at last, pronounced the father who was bound and unable to move. He couldn't help but wonder how the beacon had lighted up. But while he pondered, the pirates in turn were horrified and debated among themselves on who had been called on to light the beacon. That night as the merchant shoved his ships and his crew across the waters, the light shone brightly illuminating the rocky part and the merchant shoved his ship away from dangers path.

The pirates afraid to be seen in such a blinding light had no choice than to allow the ship to sail.

The keeper could scarcely contain himself with joy when morning came and not a single ship had lost its good in the waters. Dejected and frustrated the pirates released and sent him away, he hurriedly went home to the light house, to hear his daughter babble about lighting the lamp all by herself. Excited, he swept her off in a warm embrace.

Morale

Each of us are light house on our own, the work we do in society is often more than we take it for. When we begin to see our work beyond the paycheck but as fulfilling roles to others, and in service to God and humanity, then we can do it with renewed interest, knowing that God has assigned us a role and he is looking at our heart, not at our reward or benefits.

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# INCUBATION SECRET 6

# Never work for money, work consistently towards greatness.

Most talents remain at the same phase because they grudge the existing roles they perform. This grudge makes them resentful, unhappy and it shows in their lack of enthusiasm and the amount of energy and zeal they commit to their task. Most unsuccessful talents are motivated only by money. However, values, culture and faith constitute a big part of the system put in place by established talents. Successful talents are often able to project beyond money. Sometimes they offer their services to support another, and work to learn complimentary skills while offering their services for free!!

Successful talent are further able to establish their influence because they are willing to talk about the why and the how behind the motions to their team. This ability to pass on what they know establishes their influence as a leader.

As explained by a leadership expert, a good leader makes himself dispensable, such that others are able to carry out his roles when he is no longer there.

Most talents are on the ground because they carry all the burden by themselves and when they are nowhere to be found, there is no one to do the work.

Prominence however begins when you choose to delegate, and seek to make your work a source of pride to others.

To reposition your mind for exploits, you have to look beyond money.

If you work solely for money, when the job is over, you will be out of cash. If you work to project excellence and to make a name, the name goes before you everywhere you go.

Do you have a diminutive job? Does your role seem so small and negligible? Understand that what you do matters.

A dogsbody by definition is someone confined to all the unpleasant task, if you find yourself in this position, stop rating your value by what you do, how much you're paid or how other people treat you, have your own inward perception that you're a man or woman of worth.

To transform your work into a noble venture, look instead at the big picture; this is the effects of your work. Consider what happens when you don't do your job.

A city cleaner for instance can look at what happens when dirt piles up on the road, how the city becomes sickening and how easily disease can spread. A comic writer can look at the sadness written on the face of his audience and how low spirited they become. A farmer who is uncomfortable in his roles should look at the hungry faces on the kids.

Keys to Greatness

Feel wonderful about what you do

Connect your job to how it makes the world a better place, and convince yourself, you're the best in the category. Give yourself good pep talk and walk with your shoulders high. It doesn't matter what you do, what matters is how you do it. When you do things right, people talk about how well you did it, they'll make endless dialogue about how it brought them so much joy and will be happy to see you do it again. This creates positive energy and it brings more jobs and recommendations your way.

"A person who thinks his job is important receives mental signals on how to do his job better; and a better job means more promotions, more money, more prestige, more happiness;" David Schwartz.

Does your work align with your gift? If it does, seek to develop additional skill and trainings that will enhance you and get you better suited for more advanced task. If your work doesn't align with your purpose, consider how to fit into the right path.

Some psychologist believe our society currently has a flawed idea of what passion is, they propose that following our passion doesn't in anyway guarantee a blissful outcome. Those who disagree with this rule, often refute the claim by stating that talents who are engaged with their passion are often okay with even the negative outcomes, as they're able to move pass routine, monotony and find satisfaction in the rigour and the drills alone.

This goes for some, but it is a relatively known truth that success means different things to different people and fulfilment itself is not always synonymous with having a 6 figure income.

We won't debunk the idea of following our passion as it can always help us to feel very much at home with our job and match our skill set, personality, purpose, and job into a perfect prism. It's however important to consider the alternatives proposed.

One of the main alternatives entails that we take passion as an attitude to life, this means bringing in zeal and excitement to whatever it is, we find ourselves engaged with. (Ecclesiastes 9:10)

Passion in this context is a state of mind, having passion in this context is hence not about changing trades or switching career paths. Passion rather is an attitude you bring to the table, at every trade and at every task you take up. To develop this attitude, you have to understand that every role, even the most midget ones is praiseworthy. What you do for a living, which you think is shabby is often more than a job, it's honourable, it is a duty and you're an hero in the cast.

In essence, when you take up this mindset, you will stop doing it for the income, but instead will do it for the outcome.

This enthusiastic attitude helps you to go all the way in. Going all the way, gives you and edge and helps you to reinvent, rebrand and repackage. It helps you to add more value to the service. Going all the way, helps you to transport and restructure. It helps you to recruit, advertise, manufacture and even launch a new sector.

In this way, even if your job was to shine shoes, drive a cab, bake bread or lay bricks when you have your mindset repositioned, you will likely transform it, to a world class business.

Passion I believe has its place, motivation can be easily bought by incentives but raw devotion and passion is often inborn. If we want to have loyal employees, for instance we must employ people who have a passion for the work, the more we have people with inbred enthusiasm functioning in the right capacities, the more stabilised our work force.

The myths surrounding passion can however lead to sporadic changes in educational paths, and intermittent changes in the career of a young or promising talent.

DON'T BE IN A HURRY TO CHANGE TRADES

If you decide to follow your passion, be sure you're ready to stick with it, not just for a year, but for at least 10 years.

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# APPRAISAL

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1. What roles do you play which you highly disregard?

2. Is there a better way of looking at it?

3. What additional skills would you like to acquire to move up the ladder?

4. How can you recreate your role, or redesign your time, while you're on the job, to be more satisfying?

5. What can you do to increase your current paycheck?

6. What can you about your job to make it more fulfilling and rewarding?

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As noted by Marlon Brando, "don't confuse the size of your paycheck with the size of your talent."

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# CHAPTER FOUR

# IF YOU WANT TO FEEL THE WAVES, STAND WHERE THE WIND BLOWS

Nikola Bizumic was a farmer from Neradin who revolutionized the world of barbing.

He moved to Ruma in the 1830s when he was just a teenager, to apprentice under Petar Javonovicbe, and during the course of his training, became frustrated with the use of scissor which was the principal tool used for barbing at the time, consequently he created a device which became known as the manual clipper. However, Nikola received little or zero support for his invention, to get support and to look for a better life, he moved to London in 1855.

As he got to London, his work was immediately financed, and in the space a few years, Nikola had transformed his physique, demeanour and earned the honour of a knight.

Many successful talents can attribute or trace their immense growth, fortune, and sudden leap to success to a time when they dared to go to a new territory.

Where you are born or where you found yourself through the course of time, is not necessarily where you belong. Where you are and where you belong may be worlds apart.

It is important to pay attention to your environment because where you are determines who sees you and what kind of opportunities you receive. Anna Sewell wrote "it is good people who make good places." And only in good environment can your gift come to life.

Many people explain success in terms of traits and hereditary but genius are often predisposed to rise and are made in the right environment.

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# INCUBATION SECRET 7

# Greatness is not a function of genetics but a function of alignment.

If you find yourself in an environment not supportive of your growth, recreate it to work or change location.

The creative centres of excellence has been identified in existing literature and the tendency for creative people to be attracted to a specific region or a part of the world where their identity can be validated, is a proven fact and a working technique often embraced by gifted individuals.

Talent is flocking around a particular region or centre of the world, and the most talented people often prefer to stay in those cities, than to live elsewhere.

The Bohemian index was developed by Richard Florida as a way to measure the number of writers, designers, musicians, actors, directors, painters, sculptors, photographers, and dancers in a region using census occupation data.

The problem of talent mobility must be addressed. The question is; are you tied up? Is your environment working for you? Are you aligned with greatness?

You must be willing to go to places where your gift will be enhanced, recognized, supported and embraced.

If you stay down in the wrong environment, you may keep waiting for the sunshine. The sun is always shining; it is up to you, to go where you can access its beauty. If you stay in the shadows of your dreams, or under the aura of the mistakes you've made in the past, you may be denied of the opportunities to live and lead a great life.

.

Success is magnetic and to attract more success or lucky coincidence you have to increase the level of opportunities life sends your way.

You can position yourself for a lucky break by simply changing where you are in time. The right city, the right place of worship, and the right place of residence can boosts your diversity and creativity.

Kim Culbertson observed, "being surrounded by the wrong people is the loneliest thing in the world."

Positive relationships will skyrocket your talent, however such relationships are often not accessible in some places.

How do you spot the wrong environment?

The wrong environment will offer you zero opportunities, zero challenges, and no new experience but will keep you deflated and apprehensive all the same.

In the wrong environment, you will be resented for pouring yourself into your art. At this zone, you will be grudged continually for your zeal, the faith and the effort you invest to solve a very difficult and challenging problem. The wrong environment is further lacked by a drought of opportunities and financial momentum.

If you consistently find yourself in relationships which remove from your sense of pride and self-worth, you're likely in the wrong (mental) spot.

The right environment changes your aura and aptitude. In the right environment, you will have experiences, exposures and receive information which will be transformative in itself and which can birth a paradigm shift in your work.

In the right places, progress may not be automatic but you will find worthwhile associations, and people of like minds. Such relationships will give you a pivot, and will encourage you to use your gifts in the right way. In the right environment you will be applauded for your efforts and will find more opportunities for growth.

A friend of mine once said, "if you think swimming with dolphins is expensive. Try swimming with sharks."

Successful talent are avid networkers, they build up their influence by connecting with the real movers and shakers of their field.

Robert Greene had to run into a man like Jooost Elffers, Jack Dorey had to meet someone like Evans Williams, most phenomenal talents become globally recognised when the right person comes along. Sometimes these people are not exactly mentors, they are patrons, supporters, counsellors, guardians, but their synergy is needed to make things work.

Most gifted individuals often desire an audience with a mentor, but if all they have is an ambition and an unused skill or potential, the mentor feels unmotivated to take them in, what they should seek for at that phase is a trainer. Until you've done something that is news worthy, you're not ready to pursue or have a significant relationship with a tycoon. There may not be any attraction or any personality tick when you stand before the biggest minds of your time. You will just stand there like a fan, nothing more, nothing less. The more you do something recognizable, the more you can access and get an audience with your mentor.

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# INCUBATION SECRET 8

# In the absence of a mentor, most talent will miss their way.

Mentorship provides direction. It breeds on respect. Mentorship relationships are proactive relationships fostered more by the protege. As the saying goes, success doesn't come looking for you, you have to go for it. Mentorship works more, when you're not there for the money or for the gold, neither for the inheritance but you have credentials to show, and you are willing to work as well as learn. There are times when a mentor won't take you in, or reveal any meaningful secret to you, until he's sure you deserve it.

In this world, where everyone is connected through emails, social media, and phone calls, a physical meeting, often creates more wonders than a technology based or social app interaction.

When such interaction is done by people who have already met in person, credibility and faith is enhanced. Additionally, to be in physical proximity to your mentor will take your talent off the ground, most talent are on the same level because they fail to meet someone they admire who will charge them up, and look them in the face and tell them the blatant truth about the mistakes they must avoid, and what they need to do, to reach the next summit.

It has been said, that we rise or fall by the ladders we build.  And these ladders come in forms of fathers, guardians, counsellors, leaders, models and mentors.

Looking for those high profile relationships will not be easy. In fact, the efforts may be highly sacrificial, but while the lure of settling among your contemporaries is great, if you want to rise and keep going higher, consistently pursue relationships with those greater than you, this habit will expand your field of vision and will take you to great heights.

To get an audience with your mentor, you have to be the kind of individual, your mentor will approve, it is important for you to pay close attention to your mannerism, social cadre and style.

If your mentors are beyond your reach, lay hold of their works, read their biographies, read up on their interviews and the motivation behind their lives. But don't give up too early.

The 6 degrees of separation developed by Frigyes Karinthy shows that the farthest person away, is 5 networking chains. We already know someone, who will know someone, that will know the next person, by the fifth connection, we would have met the people we need in our lives. We're all connected.

Seek to reinforce this connection. The ideal dreamer is a connector; he looks for recommendations, hunts for referees and networks all the way.

Why else do you need a mentor?

Your mentor has the capacity to catapult you to unimaginable height.

Your mentor will save your from costly mistakes.

Your mentor may also provide you with people of equal ambitions who will make your journey worthwhile.

Your mentor if he accepts to take you in, will play to you the role of a father, and help you to accomplish your greatest goals.

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# APPRAISAL

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  1. What relationships do you have, which you want to nurture? 
  2. Who have you met in recent times that is helping you to climb up? 
  3. What are the systems that previously worked for you, but are no longer serving you? 
  4. Is your location helping you to be visible? 
  5. What are the high-tension relationships in your life? 
  6. Whose guidance and support will have a tremendous impact in the development of your gift?

ACTIVITY

Set a goal to meet at least one high profile individual every month.

Find their address, send up your resume, send them an email and call them up. Be polite and be precise about your need for mentorship. Work for them for free if you have to.

By seeking to meet 4 of your most admired leaders every quarter, you will not only be inspired, you will get exposed, and your success is sure to take on an exponential growth, don't waste time about this plan, this plan should take effect right now, or be in effect in the next 7 days. The meeting is not the endpoint, however the idea is to develop close association such that you become accountable to them.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle observed, "skill is fine and genius is splendid, but the right contacts are more valuable than either."

Summary

Unsuccessful talent are unwilling to connect, they either class themselves too big to connect with their contemporaries or too low, to meet up with a great man. A non-networking talent will eventually lose its influence, relevance and will find motion coming to a standstill.

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# PART TWO

# RULES OF EFFECTIVE WORK

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# Your talent is God's gift to you.

# What you do with it is your gift back to God.

# Leo Buscaglia

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# CHAPTER FIVE

# WORK ON THE PREMISE OF A NEW IDEA

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Fortune doesn't always breaks in, sometimes it steals in on you and if you fail to capture what it brings your way, it goes back ever so softly and recedes with little or no trace of its presence.

In 1945, Percy Spencer suddenly found the chocolate bar in his pocket molten. Hungry as hell and almost ready to go for his lunch break, he decided not to throw away that chocolate bar but choose to investigate.

Some 40 years back, Percy spencer was an orphan left to live with his uncle and aunt, and when his uncle died while he was seven years old, he left grammar school and began a life of hard work to earn something to support himself and his aunt.

The saying 'heavens helps those who helped themselves couldn't have been more true' Percy spencer wouldn't fold back and settle for a life of mediocrity. Although without a formal education, spencer was quick to spot an opportunity, when he discovered a paper mill was soon to be using electricity, he educated himself by all means possible, and became so skilled that he was one of the few qualified to install electricity in the plant.

The learning never stopped, 4 years later, at age 18, spencer joined the US navy and kept courting greatness, by reading one textbook, juxtaposing ideas and moving to the other, Spencer made himself an expert on wireless communication, by 1939, spencer became one of the world's leading expert in radar tube design.

Standing inside Raytheon that summer afternoon as the chief of power tube division, Spencer was concerned about building the magnetrons which was to be later used to generate the microwave signal, but somehow he couldn't walk away from that strange occurrence.

A molten candy bar in his pocket might have looked as a complete divergence to the goal and a venture without any premise or reward but he chose all the same to be concerned enough with it.

Just like the case of Galileo, many people saw the apple fall, only one chose to ask why, Spencer wasn't the first to notice this phenomenon but he became the one to think through what was happening.

He possibly had stiff demands to meet up with but he chose to be interrupted from his busy schedule, and decided to experiment and by this wave of experiment, a new way of steaming up food was born.

Spencer received the two dollar standard bill for coming on with such an original idea and two years later his company filed a patent for the microwave.

Later on, down the year, Spencer became described by Chet Michalak, a fellow engineer and historian at Raytheons as having a knack for finding solutions to manufacturing problems.

Call it a chance occurrence or an accidental finding but making discovery is an attitude, Spencer had such an attitude and during his life, became the recipient of over 300 patents.

That attitude of intercepting an idea, pausing to evaluate what it is, deciding to ask why, understanding the polarity of the idea, and test running its effect no matter how odd it sounds, makes people receptive to greatness.

The encyclopaedias of our world is filled with a lot of scientific ideas and findings, uncovered by a cutting edge scientist, which has little or no application until a maven comes along and decides to put it to use, and in the process of making it work, he revolutionizes the world and we recognize him as an genius, but noteworthy is the fact, that he is not the originator of such an idea, he's just the one who took that idea serious enough to put it to use.

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# INCUBATION SECRET 9

# It's not enough to read or study, take something that fascinates you beyond mere interest and make it an occupation. Make it an obsession, live it, practice it and become one with the art.

Don't just be a researcher that reviews the fact, make use of the fact, don't just be the professor that teaches the fact; engage the fact and put it to work, don't just be the student that learns the fact, make something visible out of what you learn. Put the fact to use.

Success is not luck and relying on luck itself is not a strategy, you have to be caught with greatness and have many tricks up your sleeve to have some lucky breaks. Those making discoveries have a mindset of observing the daily natural occurrence that is often overlooked, capitalizing on such occurrences, intercepting the idea and seizing such opportunities when it knocks. They don't just allow ideas to fly through their head, they have a mindset of positioning.

One of the most notable discoveries in biological science was penicillin, however before penicillin was discovered, Alexander Fleming invariably had to abandon his cultures of staphylococci bacteria in one corner of his lab to spend time with his family, upon his return, he discovered one of the colonies had been contaminated with a fungus and were simply dead, Alexander was a trained biologist who was quick enough to notice and observe the strangeness of the situation.

Alexander was adept and able to see the other colonies uncontaminated were the same as he had left them, his level of skill and scientific proficiency to grow the mould in a pure culture and later isolate the pencillium genus led to the discovery of penicillin.

What if Alexander was just a lab assistant, who couldn't spot the difference? What if he never came back or never abandoned his culture? There are so many what if, if you dare to think about it.

Those who seem to be born with an extreme stroke of fortune or who we often think were born under a lucky star and seem to have such luck and happy coincidence making them successful, are often maven who take control of their world, the same set of random occurrence is happening to everyone, the few ones who decide to act on this occurrence are the ones who make discoveries out of them. The same event would happen to yet another man and he wouldn't know the stars have aligned for him.

Great inventors are continually open to those unexpected variables and randomly filing it into their work, this sets their tone for originality and helps them to birth greatness.

To make discoveries you must be able to see bridges and connect events creatively based on an inward perception. To be creative in the real sense of the word, you have to stop on the spur of the moment and take your powers of observation to the next level. If you don't step out from your flock of sheep to observe the burning bush, you will never get the call to greatness.

Constantin Fahlberge wasn't too much about putting up to the rule of laboratory work but was reckless enough to grab a morsel of food without washing his hands, and wondered what the hell was the sweetener, after stuffing his guts till he could take no more he ran back to the lab and uncovered the lid of every petri dish to discover what became known as the saccharin.

Keys to greatness

Keep your cool amidst the chaos of everyday. Without a level of stillness and calmness within, you will fail to pick up the right signals.

It takes courage strength of mind to catch the wonders of everyday.

To work on the premise of a new idea, it is important that we look out for things we can improve.

Are you a lab scientist seeking for a cure?

Some of the patterns of the disease have already been identified by other researchers who went ahead of you.

Are you an architect looking for a new design? See what magnificent designs had been arrived with.

Are you creating a new engine?

The batteries, the wheels, the rotor blades you are going to use for your inventions are already created by someone.

Are you painting the stars? These same images have been painted by countless others before you, build upon the ideas of these people and hop on.

Don't just learn from the masters, identify a problem they are faced with, design a new method or a product that effectively solves that problem and direct your energy into making it work.

Albert Szent Gyorgyi noted that a discovery is often an accident meeting with a prepared mind.

To effectively maximize a chance occurrence

1. Be willing to be interrupted, this will help you to key into the unexpected benefits, by choosing to be interrupted, you can then effectively intercept the idea, look for the premise, investigate the scene and tap into its value (see chapter 15).

2. Recognise that there's something positive to be learnt out of every random occurrence. Each situation unfolding has something to contribute to growth, if you look deeply into it.

3. Suspend judgment until you understand what you're dealing with.

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# CHAPTER SIX

# THINK BEFORE YOU WORK

Work can be wrong or right and if your work is wrong, it could have been hard work none the less, but the result you get is a zero. To become highly successfully on your talent, you have to make sure, your work is consistently precise, accurate and correct.

From the works of Jasques Turgot, a foremost economist of the 17th century comes the law of diminishing returns, but this law can be applied to almost everything.

In our context, we choose to see it in terms of human efforts, and the output in terms of productivity. If you consistently apply yourself to a task, output will first of all increase, but after a while, when work is done intensively close to the point of exhaustion, productivity drops.

To get maximum returns from your efforts, work at that time of the day, when your intelligence and creative faculties is at its peak.

The Yerkes-Dodson shows another important consideration to factor in. It narrows this down to how stress affects performance.

According to this index, performance can increase with added level of stress, hence stress must not be negated, however when the level of stress exceeds a limit, performance drops. Hence, the problem of underperformance can either be addressed in two ways.

1. Are you under stimulated such that your interest and excitement is below optimum? Or

2. Are you over stressed such that your performance is invariably under cut?

To do the right amount of work, find the optimum level of stress (i.e. find the right amount of challenge, motivation and difficulty).

Most people run away from stress, but a type of stress is healthy and needed to make you function at your peak, this kind of stress is called Eustress, it is invigorating, it keeps you up, awake, alert, and helps you to feel challenged, up for the gold and ready to smash through, if you don't have this level of upbeat stress, seek it out. This kind of pressure, will help you to take charge of your day, instead of being idle or sleepy. The fact is if you're under charged, you may not perform your best and it will reflect in your result and your performance. In the same way, if you're over stressed, your productivity will suffer. The second kind of stress, which is negative is known as Distress, it brings in a down feeling, make you depressed, withdrawn, irritable and edgy, it comes with lack of focus, and leads to a general low level of productivity.

To make fruitful work, you have to work with a team

One person can easily work himself out and accomplish little or nothing, but having a team can mean the difference between low level achievement and phenomenal success. The odds of a lone genius working in solitary and attaining mastery is becoming increasingly slim. Coordinated work done with due guidance by a team of expert can easily make for a masterpiece.

There are two ways to harness a team, you can either have a passive team or create an active team. Passive team work entails making use people's help and support remotely, it also entails leveraging on technology to get ahead, technology allows you to make use of facilities, tools, and work flows created by others. Active team work entails connecting physically with a group of experts or directly hiring them and to work, this often generates a greater level of success.

