Value distributors versus problem announcers, By Ayo Akerele

Be a value distributor and not a problem announcer. Men will respect you. Doors will open to you. Many strategic relationships will be born. Your spouse will find it hard to live without you. The principle works across all spheres of life. Start today. Identify your core areas of strength and competences. Brand them very creatively and look for how to add value to everyone around you.

One of the principles I learnt very early in life is this: I must never be a liability or burden to people, especially to strategic relationships. And that’s the mistake many of us are making. Even when there is no problem for us to solve for some great men, we deliberately create statements of problems from not too obvious situations, and offer them solutions to those problems. So that they will always see us as relevant to their lives. A senior man of God whom I once serve told me, “it will be difficult for any man of God to release you”. I laughed. I understood him perfectly. It’s a principle. While I was with him, it was always about how to help him solve his problems, despite my own problems. He would hardly see my calls and not pick them. You have to be intentional about creating value.

Value is driven by assets more than by liabilities. It’s the same principle in marriage. When a man or a woman turns himself or herself into a burden to the other person, his or her value drops. I don’t call people more than twice. Once I call and you don’t pick it, and then you don’t call back, then I would know that my value hasn’t really gone up with that person. I won’t call again.

I met two beloved people on Facebook, who now work remotely for our ministry, and are on our payroll. How did it happen? They all used this same strategy; the strategy of smart people: Sir, I can help you develop an app that will transmit your messages to more than fifty countries. Who would not like that? And that was it, I drafted him in.

When I visit strategic people, I don’t talk nonsense. I don’t ask for favours from them. I don’t even ask for water. I won’t ask for money. I tell them what I can do to boost their ministries or businesses or profiles. And time and again, that principle has given me access to valuable people and information. They will just open up their hearts and begin to reel out information and ideas to me. Rather than labouring and sweating after people, be a problem solver. Build value. Make yourself indispensable. A couple of years ago, I went to see a key father in the body of Christ in Nigeria. Like I always do, I went there with bags of gifts and a serious financial gift just to honour him for his labour and sacrifices over us. I have never asked him for a favour or anything. On meeting him, I rolled out the strategy: Sir, I can help you expand your ministry in this area. He looked at me and replied, “I don’t want to expand our ministry in that direction now”. I said, OK sir.

I said to myself, maybe daddy does not know my value in this area. Why would he say that? I have the grace to do this for him. Well, I left his office. Then, about a year later, I went to see him again, and with another gift, but this time around, I took along a couple of my books. He stood up to receive me and I prostrated as a properly raised Yoruba man. I didn’t say anything. I just presented my books to him. He could not believe it. He opened and began to read the first one. Two pages into it, he stopped and asked, “What about this thing you said you would do for me to expand our ministry?” I replied, “Daddy, but you said that you are not interested in my proposal”. Then it became a gentle father-son argument, “When did I tell you that I was not interested?”, he replied. Wow! What has changed? My value had gone up. And right there, he gave me the mandate to do the work for him.

God is sending me to someone today. No, you are not empty. There is something you can do to build value for others. Stop advertising your problems. Start branding and advertising your values. When you meet key people, don’t bombard them with needs. It will drop your value and they will run away from you. They are not picking your calls because they don’t see your value.

I met two beloved people on Facebook, who now work remotely for our ministry, and are on our payroll. How did it happen? They all used this same strategy; the strategy of smart people: Sir, I can help you develop an app that will transmit your messages to more than fifty countries. Who would not like that? And that was it, I drafted him in. God is sending me to someone today. No, you are not empty. There is something you can do to build value for others. Stop advertising your problems. Start branding and advertising your values. When you meet key people, don’t bombard them with needs. It will drop your value and they will run away from you. They are not picking your calls because they don’t see your value. I stumbled on an amazing article that speaks to the signs to watch out for in an employer who is about to dismiss a staff. Being a voracious reader, I jumped at it. The article’s first point is this: Any time your employer no longer gives you problems to solve or work to do, you will soon be dismissed. It’s an HR red flag. So, whenever I am around key people, I identify problems in their systems, and I tell them that I can help them solve these. I must never be found dispensable.

No matter how bad things are, learn to control yourself. Be a value distributor and not a problem announcer. Men will respect you. Doors will open to you. Many strategic relationships will be born. Your spouse will find it hard to live without you. The principle works across all spheres of life. Start today. Identify your core areas of strength and competences. Brand them very creatively and look for how to add value to everyone around you. Live your life with so much of integrity and value that when people see your call, they will drop all they are doing to attend to you. Its all about value! The sky won’t even be your limit. God bless you.

Ayo Akerele, a leadership and system development strategist, and minister of the word, writes from Canada and can be reached through ayoakerele2012@gmail.com.