When someone comes complaining to me about how difficult life is, and how impossible it is to find a job, a question I always ask is – “What can you teach?”
Most times, these people automatically think I am being mean. They take the role of being a teacher as either too stressful without the required pay, or as being beneath them. For clarity, these are people that currently have no means, yet they refuse any means that has teacher as a header. Ego rules their lives. Blind ego actually.
Sometimes, they respond with vague answers, such as, “I can teach how to succeed in life” or “I can teach how to make better decisions”.
Then I ask a follow up question – “What can you teach, that people will pay you for?”
That is when longer conversations start, mainly revolving around how everyone else is to blame for not appreciating what they have to offer.
The reason I ask these questions is not because I want them to be school teachers (By the way, we are all teachers, whether you carry the name of teacher or not, because we are always teaching ourselves and those around us, knowingly or unknowingly). I ask these questions because within what you can teach is your passion. Exploring what is within it that will attract revenue, is a practical way of exploring your passion and going through the pain that is always associated with any undertaking.
A passion that no one will pay for is a hobby. A passion that people will pay for is a venture.
We all have something we can teach. If you are alive, you have something you can teach. There are people out there that will pay for what you can teach. A puzzle you are yet to solve is how to reach them.
Someone is currently paying for your upkeep. Start with them. They are already paying anyway. Bringing extra value cannot be a disaster.
What can you teach, that people will pay you for?
– Osasu Oviawe