Stephen Covey noted that synergy is what happens when one plus one equals ten or a hundred or even a thousand. It's the profound result when two or more respectful human beings determine to go beyond their preconceived ideas to meet a great challenge.

Consistently evaluate the quality of the work you're doing.

We often pride ourselves in the ability to go the extra mile, not seeing that our fatigue is leading to burn out and diminishing the quality of our output and results. A diminished output leads to low perception and creates middle class results which in turn makes for low class labourers. It is good to go the extra mile but watch the quality of the work you do, if the quality drops, another 6-hour session may be outrightly fruitless or may bring you more grief than benefits. In fact such extra mile journeys are probably making a donkey out of you.

Always take a break, and come back after a good snap. Sleep has been scientifically proven to have a restorative ability to drive you back to an optimum mental capacity, taking a good break in a restful atmosphere is not laziness, it is a strategy to take control of your body and reap the best dividends out of your effort.

Stop working hard at the point of exhaustion

Working hard at some point of time, amounts to zero work, in fact, not just zero work, some blurry work done in a haste when fatigue is underway can ruin existing good work, and that is a minus.

To step up your performance, work when the prism intersects.

Note that any work you do, that takes you through a monotonous, repetitive process such that you're more of a machine, and deprived of your ability to think and create solutions, is detrimental to your future.

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# INCUBATION SECRET 10

# Your imagination is necessary for outstanding results.

Your ability to think creatively and find original solutions are pivots to building a successful life. You may be amazed when you realise, just how many times you have worked and had fate and fortune staring at you but because your mind was not engaged to see what was happening, you missed a great opportunity.

I've hardly seen a champion who didn't work hard. If no work is done, no success can be achieved.

A lot of things are dependent on the ability of the gifted to exert themselves positively. In recent times, I've found out that a lot of people work really hard. Gone are the days when people were lazy with their gifts.

Many people use the word hustle, to mean they are daily exerting themselves to the brink of exhaustion just to make a bare living, it is an hardworking society, we're living in. It's my conclusion that hard work is not what separate successful talents from unsuccessful ones, there are too many people working hard who end up being broke for the rest of their lives. The world has so much changed in the world of talents. Hard work is not the problem, the problem sometimes is positioning, and in some cases, most talent work so hard, they forget to think about the activity itself, and hence fail to work smart.

Smart work is pivotal to breaking through. Hard work is most times inconsequential until you know what works and you're in tune with it, such that you're well able to focus and capitalise on it.

It is important to note that all work done are not equal, this is a fact already recognized, and it gives rise to the huge pay gap, between low skilled workers and high skilled ones. Work is equally not about the energy you expend on the task. Excellent work is a function of the expertise demonstrated and the sophistication of the tools used.

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# INCUBATION SECRET 11

# Good work is not just about the time committed but about the thinking demonstrated before and after the work is done.

If you pass through any school system, as a theatre art student, music or literature or art student, you will get some of the generational truths or old age advice reinforced into you. This advice goes like this; "pay now, play later", "study hard and pass your exams", "practice right so you can join a good band", show up and train hard, wake up at night, burn the midnight oil, buy a good stencil, use good instruments, publicise your work, advertise, etc. This are the old tested advice of making talent work but I'm sorry to break it to you here that although this are important component you should have in your skill set, they are actually not the secret that will make you successful.

The reason is because, the idea of hard work, diligence, persistence, taking responsibility, or taking initiatives, although are very important is actually being deployed by almost every serious minded individual who has a gift but yet not all are successful, in fact the more you deploy this strategy as an arsenal, the more you find yourself in a world of stiff competition and rivalry. These are no longer the missing piece of the puzzle.

When I was young, I struggled with my talents, using this old truth advice but I got increasingly frustrated.

To make fruitful work I realised I had to not just work hard, I had to think smart about the work I was doing, fruitful work hence meant I needed to take a step back and note what was working, and then focus on what truly mattered.

Smart work entails working with your core skill set, your leverage, and focusing on your core area of competence. This kind of work instantly makes you recognizable, respected and loved.

Original works which provides new perspectives usually receives more attention than works that heralds nothing new. It is essential to keep this perspective in mind. If your work is derivatives, seek to be creative, indigenous, and try to create something new. Creative and original works often paves way for phenomenal success. It's okay to be inspired, mentored, but to occupy your own niche, you must be unique in your own ways, you have to rebrand your work from being a mere imitation but set it alive with new truths, new findings and with your own perspectives, such that it becomes originally yours.

RULES OF CREATIVITY

THE TOMADORE PRINCIPLE

If your work bares any semblance with creativity, and you have to work for 24 hours or more, create breaks in between the session, so you can see things from new perspectives and evaluate afresh.

WORK WITH YOUR LEVERAGE

In terms of leverage, the quality, time, pricing and input factor should be addressed.

To address the Quality factor: find out what you do, or produce BETTER than others? A better quality gives you an edge.

The time factor: In this case, seek to know what you can produce FASTER than others? If you can create or produce something faster than others, zero in on this efficiency and use it to differentiate yourself.

The pricing factor: What can you create at a CHEAPER cost and offer at a reduced price? This is another edge, even if you're selling at a higher price, it will boost your profit margin.

The input factor: What RESOURCES do you have in abundance that you can easily use and deploy? If your resources cost you nothing, and is cheaply available, deploy this in mass, it gives you a leverage over the competition.

Many talents remain on the same spot not because they fail to work hard, but because the thinking behind the work is poor, so the exertion is great but the reward is little, many talent are stuck sometimes because they have no game plan and no strategy in place to direct their talent. When a good strategy is missing, motivation drops, work itself becomes pointless and that is why some talents say those harsh words "what I do doesn't change anything." This is because they lack focus, direction, strategy and have no idea of what they can do to see tangible and meaningful results.

LOOK FOR THE SUBSTANCE

When you work, you can either go for the substance or the superfluous. The substance and the superfluous can be compared to the soap and its bubbles. Bubbles are delightsome, they mirror the colours of the rainbow and can make anyone feel perfect but it is sporadic and ephemeral. You can't control a bubble, it is erratic, what guarantees that you get result time after time, is the base line structure you build for success.

A bubble projected can generates a lot of attention but will hardly last. And this is one of the errors made by the young apprentice. Most interns are focussed on the superfluous. To get real results however, you have to seek for the substance, not the ephemeral stuff, if you have the substance, you have the real power.

The bubbles are what we see outside, they are the exotic cars, flashy apparels, it is seen in the fame, the popularity and in the news, but the skill and the intense ability, coupled with the integrity built through time, makes things happen.

Fame by itself is meant to drive sales, or help talents to increase influence, this influence must accomplish a purpose, it should help the talent to develop a good name. Influence should be deployed to attract big players, and this talent should be channelled to build and drive a necessary change.

"Talent for talent's sake is a bauble and a show. Talent working with joy in the cause of universal truth lifts the possessor to new power as a benefactor," Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Seeking attention without providing value is self-defeating in itself. When attention is sought, the value provided in exchange must be commensurate to the time harnessed. If you're looking for fame, attach a purpose to it. Ego has its place, it pushes people to put in their best work, it leads to healthy competitions, a form of pride is important, pride produces excellence, it creates shine, ego also makes people to compete and strive to be better, it is often said that without the apprentice taking pride in the work, mastery cannot be attained, but ego has to be controlled. When work is incited solely by ego, what is produced is vanity.

Key take-away

Working smart is important

Focused work equals smart work.

Working with your leverage can create exponential result.

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# APPRAISAL

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1. Is your work justified, in other words, is the effort you put in commensurate to the rewards you get?

2. Which of the factors highlighted above do you need to tweak, to earn more rewards, get better result, or to have a more productive work time?

3. Is your work focussed over the course of a month?

4. Is your work being mentored by someone who has gone through the same drills before?

5. What are you doing to get mentored?

6. Who do you need to add to your team to make your work better?

7. Are you working with your leverage?

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# CHAPTER SEVEN

# WANT MORE SUCCESS, WORK SMART, NOT HARD

Focus is pivotal to great accomplishment. When focus is lacking, hard work seems not to have any significant yield. You can put a litre of diesel in a small keg and see a significant rise, pour that same litre into a huge tank, and it will look like you've wasted it.

Such is focus, when we direct our energies on different activities every day, we will work hard for a whole 4 year and will see no significant work or accomplishment, direct it instead on a single task and there is instant result to show immediately after four months. Focus also entails that you Work with a focussed mind. This means you zero the totality of your tools, resources and your mind on one activity per time.

FOCUS ON A SINGLE IDEA

Gifted individual must be disciplined and be able to control the excesses around their gifts. A lot of ideas maybe calling for attention, but only one is right to undertake, be disciplined about this. Don't divide all your resources and time on several ideas, identify the perfect idea you can pursue and take to the zeniths.

FOLLOW THROUGH ON YOUR IDEA

Most of the creative work we do at first is like using our hands to drive the mills. We are merely trying to jumpstart a car, pushing with all our might so the engine can take off, when the car begins to move of its own, you have to recognise it, get in and drive.

Staying down in one place working on just one thing may not be so particularly exciting but that's the best way to set it alive, it is how you can set characters alive in a book, and create art work that are thought provoking. It is how you can create real business plans that will work not just on paper but in the real world. Following through on the initial idea, helps to create astonishing piece of masterpiece you can't get any other way.

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# INCUBATION SECRET 12

# Be ready to tear down the walls.

Starters usually have this problem, of not trying enough. Mavens are however able to overcome their reservation.

Smart work they know, entails getting into the work clothes which helps them to lose their guards and enter completely into the work.

I've worked with countless protege who think once they start working on their gift, a magical growth will begin and a somewhat magical ability will evolve, but who do it a few days and when they see nothing, they leave. They are forced to realize that there is no much of a talent anywhere, it's hard work from the word go.

Perhaps one of the myths we have to break is that being gifted itself is not what we think it is. Being gifted sometimes means choosing to work deliberately harder than those who are not gifted.

Intelligence, beauty or physical endowment is never supposed to make up for a deficit in hard work.

Everything must be grown right and horned well from childhood. Young talents must be disciplined enough to do all the drills surrounding their area of gift. Hard work must never be negated, talent has been described as an automobile truck without fuel, we may kick the engine but without frantic work, the ignition only rolls but the engine won't start.

HOW GOOD IS YOUR EFFORT?

As noted by Diana Ross, "discipline is a necessary tool to help you get what you want in life. It forces you to stay on centre and to move away from the things that are not necessary."

You have to sit down in one place or you will learn nothing

The more work you do, the more luckier you get.

Madonna Cicone wrote, "I worked for everything that I got and I worked long and hard before I got to this point so when I got it, I thought I deserve it."

The greatest talents of our time were not the ones who were super gifted, they were those who were willing to put in their best effort.

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# INCUBATION SECRET 13

# Let go of your imperfections

When I was a little child, I created a folder and called it the Ash Project. In this folder was a barrage of constructional ideas, rhymes and words, which I knew I would eventually delete, as they had no real value to add except the fact that they assisted me to process my thoughts and to come up with sensible poems.

Also during my undergraduate days, I accumulated tons of materials, some of these templates provided the basis for some projects I would later embark on, but essentially, the volume of this materials was so great, I could conveniently spend the next 10 or 20 years of my life, exploring them. The strategy for time management was to process the trailer load of materials, and treat them just like another ash project and burn it up. Although these materials were extremely useful, were difficult to acquire and had costed me money, they were the junk clogging up my time.

To get to the next level of productivity, I had to process them, process in this regard, meant taking a fast scan through the folders for the inspiration they have to offer and selecting the most outstanding materials, and after then give them out.

It was a painful process, in fact, when I started moving those resources out of my apartment, it was like a part of me was gone, but when they were gone, I was left with a few outstanding ideas, and templates which I was bent on working out to perfection.

As true creator, after years or decades of intense work you have to find a way to clear your desk, and burn the thrash and throw it out so you can be free.

The reason why you have a waste paper basket is to recognise that all ideas won't work, some ideas are runner up ideas, some are constructional ideas meant to assist us to develop the great ones. To keep bad ideas in view is to keep working frantically for years, after a while you have to stop tweaking up a bad idea, and just let it go.

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# INCUBATION SECRET 14

# Focus on the people who need what you have.

Finding people who need what you posses will challenge you to grow, to be better and to increase in skill.

Margaret Heffernan writes for good ideas and true innovation, you need human interaction, conflict, argument, debate. Watch the environment you are stuck with, and if doesn't help you to connect with those who need what you offer, change, and move to a better territory.

How relevant are you?

As a rule, wherever you belong or find yourself, always ask, "am I really needed in this forum?" "Am I relevant in this field?" Am I compelled to acquire real interactions and real life experiences that makes me better?

If you're not needed in a forum and you stay there, it has a way of deadening your gift. When you come in contact with real life experience where your gift is put to use, it facilitates growth. Constant growth in turn keeps you relevant. It is imperative that you find people who need what you have. If you have a skill, or you're working hard and your work doesn't get to those who are in dire need of it, then everything is pointless.

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# INCUBATION SECRET 15

# Focus on what you can do, not what others can do for you.

Starting out as a young talent can be painstakingly difficult, if you have a gift, or you're on a new field of endeavour you need to be your own biggest self-support. Yes it's good to apply for that scholarship and go find that research fund, because it will really help you on the way, but the first rule of survival says, you have to Be Your Own Shoulder.

Have hope in the future, and never allow disappointment ruin your vision. If what you applied for comes, fine, take it as bonus, but if it doesn't, have something to fall back on, make your vision thrive irrespective of whether you get funding or not.

The implication of this idea is huge, for some people, if simply means they have to take on alternate jobs, for some it may mean they have to sacrifice time for movies to work an extra hour to earn an extra dollar. Whatever the case is, the attitude is to be less dependent on freebies, the ideal talent has the attitude that I want to earn it, and own it, that way he is proud of himself down the line.

No one owns me anything, this mindset can help you to get disappointed out of your way, it can equally help you to clear out the grudges you have about anyone. When you get resentment out of the way, you're open to work, and to really give your dreams your best shot.

The problem is getting financial support without building an income stream is that, after a while, the grant you receive no matter how big or massive it was, will come to an end, and then the cycle begins once again, you start looking for another benefactor or someone to give you another piece of cash to do the next project.

While it is good to secure approval, for some people waiting for a sponsor or a company to provide a free ticket or a free session before they do what they need to do, is tantamount to waiting forever. The world is looking for movers, those who are already on the move, doing great stuffs to support, not those who are waiting for funds before they take the first step.

I've always marvelled at talented folks who necessary don't want to spend their money, yet they expect someone else to put down the money for them to do what matters to their gift. It doesn't work that way, you have to be willing to spend your money on it, or you're not getting anywhere soon. And this is the place to say, to say to all those who are seeking for benefactors to have something to give back in return, it is important for you to ask, about the ways your project will be beneficial to the sponsor, and what you can do in return, without compromising your stand, or accumulating guilt.

Most mentors are interested in rewarding handsomely a protege who helps them to fulfil their dreams, hence instead of thinking, I need this person to help me, having the mindset of; "how can I help and facilitate the progress of my mentor," makes you a social magnet.

In this side of the industry, if you claim status that you're rich, more money, more favour comes your way, if you do otherwise, you kill attraction, in fact it's easy to find partners if you are seen to be buoyant on your own, more money and more favours flow to those who are dominant, so make yourself dominant as soon as you can.

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# INCUBATION SECRET 16

# Focus on an idea that validates your current office.

In order to channel the power of focus, it is important for talents to do something befitting of their office, education and qualification.

A project that validates your current roles, adds a new feather to your cap, and helps to spread your influence. If your status suddenly changes radically, it is equally important to upgrade your projects, products or services to the current level of your office.

FOCUS ON YOUR AREAS OF STRENGTH

Your strength are obvious, they are a function of your certification, your background, your disposition to life, habits and culturing. While it is good to do what you can do about your weakness, it is important to give your area of strength the optimum effort.

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# CHAPTER EIGHT

# WORK WITH A STRATEGY

It's not just about having a dream; it's about having a plan. A dream will not work if all you have is hope and no definite goals. A goal will not work if there is no overall plan or workable strategy attached. Working without direction, and purpose amounts to nothing.

Effective work is done when you have a laid down strategy. A strategy entails a plan of action, you intend to follow through, which is trusted and tested, and guaranteed to give you result. Working without a strategy is the equivalent of grinding with your bare hands and hoping for big results.

A vision is a good step in the right direction but there must be a plan put in place to direct the overall enterprise.

A good strategy gives you a leeway to bypass your limitation.

A good strategy helps talent to know when their task is completed in a place, it helps them to know when to move to the next phase. Strategy leads to directed efforts; it helps talent to come up with meaningful plans and initiatives, and helps them to know when to try again, conclude a project or start another.

The strategy is a framework to guide execution.

A business leader uses the word strategy to talk about a formation or direction of the business which contains the vision, the mission statement, goals, opportunities et al. A marketer talks about market strategy to talk about his overall strategy of how he intends to deploy adverts, social media, testimonials to sell his merchandise. The artistic use of strategy may mean an exhibition style, a part to be taken to emerge to spotlight or a channel to take full advantage of the opportunities around. In the absence of strategy, most talent simply don't know what to do with themselves or with their new found fame. To develop a good strategy you have to Know where you are and know your end point?

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# INCUBATION SECRET 17

# Know your destination and what it means to have arrived at it.

The advantage of knowing your destination, is that it helps you to know exactly what you're driving towards, once you know this well enough, you can begin to draw out a list of objectives, this objectives must be prioritised, and articulated on paper. This process will take you through a research and introspection phase, where you gather the facts, familiarise yourself with who you are, what you have on ground, and how you can reach your goals.

A SWOT ANALYSIS

SWOT stands for strengths, weakness, threats and opportunities.

The quality of thinking you do at this phase, will help you to solve a lot of problems. An analysis of your strength, helps you to recognise how you can make the world better, it helps you to see what you have which others don't, understanding your threats will help you to safeguard your future, and will give you an auto recognition system to see problems ahead of time.

The truth is strategies are openly accessible everywhere, but tactics, the underlying ways to ascertain a goal are the world's best kept secret. Tactics are kept in hush tones by military systems, they are kept and guarded by the CEOs, they are the working formulas that allows ordinary people to accomplish extra ordinary results within a short period of time.

Anyone can set a mission statement, have a vision, have a goal, but the underlying methodology of how to get it done, is actually what makes execution fast and easy. What many talented people lack is not exactly the absence of a vision, but the absence of a framework to implement their strategy.

Getting a strategy takes profound thoughts, but implementing it can be harder, this takes thinking and foresights, in fact a strategy cannot work, without adequate exposure. If you don't have information about what you're dealing with, and the problems you will be facing, and it's coming to you first time, then what you're doing is a gamble.

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# INCUBATION SECRET 18

# Researching on the challenges you're likely to face in a venture before you start can radically improve your level of success.

Research can save you from a lot of blunders, and can help you to solve a multitude of problems ahead of time. In fact your level of research determines your level of preparation. A good preparation means you have solutions waiting for problems long before they occur.

Strategies to be deployed to allow for visibility and reception

1. Collaborate; you don't need to have all the answers, have all the money, or even be super talented, find those who are more money, more skill and more influence and partner with them. Make it a stock in trade to always collaborate, this way your talent can shine through.

2. Target the high flyers in the society

You can either work for just 4 Fridays in a month, and the business transactions make take under 6 hours or you can work 8am to 8pm every day for 23 days in a month, and barely survive. Not all clients are equal and not all business opportunities are the same. Make your product appeal to several class of people. But make sure you find A-list clients. When you brand your product to appeal to an elite audience, the quality automatically increases, and so also your income.

3. Simplify everything to basic

Complexity is unnecessary in this cluttered world. Many people take pride in creating complexity out of simple ideas, thinking it makes them more sophisticated and wise, but it is a sheer waste of time. If you want your ideas or products to catch on, make it easy to use.

4. Acquire the best certification available

The kind of degree you have, puts you in a class by default. This degrees and certifications you hold, can either creates barriers or break limits.

There comes a time when people talk about qualifications, and calling-fication, that is they are called and chosen by an higher power, and that means their innate abilities has upturned their lack of qualifications. This is good news. On a general scale, even those with inborn abilities, need to hold information, the kind of information they possess, determines their skill level and performance and defines the kind of class, society fits them into. If you have super information, about a specific subject, the world will seek you out. If you're young and you want to develop your talent, stop going to second rate schools, or hiring second rate coaches or experts, look for the world's best.

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# INCUBATION SECRET 19

# Work with the user in mind.

This is a major distinction between the apprentice and the master. The novice often creates without regards to the clients, the apprentice creates with the clients in mind, a true master creates in front of the clients. For the true master, the end user is part of the creation process. You can spot a novice when he says, come back, I will have it ready when next you stop by. A master says, wait, let see what you want, we will create the first few steps together.

If you want to be relevant you have to continually ask yourself; who need my offering, who need the products, who can this help right now? Who will see this tool as equivalent to an angelic help and an answered prayer?

The more you stay close to the end user, the better your product.

Main Highlight of this section

A truly successful talent is one that has a strategy in place and one that is willing to go the extra mile. Nowadays, every body works, but not everyone gets result. To get better result, you don't need to drive yourself more furious, what you need is to work making sure the right factors are in place. In fact, you don't have to be a genius to put your talent to great use, you can generate the same result gotten by the genius if you simulate the same technique they use.

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# CHAPTER NINE

# WORK AT YOUR PEAK LEVEL OF STRENGTH

The one who wants to succeed, must continually channel the best part of his day, his effort, and energy into the work at hand. He mustn't wait till he is tired, wasted, fatigue or exhausted, but must continually put in his best energy and efforts each day into the work at hand.

Since efficiency and effectiveness diminish gradually as the time ticks by, it will be ideal that your peak powers of intellectual strength goes directly to the real work that matters.

If you have something so difficult to do, do it as soon as you wake up or first thing in the morning. To put this rule to use, it may be ideal to separate your day into creative sessions.

John Grisham the renowned writer from Jonesboro was said to have built his career on the principle of compound interest. As a practicing lawyer, John Grisham would wake up at 5, take a shower and walk to his office, which was just 5 minutes from home. By half past 5, he was on his desk, he had a writing pad waiting, his target as a budding writer was not to write 20 pages, his simple goal was to fill in one page of action every day, sometimes this was easy enough to write, other times, it took hours, nevertheless, he stuck it out, and would fix that one page before the day's work began.

There are so many lessons here, if we care to think about it. Most people attempt their most creative task when they are exhausted, and fatigue, it's a totally wrong approach to develop your talent, by putting your most creative (or imaginative) task to the first part of your day, you will be able to tap into your brain power at a moment when it is at its peak, this is a tremendous strategy that will move you ahead in whatever field you find yourself.

Also doing your most imaginative task as soon as you wake up makes you to be very efficient and original.

Secondly John Grisham practiced a rarely spoken law of time management, which is to reduce transit time to the barest minimum, by staying 5 minutes to the office, he was able to save commuting time and get to work consistently early.

