WHY LESS QUALIFIED PEOPLE ARE DOING BETTER THAN YOU

Confidence UbaniFebruary 6, 20242 Mins read362

‎Mara’s article recently got published in a highly-ranked mental health magazine. She shares the news on her LinkedIn, and that is where Sarah, her classmate, sees it.

Sarah feels a tinge of jealousy, but she is happy for her because everybody knows just how enthusiastic Mara is about mental health advocacy. You just needed to speak to her for a couple of hours to find out.

Sarah “thumbs up” the post and goes on to check out the article. Eventually, it dawns on her that she could have written better. Sarah could have, but she didn’t. It was Mara who got recommended when the call for articles came up.

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Have you not been in Sarah’s shoes at one point or the other? Truly, you could be a better writer, graphic designer or choreographer than the person in the spotlight, yet you don’t get recommended for any of the opportunities.

How would you, though, when you have completely misinterpreted that Monday Goalcast motivation? You know, the one about “building in silence and letting your success make the noise”. Yeah, that one.

Hear this: that quote is nothing about keeping your talents and skills to yourself until you can spring up a surprise on everyone. If anything, you’re the one who would end up getting surprised at your stagnancy because life works just the opposite way.

To succeed in this life, you have to keep tapping into opportunities, which is dicey because you can’t be everywhere or know everyone. What this means is that you need to position yourself in such a way that people can associate you with your skills; that way, they can mention an opportunity to you or mention you to an opportunity.

Imagine being good at web designing, and nobody in your contact list knows. Might you be excellent at designing? Most likely! Would your acquaintances and 99 others recommend you though? Hardly a chance! That, right there, is how you keep loosing out on in life; because you lack visibility.

Sell yourself and brand shamelessly! Nobody can announce you better than yourself.

Even Bob the Builder knows this, so he goes about his construction singing songs and letting everyone know he’s fixing a house.

Start building in public today. Start ‘singing’ about your skills’. Talk about what you’re good at. You don’t even have to be perfect. Ever heard of the word “growth”? Talk about what you’re doing to become better at what you’re good at. Announce your brand and business strategically.

Share your wins. Do not ever downplay your efforts/ hard work in the name of humility. Don’t worry about who is going to get intimidated, and stop worrying about offending people with your progress. If they can’t stand your growth, maybe they should take a seat.

Anyways, you might have realized from the talk so far that visibility is very instrumental to personal and brand success. It is part of the reason people you are more qualified and skilled than are doing better than you! The other part might be nepotism.

If you would like further tips from West Africa Weekly on how to improve your brand/business visibility, leave a comment.