Nigeria’s real estate success strategist known as the Mayor of Housing has alerted young people going into careers to realise that 21st career must be built on skills and capacity.
The Mayor of Housing whose real name is My-ACE China was a lead panelist at the Garden City Career Fair 2022 at Camp David Events Centre at the GRA-2 in Port Harcourt where he spoke on ‘Leveraging on Collaborations’.
The two-day event which was organized by a group led by an engineer, Nwonodi Wosu, devoted resources to guide young people on career development and the best approaches for success.
Speaking on Day Two, the Mayor of Housing who says he rather sells value, not houses, thrilled the participants when he revealed that in the 21st century space, your skill is now your career. “There is no career anymore and no career security, but there is what they call skills security. Any skill that is in demand is what people look out for.”
He told the young graduates that one’s skill now supersedes. “Your curriculum vitae (CV) or your primary educational qualifications are not the door openers. People now look for soft skills and valuable skills that have market value and contemporariness.”
Hitherto, he continued, digital marketing was not a valuable skill but people would now be shocked how many companies are willing to pay huge salaries to people with digital marketing skill. So, he added, skill is the new career.
China said capacity is your retainership. “You can’t retain whatever you do not have capacity for. A lot of young people think opportunity to get jobs in big companies is the retainership. No! The new retainership is capacity. It is the capacity you create that will retain whatever value that comes your way that opportunity exposes you to.
“Opportunity may expose you to a holistic value but it can only retain the one you have capacity for.’
So, he advised, if you want to succeed in the 21st century career, hone your skills every day, know the skill you are very passionate about, hone it to become world class because it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become world class in any skill. Practise it every day, but it must be in your area of passion.
The best graduating school certificate student in Plateau State in his year advised young people to create intrinsic capacity to retain more of the value that comes from that skill.
The Mayor of Housing who is behind some of the most outstanding housing estates in Port Harcourt said he learnt from his failures in other ventures before converting the experience to become a real estate success strategist.
China, who was the hest graduating lab scientist in the UNN in his year said he later found out that academic success was no automatic ticket to success in business or in life generally. He said he dug back to his talents in talking and converted it through skills to salesmanship on a business anchored on land because the ground is the safest safety protection in business.
Thrilling the audience about how two particular days in his life made him, he said he realised that ignorance is the worst sin ever.
He said he went into voracious reading because his mentor (he met in books) read 700 books in seven years and became a superman in knowledge. “You become what you read”, he exclaimed.
China who is acquiring the Alesa Highland that he said might become the Port Harcourt version of the Banana Island in Lekki, Lagos, said he read books for eight hours a day when he lost N32m in his oil sales business and which he said led to his arrest and detention.
He said he realized he was doing a business he did not study or read about. He however confessed thus; “Failure makes me pursue my passion more fiercely”.
Teaching the young people, he said success is equal to passion, talent, skill, plus knowledge in that aspect. He also said association leads to 95 per cent of success, but that the key is knowledge.
He revealed three things he said any career person must grasp; consistency, service, and gestation. “Consistency is about repeated action that produces result. “You need 10,000 hours of practice to become world class.
“Service: Apprenticeship is the difference between success and failure, between Lagos and Niger Delta entertainers.
“Working without learning is slavery. Who is your mentor? If you are not learning, you are slaving. You stop being under a mentor only when you are better than him. Your need for capacity is more than your need for capital.
“Gestation: It takes 20 years to become an overnight success. Warren Buffet said you can’t have a baby in one month no matter how much you love babies.
“We are all eagles; just that many of us do not want to suffer the pains of growing wings. They resort to crawling. Anybody that tries to fly without wings will fall and be swallowed.”
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The convener of the career fair, Wosu, said the Day One was for professional business solutions, and that talks were mind-blowing as they dwelt on lessons which treated preparation of resume or curriculum vitae suitable for jobs. This was handled by someone that is a consultant for companies. It looked at why resumes don’t win jobs.
He said the targt was career development. “We shared skills tips, ideas, and many more.’
He said it is time to add skills development strides in academics. “Rivers State is blessed with talents, so there is need for collaboration to move the youths forward especially in entertainment sector.
“So, engaging with the panelists is expected to help the youths correct their mistakes and get things right through collaboration, projecting, etc. Try to build influence, etc. There is need to support each other.”
Other resource persons also thrilled the young careerists especially in the entertainment industry.
Celestine Ogolo (Ph.D.), one of the most brilliant comedians in the Garden City (now a university lecturer), traced the history of comedy in the Niger Delta and urged the next governor of Rivers State to come up with a blue print to develop the sector so it can explode and employ many more persons.
He admitted that apprenticeship has taken place in the comedy sector in the state because most of those that submitted themselves to him for mentorship and training are now global personalities around the world.
He regretted that state governments have not promoted the art sector of the economy but said 2023 would be another opportunity to persuade state governments in the oil region to develop the art and entertainment sub-sector.