If you waste 2 hours in traffic five days a week, in a week you would have lost 10 hours, in a month you would have lost 40 hours. (remember 40 hours a week is what most workers put in) losing that equally translates to an extra week of work, you lost on traffic every month. Imagine having an extra 12 weeks of work to put in a year! Or for those who spend 4 hours in traffic everyday, that translates to 24 weeks of work they lose every year. Thirdly John Grisham practiced under the rule of surplus time. To most writers, a page a day is something of a walk over and most writers will schedule this for 30 minutes or 1 hour at most, by giving himself a 2 and a half hour stretch, it shows a high commitment to excellence.

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# INCUBATION SECRET 20

# To get the best out of your talent, it is important that you seek to create, and not reproduce.

In other words, set apart days to make original and brand new pieces, in essence don't score, harmonize or re-sing, just compose. Reach into your soul and create what is real and authentic.

As a creative soul, waking up in the morning, you can be authentic and you have higher chances of creating and thinking up something completely new, if you work with this rule.

If you're a painter, think of new colours you like to mix like no other.

As a cook, think of new recipes, new snacks, new drinks and new wine.

As a chemist, think of new drugs and new instruments that will help your profession.

As a programmer, think of new softwares, create the blue print for new software and think of new programming tools.

As an engineer, think of a new design for a new car and think of a new product for your company.

As a lab scientist, seek for a solution to an ailment or seek for a new way to do the same test in a better way.

Are you a playwright, when you wake up, close the film, close your mentorship book and shut down the CD.

When you wake up in the morning first thing first, open your idea book, your template of ideas and work on bringing out an original.

Write something fresh first, don't rephrase.

Are you a manufacturer? The idea here is to invent, not to assemble.

Think first grade brand new ideas.

Think original, think of brand new piece, don't imitate, not yet.

Think creation, think about brand new pieces, brand new words, quotes, sentences, jokes and brand new pictures you want to draw, work on creating new design, create new melody, new songs to write and sing something entirely new.

Do something new with the first part of the day, don't worry if it's not completed or will be completed, just establish the blue print, it set the pace for your brain to think innovative ideas for the rest of the day, always do that every morning.

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# INCUBATION SECRET 21

# Be willing to hunt down the dragon.

Mastery is a mindset of being on the go, trying out something new each morning and seeing it through. Don't wait till an idea dawns on you before you run, be on the run and when the idea comes, it will give you wings to fly.

Don't sit still hoping for the solution or the next big idea to settle on you, be a hunter, the same way you hunt for money, movie tickets, discount prices, investment opportunities. Do the same with opportunities and ideas. This will help you to transcend to the realm of novelty.

When you wake up in the morning, before you descend into the routines and rigours of repetition, editing, judgment, correction and errors, seek to create afresh, that helps you to be original.

Erik Wahl observed that "to be the maker you were born to be, you must learn to chase the spark and embrace the grind."

To take your work to the next level, seek to initiate, create, pioneer, author, produce, don't just recycle, assemble or consume, channel your mind to be on the forefront.

You have a higher likelihood of doing this, if you channel those moments when you're newly awake to those task.

At those sublime moments, your mind is virtually empty of its limitations, the lines are blurred between logic, reasoning and dreaming, and you're mostly unrestrained by the hardship in your world, during those hours, you will likely attain an heightened creative state, and more likely to experience an intellectual bliss. Originality of thoughts and ideas can be attained as such and you will most likely become an authentic brand of your art.

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# INCUBATION SECRET 22

# Study when you're most energetic and alert.

Being energetic and alert means you're intellectually able to put reason to use in a more profound way, it means you can associate more ideas than ever and think up haphazard ideas and make it fit. As written by William Plomer, creativity is the power to connect the seemingly unconnected.

Association works more when you have something subconsciously lurking behind your mind that is trying to say, this can complement this and this may go well with this big idea you already have. At this point, it is imperative that you work and not play.

To get more work done and give your very best to the task at hand, find a way to calm down, breathe deeply, take control of your body and be at ease with your environment. Understand that your mind is your most important working tool, you have to be steady and consistent with your energy levels and attain that tranquillity within, to be able to fully harness the powers inherent in you.

EMBRACE YOUR INTERNAL PEACE

To gain access into your innovation powers, you need to have a well-settled mind, and train yourself to experience violent emotions and severe internal disruption with a calm outlook. The creative mind is one that is willing to live for an higher purpose and well able to channel and take control of what is going on within, it is a mind that is willing to be lost and be comfortable with it. Such a soul is willing to ask questions and be at ease when the answers don't come anytime soon, but is open to recognise the answer when it comes.

Purge yourself. If you are unhappy with anything - whatever is bringing you down - get rid of it. Because you will find that when you are free, your true creativity and your true self comes out; Tina Turner.

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# INCUBATION SECRET 23

# Take breaks if you're fatigue, but don't stop the good work.

To function at your peak level of strength, you must horn yourself and tune yourself every day, to be internally revitalized.

While it is good to focus and work to cross the threshold. After a point, stress beyond a certain level becomes counterproductive, fatigues sets in, slows brains, triggers errors, lessens concentration and leads to shortcuts that create bad habits, stop when you get to this point.

The principle of the Sabbath states that adequate rest will boost your ability to do meaningful work.

Effective night rest entails that you sleep in silence; let your brain go to sleep. Rest must be done properly and done in the most effective way.

To avoid burn out at crucial point in the creation process, shut down all sounds when you sleep, turn off the radio, shut down the music, reduce external noise to the minimum and put on the TV only as a refresher when there is nothing really you would do again.

The rule is not to encourage laziness but to work more hours at your peak period of mental alertness.

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# INCUBATION SECRET 24

# Uphold your creative schedule.

As an innovator, if you have a routine, it should be a routine to create something big out of your ideas. To truly create, you must get past the mundane; you must get past the very first Malcolm's hierarchy of needs and overcome the basic quest of food, clothing and shelter, in order to be able to live for a higher purpose. The moment you're still battling with hunger, shelter or one form of domestic conflict and actively worrying about things outside of your primary focus, then your creative power is incredibly undermined. Sometimes you have to prepare for a creative task, like you're going for battle, the more you think ahead and make all necessary conditions, to be in place, the more creative you become.

Do note that being awake, energetic and passionate about a task, doesn't necessarily mean you're creatively up to speed to take it to the next level. Creative task must take precedence over monotonous tasks, just as new ideas must take precedence over stale ones. If your role at work is monotonous, find a very creative task to do very early. It will set the pace for a very intellectually stimulating day.

Be at ease with the creative process, don't overdrive too hard at a sitting. Ecstasy and bliss plus ease of mind activates the flow.

As written by Chris Hadfield, "when you have some skills but don't fully understand your environment, there is no way you can be plus one."

Understanding your surrounding will help you to thrive. If your body demands rest, you must be able to rest at will, and when it's time to work, you must be able to zone in when the situation demands.

The more the world around you is in sync with your creative bliss, the better you perform at your creative task.

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# PART THREE

# SECRETS BEHIND THE MOST SUCCESSFUL UNVEILING

# To bury up your gift is to do yourself and the world a disfavour

# Mobile Motivators

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# CHAPTER TEN

# BE WILLING TO SEE WHAT'S BURIED UP IN YOUR SOUL

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In a remote part of the country was a man who embarked on a journey to the city. When he got to the city, he was so enthralled by the big houses, shiny cars and paved roads that he was overly impressed and just couldn't believe that life could be so good.

In one of his evening walk, he saw a jewellery store, and entered to see all kind of precious stones.

The shop attendant upon seeing the delight on his face, warmly accosted him and asked him what he wanted to buy.

I don't know, the man said looking lost.

The sales clerk guided him to the extreme recess of the store where some wonderful treasures was radiantly sparking under the dimly lit show glass.

The young man pretended as if he wasn't impressed.

These are sapphires, the clerk said, and that one you're looking at is an emerald.

We have spinel, diamond, opal, pearl and gold.

You name it, we've got it. But that's not all, we also have your best suits, available for the cheapest price.

The man even though was filled with awe, was trying his best to hide his wonder.

Look at those ferry coats and those wonderful hats said the sales clerk.

The young man looked for a brief shattering moment, and gave a shrug.

Oh I see, let me show you something wonderful, the sales clerk said and led him upstairs.

The man still trying to feign disinterest, decided to examine a set of golden watches that stood near the stairs, and while he was at it, he suddenly cried out.

The gem before him was such a lump that shined so pure and glittered like the stars. Any problem? Asked the sales clerk.

No problem, the man said, and scurried out of the shop.

That man walked out of the store that night, forgetting his hat and his senses.

The next week, he rushed to the store and was happy the gold was still in the show glass. He was extremely happy it was being offered at a discount, in a rash decision, he sold his farm, discontinued his medical savings and took the money he had put in a vault and went to the store early the following day. He counted meticulously, the jewel costed him every dollar he had, but he was beside himself with joy. The moment he purchased it, he fell on his knees, breathed a sigh of relief and gave thanks.

On the other side of the road, a clergy man waved him to stop but he walked on. A crowd of naked girls beamed at him but he wouldn't even birth them an eye. The gold held his fascination for a couple of weeks. After a few months, he feared the treasure would be stolen and decided to keep it out of reach. So he dug a hole just under the ground by an old wall. He would stop by many times during the day to relish the feel of his treasure.

Days turned into weeks and years turned into decades, after forty years had passed, and the sickness of age had overtook him, he could be found during the night coiling up around the wall, picturing the treasure he had hidden beneath the ground.

A man came upon him one day and wondered at the smile playing across his lips, and after some inquiries learnt of the treasure. Upon quick digging, he found it and made away with it.

The man stricken with age soon came to the wall the next day, and saw the heap of dirt around the wall and tore his robe in misery.

His fellow men upon learning the cause of his grief, admonished him not to be too alarmed, it would do him the same good, he advised, if he rolled a massive rock inside the hole, and pretend the treasure was still there, for when he had it, he served him no purpose.

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Morale:

Some people cremate their success before it has a chance to bloom.

Some talent have been well hidden and positioned where they will never see the light of the day, some parents have put the talent of their kids to oblivion. They do this because they feel the talent in question is going to bring them nothing but shame. But talent unused always leaves a throb in the heart of the bearer. No matter how deep a talent is buried, it's still there, waiting for a day to come back to life. In the Bible, God sent Samuel in search of David, and didn't stop till he was found at the farm house, and God is still in the business of unveiling hidden talent.

Apart from parents and guardians crushing the talent, talent can be suppressed by the carrier himself. Often times we are so excited by our gifts but with time the excitement fades away, sometimes out of shame, fear of ridicule or rejection, we hide the wonders and the gift God has placed within us.

But if you don't use your gift, there's no point to having it. Incubation (Roman figure 1) is a process of consciously nurturing your talent and allowing it to mature, till it can ride on the wings of the storm, burying it up, looks related but produces the opposite effect. To bury up a gift, is to deny it of the attention, encouragement, feedbacks and the sunshine it needs to blossom.

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# INCUBATION SECRET 25

# Talent without responsibility is like a car without wheels. Start the engine and it will make a lot of noise, but it's going nowhere.

To give wings to your gift, you must consistently take responsibility for its growth, its development and its use. Accepting responsibility keeps you in control. Responsibility entail accepting ownership of whatsoever appeared or dropped on your lap, even when you're ill prepared for it. Motion activates talent, showing up in the right places is a proof that you're willing to take responsibility for your gift.

The major error made by many youngsters is to wrongly assume they have a talent for something because they have an avid interest in it. Passion has its place, but real talent comes with core competence, and a special skill. If you think you have a flair for something, before you seek to place it as the yardstick of talent, seek to test it.

The proof of passion is seen in your ability to endure the rigour and go long distance in pursuit of your goals

Real passion is tested when you can endure the rigour more than other people can. That thing you have a flair for, can you do it, nonstop for 12 hours? Can you make it the centre of your life for a whole ten or twenty years? As described in the proficiency test, (see book 2) the journey to mastery takes time, the question to ask is; can you dance, paint, sing, drum, market, advertise, run, program, strategize and lead every day for twelve hours? Would you like to do it every day for the space of a life time, and be looking forward to it, each day of your life?

Some girls will say, "I'm a dancer, I'm fair skin and I can cook". Well I love the food aspect but my response is: Missy; can you really knock yourself off, training on developing that skill for 16 hours in a stretch, can you put yourself on a total lock down and train for a whole month nonstop and thoroughly have a good time?

During the golden age of the Jackson thriller dance, there was a certain group who became the rave, and to my constellation, I discovered they had a very monotonous concert routine. Whenever they had a stadium concert, it was the norm that none of the members would go home. Picture a team of more than 50 individuals including little kids, lodged in a large pent house. How exciting and uncomfortable it was! But they would stay together for weeks or month as the case may demand and train, each day till they are exhausted, and as soon as they wake up, take a shower and get back to the rehearsal. They did this, day after day for months, and the result was always astonishing. People often said, they were the best, but insiders knew it came from a place of intense practice.

Such practice would have never been possible, if there was no passion behind the art. The lay man would actually say, these guys have a lot of energy. But the dance and the routine itself wasn't an endurance test, and it wasn't because they had more stamina than any other group, this was the test of true passion. It was the passion they had that kept them going.

Some talents are on the ground because they are unable to go through the hard rigours and drills their talent demands of them. This stops them short from attaining greatness.

Greatness in any field of work takes a set of routine. It involves handling monotonous facts, data, figures and paying attention to some very boring details. If you're too off the edge to see to this details, you will appear half baked at the point of exhibition.

Bottom line

Don't just assume you have a passion because you have a flair, seek to discover if you can stand the rigour, the routine and the monotony that comes with it.

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# APPRAISAL

  1. What skills do you have, that you can continually use for a long period of time? 
  2. What are those things you easily figure out?
  3. Can you stand ambiguity and tarry on with it, even when the answers are not forthright? 
  4. Are you seeking to unveil your talent or you're doing nothing about it, and hoping for someone to come knocking at your door?

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# CHAPTER ELEVEN

# SIMULATE A SPARKLE BY STAYING VISIBLE

One of the hall mark of successful talent is seen in their ability to project themselves as a brand, they take their grooming, style, and figure as a work of art, and they make themselves desirable, and friendly to those who need them.

Successful talent are further adept at focussing on what makes them attractive. They understand that how they appear determines their class. Their class in turn determines the pricing for their services. If they appear cheap, they will attract peasants. If they look rich however, they can bargain for a better pay.

Your perception is what creates your net worth.

It is important for young talent to see themselves as a brand and project themselves in the best light, this will enhance how much others are willing to pay to have them around.

Dressing the role (even beyond the confines of the event), can help to get more connection, more accreditation, which provides a positive air and atmosphere.

Keys to Greatness

Act like a professional

Mastery is not just a function of skill, it must also show on the outside, as much as you work on yourself to become a master, work on your outlook to reflect the professional part.

Professionalism is reflected in the talk, in the grooming, in the gestures, in the comportment and in the attitude.

While fleshing out this volume, I came across a lot of talent (including my own set of acts), who had everything it took, and had paid years of preparation, but who failed to change how people perceive them, and were consequently deprived of a platform. It was really frustrating to me, and to the artist as well.

When you decide to use your gift, radiate happiness, it helps and attracts good people. Success ultimately agglomerates around the one who courts it. Happy people are great to be around with. Tina Turner reports that, "happiness is the greatest beauty secret."

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# INCUBATION SECRET 26

# Don't just mirror after what is good, mirror after the best.

Look for top rated performers, study their techniques and mirror your delivery after them. One way of using the mirror technique effectively, is to find the nearest greatest thing that resembles what you do, which you can comfortably compare yourself to and which other people can easily draw a similarity to, without feeling threatened, and model your looks, style, and standards after it.

Appearing like a professional will ultimately help you to become a professional. In fact there is a law of entertainment that states that, the more successful you look, the more successful you become.

Visibility is further enhanced by the platform you use. If you want your work to stand out boldly, mount the biggest platform. In case you're wondering what it really means.

Visibility entails being in the news, it means doing something concrete every day, every week, and all year round, which your audience can instantly see and applaud. It means going to the hot spots, where the VIPS and the press men are gathered. It means gracing important occasions and events in the society.

Being visible further entails being where your kind are gathered; staying in the social circle that is defining the trends in your industry. It means staying in the gossip mills, it means being out in the open, having a open office, a definite address and having a means for other professionals to call and reach you. It entails being so good in the art, you're desired, called and summoned up forcefully from time to time.

It means being ready to help others as well, and being ready to showcase something worthwhile every now and then, visibility shows that you're alive, fighting and still very much in the game.

An example of someone who has stayed consistently visible as a writer is Stephen King who apart from writing in his real name, volunteered to write under a pen name to push out more works. An actor who has stayed consistently visible is Christopher Lee, having featured in over 276 films, a business mogul who has stayed consistently visible is Warren Buffet who has acquired several asset and has increased his market share multiple times. A brand which has stayed consistently visible is Coca-Cola, you can spot them by their super promotions and creative adverts, which is totally unrivalled.

Visibility and consistency are related but they are different in context. Consistency entails hard work, it means tarrying on, it entails fighting hard and has a lot to do with persistence. Visibility means putting steps in place, such that attention can seek you out by default. Consistency entails doing the work necessary to achieve success. Visibility however entails staying where the action is. Visibility is a concept which recognize that attention must not only be courted, but sustained. The idea of coming up for air from time to time, defeats visibility. Visibility demands that you shouldn't go under water, in the first place.

For many talent, visibility is a battle, however continual visibility cost money, additionally many events can unfold within a short period of time, which can obstruct visibility. It is important for brands to stay visible to the people who are interested in what they are offering. Factors that affect visibility may include an expired contract, (the sponsorship and the promotional capital behind a brand plays a vital role in its visibility, when it drops, it becomes difficult to stay visible). A secondary gift or career the sponsor or the talents decides to pursue can also affect visibility in a great way; losing an asset or a loved one, also affects visibility. Sometimes life catches on, the presence of a troubled child, or an on-going marital difficulty can affect the positive outlook of a talent; sometimes more is expected from a brand; a non-supportive family or relative, influential enough can equally obstruct visibility.

Sometimes talent on their own, would take on a different vocation; sometimes a change in contract to where they are treated as an option can equally obstruct their visibility.

In a world full of competition, rivalry and chaos, here are a few steps to take;

Mandatorily, keep your social media handles active. With tools like post planner, Tweetdeck, Feedly, you can schedule post ahead of time, and keep your visibility on social media through the course of a year.

Keep reading and updating yourself with new skills and information.Let your work be fresh. Keep in the social circles where the buzz is. Make friends with the most popular acts and the rave of the moment. Seek out interviews, don't wait for them to come to you.

Create multiple works and spread the release over several years, 2pac did this, such that new songs from his studio kept dropping, making him immortal for several years.

Do controversial stuffs from time to time, flaunt your asset, fuel the gossip on intent, borrow one or two things from guerrilla marketing. Become a part of the national or international committee of art, in your region. Seek to be a part of the board of a viable organization, and take a position to serve. It fosters recognition and helps other people to access your work more easily.

It is equally important to go for summits and conferences related to your work; volunteer to be a speaker, to be the driving force behind the change or be on the frontier of the new movement that is going on, this has a way of making you more visible.

Be free with your resources, give out of free resources, free gift, free money to those who are in need of it without birthing an eyelid, think of surprise gifts, and don't demand anything in return when you do.

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# INCUBATION SECRET 27

# Learn to continually spread the word about your talent in a cool and non-threatening way.

For new acts, it is important to be one with the art, that is, no compartmentalization, make it easy for those meeting you for the first time, to be able to see you as the real artefact. Be the authentic brand of what you do. This will break down the walls for you, give you instant recognition and platforms and bring more opportunities your way.

Dress for success, and look like a success

Visibility is further enhanced when your dressing defines the trend and shows you as a person of authority. A phenomenon known as embodied cognition shows that body postures can affect your thoughts, but not only that, how you dress affects your mood. Dressing for the role, helps you to be psychologically more attuned to live it out.

In a study carried out by Adam Galinsky and Hajo Adams, the researchers found that performance of participants who took the strooptest (a test of selective attention) while wearing a lab coat was significantly better than those who took the test without wearing one. In a phenomenon known as enclothed cognition, it is explicit that your dressing is communicating with your mind, it's speaking to your sub conscious mind too, your dressing dictates your mood. It affects your performance. When you dress well, it boosts your overall self-confidence.

If there is a gear assigned for your role, going through the trouble of dressing the part, can affect your result. You've probably heard of the say, the dressing does not make the man, well it's not just your grandmother, mine also told me as well. If dressing well, can help you to perform well, then it's time to dump another well-meaning advice passed on to us by our great aunties and great grand mums.

If the dressing assigned doesn't accentuate movement, and doesn't help the acts to fit into the role and perform at their best, then it's time to have a word with the governing body.

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# APPRAISAL (FOR MANAGERS)

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1. Evaluate each person in your team based on their demeanour.

2. Examine attributes such as confidence, trust, integrity, beauty and charisma.

3. What are the ways those qualities can be better harnessed and projected better?

4. Record each member of your team for a few minutes while they introduce themselves and play it back to them, write down the errors you can observe and partner with each one of them to think of what they can do or say to be better.

5. Tape everyone as they go through their normal daily routine and introspect on their postures, smiles, ethics, with a view to flag any error and fix it.

6. Is there any assigned uniform for the roles being played?

Look at the competition; is the gear assigned, struggling to live up or far better? (Sometimes it's not a question of skill but of tools, the team is only as good as the equipment they use.)

7. Is anyone in the team, doing something that makes them a person of influence? Is anyone starting to do something befitting enough of an established act? How can you encourage them to do more of those things?

A recommended resource here is; The Charisma Factor - How to Develop Your Natural Leadership Ability by Robert J. Richardson and S. Katharine Thayer.

Note

No comparison must be made between the acts.

Care must be taken to avoid division and jeering by other members of the team. Let the scores stay out of the wrong hands.

The purpose of this activity is to support each talent to the point where they can play active roles, and project the much needed ideals of the team.

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# THE VISIBILITY INDEX

# APPRAISAL (FOR EMERGING ARTIST AND ENTREPRENEURS)

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Score yourself on a scale of one to twenty, and set it up in a percentage. A no is a zero, yes is a positive score, there are negative scores, no half marks. Track changes and see how you do with time.

1. Have you had a concrete interview in the last one month around your business, trade, talent or gift? This interview could be any form, be it print media, a radio or TV.

2. Have you visited any college or institute of higher learning in the last 1 month to showcase your work? If you're a student, have you been to other campuses beside your own?

3. Do you have a solid online presence, that is a personalised website which has your contact information, bio, statement, testimonials, which can help to attract more following?

4. Have you attended a conference around your area of interest in the last 3 month? Are you in good contacts with the people you met, that is, have you contacted any of those you met in the last 3 weeks? If you did attend a conference, but failed to establish or maintain contact, you're wasting your time and it is a negative score.

5. Do you have a substantial following online around your work? Any following below 100k as an emerging artist is a no!

6. Do you update the audience while a project is on-going? Note: It is bad PR to update your audience only when a project is done, that's a minus.

7. Do you have a lot of your product out there, or just one or two? Visibility is enhanced when you flood the market with your work, not when all you have is one or two.

8. Have you conducted a contest in recent times, this is the kind that enables your audience to participate and publicise your work? It is not enough to have a following, you must put your following to work. And when they work, you must reward them bountifully.

9. Are you generous with your audience, such that you share gifts, tickets, freebies and give-aways? Or you're hoping to bite everything you can get from them. Word of mouth enhances visibility in a lot of ways. If people are rooting for you, to do something philanthropic or have benefited from some of your philanthropic offers, they will keep an active watch on your space.

10. Do you have any publicity agents working 12 hours a day for you? If you have agents working around the clock for you, such as a promotion expert, a paid marketer, or you have advert running by third parties, give yourself a double score. (However that doesn't exempt you from doing the other stuffs that can enhance your visibility).

11. Have you conducted or attended a meet and greet session this year? A meet and greet event is a social event organized for networking and interaction, it allows young people to get acquainted with each other, and this can lead to notable and influential associations in the future. Don't abuse it, and deploy it solely as a dating opportunity.

12. Do you have a mastermind whose network you can easily access? The presence of a mastermind or think tank can enable you to network further than your immediate reach. A mastermind is a think tank full of bright minds who have viable networks and resources, you can deploy. Give yourself a double score if you have one.

13. Are you paid to produce? The pro factor in any vocation is to be paid to produce or work, that is being paid up front to do something. The commission artist lives up to this rule, that is they have a long stream of clients, and hence there is a demand upfront for their work and services. Being paid to work directly on your gift, can either creates visibility or reduce it. If you're being paid, to stay visible, you must have control of your time and your banner must be visible. See the next point to learn how to do this.

14. Have you written and submitted a proposal in the past one month? One of the secrets to getting good commissions, is to write a good proposal. A proposal talks about a detailed plan, in advance for what you intend to create and seeking for someone who will commission it and advance a fee. Many people are familiar with the idea of a business proposal, but the same way, we have business proposals, we have book proposals, film proposals, photo album proposal, project proposals, wedding proposals, program proposal, building proposal, in fact proposals can be written for almost every piece of intellectual work that will take considerable time and effort. Getting paid to produce automatically creates a level of visibility, and a ready market or demand for your work. Many talents are not visible because although they took the initiatives to start a project, which is a good thing by itself, they didn't consult enough people about the kind of project they need and what will be useful to them.

15. Do you have your work on display in an exclusive gallery, shops or an international store? As you get better with your skill, select your projects and create only on consultation. The consultation you make gives you an exclusive access to places you would otherwise not have gotten to. To increase visibility and display your work at the right places, create your work according to a specific taste, this goes with the tools you use in the creation and the people you employ to polish up the work. Target new venues, event centres, exhibition halls, trade fair, and other important events going on in your community. The aim of visibility is such events may not be a direct sale, but to acquire meaningful contacts, to publicise an existing work, or pass around a name, it is a form of free advertising, where you appear in a credible and authentic way to those who will recognise your work in the future.

16. Have you spoken with a large independent retailer in the past 3 months. To improve your visibility, sell and negotiate with these marketers or find an agent to represent you. Entice the retailer with a commission on sales and be specific about the figure and get a lawyer to put things into writing. Most times if you partner by commission, and it is attractive enough, you will get such agent to work hard to sell your stuffs, if you pay an outright fee, it's no gain or loss to them, whether they push your work or not. But sometimes a commission is not the end point, a marketing structure has to be built, you have to be willing to pay someone a decent salary, so he can stay and run your outfit, every single day, at a specified time, throughout the course of a year.

17. Have you been to third party shops, retail centres, book shops, galleries, stores or museum to market your work actively in the last 3 months?

18. Do you see yourself as the best promoter for your work or are you waiting for someone to do the hard work for you?

19. Do you understand the rules guiding the exhibition of your skill or talent? Knowing the rules will help you to stay out of fines and sanctions from governing bodies. Take time to read these rules properly and ask questions if there anything unclear to you.

20. Do you equate talent with sales, or judge sales by other metrics, such as the amount of work you put in? If you equate talent with sales, divide your overall score by two. Most novice think sales is chiefly determined about how talented an individual is, how good a product is, or how cleverly devised it is, but sales is brought about by a composite of factors which is dependent on how much promotion, adverts and marketing a product gets. For start-ups, sales is brought about by a consistent push, a mail train, a list of subscribers, a mobilization of a mass number of people, initiated by an evocative call to action, this proposed action are acted on mostly because there is integrity built into the system, and this is all coming because there is a market strategy, and a market campaign on going behind the scene.

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Allan Dib in The 1-Page Marketing plan stated that, "many "business owners fool themselves into thinking that if their product is excellent, the market will buy. While "if you build it, they will come" makes a great movie plot, it's a terrible business strategy. It's a strategy that's expensive and comes with a high rate of failure. History is littered with technically superior products that commercially failed.'"

You can be very talented and sell nothing, if you fail to advertise, and you can have little or no talent and blow the office. Successful talent are driven by the need to promote and sell their ideas, they do this, everywhere they go.

A product that hits the market but fails to break even, or bring in a good ROI (return on investment) is said to be a commercial failure.

If a product hits the market, wins the audience but fails to work, or produce the result it promised, it is a design failure. When there is failure, the real issues should be embraced and fixed.

The visibility index sees to correct the subtle issues that relates with talent, such that when they are ready, there is a demand for their work.

Don't feel bad if you're just starting up, and you score really low on the visibility index. A low score helps you to tighten up your acts and helps you to do the work necessary for you to get to where you want to be. If your score is low, write on a clean piece of paper, what you have to do, to improve, then go to work on it, come again after 3 months to evaluate. As you return to this activities time after time, your talent I assure you will move to a much bigger platform and will increasingly become larger than life.

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Summary

The inability of most talent to attain a better level of visibility is not because they are not fighting hard to be visible, it is because when attention finds them, it swiftly lifts, and this is because the quality of their ideas, presentations and personal style is not good enough to hold the attention of the crowd.

Hence the first appraisal (the one for managers) is very important. The perception is very important. Visibility hence has to be addressed in 3 phases; visibility problems as it relates to the talent's personal demeanour, that is visibility in terms of physical traits postures and grooming, secondly, visibility problems as it relates to the quality of the work done, and this has to do with technicalities and the level of skill, of the people involved and the level of training the talent has, and lastly visibility problems as related to the marketing effort and attitude of the talent itself in securing a buy in from stake holders.

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# CHAPTER TWELVE

# IF THE AUDIENCE DON'T COME, GO TO WHERE THEY FLOCK

There comes a time in the life of a gifted man, when he decides to appear before the crowd. Those critical hours, often marks the dawn between obscurity and limelight.

When Max Hsu, multi-instrumentalist and the brain behind the group, Superchick, started the band in a basement, it comprised of Tricia Baumhardt, Melissa Brock, Dave Ghazarian, Matt Dallyand Ben Dally, but the night came when the group decided it was time to showcase it all infront of a sea of heads, this was at an audio adrenaline concert in 1999.

A stomp of groovy tunes erupted which set the night on fire, immediately love took over, and after then, the band would spin hits records for well over a decade.

Les Brown, America's renowned speaker, equally made his debut on radio, in an unexpected way. One of the disk jockeys was unfit for air, and Les brown was given an opportunity and did such a good job and was subsequently hired. Les brown later rose through the rank and became a broadcast manager, received the peers award of excellence, and later recorded the Emmy Award winning series, "You Deserve."

Another key figure who used the unveiling effectively is Paul Elrich. Ehrlich had his PhD at the University of Kansas in 1957 and became a lecturer at Stanford University, and partly due to his charisma, he earned several speaking engagement on the campus, alumni forum and on the radio. On seeing this, Sierra Club director proposed that he write a book based on one of his ideas, a very remarkable book evolved which became titled as the population bomb, this book was promoted and championed at hundreds of events, but for months, the newspapers would pay it zero attention. The turning point was when Paul Elrich, appeared on the NBC's Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. That night was magical. The network was instantly flooded with letters and inquiries and the book little known before then, became avidly discussed and became an international best seller.

Here is another case study. Thomas Edison having invented the phonograph, a sort of big deal, had a lot of sceptics trailing him. After he announced he had embarked on a research to work on an incandescent life bulb, the parliamentary committee set up to investigate his claims regarded his work as a pooh pooh, "good enough for our transatlantic friends but unworthy of the attention of practical or scientific men," the parliament concluded. Whoops! An invention now regarded as one of the hall marks of the 19th century, had been denounced by the authorities of the day. To prove its worth, Thomas Edison had to install the bulbs in Pearl Street in the financial district of lower Manhattan in 1882 for all to see.

Is your work marked with scepticism? To create recognition, your brand must appear long enough and stay conspicuous to evoke a wow feeling. It must appear repeatedly over the course of time, for people to take note.

It must be convincing, and exceptionally designed, sceptics must come to realise that it's one of the greatest thing around.

It must not only demand attention, it must retain attention and get the world glued. It must appear complete, not missing a link, if it's a product, it must be complete in itself, if it's a band, it must appear with its own set of acts, crews, dancers, and in a breath-taking way.

Jonah Berger in his Book, "Contagious" noted that facts don't change people, but emotions can. He observed that to create connection in the heart of the audience, insightful moments, which includes epiphanies, realizations, and "ah-hah" moments must be pursued.

A super charged experience often wins the audience over. To create such an experience, it must have a sensory appeal. It is important to focus on how desire, passion, ecstasy and love can be triggered and released. If the moments evokes wonder and a sense of pride, chances are the audience will buy into the act. A Super charged atmosphere creates positive emotion and helps the masses to talk about an experience long after it is over. In essence if you want to create fame in four simple steps. The first step; as discussed earlier is to embrace a visibility mindset; next is to consistently go to where the crowd are gathered, thirdly to seek to evoke a connection, and now to make avid use of connectors.

Word of mouth is either going to get people to be positively attuned to you or make them to develop a negative attitude. However a strong talent is able to ride the wave of even a negative comment to stardom.

In the book, the tipping point, Malcolm Gladwell heralded the role of connectors, to mean members of society with a large circle of friends, who are able to spread an idea, a product, news or information to people of different socio-cultural, economic and professional circles. These set of folks because of their level of wealth, platforms, energy, rare set of social gift or their inherent ability to travel the world in such a short period of time, are able to meet quite a lot of the high, middle and low class and are able to influence them towards their point of view.

Information brokers hence are very important. Mavens in the context of this book, will be referred to as talents, they are dazzling skilled in what they do. We take the sales men as the managers, working directly for the gifted. Sales men are marked by their ability to negotiate, persuade stake holders and make business out of talents.

To create a visible spark, gifted people no matter how skilled they are, must be connected to a sales man, they must have a visible message, and a content which is visible for the connectors to see and spread around. Being the buzz word however is not enough, a lot is dependent on the platforms provided by their management.

To create a favourable review, the night or the day of the unveiling  is important and should register in the heart of the audience; if it becomes unforgettable, and inspires the audience to talk beyond the confines of the event, a positive wave is generated. The crowd at the point of exhibition should also constitute the network chain necessary to spread the word.

Ultimately being in demand is not enough, showcasing a skill, is like having a spark, to produce a flame, the sales men and connectors, must be present to get the acts to the next level.

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# INCUBATION SECRET 28

# When talent produces a flame, good management will set it ablaze.

Management is in two phases, self-management and corporate management. If you know nothing about corporate management, you are likely to close the door to your fortune by trying to self-manage your talent. If you want to move to management, learn about it, and understand the metrics involved.

There is an industry full of paid experts who have a well-tested and implementable strategy to direct the operations of a talent 24 hours a day. These firms are constantly seeking for ways to project and make merchandise out of the talent, choosing to engage such companies, produces instant results. Management in other words can make or break a talent. A good management will transform the burning flame of a promising talent into an inferno. And in the case of a bad management, it can put the talent into oblivion. The choice of a management is one of the most crucial decision a young talent has to make.

A lot is dependent on the people behind the scene. In today's world, it is not unusual to see a lot of talents running their own social media platform to serve as a bridge to their audience. In essence, apart from being skilled, they develop a platform and an avid social link, to reach a wilder base which helps them to become viable connectors in their own right. A self-made platform makes the acts independent and helps it to project to the outside world without being overtly reliant on other sources. The more independent the act becomes in leveraging its fan base and network, the bigger it gets.

According to Malcolm Gladwell, when connectors, mavens and salesmen are able to buy into an idea and advocate it, it becomes viable for a break out.

Managing talents plays a critical role but it is one of the worst jobs out there, as most talents are very sporadic in their actions and not level headed to follow instructions. Most talented folks prefer a manager they can control, however the act of managing is not synonymous with being controlled.

The group Psquare, one of the most prolific music group in Africa was managed initially by a veteran known as Howie T, a seasoned concert promoter and was initially dubbed as double P, "P&P", and "Da Pees." They had won the "Grab Da Mic" competition in 2001 but the day came when they decided that there was no turning back, this was a day when they decided to move out of the small clubs and unveil their acts in front of the whole world.

This event was the launching of the stadium in the Federal Capital Territory, Nigeria. This time, as against being paid, they paid a sum of 50 thousand naira to acquire an opportunity to do a dance as a contrast to being paid to perform and they went on a long extensive training and rehearsal to make it work.

The event paid off, it was a critical performance. An event that launched them to spotlight, after that day, the band became booked back to back and had everyone in the industry raving about them.

This is the principle of the unveiling; one single night of exhibition can catapult a skilled act into a worldwide sensation.

A good exhibition backed by the necessary networking chain can broker an act to the world. Putting it out there, when the whole universe is watching helps everyone to see it clearly. For an unveiling to work, the unveiling must be done by a person of authority or someone of intense skill, the acts itself must not just live up to expectation, it must totally exceed expectation. Take for instance, a radio advert that appear only once, it's almost forgotten, a repeated advert however creates an impression and helps people to take cognizance. But take note that the machinery is usually not complete without a sales mechanism, that is a manager who seeks to connect the acts with the outside world.

How mavens are bourne

Malcolm Gladwell defined mavens as people who accumulate information and those we rely on to connect us to new experiences.

To make a maven out of yourself, it is important that you become an expert on a definite subject. In the "4 Hours Work Week," Tim Ferris, explains that, "in modern PR terms, proof of expertise in most fields is shown with group affiliations, client lists, writing credentials, and media mentions, not IQ points or Ph.D.s," he further listed 5 steps to get to expert status. It's absolutely worth reading.

For most unveiling to be successful, a script must be in effect.

Yes you're good, you have talent, you can impress people when you sing, dance, paint, skate, talk, draw, cry, puke and the rest.

Preparation involves searching for the most impressive ideas and hot point of your presentation or work, and putting it together in an impactful 10 to 25 minutes that completely dazzles everyone that watches.

Preparation involves writing a laid down script for what you intend to exhibit in 5, 10 or 15 minutes or more and knowing it by heart so much that it is convincing.

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# INCUBATION SECRET 29

# A script will guide you to evoke the perfect delivery and even do better than yourself.

Without a script, some rehearsals have no point. The famed speakers in the Tedtalk videos we watch over and over, have a script and a story they rehearse endlessly till they get to a point where they can tell it without a flaw.

Most dancers at your favourite award ceremony know exactly what moves they are making at every sound of the beat, some scripts are so rehearsed, that the artist knows exactly when to step back in line and go into the audience, song actress know exactly when to talk, make a face, leave the stage and engage with the audience. The same thing applies with a typical music exhibition on the Teen's Choice Award nights, there's a script behind the 3 to 5 minutes show, which shook up the audience and stirred up the thunderous ovation. Behind the most captivating talks done on radio, is a script. Although most experts are able to do without one, don't leave your exhibition to freestyle, especially if it's such a big one, and you're new or unfamiliar with the audience.

Proper practice involves doing several mock run of yourself doing the dance, the talk, the song, or whatever it is, and not just doing it, videotaping yourself while doing it. It entails playing back, cutting out what is un necessary, putting together the best actions, and trying again till it fits and invokes a wow expression.

Self-appraisal works well but don't rely on your views alone.

Watching yourself in the preliminary stages will help you to replay, cut, recreate, stipulate, re-enact, re-evaluate, draw your prognosis, compare, cancel, borrow ideas, and simulate.

Before you're done, hunt for constructive feedback, don't fall for flattery, dismiss the excessive praise and get back to work.

Be humble

Men's applause often ends in vanity, don't base your life on the applause you hope to earn, or the merit society has to accord you. Misplaced priority leads to imitation and frustration. Understand why you're doing what you do and stick to your purpose. Remember that the same crowd that shouted hosanna were the same one that demanded for crucifixion.

Mastery is attainable when you do it because you love it. The fact that it calls to you, from the innermost part of your being, and you're totally inseparable from the art, makes it authentic. You're not doing it to get the crowd, you're doing it primarily, because it is what you will do, even if you're the only one left in the universe.

The love you have for the art is what keeps you going, passion must not be misplaced, it all begins with love. You started this journey because there is an undeniable part of you that is totally in sync with it, and this equips you to go beyond the point of duty to master the art.

A manager plays a vital role in the birth of a true icon, these are the important attributes to watch out for.

A good manager/agent helps his client to understand his focus, and where his priority should be. He bridges the talent with the outside world and creates a chain of accountabilities.

The manager leverages his social skills outside and within the business to broker his acts to new audience (this major targets comprise of event managers, planners and organizers.) He further budgets, records and keeps the right financial records. He finds opportunities and builds networks by attending key industry events; he develops schedules, creates visible goals, takes off the pressure and protects his client's interest. He maintains motivation, organizes tours and fosters an atmosphere of productivity, creativity and a lot more. A booking agent is related but the roles are different. A booking agent works primarily to reach out to venues; he understands the budgets of the event planners and notes the type of Gigs they are looking for, and searches to find the perfect acts for them.

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# APPRAISAL

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1. What strategies do you have in place to make your unveiling a successful one?

2. How effective are your training session?

3. What is the magnitude of the next event ahead of you?

4. Are you living things out to chance or taking cognizance of the details?

Summary

Successful talents are able to unveil their gift using the biggest instrument of mass communication available in their cities, they project themselves to the headlines by taking advantage of breaking news, they are also able to get others to speak positively and continuously about them for weeks unending, and are hence able to build a mass following on social media. Successful talents are further able to assemble a chain of experts and establish themselves as an authority in their field.

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# CHAPTER THIRTEEN

# DON'T TRY TO PLEASE, SEEK INSTEAD TO OFFER A THRILL

Billie was the brain behind a small energetic band that rocked the local clubs and cultural scene. They were not exactly a big act but they had enough going for them, to make their manager extremely rich.

The group was opportune to grace an event where several guest from abroad had been invited, and while listening to a collection from the deejay, got inspired and in the weeks that followed, they rehearsed endlessly to adopt a foreign style into their stage routine. This paid off on their regular nights at the club, as they became more famed and won the heart of their audience. But this was just the start; during one of their gigs, something happened towards the end that got everyone talking. The lead vocal, wearing only a shirt that barely covered her frame, immediately after the cheers, threw off her shirt and walked out bare naked.

Wow! What a great concert her manager told her, opening the door, then seeing her lack of apparel, blushed and peddled her away from the madness starting to surge.

I don't care one bit if it was a great concert, she blurted out, what are you doing with my salary? Here; one, two three, counted her manager quickly, but then after a little hesitation, gave her the whole bundle, she held it for a while, but as she got to the end of the block, in a fleet of dissatisfaction, she threw the cash on the floor and stomped out of the yard. Are you out of your mind! Billie shouted. That's all I've got! But the vocalist kept walking, she got to gate, opened it, slammed it and disappeared.

What happened next was quite unexpected, a little mob from the concert hall, hurriedly helped themselves to the notes that drifted their way. The security moved in to separate a small ruffle fight that had begun but even the security man wanted a fair share. That is my money! Billie shouted, come on! Get off you punks. But her voice was drowned out. There was a strange ice cream man who had appeared from nowhere to claim the money was his. Come on get away! Said the security men. Where are your artists, they asked Billie. But Billie was at a loss of what to say. Amidst the turmoil, the rest of the acts had gotten in their cars and driven off. The heat was directed momentarily at him, and almost everyone had a question. Some scolded him, demanding to know how much he gave his artists. And some revelled in the boldness of the vocalist and the impression she had created.

The question some elites however asked was, why did the vocalist put up such a show! Isn't the half-naked rendition good enough, why add to the drama?

Some years back, the internet had gone ablaze with Janet Jackson performance of, better have you naked, with Justin Timberlake at the super bowl, and I wondered if this was a replica.

I left the venue. It was 3am Sunday morning, I was in Nigeria and my cell phone like many others in the country was flat. By 10am, I hurriedly left for the new stand and half expected to see this event in the news, but there wasn't, during the week, I however saw something much bigger. A new rave who had just secured a global distribution, was on the front page and the headlines wasn't favourable in the least, the deal revolved some jelly round prostitutes the act had caroused with at a hotel in a neighbouring country, and the news writer felt it was such a shameful act but one crazy act of recklessness led to another. But from close observations, all the unruly behaviours appealed to a certain circle and in retrospect, the act contrary to all expectations, swelled bigger.

Over the years, I noticed that the controversial acts we found very appalling are such a normal lifestyle to the gifted.

Hence my advice to such talents, is to break the rules of etiquette with discretion. While trying to do something reckless, think of the consequences of the action.

IF YOU'RE GOING WITH THE FLOW DON'T LOSE YOUR CAP

At the same time, a theological orientation of conservatism can cage up the gifted. If you're too conservative about what you do, you may want to adopt a less conservative approach to life, as this may undermine your act.

The industry ranging from Music, Sports, Fashion and Arts is in love with a rude boy. This is a reality seen in the auditions, talent hunts, and soap operas.

The most courteous girls are not the ones who win the pageant.

This is the reality I use to find very upsetting. The most gifted vocals are not the ones who win the auditions.

The most gifted dancers are not the one who wins the competition (you can add yours to the list) but the ones who win the heart of the judges (and the audience). You can have talent but it will fail to create any spark, if you're unwilling to do the unconventional. The ability to live your life without funfair, and such humility to engage with anyone often powers on the underground work, but at the level of exhibition, there's nothing that rocks the scene like a sassy girl with a curt look.

Most winners of such exhibition are the ones who are able to charm the godfathers. Such emerging talent who come out on top are the ones who dazzle the crowd with their exceptional show of bravo, wits, skills and fervour such that it tickles, baffles and at the same time excites the audience.

Often times, there's a difference in the expectation of the judges and the audience. Understanding this difference can equally make or break an act. While the judges are looking most times for courtesy, comportment, vibrancy of skill, the crowd mostly wants to unloose.

To please the judges, participants only need to get right their pose, respond with civility, walk gallantly, learn their recital and understand their schedule and answer intelligently. The judges are looking for good and responsible citizens who know their acts to the book. They want brains, originality and power. Often times what they want is a self-made star, a model who has dusted his hat, and can work with little or no tutelage.

The crowd is however looking for a thrill, and there's a big distinction between pleasing someone and offering a thrill. Most of the crowd at the lower level of the chain are looking for (passion, profanity and) freedom. Inside the audience is a desire repressed by society, it is a void, an insane rush, a fire, and it's often destructive by itself. The crowd want a show of mad affection, they want to see those traits of lunacy, anger, greed, pain, money all subdued but evident. This is the crowd mentality at work.

The performer has a chance to offer his audience the one in a concert opportunity to go wild. How does he do that? By mirroring the same expression he wants to invoke.

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# INCUBATION SECRET 30

# What makes successful talent is not exactly their skills but the moments they create while showcasing their works.

This is equally seen in the feelings they evoke and the wondrous thrill they generate in the heart of their audience. If you want to transform your act, from ground level to phenomenal success, pay attention to the experience people derive from your presence.

A band that wants to attract and keep its teeming audience, must continually give its audience an experience they can't find elsewhere. The same applies to a business man.

If you're an entrepreneur, don't just sell your product, Sell an experience. Go beyond rendering a service (that is what most of your contemporaries are doing) provide an unforgettable customer experience. Perhaps you have talent for cooking, you can make drinks, doughnuts, bake bread, make stew, don't just push it into the hands of your customer, attach an experience to it.

The unique experience you create gives you a class, and elevates you into the higher echelon.

An artist who gives an unforgettable music experience becomes avidly demanded for.

An author who gives a unique reading experience is pre-ordered and has audience waiting avidly for his next book. The missing secret in most ground level talent is their inability to forge their skills and talent to create a compelling and an unforgettable experience in the heart of their audience.

The experience you give people while using your gift, propels you to greatness. If there is no unique experience associated with it, I'm sorry to say, your audience will peak.

When I discussed this topic at a forum while polishing this book, one of the foremost contribution I got, was that the master authority is established through his ability to inspire awe. Hence one of the duties of a promising act is to evoke his work with passion. This ability to stir up latent emotions will help others to ascribe a solid identity to his work.

A passionate expression easily makes for a successful career. If the expression is plagued by a drought of passion, it is a problem to be fixed, failing which the gift may fail to connect.

Let's look at a commercial TV programme.

At the level of a TV reality show, anyone who makes the house is beautiful, talented or noble enough to win but ultimately the winner is the one who takes desire to a whole new level. A thrill involves offering a passionate experience that leaves a long lasting impact on the memory.

Such experience comes with fervour. Excitement by itself is a whole new level of arousal that creates a longing effect such that the act is wanted for an encore.

Such power of freedom to throw yourself into the work, completely without interruption, may help you to be the most creative guy on the block and the true artist at heart, but to bring a meaningful spark to your gift, you have to be the visual representation of the ideas. That is project the values represented, feed the volcano, control the situation and take the bull by the horn.

Watch the big players while they do it

They are not there to fulfil obligations; or to start a fire, rather they are hoping to fuel the volcano. Most big act are focussed on bringing to life, repressed emotions, they are focussed on the seemingly extreme sides. They are not there to be satisfactory, to be conventional but to totally wow and exceed expectations.

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# APPRAISAL

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1. Can the crowd feel your tempest?

2. Can they feel your rage?

Many talents are stuck because they are fond of relying on the goodwill of others but relying on good will is similar to relying on luck. It is not a valid or tenable pathway to greatness. People can change their minds at any time, if you want to keep yourself in demand, and get people to rally around you, work to be the best of your kind, and don't just receive love, add value. Build a financial plan such that your gift can become self-sustaining.

Most coaches will advocate good comportment, but while good comportment may bring about good will, good comportment doesn't guarantee success, in fact most successful artist are not trying to comport themselves, they are rather known for their rascally behaviour. But What they lack in manners, they make for in talent.

If you think being demanded for is all about improving your looks and it is dependent on how charming you are, then you're probably unto something. Our vanity driven world emphasizes physical attributes more than values, morales or intellect and for those who don't know any better, a fine face with a lousy character is often wanted, and this applies especially in the fashion and entertainment circles.

A lousy act creates gossip and rumours, this engages the audience and helps the act to keep going. Hence the shows are sold out, and people tune in to news channel and Vevo feeds to see things for themselves. In our secular world. The more garrulous you are, the more you have a chance of being popular. (This are the odd rules of entertainment).

A manager in this regard, should look intensively to what recitals, materials, costumes and supporting acts can set off the charismatic genius of his talents under him. The manager has to brand his acts such that they represent the ideal image of what they seek to project. Perception and reality should collide into a perfect prism.

The artist on his own must do more than please, he must enchant, bewilder and amaze, such that every encounter he has with the audience produces an addictive effect which leaves the audience wanting more.

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# INCUBATION SECRET 31

# Your personality and your overall gender appeal can make you a fortune.

Most talent fail to get to the next level because they have such a wow talent and an exceptionally developed skill and they think the journey ends there. But by failing to impress the real industry experts or by breaking a major guideline they sink into the whirlpool of thousands of other acts struggling to get by. Just think about it, the world has become a global village, your talent is not just competing with those in your district, it is competing against those from out of town. The current world population boast of a teeming figure of 7.5 billion and is projected to 10 billion by 2099. If you think you're the one in a million kind of girl, and your talent is very special, then in such a population, it means there are 10,000, or sometimes 50 thousand other talents just like you, having something you possess or even having a better combination of skill.

Once you flop or make a grievous error, the crowd may forgive your errors for a while but ultimately attention switches to the next act. If you always think you're special and irreplaceable and that warrants some excesses and indiscipline on your part, it's time for you to have a rethink.

Ask R-Kelly, he will tell you his most painful lesson; you may be the world greatest but a little mistake, is all the opposition want. Celebrities are often a subject of attack, but if you're being attacked, let it be a pure attack, not a creation of your own hands.

If you're doing the eccentric, avoid compromising mistakes.

At the level of an audition, the audience is flooded with so much beauty, at this phase, all what is needed for dismissal, is a show of weakness, a glare of guilt, a look of shame, contempt, disregard or a major flaw. The judges dissect the acts with razor, the performer has to have polished up his acts such that little or none of these flaws are evident.

To win the tournament, talent has to project greatness. It is often said, that practice is what makes the champion, the auditioning only made him famous. The idea of the audition is simple, if a group of kids (including teens, or adults) can make the final list, that is out of thousands of wannabees, they were successfully narrowed down to the last few dozens, they're not just good, they're really good. The rest is a matter of chance, luck and good will.

The judges by themselves are not perfect, and the winning criteria is not standardized. Winning or losing at that point, is not necessarily a determinant of whether you make it in real life or not. As bad as auditions are, it provides perfect opportunities for talents to be picked and discovered by other interested parties

At auditions, coaches are often taken as the judge or jury as to whether a certain talent can be successful or not, but many cases have proven to be contrary.

Look at the following figures;

Britney spears was out sourced on the star search by a cheeky boy, by the name of Marty Thomas but she's regarded today, as one of the biggest thing that ever happened to music. (This is not to slight Marty Thomas, as he is equally a mega star).

Jennifer Hudson finished seventh place in season three of the American Idols, but has won several accolades, including an academy Award, a Golden Globe and several Grammies.

One Direction finished third place on the X-Factor but has sold millions of copies.

Girl's Tyme, the group that later evolved into Destiny's child, which featured the likes of Beyonce, Kelly Rowland, Letoya Luckett and Latavia Roberson was on Star Search but they failed to get the recognition they deserved.

Mandisa finished ninth on the fifth season of American Idols, but is an all-time favourite on the gospel scene.

Morale

Judges are not the alpha and the omega

While winning is good, winning is only a means to an end. Many winners of such auditions, who have been certified by the judges and endorsed by the crowd are not performing to their peak, because they get used to being spoon fed with everything they need.

Success however is relative. The ones we tag as unsuccessful in their vocation, might actually be successful as regards to their own criteria and dreams. What the TV show, does best is to bring to life, the best available act in a country, and to give them the opportunity to be discovered by the world. If you're on TV, you equally have the popularity you need.

In the literary industry, the story of rejection is so numerous, in fact a complete journal will not be enough to give credence to it. This stories tells us that failures must be put in perspective. Rejections are subtle reminders that greatness is around the corner. Rejections must not be taken as personal but embraced. Some rejection letters has little to do with the skill of the practitioner, but has a lot to do with the expectations of the firm.

As a way of pushing yourself out there, make it a point of policy to always go to new places. Embrace the thrill that comes with new friends, new places, new smiles, new voices and a new hello. Find people your future will be glad you associated with at the moment.

Do something news worthy every now and then

It may cost you money, or something dear. It may cost you something completely unprecedented, but the opportunity is going to come for you to do something you've never thought of, or saw coming your way, you have to let go of your rational mind, and trust the ideas coming to you from the universe.

Do something befitting of an established act

Push up your budget, eliminate the middleman, use your contacts and hire the experts. Pay yourself to take care of some technicalities, don't stay stuck to a low profile, go with the current of a big idea and a big dream and make big things happen.

Walk into the next big platform

Always look at your goals, where you are and ask, what is the next big step. The tendency for you to peak and follow the same pattern and the same old platforms is often comfortable, but always seek to push yourself further.

Focus on building a support group

As noted earlier, it takes a great team to make great things happen. Don't just create a goal or draw up a vision, turn your dream into a crusade. lead, network and recruit and pass on your ideas to others, and allow them to run with your vision.

Make your dream work

A wise man once said, if you want to be poor, get a job, if you want to be great, work on your gift. if you want to be first, become a slave to your gift.

Your gift hence is the gateway to greatness, to become a highly successful person, you have to become addicted to the deployment of your gift.

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# APPRAISAL

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1. Do a recording of your raw presentation? Rehearsal, Gigs or what have you?

2. How perfected is your acts? How can you make yourself better? (This question will be answered extensively in the sequel).

3. Who do you need on board? Look within your team, what do you lack? Who can you hire?

4. If you have to set up a process to run Monday to Friday to support your talent, what process will that be? And how would you recruit? (NB: To expand your influence, you have to make your dream someone else business and be willing to pay them for the work they do for you).

5. How many rejections are you getting? If you're getting rejections or turned down, it's a sign that your talent is active, alive and burning. If you have zero rejections, you're probably not pushing enough.

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# PART FOUR

# RULES FOR MAVERICKS

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# It is impossible to be a maverick or a true original if you're too well behaved and you don't want to break the rules. You have to think outside the box. That's what I believe. After all, what is the point of being on this earth if all you want to do is be liked by everyone and avoid trouble?

# Arnold Schwarzenegger

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# CHAPTER FOURTEEN

# BE IN CONTROL OF YOUR CREATIVE PROCESS

Let's face it, your gift can make you to lose your mind and act funny, it can also create a mess out of your lives, affect the outlook of your room, your desktop of your computer or simply make you look shaggy or not well groomed.

A gift mismanaged can equally create big trouble with authorities. In fact, most gifted people have often been sanctioned simply because they are unable to control the excesses around their gift. A friend of mine once said, to have talent is to have trouble, to be creative is to invite ridicule. I totally agree. The power of a gift, or an idea can be destructive and healing at the same time. The moment you've struck the matches, and you've mastered how to make the light glow in the interior of your mind, you have to understand what rules to break, and the ones to keep.

When the Wright brothers came on, they understood that learning how to fly the plane was great, but learning how to land the plane, without a screech was equally important. In ability to land the plane, resulted in several injuries and accidents.

Pressing the breaks and landing safely is hence needed to make your dream work. It's similar to the problem we often face in the idea generation process, creating the storm can be difficult enough, but what do we do, when the lightning flashes and the rain comes with a flood?

Being gifted can be a thing of pride, but what happens, when the gift introduces its own set of problems, difficulties and hardship?

What do we do, when our world is almost submerged by the torrential flow of ideas such that we're completely lost, dazzled, overwhelmed, disorganized and just a jumble of our previous self?

I finished late personally from college, 3 years after my mates were done, because I had a strong gift, I didn't know how to control.

When the flood of ideas came in, it moved in like a train, and I was swept off in its tide.

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# INCUBATION SECRET 32

# While the novice is controlled by his gift, a master is in control of his gift.

While trying to understand why I was always lost, enveloped and overwhelmed, I went to see a senior colleague, who was a lawyer and I saw she had a gift she had managed to horn and was at the top of her class and after recounting my troubles. She told me that I was not evil, sinister, mad, paranoid, devilish or crazy, I was simply misunderstood.

To take control of my idea generation process, she took me through a set of drills. Here is a summary.

First I had to organize my work flow, schedules, ideas and my itinerary from the word go, when it came to ideas, I had to put a name on it, instead of using a date, as I formerly did, I had to think of ideas in terms of themes, not numbers and allocate them in clusters.

I was confused, and she empathized, it will be very difficult at first, but as ideas come in, begin to put them in groups and clusters where they truly belong and this way, they will begin to make absolute sense.

I finally realised what she meant, I had too much on my hands, I was equally getting a lot of ideas no doubt, and the multitude of ideas I got made me overwhelmed. Some made no sense and got me confused and many times I was lost and wondered where to start. By separating them into visible headings and putting them into groups, I was able to establish order amidst chaos.

All the talent workshops I had attended early on, hence had failed me. When coaches talked about organization, they made reference to date, the hour of the day, and the timing for which a work was created, this was for easy retrieval but this didn't spur an evolution of brand new haphazard and strange ideas.

When idea needs to evolve, the synergy between them and the cohesion between them has to be tested. Arranging in chunks made ideas to make sense within an existing framework and helped real projects to evolve.

To pile up ideas without a consistent theme, created a mess devoid of no aesthetic sense and this was what a chronological date organization made of it. I later realised why order according to themes was so important. Alphabetical arrangement of ideas didn't create any logical build up. And when it is put in a gallery, the audience often derived little or no significant meaning from it. But when put in groups, it made more sense.

I was reluctantly to leave, but I eventually went away, got myself organized but the next semester I was back with more questions, when we met again, she told me I was lost on my gift because I never knew how I was inspired.

How do you get inspired? She asked. I was hesitant, don't tell me, they just spring out from the blues, there are things you do, or things that happens to you, that sets them alive.

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# INCUBATION SECRET 33

# To control your gift, you have to study what triggers it, and learn to harness its power the right way.

If you feel somehow aroused, (she smiled mischievously) you can always link it back to something you saw, something you thought, something you did, or someone you hanged around with, the same with ideas, if you're going to be seized by a torrent of ideas, something you did, saw, felt, or touched outrightly set it off.

Find out where your ideas come from, and why they come through like a flood and I can help you. I left disappointed, but I started thinking, and the next week, I told her the following;

When something exciting happens, that significantly alters my emotional state sufficiently in a certain way, it's natural for me to get an artistic expression out of it. I may think more vividly, see a bright painting I can't possibly draw given my level of skill, at that phase, I may come up with a new symbol, hear a melody or break forth into a new song as a way of expressing the joy I feel.

If I meditate on an exciting truth for long, a new story line may break out of it, if I get too emotional and something bad happens, that may birth a poem, sometimes the ideas comes in dreams, I dream out movies and wake up to remember nothing of such a scene has ever been written, and then I put them on paper, sometimes while I write a bulletin, or work on a term paper, on a different purpose entirely I see a play or a story emerging out of it.

You're sure that is it?

Well that about sums it up, I said.

Okay but when do you get the most ideas?

I get ideas more at a time when I'm alone and all by myself,

Sometimes I just need to be relaxed enough, or have a settled mind.

But you're not always alone, are you? Hence you're not ready to take the tide.

What if you give yourself more freedom to be alone?

See how this will affect the quality of your ideas and your work?

Okay I said. But I'm too busy.

That is one of your problem, but never mind, what we're looking for to control your gift, are the unique triggers.

Behind the storm is a trigger, your mood changes are creating an outflow, your vacuum moments are not enough, and they are spilling over into other moments, as a way of putting a logic to it, you think it's the environment, but your restless mind, your quest to make sense out of your world and events is creating a surge.

What inspires you?

I thought she meant the same question but after thinking for a while, I saw she was asking a different question.

With respect to music, God inspires me, his word inspires me, situations happening around also do.

No! she countered, it's easy for you to say the music you listened to, or the movie you watched inspired you, to say the dream came from God, and hence God inspired you, or to blame it on the sermon you had in church, or the devotional you read. What if there are no influences, is that the end of your gift?

What if nothing inspires you, what will you do? What if conditions are not in place? Does it mean that's the end of your ability to draw, to dance, sing or write. Why must you call it a gift or a talent, if you always have to wait till you're inspired before you do something worthwhile? Why must you be propelled by inspiration alone, where is the place of skill? Where is the place of work?

It took me a while, before I realised the point she was making.

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# INCUBATION SECRET 34

# The inspiration is within, don't be so destabilized, propelled or excited by an external influence, that you forget your manners, your composure and your civility.

The rage is coming from within, and if it's in you, you can tame it and master it. You can equally tell it, not now, or say the atmosphere isn't right and put a lid on it.

You don't know what I'm passing through. I blurted out. Can you control a volcano? Definitely you can't! I countered.

Mr Volcano, I'm sorry she said, you need to work on your gift to the point where you have little or no need for such sporadic inspiration, work to the point where your ideas can be recognized the moment they come to the surface, develop your powers of intuition and your ability to use your gift at will, that the work you do on your gift will out march and outclass, the raw ideas or the torrential flow of ideas you get.

I wouldn't listen to her, as I was just a stubborn teenager but that was the turning point.

At that time, I thought I was a master, but I realised I was actually a rookie, that was evidently too dependent on inspiration. I had learnt a lot of gimmicks but I evidently needed to acquire a level of skill such that a sporadic idea no matter how brilliant it is, is outrightly dismissive or just a competitor with other good ideas.

Then she said another thing, that changed the way I would ever work, she said when you get an idea, don't let it go, you may not have time, you may be in an exam hall, you may be leading the orchestra, listening to your Dad, so far as you're doing something really important, don't break the moment. Capture it in a word or two and note it, if an image flashes across your mind which you think you should draw, sum it up in another way, write briefly in a word or a two, what it is you saw in your mind, and express it another way, and let it go.

If a song seizes you, express it in a word or a sentence, and move on. Instead of drawing the main symbol, go for a tiny little sketch that you can reproduce into something massive when you have the time. This technique made me to create the fluid state. The principle of the fluid state depicts that a notion you have at the back of your mind can transform and evolve into something totally different and unexpected.

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# INCUBATION SECRET 35

# A typical idea can be represented in any way you deem fit, and can translate into just anything, provided you have the skills to make them work.

An idea in essence can transform, and can be expressed in multiple ways, it can be channelled into a dance, can be expressed in a song, portrayed in a movie, moulded into a sculptured, painting on a slate, it can transform into an instruction for a program, an executable course of action, given that the creator is able to give it the proper encoding language.

This technique had a strong impact on me, after then I was able to keep my inspiration at bay, especially when they came forcefully at odd times. I channelled them to less strenuous mode, and at the same time, I was able to control my time, manage it effectively and decide when I want to unleash my creative force and do an outstanding work.

I went away feeling lucky. But the journey didn't stop there, I meant her years later.

As we discussed, I told her I was now disinterested when inspiration comes. I'm a hunter, I said. I prefer to hunt them down when I need them.

That means you're active, not passive, she corrected. But I get your point, does inspiration still come?

Yes they do.

Why do you disregard your inspired moment?

I paused, the answer was evident.

Because you know your skills are bigger than the strength of the ideas coming to you?

...and I can hammer them to whatever shape I deem fit.

Perfect, but that shouldn't make you careless with your ideas?

Absolutely not, I just think I have something better than inspiration.

And what in the world is that?

A work structure that helps me to do monumental work, and a skill developed that makes inspiration a mere bonus.

Now you're levelling up, let's talk about your fluid state.

I wasn't sure if the twinkle in her eyes, was a frown or a jeer.

I've received ideas, I said, I worked on it, thinking it was a love story, but later realised it was a business plan, it didn't work at all as a play, it lacked humour, conflict and was dry but I saw it looked better as a business plan, in fact, I saw that, if the idea was to be fully formed, it was to become an organization of talents, a business I'm to build and register, where I employ people and make profit.

So you mean the fluid state is like a transition point or an idea factory?

Not exactly, it's a mindset, in essence the fantasy I intended to create, because of my new skills, disposition, training, certifications and environment, I thought of them now, in terms of a business plan, and they often looked like a blue print and a strategy. The implication now is that, from a simple sketch of symbols or characters, my mind was creating a thought leap to see them now as a company. And I don't know if that is a good thing or a bad thing.

In essence your concept of the fluid state coveys that ideas can be hammered into whatever state we choose to make them, provided we use the encoding language that helps them to translate into whatever structure we want.

Exactly I said. Look at it this way, many business have sought the umbrella of Facebook, which was an idea to pioneer their trade, and now, many novel and films have been written and filmed about Facebook but to a screen writer, the idea for Facebook could as well a novel.

Harry potter is a fictional character, an idea conceived by a writer, however countless people have sought to recreate the reality presented in this fictional world in a concrete and physical way. Clutter busting was also a business idea pioneered by a best-selling novel, now it's a unique business ideas deployed by young innovative entrepreneurs.

The fluid state hence recognises that the same idea which birthed a film, can birth a song, it can birth a new business, it can birth a revolution, it can birth an organization, it can create thousands of smiles, that same idea can lead to new families, can orchestrate the birth of a child, it can create a new system, revolutionize society and change the world.

But while external stimulus can propel new ideas, an idea evolution refers to the process when an idea expressed or encoded in a visible or written form, transforms into a totally different form, right in the hands of the creator.

The fluid state can also be used a mindframe to work and to evolve. In this case, when I stayed in the fluid state or kept an ideas in the fluid state, I meant I was ready to be flexible, I was ready to bend, move, blend, to change strategies, to change locations, travel, adapt to the changes happening around. You can see my definition of the fluid state transcends beyond the boundaries of having talent or giftedness.

She finished her coffee in a gulp and said it was good my ideas was evolving. She said she understood it all. But I wasn't so sure.

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# INCUBATION SECRET 36

# Learning the gambits is not the same as learning the trade.

In my journey to mastery, I've discovered that care must be deployed when projects are being selected, if care is not taken, the wrong project can obscure visibility.

I also discovered that anybody can get an idea, the problem in our super talented and energetic world is not about getting the train to move, the real problem is getting the train to stay on the lane and to stop when we need it to. I've also realised that knowing where the brake is and knowing how to press the brakes are two different things.

I've also realised that mastering my gifts means mastering other things as well, such as my commands of words, my ability to communicate effectively, my ability to coordinate a team, to lead, write, empathize, build a business, make profit, program, control my appetite, stay discipline, lead etc.

Inadvertently I found that my ideas were open to transform when I spoke about them, to those who were receptive of it.

In fact I found that the chances or evolution of an ideas are greater when it's typed out, in an open source document or on a word processor, not when it stood in my head. It is also more likely to transform, if it has been linked to an internet account. This way, years may run by, but after several years, the same idea may be stumbled on, and I may think something entirely different out of it.

In essence, for ideas to evolve the foundational truths around it has to be fade out, perspectives must change, sometimes random input will be added, and sometimes it takes letting go.

When ideas evolved, I saw in their wake, a lot of junk, hence I realised that holding to the original arrangement and exact representation of an idea in its primitive form continually stopped it from evolving.

Redefining the premise of an idea, also helps to keep ideas on track, into what can be admissible and acceptable by the world.

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# CHAPTER FIFTEEN

# LEARN HOW TO PROPERLY INTERCEPT YOUR IDEAS

In this principle of interception, we discuss the notable ways to intercept ideas and inquire about what promise they hold, in readiness for the transformation and birth of excellence. It is not enough to get ideas; you must take action. To intercept ideas, the first principle here is to BREAK THE FALL.

To rely solely on memory and your retention faculty, will largely result in no profit to you or to anyone.

Breaking the fall entails that you capture what occurred to you and the first way to do this is to document and file it away. The trouble of documenting or filing ideas away is pertinent to those who fail to attach value to their ideas, the pivotal way to fix the problem of loose old forgotten ideas is to treasure every idea and respect your creative moments.

Understand that ideas are just like eggs, they are hot, they have value, the fact that you have a lot, or have none at the moment doesn't mean they are of no value, respect your ideas and respect the universe.

Many people ascribe to the fact that ideas are a dime a dozen.

Yes, an idea may flash in, in a moment and appear so cheap, but it won't be cheap to implement. Those on the comfort zone who are plagued with too many ideas often subscribe to that fact, but Good ideas are not cheap, they are a product of well tendered minds. Great precisional ideas which are relevant to the work at hand often come through high sacrificial power positioning. The work needed to fine tune an idea and make them marketable or excellent is often tiring on its own.

High resolution ideas are only as infinite as the amount of time you have to work on. Without division of labour and calling up other expertise, ideas can become quite difficult to churn. While is ideal for anyone starting up a vocation to open for ideas, it is mandatory to keep an idea book, don't just get ideas, document everything, capture it along with the details, and encode it in alternative forms, if the moment is not right.

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# INCUBATION SECRET 37

# Your experiences day to day are unique, and your interpretation and expression of these events can help birth originality.

As a scientist, for instance, it is important for you to turn up your powers of observation and be ready at each moment to take note of your findings. If you are a news agent, you should always be there with your recorder.  These ideas you capture could be entirely new, or perhaps an existing idea but the expression will be exclusively yours and it will be entirely original. That attitude of being ready at all times helps you to key in to great events on the spur of the moment.

Interception principle two

CREATE CAVITY FOR THE DROPS

The second way to capture ideas, and successfully create something entirely new is to combine your idea with a sacred resource and that means you have to put your time on it, time just like an idea is an unseen reality but whose force is felt over the years, a flower blossoming in the evening, withers at the end of the day, a man acted on by the force of time, grows into an adult and later into old age.

Time however is relative to space, and without enough personal space, you won't have time for your ideas. You're likely to intercept more ideas when you practice alone or have a structure put in place that helps you to acquire new ideas.

Traditionally, innovative efforts are done more when you're all alone to experiment and discover of your own, without any string of judgment, quest for approval or active supervision by a boss. But new techniques have evolved that makes working alone no way better than working in groups.

However, a lone moment could matter to the foundation you're building and while working alone, you might really be able to test the waters and come through with solid original stuffs than when you're at close proximity to those you have to live up to, who are actively monitoring and looking at what you do.

As related to skill, when we are in groups we seek to impress by doing what we have mastered so well, when alone, we tend to explore more, learn more and discover more. As a burgeoning artist, you must be able to spend time all by yourself and have a thoroughly nice time. Do what you can to make the experience beautiful.

Joseph Henry writes "the seed of great discoveries are constantly floating around us, but they only take root in the mind well prepared to receive them."

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# APPRAISAL

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Ask yourself these critical questions.

Do I have enough personal space, do I have time to even think straight and figure out things for myself?

Do I have time to simply pause and do nothing?

Do I have time for my projects or am I overwhelmed from day to day?

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Creativity is a gift, writes John Lennon; it doesn't come through if the air is cluttered. If you don't have your own inner space, office or work desk, you are as well not ready to birth anything significant.

Interception principle three

IDENTIFY THE POLARITY OF YOUR IDEA

Do the preliminary work necessary for your idea to hold enough meaning to you, another day.

Outline what your idea is, for instance if it's a product, state it, give it a name and give it a preliminary sketch. Names are very important here.

Now this is where it gets interesting, what are the implications of your idea? What is the motif behind it all? Examine your thoughts in this regard, are they healing thoughts or destructive thoughts?

Is your idea going to bring destruction, suffering or bring restoration and faith to the hopeless?

You must be cognizant of everything, especially now that you've begun to mess with the powers of creation. Ripple effect will be felt by other people as a result of your choices and the ideas you choose to act on. Artistic powers can alter in a new paradigm, herald a new dawn and might even bring the world to an unprecedented end. The same forces of creation that improve our world are at the same rate destructive if left unattended to.

Once you understand the polarity of the idea you're bringing on, go further to seek if it really works.

Interception principle four

CREATE A 3-D IMAGE OR A PROTOTYPE

Make your idea visually compelling and tangible into what you can see or touch by making a prototype out of it.

A prototype in this case is a 3-D version of your idea, which can be seen, touched and felt.

Put the details into a sketch, don't worry if it's just a rough sketch, you will fine tune this later on. When you are through with the mock-up, you may consider next a working model of your idea.

You can also create a virtual model of your idea using a computer interface using flash, html or other development tools. Alternatively, you may need to make a demo version out of your sketches and rough plans. At this phase, you may need a technician, a welder, programmer or seamstress.

At the birth of a prototype, your idea will be visible and will inspire you to dream, to work and to reach forward and make it come true. When you have a prototype of an idea, it won't just go away anytime soon, it is there visible, and concrete helping you to get to work every minute of the day.

Interception principle five

CREATE AN ACTIVITY LOG

Another way of intercepting idea is to create an activity log for it, instead of just writing down the idea, for instance you may decide to research immediately on it.

Consult the mavens immediately the idea occurs to you, why are you doing this? You're trying to know the feasibility of the idea. Working on an idea may take days, weeks, months, perhaps years, and might consume quite a lot of resources, it is usually ideal to know all those time and effort is well worth it.

Having a research base, or a set of activity to verify an idea, provides a factual base as evidence to show yourself and to others that the effort is well worth is and that there is a market and a demand for your idea.

The basic idea here is to put that idea to test.

The 3 key factors in judging whether an idea is feasible are as follows;

1. A good idea must proffer a solution to a specific identified problem.

2. An idea must be relevant to your world; it must be relevant to the business at hand, to the people and needed by a specific market group.

3. It must be profitable; that is cost effective over existing options or alternatives or its competitors.

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# INCUBATION SECRET 38

# The ideal innovative idea is original and will either cut you a good portion or get you out of the rat race.

It may necessarily not be an old trick or something someone else has used or is already working with.

It is ideal not to get carried away by a beautiful idea, think about its commercial value from the onset. It is also important to eliminate ideas with a bias as to whether or not they can be produced in mass, whether they can get on and be in every home, can be popular, or have a unique brand, and appeal to a specific market.

If an idea doesn't promise to deliver value, no matter how great it sounds or how lofty it is, don't run with it.

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Interception principle six

PREPARE YOUR WINDMILL

Get a workshop, a personal work desk or to create a gallery or a space dedicated for the transformation of your ideas into fruition.

This could be a place in your garage, a simple work station or simply a desk, you don't need to rent a whole gallery yet, just start small,

Think about what work tools you will need, perhaps a table and chair, bring in the tools and make it a place where you can think, visit every day and see what you can do.

Fill your workshop with samples of what you're trying to create or things you want to evaluate in details and take apart, bring in what will inspire you to think.

Spend a couple of night in your workshop to dream of the impossible.

Observe a meditation time, in your workshop, this way you're activating the forces of attraction and converging the unseen forces of creation to produce the reality you need.

Understand the reason behind the workshop

Focus on why you have that place, the tendency to be misunderstood is great at this point, most people are likely to think you've opened another service station, but no it is not a repair shop, it's not a maintenance workshop, or sales gallery, it is a production gallery, it is a work base, it's an innovation space, an artistic window, a place for birthing excellence, it is meant for the birth of an idea and the creation of something entirely new.

DON'T BE A LONE GENIUS

Collaborate and allow others to be a part of the work

A creative person must be able to channel the power available in the collective consciousness of his mastermind to get his ideas to work. Yes, you have your blind spot and oversight, that's why having a mastermind, will help to polish your ideas till they are blazing hot. One person can produce so much of an idea but a think tank will produce such a flood of ideas.

As a creative person, you must be ready to discuss your ideas with a support group, and look for relevant insights on how you can be better. Collaboration is a big tool, without collaboration, we don't see the greater picture and we don't increase our reach, we don't tend to see, that we are capable of doing so much more than we are currently doing.

Implementing an idea in other words will require team work, efforts, sacrifice and time, and consume quite a lot of revenue.

AN IDEA SUPPORT SYSTEM IS IMPORTANT

The key to mastery is to create a master mind group or a team, an army, or a set of friends who becomes your work circle or at least becomes your staunchest advocates. Hence it is not just important for you to have a creative process, it important in this regard for you to create a work structure for your idea

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# CHAPTER SIXTEEN

# DON'T BE AFRAID TO DO SOMETHING FOR THE FIRST TIME

Marie Curie the first woman to win a Nobel Prize in Physics who also won a second Nobel Prize in Chemistry wouldn't settle for a life of little or no knowledge, at a time when there were no universities for girls in Poland, she wouldn't allow herself to be deterred by her lack of fund or scholarship but applied all the same to study at Sorbonne University in Paris. It was said that she could scarcely afford the fees, but every day, she would study in the library until 10pm, then go to her cold little room and read until 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning. After four years at the Sorbonne, Marie married Pierre Curie who was a well-known physicist, studying with her husband and working alongside Henry Becquerel, they discovered the first radioactive element and later won the Nobel Prize!

Consider the case of Robert Miliham, the winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1923 who gave his verdict that "there is no likelihood man can ever tap the power of the atom." However, the nuclear war head we have today has invalidated his statement.

Harry M. Warner, Warner Bros Pictures, 1927 is famous to have said "who the hell wants to hear actors talk?" he made the rolls of honour, but the success of the movie industry today has proven him wrong.

The President of Michigan Savings Bank while advising against investing in the Ford Motor Company was famous to have said "the horse is here today, but the automobile is only a novelty - a fad." The question to ask today, is who the hell rides horses beyond the spheres of sports and leisure.

Bottom Line

Don't allow third parties to interrupt fate and destiny, stick to who you are and where you are going.

The story of Laszlo Polgar, a Hungarian educational psychologist, who publicly advertised for the role of a wife in one of the dailies becomes pertinent at this point.

Call it the weirdest courtship, Polgar must have been turned down by other women but he was in fact a scholar who wanted to raise his kids in a different way. He had studied the biographies of hundreds of great intellectuals and identified a common theme, an early and intensive specialization in a particular subject, often created mavens.

Such research was still unpopular at those times, it was normal to attribute excellence to hereditary and genetics. But polgar thought different, he felt it was a function of culturing. Polgar hence believed he could turn any kid into a prodigy if given the chance and had already published a book on the subject.

Klara, an Ukraine foreign language teacher had enough faith to believe and they wrote affectionately long letters to each other, during the period of their courtship.

When they got married, their first daughter gave a hint of a card game, and at that moment, they decided the subject of study would be chess. This sounded as the perfect challenged as chess was predominantly dominated by men. Laszlo Polgar was a scientist who understood the same principle that eventually got on the buzz word of scientist 20 years down on the line, this simple word, was that greatness is not born, but greatness is made.

All 3 daughters became home schooled and underwent a very unique learning experience.

Polgar was fully convinced that the school system can be relied on to produce mediocre talents, and hence decided to cut it out. Schooling for the kids hence consisted of home drills, and to a large extent was full math drills, language and chess instructions.

The daughters learned other things as well. After years of intensive work, Polgar convinced the governing body to showcase his daughters in the men's champion leagues. This was unexpected, as men were seen to be superior and men games were often separated from women, but Polgar wanted to prove a point, after his motion was approved, their first child, at age 16 significantly crushed several adult opponent in her first public game and landed on the front page of the New York Times. The younger kids drew the crowd as well, playing blindfolded, they defeated male opponents to the astonishment of the crowd. The kids by that time could speak almost a dozen languages and were child prodigies quite alright. Polgar had cultured girls and showed the world a new truth.

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# INCUBATION SECRET 39

# No child is born great, greatness is cultured.

Hubert Booth can equally be labelled as a maverick, he was laughed to scorn, when he told his friends that the principle of the initial vacuum cleaner was wrong, to remove dirt, he maintained, was not to blow off the dirt but to create a device that will suck the dirt. Suck! His friends replied in shock! They laughed him to shreds and poked fun at him but he went beyond the ridicule to win a patent for his work.

Rules for mavericks

If you have an extreme gift, or have a maverick tendency, even though your gift was freely given and it looks free and available for use, using your gifts may cost you something extra than your time.

Michael Piechowski observed that the gifted are energetic, enthusiastic, intensely absorbed in their pursuits, endowed with vivid imagination, have unusual sensuality, moral sensitivity and emotional vulnerability. Such extreme over excitabilities (as noted by Lynne Axpeitia M.A and Mary Rocamora, M.A) may reduce the individual's ability to function in society. Sometimes the gifted are often labelled as having personality disturbance and even suffering from attention disorders.

Some of the attributes exhibited by the gifted are frequently perceived by psycho therapist as mental disturbance, as these qualities are deficit or absent in most of the population.

Working with gifted people (I)

While emotional turmoil is often thought as a bad or a depressing sign for the perfect child, it is usually a developmental rather than a degenerative sign for the gifted. Intense emotional conflict forges on a reasoning process and helps the gifted to mine their gifts to the depth and may further help them to find complex meaning to life, and these are impetus for growth and development.

A therapist who works for the gifted must be able to recognise these signs otherwise he stands a chance suppressing the complex inner processes of the gifted, which may lead to restricted performance. Kathleen Noble observed that, "if a person, such as a gifted woman, is going to seek help from a therapist, the first thing she has to do is educate herself about giftedness. This is critical. And then she has to educate her therapist about giftedness, because very, very few mental health practitioners know the first thing about it."

The role of a parent or a guardian is to help the gifted to fit in, not to make them look out of place by emphasizing their strangeness of actions, faults and weakness. They are to help them to manage expectations and pressures directed at them, and diffuse unconscious hostility and resentment.

Different phases of gifts

Giftedness is demonstrated outside of what we normally perceive it to be, sometimes it is shown cased through an extremely high level of sensitivity, a high level of perception, extreme levels of energy, excessive zeal, flair or passion, and sometimes deployed through a complex series of notorious and troublesome activities. For this reason, we often label the gifted as a misnomer, a misfit or as mentally disturbed, and this leads to misdirected guidance which in turn leads to lots of suppression. Sometimes it is displayed through a higher emotional intelligence or a more adept social cognitive skill to perceive the world differently or consider problems from different viewpoints.

Giftedness may also be displayed through longer attention span, an ability to project beyond self; selflessness, as exhibited in heroes, a risk taking ability and a open heart to sacrifice for human kind and put self and ego on the line, sometimes as heralded in great scientist who become seekers of the ultimate truth.

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# INCUBATION SECRET 40

# Having a support group can help your talent to blossom.

If you're a maverick and you want to realize your potential, get involved in a place where you're actively supported, nurtured and put to work. A functional group where your gift is utilized may cool things up a bit but will eventually help you to set it ablaze.

A right support group accepts you as you are, teaches you how to grow and models you, trains you and gives you opportunities for growth. A support group also helps you to counter balance your odd spots.

Accept yourself

Recognizing your gifts and how it affects you, helps you to be okay with yourself and it helps you to allow people to think what they want. There is a tendency for peers to label you as a freak, a nerd, as gay, a deviant and as a very strange one, but the first thing is to understand you are gifted, and that means you will do things they will find funny, odd and laughable.

Understand that it's okay to be different.

The tendency to always think, what's wrong with me comes with every gift, sometimes your gift will make you feel horribly different, isolated, and even alienated. Sometimes you may be deprived of true friends.

Understand that your giftedness will be put to test and will be ridiculed, don't succumb to the urge to prove yourself in a way that destroy the real you. Sometimes those who are insecure of their roles will only single you out, as a victim, in order to feel good about themselves.

Know your mission and don't be in a hurry to shine, remember the hesitant stars shine the brightest.

Seek to use your gift to build something good, concrete and worthwhile.

A gift uncontrolled leads to destruction. Having a strong gift has been described as having raw power, it can be used to manipulate others, it can be equally used to abuse and violate other people's right, a gift can equally bring about love and destruction, it can lead to healing and fortune.

Retain your uniqueness

Most times your gift is powered by a set of rare choices you make everyday, if you conform it brings you into a season of drought. The Prodigy Myth, as researchers call it is the tendency of the gifted to cease to work so hard, because they think they are smart enough and at least will get by just fine, whereas an average person with a so called lesser intelligence who works harder, will eventually attain more success and will ultimately do better in life.

Tolerate your errors as well as that of others.

Many things will be glaring to you up front, such will either feel you with rage or passion. Learn to hold your tempest. Managing your gift, involves patience. If you're too much in a hurry, you will ruin things pretty badly.

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# INCUBATION SECRET 41

# Walk with a crutch if you need one and let it go after some time.

A crutch provides assistance for the gift to fly. The crutch can be likened to what is given to a man learning how to walk after a major illness. The crutch is a tool of recovery, it provides the gifted a means to understand and take complete control of their gift. The crutch is not permanent, if the clutch has a mouth it will say, lean on me for a while, after a while, you won't need me again. A gift may come with a clutch, if you have one, learn to use your clutch. Those who throw off the clutch without training with it, will find themselves leaping and incapacitated for life.

This can be compared to the shell surrounding the embryo, the shell at first is not a bad thing, the chick needs the shell to be protected for a while, but when the gift breaks through, the shell is no longer useful, that is when we need to throw off the crutch.

When one of my cousins started to write, she couldn't write more than a paragraph of dialogue, and while working on a page, she was often worried about how it never seemed to work and, how inconsistent her ideas was, so I suggested she used a pencil. She would erase several times before the paragraph made any sense to her, this crutch however was worrisome to her parent. But the pencil and 40 leaves notebooks became her magic, it gave her the freedom to make mistakes, and she used it for months if not years. It also helped her to write gibberish and explore her soul, after a while I saw that when they took the pencil away, she felt powerless. The pencil had hence become a powerful tool in her hand, it was a mindset she carried with her; the ability to make mistakes unleashed her creativity and helped her to unlock her creative power.

But time has passed, now she no longer needs a pencil, this is because she has transitioned to a better place. But if she didn't use the crutch in her early days of learning how to make dialogue and sentences work, she wouldn't have written any of her giggle bursting stories. In fact, the 1000 page draft she recently submitted, which shocked everyone in her editorial team would have outrightly fried them!

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# INCUBATION SECRET 42

# Overcome your alienation effect.

If you're perceived to be weird, avoid continual conflict unless you're using it as a strategy. Take on complimentary projects and add complimentary skills to your work, understand that most people will resist an outright revolution, but will allow minimal changes over time.

Slow down

It not unusual to see the gifted, displaying such work over drive and relentless energy and enthusiasm. This may be reflected in extreme empathy, supreme strength of mind, extreme sensitivity and emotional fervour.  Some talents have the greater tendency to put themselves on the line and at grave risk, this comes with a price and might result in lapses in other areas such as detriments in their physical make up, inconsistent diet, lack of consistent sleep, exercise and even marked by visible lapses in their grooming and hygiene.

If you don't spot the difference, you're going to think them as misfit, as odd and rule them out as less intelligent and undesirable. Those who are quick to judge will make decisions based on these lapses and may under rate, ignore or even ostracise them. The loop holes which are visible are in essence supposed to be countered balanced by a support group. The right support group guides, supports and balances out the harsh realities surrounding the gifted, and model them such that their errors are corrected, rephrased, and they are put in check, before they commit blunders that may lead to severe sanctions which may drive them away from society.

Rethink your work rules

If you are to driven for the work, if might be ideal for you to change your working rules; celebrate first the people around you. Stop and have a hearty conversation with people you work or live with, who have your interest at heart.

Never put your health in line for hard work.

You don't impress anyone when you look unhealthy, sick or with water bags under your eyes. You don't impress anyone when you work so hard and put your personal grooming on the line. Don't overdose. Be at ease with the creative process.

Never rush an emotion; everything in life has a rhythm, it is the pauses and silences that speak the truth; Michael Jackson.

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# CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

# CHANNELLING YOUR MAVERICK TENDENCIES TO PROFITABLE USE

Do you get bright, original and unusual ideas?

Do you possess excellent long term memory? Are you often aware of things that others are not?

Can you sustain concentration for lengthy periods of time?

Do you question rules, customs and traditions?

Have you been described as a nerd, a bore, a know-it-all? Does it look like you're always the odd one in the group?

Do you appear sensitive of changes around you?

These things even though it present other problems, drives your quick perception and helps you to fathom the world.

Do you have an inappropriate bout of energy or find it difficult to control your excesses?

These are pointers in the direction of passion.

Are you a non-conformist, and have you been accused of being weird?

It is okay to look uneasy and out of sync with others, these same attributes are what sets you apart to be able to do what you're called to do.

It is okay if you feel overwhelmed with a barrage of question that remains unanswered, genius are curious above their world, this helps them to accumulate a great knowledge base.

Are you making too many mistakes in life?

You're in a perfect place, success is built on mistakes.

Are you overly curious, and highly exploratory?

It means you will get into trouble for daring to work beyond the shores of safety.

Do you always feel misunderstood?

It's alright because it means you are voicing out, and thinking differently.

Are you pursuing great things?

It means small minds will see you as odd, weird, and annoying.

Do you have a skill for language?

It won't be unusual to see people jeer at you.

Do you have high standards? Setting a high standard for yourself will cut people out of your life and may mean those who fail to measure up will feel very much insecure.

Do you have a problem with routine? It's perfectly okay, getting bored with the usual only helps you to sink deeper into the knowledge pool. It is important for guardians to note this subtle difference and support the giftedness.

Giftedness is not just about doing well in test aptitude, having photographic memories, doing well in sports, music lessons or school work. Giftedness extends into areas such as vibrant imagination, extensive vocabulary, oral ability, advanced comprehension, superior ability to reason and solve problems, heightened sensitivity and acute insight.

Sometimes giftedness has to do with an advanced perception as observed in being able to detect small changes in environmental impulses. The idea of giftedness, coveys that such attributes are either acquired through a rare set of circumstances or bestowed by the divine.

Some experts however argue that because most gifts are trained at first in unconscious ways, we are often too quick to attribute them as inherent, unique or bestowed, but the name giftedness betrays itself.

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# APPRAISAL (FOR MANAGERS)

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1. Do you have any one in your organization, work place or school who has a maverick disposition?

2. How can you diffuse the unconscious hostility directed at them?

3. How can you support them and assist them to horn in their gifts?

4. In what ways are you willing to breed a more inclusive study or work environment where mavericks can follow their heart and be ease with themselves?

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# PART FIVE

# DEALING WITH THE OPPOSITION

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# True miracles are created by men

# When they use the courage and intelligence that God gave them

# Jean Anouilh

# French dramatist (1910-1987)

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# CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

# ANYTIME YOU START DOING SOMETHING NEW, YOU ARE ASKING FOR TROUBLE

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Ever seen the apocalypse films where rains of molten ice, falls intently from the sky, tearing down farms, vegetation human shelter, and killing a great mass of people? Recount this to an eighteenth century rationalist and he will tell you, you're such a fantasist. More repulsive is the idea that rocks would ever come from the sky. Rocks! No way, the discussion is over. Talk about snow, hardened snow, that's how far it can get.

Just as we disregard UFO in our world, meteorites then belong to the order of fiction. Ernst Chladni a noble man had published a 63 page booklet in 1794 documenting different collections of meteorites and highlighting a new view, but he had to fit his new ideology between the wisdom passed down from Aristotle to Einstein and it just didn't fit. Scientists stemmed in the belief that all things from space existing beyond the moon are compulsively heavy and large wouldn't accept, hence it wasn't so surprising to see how long it took to convince the scientific community to accept that meteorites came from outside space. The circle of elites gaped at Ernst like doubting Thomas, he wouldn't dare proceed further. Like a tortured personnel on the edge of insanity, Ernst Chladni's work sank into the whirlpool of obscurity. But in the fading light of the 18th century came a physicist.

Jean Baptise had heard of a meteorite fall in I'Aigle and being skilled in a lot of scientific argots, detailed a dramatic report derived from a composite of eye witness, and with such objectivity he re-laid the precedent, he went further to examine the stones, and his hard work eventually paid off and this became the turning point.

Morale

One act of courage can make all the difference.

On the journey to dominance, you will become controversial. Anytime you put voice to your ideas and speak about how things should work, the opposition will likely sum you up by your rank, social status, complexion and look down at you. When problems arise, they'll see you as the soft target and put the blame on you.

To speak a word in defence will be taken as disrespect. The resistance will say you're developing attitude when you give grace to your strength. Many will yell and try to hush you into silence. However, it becomes a very healthy attitude, if you were formerly the doormat but decided to pick yourself up. It becomes a very healthy outlook if you have the disposition to rise beyond the victim mode and become a champion.

To someone like Pharaoh, a Moses advocating for freedom will look out of place. Those who are interested in keeping your talent under servitude will forcefully resent the dominant part of you. The moment they see you growing a mane, coming out bold, developing your heroic powers and coming up with a realistic plan of action, they will stir up hate and resentment.

But those who say you're developing a negative attitude at the point of dominance, are often the ones who are okay with you being the petite little soul without power or relevance. To activate the legendary you have to understand that it's okay to make a rumpus and create disarray. As someone borne to show case the wonders of God, you have to stop hiding away your true self and stop keeping your opinion to yourself.

Put yourself in view

If you have an idea, don't sink it in your soul, or tear it up because it was ridiculed, the best way to get rid of your idea, is to sow it in the heart of the multitude.

The creator of one of the most notable super hero series, Spider Man was told by his publisher that he should get his head fixed for creating such an idiotic character.

Stan Lee, then an interim editor at Marvel Comics had created Spider Man to be a teenager, had given him personal problems, and Goodman, his publisher was so baffled by this thinking, he outrightly told him; Boy! People hate spiders, a super hero definitely is an entity larger than life and shouldn't be a teenager, not to talk about one, with personal problems, and least of all, shouldn't come from space!

But the idea for Spider Man was so embedded in Stanlee's system that he couldn't stop thinking about it. To get Spiderman out of his system, Stan decided to take a big step and put the idea to print and forget about it. It was one of the best ways to get rid of a promising idea, at the end of the month, when the sales figure came in, Goodman suddenly ran into his office and said, "son, remember that character, you created, which we both love, let's do it as a series!

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# INCUBATION SECRET 43

# An impressive result speaks for itself.

To put a spark on your talent, you have to get a vision and run with it. Remember that the people who are going to change the world can't afford to sit still, they can't afford to follow the paths everyone is treading, they have to act different and follow different course of actions. To be enclosed by the dark doctrines of fear and timidity will only limit your performance. To grow into your full self, you must break free from all the negative mind-sets that has been built all around you and embark on a journey to freedom.

Are you underpaid and overworked?

Be interested in looking elsewhere if your terms are not met.

The people who are going to be promoted in a work place are the ones who are getting good treatments, favourable responses, and fair considerations. If you're continually humiliated in a place, it is a negative sign. Besides, you can't keep listening to a whole load of guff and think you will fly.

What you listen to determines whether you end up doing what you had been dreaming of or not. If you're set among people without passion, without ambition, or people who can't relate with your drive, or who have no faith in you, address it head on or get out of their midst. Don't let their projection affect your outlook.

History testifies to this fact, you're not alone in the scorn, ridicule, derision and opposition. Great men who went ahead of you were opposed.

Consider the case of Galileo, a foremost scientist of the 17th century, who died an outcast and a rebel in January 9, 1642 mainly because he was able to see more planets through his telescope and bring such damaging proofs to the Ptolemaic views of his time. Galileo was slandered, denounced by his fellow scientists, and put on trial on the count of heresy.

His related comment on the statement where Joshua bade the sun to stand still, tied him up on the count of heresy. By maintaining that the earth was not at the centre of the universe, an opinion that was way beyond his days, Tommaso Caccini a preacher from Florence openly denounced him, in a sermon whose title was a text from the book of acts; Galileans, why stand you gazing up into heaven? The motion was to stop him but was he deterred? Galileo kept looking through his telescope for another 40 years.

Success attracts both love and hate

Barthelemy Thimonnier, the inventor of the first functional sowing machine was attacked, and his offence according to his colleagues was; he was acutely dumb and shortsighted to have come up with a device that will make sowing accessible to every dick and harry. For this, his gallery was set ablaze. Such righteous indignation which in retrospect is actually a sign of ignorance and poor thinking.

Barthelemy's invention had been full of such promise that his colleagues thought they will be out of jobs, starve and become poor beggars. Such acute shortsightedness is peculiar to those who lack vision and are insecure in their roles. You will likely come across a number of them as you reach for your dreams, don't be fazed by the hostility they bring on.

Inventors of the cotton gin faced a similar problem. First of all their device was scoffed at, but not only did the farmers who needed it, discredit the machine, they out rightly resented the exorbitant tax put forward by Eli Whitney and his business partner, Phineas Miller. The cotton farmers felt the invention was nothing they couldn't put together on their own, and so they negated the patent acquired and ended up shuffling tools together creating an even more wackier and off beat imitation, which led to fierce and costly law suits.

Keep trying

Resistance is always bound to arise on the onset of a break through. Like David standing before the Giant, it's expected to see misguided and misinformed experts, coming on board to pronounce their verdict.

The leading holders of previous patents, awards and nominations, (which may include both friends, foes and families) are often ready to laugh at what is entirely different, just like the philistines laughed when they saw the little boy with a little sling and stone.

Remember how they must have told Columbus, where in the world, he was headed? Down-down the bottomless pit, they must have sneered, and how they must have warned him not to fall off the cliff. Remember how they must have told Abraham not to walk too far from home.

Remember they must have laughed at Noah, when they saw him sweating in the sun, hammering furious nails into the planks, using pitch to seal the holes, gathering the animals in pairs. What a fool they must have thought, such a mad fellow! Perhaps they referred him to the mind bender.

When people laugh at you, remember the case of the little kids who laughed at Elisha, wondering how a filthy worn out rag from his master would ever help.

Remember that they will first laugh at you, mock you, doubt your ideas, resent you, and later will tell the world, the know you; they helped you; and they encouraged you along the way.

People who laugh at you, often don't understand what's in you and what you're bringing on. It is imperative that you show the world a little toughness.

If you are going through hell, keep going; Winston Churchill.

Remember all change agents, are thought to be MAD, when in fact, they are merely Making A Difference.

"Accept the challenges so that you may feel the exhilaration of victory;" George Patton.

When it looks doomed, and the paths looks cursed, be aware that your misery will be tripled if you allow the opinion of others to stop you.

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# CHAPTER NINETEEN

# DON'T LET GO OF YOUR VISION

When Subrahmanyah Chandrasekhar proposed the black hole theory in 1930, he was just 19. The reputable British Physicist, Sir Arthur Eddington turned his theory into a laughing sport at a public and well-publicized lecture. Consequently, Chandra's morale was crushed and he contemplated a change of institution but carried on with his work nevertheless.

Chandra would pile up accolades as the years went by, receiving the FRS in 1944, the Adams Prize in 1948, Royal Medal in 1962, Padma Vibhushan in 1968 and several years later, the first positive identification of a black hole was visible, Chandra had been right all along, black holes did exist and our most respected Eddington was wrong.

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# INCUBATION SECRET 44

# Total acceptance has nothing to do with greatness. If you get the approval of everyone, you're either an hypnotist or a chameleon!

Imagine Alfred Wegener in his office, dressed in a black suit and a grey tie, staring at the sea with a big furrow on his head. The reason why he is disgruntled can be traced to his findings and his lack of acceptance by the scientific community. His theory that the whole continents were once together even though explains everything about the origin of the planet was too encompassing and too interdisciplinary.

It offered a new explanation for how scientist could interpret the formation of the earth, but many of his colleagues in various other disciplines were visibly upset by his postulates. In fact what many had believed for years would have to be re-explained and relearnt in a better way, if his postulate has to be taken as valid. This process was all too painful for the experts to embrace. When Alfred Wegener published his thesis in 1912 and began to champion his theory of continental drift, he was attacked by an angry mob of scientist who criticised him harshly for his work.

The geologist of that era particularly wondered how an astronomer and ocean explorer who had little to do with the land crust could tell them how to interpret their texts. It wasn't amusing. By the time they were done responding to his postulate, Alfred Wegener had little authority left. He died before the discovery of magnetic zones spreading and the mid ocean spreading centres which swayed opinion in his favour.

The scientific world functions sometimes like a closed user group, within the group, the limits are firmly established, what is possible is already set, you either bring evidence along those lines, or you will be going against the findings of more reputable scientist, which will inevitably put you in a negative light.

Many bright minds have packed up their tents, because they regarded the way, the learned crowd jeered at them.

Remember rage and attack comes with promise. When you're faced with stiff opposition, remember that those threatened by what you carry, are often the greatest antagonists.

In your road to success you're going to come across those who will help you and those who will not, either case it should not change your resolution to succeed.

Outsiders often assume that once a genius doesn't succeed the first time or once they don't get it right it means they don't have talent. It used to be true in the olden days when there are were fewer competitions and fewer specifications, in today's world, you have to give yourself as many try as possible. Thomas Edison, lived up to this rule, when he did what is now referred to as deliberate experimentation

If Thomas Edison tried 9 experiment each day, and each one failed, it would have taken him approximately 3 years to get to the ten thousand trial. You can call it, "3 years of knocking himself out, groping for the light."

You can equally call it 3 years of hopping along, being so close to the solution and finding that it evasive, you may call it 3 years of failure, but successful people have another way to look at these events.

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# INCUBATION SECRET 45

# The bigger the fire, the better the light.

This little light of mine we often sing but we forget that light, the kind that warms our bodies in the cold and cook our meals, doesn't always happen in a neat way, they come from wild glowing fires, they are blazing hot, and the logs bursts with an energizing, terrifying crack.

For those who want to keep you humble and broke, poor and dependent, they are okay as long as you're a dim little light with potential, but when the dunamis breaks through, they'll tell you to still it or be gone. But to be a true herald of the light you have to cultivate more fire, you have to become bold at the spur of the moment and resolve never to live again under a climate of gloom.

Don't let ridicule stop you from getting where you want to get to

Being a change agent implies sometimes, that you have to roll in ways that are difficult for the average man to fathom. Allow people say what they want, what is said shouldn't affect the zeal you bring to the table.

Become a giant beam of awesome brightness

If you have anyone trying to ruin your reputation on purpose, don't take them up on the offer, don't fight them back with the same dirty tricks they use, it reduces you both into the level of pigs snorting at each other. If someone should draw your attention to it, just say the few words, I'm disappointed to hear that and pay no further attention.

If someone is moaning into your ear about all the negativity, the hardship and the pain they've suffered, don't get sucked in and offer sympathy or advice, ask them, how do you intend to fix that? They won't have an answer, use that to close the conversation and dissociate from them especially if they are people you're meeting for the first time. Stop nourishing your mind with negativity.

Enemies are a fact of life

If you don't have enemies, then you have not started anything good, if you've started succeeding and can't identify your enemies, then perhaps they are all masking to be your friends. Enemies are meant to keep you alert, sharp and motivated to work harder

Tough times will always keep you on your toes

The repression spells is often so strong, it's contending with your super powers but you have to fight the good fight of faith. (See Shine Like A Diamond).

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# CHAPTER TWENTY

# STICK AROUND FOR ANOTHER DAY

The concepts through which we understand the earth has been refined through the century, from the creationist, to the catastrophism, to the uniformitarian theories, even to the improved astronomical models such as the Big Bang. But even the 4.6 billion year history of the earth is still in doubt. Everything we know, all the knowledge we're acquired and learnt for centuries stands to be refuted if new evidence emerges to the contrary. All what we know can only be believed if they are consistent with new findings.

Scientist have tried to understand how the world works for more than a thousand years and are still subject to errors. The greatest right in the world is not right to be right but right to be wrong! Mistakes are there to be corrected! By the way, it is not the end of the world.

We must allow room for blunders and failures to happen and put them in our plan. We don't just come from nowhere and say I'm self-made; I'm on top of the crest. We must understand that we are a child of the generation, a product of the transition; we are the people who have fallen and risen.

For all the world cares for, the world might just have begun

We often think we're ahead on the frontier but we're just like shadows about to be chased off at the dawn of the light. Wealth, technology and comfort lures us to think we're infallible and well out of the cave but we are all prone to fault and there's always a big room for improvement, in actual fact, the more we study, the more we see our errors and appreciate the darkness. Perfection lures and sucks at the end of the day. It is a myth.

Courage is enough for the creative soul, courage allows you to make mistakes and fail in a world of disorder, imperfection and doom. Don't allow anyone to make you lose your confidence because of an oversight, an error, an imperfection or a totally woeful event. It's called failing forward.

"The real world doesn't reward perfectionists. It rewards people who get things done. And the only way to get things done is to be imperfect 99% of the time;" Ziad Abdelnour.

If you don't quit, the trade will eventually yield its secret to you.

The attitude of let me try, I'll give my best into it but if I flop, I don't mind, I'm gonna try again and be back for the 99th try makes the impossible possible.

If the resistance to your chosen course of action gets unbearable, you have to understand that "great spirits have always had to fight against fierce opposition from mediocre minds;" Albert Einstein. "You need to overcome the tug of people against you as you reach for high goals;" George S. Patton.

Italian Engineer, Guglierlmo Marconi was a man who became interested in connecting different part of the world by wireless communication, this was an idea initially scoffed at by physicist of his days. Having no formal higher education, Marconi chose to be educated by private tutors, and built the world's first international short wave broadcast station in 1897 on the island of Wight, England.

His invention is credited to have saved the survivors of the titanic, but his accolades goes on. When people call for help during emergency and are saved from life threatening situations, they are able to do so, because of the advances made in ICT.

Be compulsive with your flare

Many people will gladly put their lofty ambitions on hold, if it will quell the annoyances they receive from the masses. But that is, in fact one of the most pathetic thing to do. Settling the scores, is not about giving up, settling the scores is about doing what you have to do, and making success the real clap back.

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# INCUBATION SECRET 46

# To do the heroic, you have to stick to the path. You must be fearless and walk on in the shadows, when other people cower in fear.

Understand that it is honorary to hold on to hope. It is worthy of salutation to quest for a higher ordeal. It is of high reverence to reach to the stars and believe in a dream. It is a mark of integrity to be a man of standards.

Hell will be summoned up by those who think you've lost it. The moment you start holding it down in the rainy gruesome night, some of your very treasured friends from Indolent Creek, will hastily come out of Grief Avenue, and will tell you there is no Golden Pot at the end of the rainbow. The Felons at Vague Mind Street will emerge from the Dark Cynic alley, and ask you why you've chosen such a hard path.

Even friends from Down Life Institute will recount how they did the same thing years back, it just can't be done, they will grunt and give you such a grave look and inquire from their gods about your kind of entity. By and large, members from the International Association of Deranged Corps in conjunction with Thick Skull Limited will proudly offer you; free psychiatric testing at various medical wards. The scrums at Lay about street will ask why you're so bent on chasing ghost all around the town, they will remind you that, what lies beyond the sky is nothing but empty space and if you sail beyond, all you find is nothingness.

Great people from Number 77 Dingy Apartment will be tempted to send you the most-dirty slap. Why hold on? They will lament. Why are you so bent on grabbing straws? They'll present you with their alternatives, sit back they will advise, you have too much trouble embedded in you. They will offer you their Mind Blocks. Of course it's free, just make your preference, right here is another sack loaded with half a million golden Handcuffs, can we talk you into another brain block? Of course we love you, that's why we gave you those shiny piece of advice.

Even the goners at Moron.com will show you proof upon proof, that there's no need trying. Why launch your rocket, they will ask, have you even done half of the research? They will take you down into Sorrow Avenue and, offer you a multimillion dollar trip to the pub, as Chief Guest of Honour, you don't get to pay, drink all you want, they'll quip, as long as you reconsider your stand.

Witches will arise from the South wing depth of the sea and tell you that to master your gifts, all you have to do is win a huge fight at the market square. Phantoms will advise; you don't have to fly, just smoke the biggest stick of hemp and you will definitely touch the clouds. The harlots from bottomup.com will show you how they got in demand, to be the hottest girl in college, means you have to locate the closest set of mullahs and give them a view of your bare crotch!

What use is your talent? Who gives a hoot about a champion? What is he got to offer? All you really have to be is a real smart arse, develop a sharp mouth, give a curse for a curse, be the bad arse, forget being an herald, what is your spark got to do on a candle like this?

They will play the song and of course, the beat is intoxicating, it's normal to want to dance to such rhythms and blues. But when all your systematic folks at Sharp Felons Limited are through, understand that it's all noise, whatever they say is null.

Yes, there is a dark side calling unto you in the darkness but there is a supernova already alive in you and nothing can stop its force. There is fire breaking out from the inside, setting you free from the chains, it's bursting alive, and it's pushing you to soar. Don't sink back, turn it on and set it ablaze.

Holding on to hope is an option you are privy to which no one should contend or deny.

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# INCUBATION SECRET 47

# If you're working uphill and your effort is shunned, don't be dissuaded, look at the sun, it puts on a wonderful display at sunrise, but quite a lot of people in the audience keep on sleeping till midday.

Acceptance is not your ultimate goal, finding the path and laying the blueprint is the task divinity has committed to your hands.

Jonathan Swift commented that, "when a true genius appears in this world, you may know him by this sign; that the dunces are all in confederacy against him."

Albert Einstein observed, "what is right is not always popular and what is popular is not always right."

Mastery begins with a willingness to try and defy the odds. The opposition you face are pointers that greatness is around the corner.

The voice of a mortal shouldn't stop you.

When it looks doomed, be aware that the journey is not always about the immediate result but the end result.

It's about the thrill of the adventure, not about the cheap talk.

It's about the action and not the assertion.

And it's about knowing deep down within you, that you stayed through and you are a duchess worthy of salutation.

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# CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

# LEARN TO OVER-RIDE THE OPPOSITION

"Any new idea by definition will not be accepted at first. It takes repeated attempts, endless demonstrations, monotonous rehearsals before innovation can be accepted and internalized by an organization. This requires courageous patience;" Warren Bennis.

Most of those who saw beyond their days were put to ridicule and shame, but they were the pioneers of the future, we remember them today because of their tremendous work, and the truth for which they were persecuted.

Consider the case of Ignaz Semmelweis who in 1850 gave a far too noble correctional measure to medical community. The medical experts wouldn't accept his view. His book "Etiology; Concept and Prophylaxis of Childbed Fever" was attacked. A simple and noble idea of disinfection of hands in obstetrical clinics could aptly save lives; laughter filled the medical wards.

Only few took him serious, maternity death rate remained high, and many women died as a result of raging fever. Sommelweis disgruntled ended in a mental hospital and died 14 days after. His ideas however created ripples after he died.

One of the biggest problem faced in the scientific world is seen in the inability of experts to successfully wrap their minds around a truly big and unconventional idea, we are all born sceptics, so willing to discard noble findings, and by doing this, we continually put other people's lives in peril.

Consider Fritz Zwicky, whose postulate about the nature of supernovae, neutron stars, cosmic rays, as well as the existence of dark matter was ignored for 40 calendar years. The scientific world wasn't just ready. Fritz Zwicky would pursue different interest and during the course of his life, would acquire a total number of 50 Patents. Today astrophysicist currently embrace his ideas and account that as much of 90 percent of the total matter in the universe is unaccounted for and has an invisible unknown source, and therefore considered dark.

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# INCUBATION SECRET 48

# Be willing to see beyond your day.

True masters are willing to go beyond what is handed over to them, they look for new sources, new perspective and are hence able to push for a new frontier. This often leads to intense attack but this noble act is what paves way for the next summit.

The opposition often has a systematic way of lurching at those who go beyond the boundaries, and one of such method is to deny them of the validation, praise or encouragement they deserve. The opposition may first of all seek to ignore them. The less attention they are paid, the more they assume, they will be put out of service.

To overcome such a subtle and sublime opposition, you have to believe you carry something of value. Get yourself out of defeating self-talk and move into circles where people can say something good about what you have.

The next strategy the opposition often use is to discredit the trail blazer. The idea behind ridicule is to make them appear like a total write off, to discredit their work, character, the potency of their ideas, service, product or hard work.

But the opposition makes a mistake in this regard, by highlighting all the areas of weakness, the opposition in this regard often has more to teach the visionary more than they possibly wants to admits. The big idea here is to ignore the petty talker who has no suggestions but to embrace those who have something constructive to say.

The proof of greatness is reflected in the capacity to handle criticism without a drop in self-esteem.

If you get too much criticism directed your way, use it as a learning tool. The moment you move into a defensive mode, you block the positive outcome of a sincere review.  Ask yourself some soul searching question such as, is there a way to make things better?

Adjust your orientation based on feedbacks and see if there is any improvement. Do as many trials as you can, then compare your current result to the previous ones.

The first phase of opposition breaks off when your work is endorsed by others and you're seen as a treasure by those who genuinely appreciate your roles and esteem your work.

If you're working with a team who is opposed from day to day inspire them on purpose, show up, give incentive, give a raise, create positive attention by inviting other people to cheer them up.

If you're actively involved in a work and you find yourself moved away from your place of potential to a place of inactivity, you may be dealing with a very subtle and covert opposition. To overcome such opposition, you have to become adaptable, flexible and be humble enough to learn, understand what has changed, let go of previous strategies that will no longer work and embrace what is new.

Cultivate some healthy attitude

A healthy attitude means you're not thinking low of anyone. It conveys that you're prepared to keep your sense of dignity and respect rather than turn to a door mat. A healthy attitude makes you to follow your guts, and helps you to do what works for you, rather than to live to please.

A healthy attitude also means you're the sunshine and not the cloud. A healthy attitude further means letting matters be, as against being quarrelsome. An healthy attitude also entails being quick to forgive and to overlook offence but this is where having a great attitude gets tricky.

Being of humble disposition sometimes attracts aggression, people take the meek for a ride, and would seek to exploit or keep them under servitude.

The abuser as expected cannot stand the new found confidence or courage, displayed by the meek. Just as a Moses advocating for freedom will attract vicious attack from the house of pharaoh, if you're being treated as a doormat, dismiss all talk about attitude from those who want to see you in their servitude forever.

Often times what you've been called to do will be unimaginable. To break the records, set new limits, find a new cure for a disease, and pioneer the next scientific breakthrough, will set you directly into opposition. Many will try to scare you out of it, they will out rightly tell you it cannot work, many will tell you that if you decide to fly that kite, it is a suicide mission, to go under the sea in a metal tank, is to wish death upon your soul. But to do the legendary, you must become unflinching and confident in in what God is ready to accomplish through you.

Divinity is not interested in a scared Moses and never in a scared servant, the scare is not for you. Yahweh wants you to be courageous. He wants you to be confident in yourself, he knows you will need it, along the way. Don't be afraid is said to be written in the Bible 365 times, meaning that for every day of the year, you're covered, never for you to live one day of your life in fear.

Steps to greatness

Grab the bull by the horn.

The time to prowl back and retreat is over. The opposition has to see that you have a greater amount of power in you. The number one strategy to deploy when you're opposed is to confront the task directly not indirectly. Stop looking for easy paths, face it head on and face it squarely. If your vision for instance is to apply for an highly contested office, focus on how to build the skills necessary to function at that level, then focus on the real task directly connected to the goal, embrace it head on, take the form and stop taking roundabouts. Build dykes of courage to withstand the blast of the storm.

Act like the lioness

Don't argue with a pig, or argue your way out of sarcasm, channel your energy instead, into the work. Be focussed on building the wall, Seek counsel with those who matters not from the enemy.

You can be 70 percent certain that you will be misguided when you ask for an advice from someone who is threatened or envious of what you have. Hence, ability to recognise a disguised opponent amidst the crowd of cheerleaders will help your vision to live and survive.

The next phase of opposition the enemy often uses is physical threats, a mark of opposition often becomes evident in the presence of physical scare being brought on from both identified and unidentified groups. Their mission is to drive you to stop, or to drive you away from that place of honour or potential where your work can be achieved. The threats are real, and it is a sign that you're doing something significant and worthy.

When the opposition resort to threats, take active steps to protect your interest, Nehemiah did it best when he set up protection for the Jews, who worked while they rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem.

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# INCUBATION SECRET 49

# Not getting what you want helps you to bring in a better shine to your character.

The most important thing is to keep going, and to have the patience to stick it through. Here are a few things, oppositions will reveal about you. Opposition shows whether or not you have developed integrity. Opposition tests how determined you are about your goal. Opposition also test your focus, it teaches you patience. Opposition helps you to be ingenious, it shows and reveals to others, if you can be easily diverted, or whether you have control over your will.

Be resolved enough to fight it out

J.K Rowling the author of one of the most successful novels in modern times was told to get another job as she couldn't make any money selling children books. Rowling later said that, I wasn't going to give up until every single publisher turned me down, but I often feared that would happen. Her books today has brought her a fortune of over 25 billion dollars and she is regarded as one of the top grossing authors on earth.

Create convictions

When 21 year old, Philo Farnsworth made his demonstration of the electronic television the air was full of promise, but other inventors had such scepticism about its prospects, notably of whom was Lee De Forest, who considered it as unviable and a complete impossibility, not worth the effort of watching or dreaming on. But Philo Farnsworth stuck to his idea, and apart from becoming one of the leading experts, acquired over a fifty patents.

On the deserted island of hope often comes a fighter who is deflated by the elements and the lack of faith put to him, the only way to be successful is to redirect the energy.

Many times than we care to admit, we short-circuit our own success by taking our level of acceptance to equate our level of greatness.

One of the hall mark of successful talent is seen in their ability to pursue their objectives irrespective of popular opinions. Successful talents have such inward convictions and are able to live their life based on what they believe and what they see in their mind's eyes. The greatest achievers are always two steps ahead, and this distance doubles with time.

Many talents are stuck because they are unwilling to find new families and friends who will see the greatness of their dreams, and embrace them with all their heart. Instead the ones they keep around them, are the ones who resent their greatness, and who are sworn to undermine them subtlely without little trace or detection.

If you have talent and you don't have people with a big heart who are able to see the potential of your gift and embrace it with all their heart, they will keep you small minded, this small mindedness will make you to play small and will undercut your potential.

Opposition is good, but a subtle opposition is the deadliest kind, an open attack create vigilance, and makes the gifted to double their hustle, a subtle opposition erodes the victory in a clean and neat way. I'm sorry to break it open, but the opposition that truly matters which limits most of the gifted and talented people in our society are not direct but covert, most talent are fighting a cold war. If you have anyone telling you to plays small and be secured, where as your dreams entails that you take bold moves and you stick to those archaic mindset, then you're your own worst enemy.

Different choices and opportunities presents themselves at the dawn of opposition You can either ignore the opposition or profit from the opposition. You can allow opposition to fire you up to become better, or you can surrender to the opposition and allow them to make you angry, dejected and frustrated. You can also choose to ignore the opposition or do something about them. Understanding the current level of opposition, you're facing helps you to determine the right course of action. It's time to see the opposition for what it is, and take the current and ride it.

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# CONCLUSION

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# THE SKY IS NO LONGER THE LIMIT

On a cold December morning, in the year 1903, a mixed crowd was gathered at Kitty Hawk to witness an event that will forever alter the course of human travel. The Wright brothers had spent an agonizing seven years doing such intensive work, to make this important demonstration.

The crowd stood speechless as the craft rose in the air, it started climbing high and higher.  There was instant ovation, but towards the end of the minute, it became difficult for the craft to maintain balance, in a feat of struggle, it crash-landed on the beach, damaged beyond repairs.

Orville in turn said a moment of prayer and got into another craft, the same awe was in the air, however just the same way, the first craft had taken off, it didn't last up to a minute before it came down to the floor.

Kindly equate 7 years of hard work to one minute of stability. Just consider the disappointment on the face of the pessimist. A flight experiment which had costed excruciating years of preparation and sacrifice lasted for such a short duration.

Imagine the sullen look in the face of the cynics, who examines the craft, sees it's damaged almost beyond repairs, and thinks of how fatal it would be, to have kids and women on board.

Such shame, such wasted years of research and such wasted efforts! Imagine if the world turned back. Imagine what would have happened if the story ended like that!

But this wasn't the case, the reason is because optimism is enchanting and hope itself is magical, the audience were not looking at the fall, instead they saw the take-off. They looked beyond the short comings and the damaged piece of engine to how the engine glided in the air, the 51 second flights a disastrous event in today's term, created a new wave of confidence.

One thing the story of the wright brothers has shown us is that a new spark of confidence can bring to life a new wave of wonder. From thence, men have proceeded to invent machines that defied gravity. Today the sky is no longer the limit, the horizon is limitless.

Morale

"Be bold enough to live life on your terms, and never, ever apologize for it. Go against the norm, refuse to conform, take the road less travelled instead of the well beaten path;" Mandy Hale.

"Never let your fear of the unknown and things being too difficult make your choices for you in life;" Shannon Alder

Believe in your dream

Look beyond your lapses, let go of the guilt of the past, and embrace the call of greatness.

The future lies ahead with infinite possibilities, waiting for you to step into it.

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# INCUBATION SECRET 50

# It at the point of tears, sprains and bruises that true masters are made.

If people make fun of your dreamy eyes, it's okay so long as you don't quit. Understand that the conditions that preserved the chick in incubation and helped the chick to hatch are not the same ones that will help the chick to survive in the real world. When your dream is newly born, you have to let go of the securities you've surrounded yourself with and step out in faith into a world of winds, rainfall, sunshine and heat, and walk on the coarse hot sands of the shore into a world of freedom.

Don't be afraid of opinions

Live your life without fear

Break out of the shell

And soar

Many of the life changing inventions the experts said were impossible has been done, in fact "it is always seems impossible until it's done;" Nelson Mandela.

THE BAN IS LIFTED

If you choose to stay true, and work relentlessly, nothing is impossible.

The legendary path is that of selflessness, it is a path of sacrifice; it is a repeated act of service that transforms ordinary people into the realm of greatness.

Here is an affirmation to commit to the legendary

I............... solemnly declare from this day forward to develop my abilities to the point of prominence, and to use my abilities for the good of society and the greater good of humanity. I choose to uphold the dignity of human kind, to take up the plight of the weak, to be a life saver and to look at others with compassion. I choose not to complain about the hardship but to ignite hope amidst the darkness. I also choose to transform my weakness, pain and struggles into victory and to defend the course of human kind. So help me God.

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WELCOME TO THE GREAT LIFE

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# SUMMARY OF INCUBATION SECRETS

INCUBATION SECRET 1

Going through the course of time to realize your dream will see you through many stages, there may be many lonely nights when you will wonder if the day will ever break.

INCUBATION SECRET 2

Fulfilment is seldom a function of how early or how late you accomplished your goal. It is about how sweet the victory is, how remarkable it is to you, and how much impact it makes.

INCUBATION SECRET 3

Evaluation is critical, without this, most projects will fall short of excellence.

INCUBATION SECRET 4

Intelligence must be cultured in the right environment, or it won't result in anything phenomenal.

INCUBATION SECRET 5

If you cut corners, you may find that the journey takes longer.

INCUBATION SECRET 6

Never work for money, work consistently towards greatness.

INCUBATION SECRET 7

Greatness is not a function of genetics but a function of alignment.

INCUBATION SECRET 8

In the absence of a mentor, most talent will miss their way.

INCUBATION SECRET 9

It's not enough to read or study, take something that fascinates you beyond mere interest and make it an occupation. Make it an obsession, live it, practice it and become one with the art.

INCUBATION SECRET 10

Your imagination is necessary for outstanding results.

INCUBATION SECRET 11

Good work is not just about the time committed but about the thinking demonstrated before and after the work is done.

INCUBATION SECRET 12

Be ready to tear down the walls.

INCUBATION SECRET 13

Let go of your imperfections.

INCUBATION SECRET 14

Focus on the people who need what you have.

INCUBATION SECRET 15

Focus on what you can do, not what others can do for you.

INCUBATION SECRET 16

Focus on an idea that validates your current office.

INCUBATION SECRET 17

Know your destination and what it means to have arrived at it.

INCUBATION SECRET 18

Researching on the challenges you're likely to face in a venture before you start can radically improve your level of success.

INCUBATION SECRET 19

Work with the user in mind.

INCUBATION SECRET 20

To get the best out of your talent, it is important that you seek to create, and not reproduce.

INCUBATION SECRET 21

Be willing to hunt down the dragon.

INCUBATION SECRET 22

Study when you're most energetic and alert.

INCUBATION SECRET 23

Take breaks if you're fatigue, but don't stop the good work.

INCUBATION SECRET 24

Uphold your creative schedule.

INCUBATION SECRET 25

Talent without responsibility is like a car without wheels. Start the engine and it will make a lot of noise, but it's going nowhere.

INCUBATION SECRET 26

Don't just mirror after what is good, mirror after the best.

INCUBATION SECRET 27

Learn to continually spread the word about your talent in a cool and non-threatening way.

INCUBATION SECRET 28

When talent produces a flame, good management will set it ablaze.

INCUBATION SECRET 29

A script will guide you to evoke the perfect delivery and even do better than yourself.

INCUBATION SECRET 30

What makes successful talent is not exactly their skills but the moments they create while showcasing their works.

INCUBATION SECRET 31

Your personality and your overall gender appeal can make you a fortune.

INCUBATION SECRET 32

While the novice is controlled by his gift, a master is in control of his gift.

INCUBATION SECRET 33

To control your gift, you have to study what triggers it, and learn to harness its power the right way.

INCUBATION SECRET 34

The inspiration is within, don't be so destabilized, propelled or excited by an external influence, that you forget your manners, your composure and your civility.

INCUBATION SECRET 35

A typical idea can be represented in any way you deem fit, and can translate into just anything, provided you have the skills to make them work.

INCUBATION SECRET 36

Learning the gambits is not the same as learning the trade.

INCUBATION SECRET 37

Your experiences day to day are unique, and your interpretation and expression of these events can help birth originality.

INCUBATION SECRET 38

The ideal innovative idea is original and will either cut you a good portion or get you out of the rat race.

INCUBATION SECRET 39

No child is born great, greatness is cultured.

INCUBATION SECRET 40

Having a support group can help your talent to blossom.

INCUBATION SECRET 41

Walk with a crutch if you need one and let it go after some time.

INCUBATION SECRET 42

Overcome your alienation effect.

INCUBATION SECRET 43

An impressive result speaks for itself.

INCUBATION SECRET 44

Total acceptance has nothing to do with greatness. If you get the approval of everyone, you're either an hypnotist or a chameleon!

INCUBATION SECRET 45

The bigger the fire, the better the light.

INCUBATION SECRET 46

Walk beyond the opposition.

INCUBATION SECRET 47

If you're working uphill and your effort is shunned, don't be dissuaded, look at the sun, it puts on a wonderful display at sunrise, but quite a lot of people in the audience keep on sleeping till midday.

INCUBATION SECRET 48

Be willing to see beyond your day.

INCUBATION SECRET 49

Not getting what you want helps you to bring in a better shine to your character.

INCUBATION SECRET 50

It at the point of tears, sprains and bruises that true masters are made.

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# REFERENCES

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1. Adam, H., &Galinsky, A.D., (2012). Enclothed cognition, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2012.02.008.

2. Al Ries and Jack Trout (1993). The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing, Profile Business, ISBN 10: 1861976100.

3. Albert V. Carozzi (1985). The reaction in continental Europe to Wegener's theory of continental drift, history of earth sciences society, vol. 4, No 2, plate tectonics and biogeography, 1985, pp 122-137 <https//:www.jstor.org/stable/24135847

4. Arthur I Miller (2017). S. Chandrasekhar: The Student Who Took on the World's Top Astrophysicist, The Guardian, 19th October 2017 09.31 BST.

5. Cal Newport (2012). So Good They Can't Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love: Grand central publishing, Hachette Book Group, ISBN: 8601420220263.

6. Cal Newport (2016). Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World, Grand Central Publishing.

7. Chip Heath and Dan Heath (2017). The power of Moments; why certain experiences have extra ordinary impact, Thorndike Press.

8. David Schwartz (1959). The Magic of Thinking Big, Wilshire Book Co, ISBN: 9781501118210.

9. Dweck, C.S. (2006). Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. New York, NY: Random House.

10. Edmund Morris (2019). Edison, The Most Prolific, Penguin Random House.com, ISBN: 9780812993110.

11. Ellen Winner (1997). Gifted Children, Myths and Realities, Published by Basic books, May 16, ISBN: 9780465017591

12. Fernando Morais(2009). A Warrior's Life, A Biography of Paulo Coelho, Harper Collins, ISBN 9780007281404

13. Francis Heylighen, Gifted People and their Problems, http://www.talentdevelop.com/articles/GPATP1.html

14. Gardner, H. (1999). Intelligence Reframed: Multiple Intelligences for the 21st Century. New York, NY: Basic Books.

15. Giorgio de Santillana (1955). The Crime of Galileo, University of Chicago, pp 27-55

16. Goleman, D. (1995). Emotional intelligence. New York, NY: Bantam Books.

17. Guglielmo Marconi (1909). Biographical. Nobelprize.org. Nobel Media AB 2019. <https//:www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1909/Marconi/biographical/> Fri 01 Acessed Nov 01 2019,

18. Heylighen F. (1992): "A Cognitive-Systemic Reconstruction of Maslow's Theory of Self-Actualization", Behavioral Science.

19. Hostettler, S. (1989). Honors for Underachievers: The Class that Never Was. Chico, CA: Chico Unified School District.

20. Howard Gardner (1983). Frames of mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences. New York, NY: Basic Books. ISBN: 9780465024339

21. Jonah Berger (2016). Invisible Influence: The Hidden Forces that Shape Behavior, Simon & Schuster.

22. Jonella, who invented the sewing machine? History, facts and scandals revealed,Contrado, https://www.contrado.co.uk/blog/history-of-the-sewing-machine.

23. Lawrence Grobel (2010). Conversations with Marlon Brando, Rat Press ISBN 10: 0981805620.

24. Loudon Irvine (2000). The Tragedy of Childbed Fever, Oxford, Oxford University Press, Pp 88-110.

25. Lucas Morel, Lincoln's failures? Abraham Lincoln online: http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/education/failures.html.

26. Lynne Azpeitia, M.A. and Mary Rocamora, M.A. (1994) Misdiagnosis of the Gifted, the Mensa Bullentin.

27. Malcolm Gladwell (2011). The Tipping Point; How little things can make a big difference, Little, Brown & Company, United States).

28. Marcia Bartusiak (2019). Zwicky's Review: Going Supernova: The life of a Caustic Visionary who skirmished with fellow scientists but discovered that stars could explode, WSJ, Sept 13, 2019, 11:06am ET, Accessed Fri 01 Nov 2019, <https//:www.wsj.com/articles.zwicky-review-going-supernova/>

29. Marino, G. (2014). A Life Beyond "Do What You Love." New York Times.

30. Marvin, U. B. 1996, Ernst Florens Friedrich Chladni (1756-1827). The Origins Of Modern Meteorite Research, Meteoritics and Planetary Science Journal, Volume 31, Issue 5, pp. 545-588

31. Nobel Lectures, Physics 1901-1921, Elsevier Publishing company, Armsterdam, 1967

32. Richard L Florida (2002). The rise of the creative class: and how it's transforming work, leisure, community and everyday life, Basic Books, New York, ISBN: 9780465024766.

33. Sean Smith (2001). J.K. Rowling - A Biography: The Genius behind Harry Potter, Michael O'Mara Books Ltd ISBN 10: 1854798200

34. Steven M. Nordby 1997-2002, Giftedness and education from the perspective of sociologic social psychology.

35. Sylvia Rimm (1995). Why Bright Kids Get Poor Grades And What You Can Do About It, Crown Publishers.

36. Tom Simondi (2014) Fables of Aesop: The Miser and his Gold, http://www.fablesofaesop.com/the-miser-and-his-gold.html.

37. Torrance, E. P., & Sisk, D. A. (1999). Gifted and talented in the regular classroom. Buffalo, New York: Creative Education Foundation Press.

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# This book was written to inspire courage and help young talents to aspire for greatness, if it inspired you, the author would love to hear from you, send your mailto: 7keypoints@gmail.com

# For presentations and speaking appointment, please send inquiries to the above listed mail.

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# INDEX

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6 degrees laws of separation 40

Appraisals 16, 33, 41, 59, 96, 104, 106, 120, 130, 136, 155, 176

Astrophysicists 198

Attention disorders 165

Auditions 125 - 36

Awards 22- 26

Bands 123 - 126

Becoming relevant 42, 56, 66, 179

Bohemian index 36

# Challenging orthodox views

Columbus 183

Discovery of Saccharin 48

Galileo 181

Invention of the microwave 45 - 46

Meteor fall of i'aigle 220

The theory of continental drifts 186

The first Air planes 207

The first Cotton processor 182

The first Electronic television 203

The first light bulbs 113

The First Radio transmission station 191

Chess players 163, 165

Communication 102, 149

Conflicts 66, 165, 172

Costumes 172

Creators 56, 76, 79, 146, 153 - 161

Diminishing returns 50

# Effective

Manager 117, 120

Talent management 116

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Exposures 37 - 38

Expression 127 - 129

Extreme giftedness 165 - 167

Intercepting ideas 153

Judges 125, 132 - 135

# Lessons on

Character 21

Confidence 102, 191

Consistency 12

Control 57 - 58, 138

Courage 179, 191

Determination 203

Diversity 37

Faith 163

Flexibility 146 - 148

Focus 60, 64 - 69

Hard work 62 - 63

Hope 70

Humility 201

Initiatives 81, 108 - 109

Integrity 203

Love 120, 130

Passion 31 - 32, 128

Patience 17, 170, 197

Perseverance 12 - 13

Persistence 9 - 10

Possibilities 207 - 208, 187 - 186

Potential 8- 9, 168 - 169, 204

Purpose 70, 119 - 120

Pursuit 181 - 184

Responsibility 93 - 95

Self-esteem 200

Values 21 - 22

Vision 185 - 187

--------

Light house 26 - 28

Low performance 50

Managing your gift 168 - 169

Marketing as reflected in the Visibility Index 106 - 111

Mentorship 38 - 39

Misunderstood 165

Non-acceptance 188 - 89

Overcoming alienation effect 172 - 173

Performance 50 - 52

Positive influence 29 - 30

Professionals 97 - 99

Recognition 102

Repositioning 36

Results 76

Sales Clerk 89 - 91

Schooling 55, 163

Scripts 119 - 121

Small thinking 182

Smart Work 53

Strategy 70 - 71

Test of selective attention 101

Unveiling your talent 112- 115, 117 - 118, 125 - 128

Visibility 99 - 102

Visibility with respect to ideas 180

Writers 7 - 13, 77 - 78

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