In 2019, I re-learned something about the power of LEVERAGE. In the same year, I met a Liberian Lady at a conference in Johannesburg, South Africa.
She came in almost toward the end of the program and I inquired why she still made it. Her answer? Leverage!
I asked her to explain. She said, “LimitlessFash, I want to travel to the US, and I have observed that any of us in my country that is able to get a SA visa and made the trip has a higher chance of getting a US visa.”
I don’t know if what she said is a fact or some joke, but I learned a major lesson.
In life, you may have excellent skills and talents, but what you need maybe just 1 letter as the leverage to open that major door.
In 2019, I taught for 90 mins at TedxStellenbosch in Cape Town as the only International Speaker. When I look again through the conversation I had on LinkedIn to the organizer, all odds were against my selection. My major leverage? I already had a SA Visa.
Why are some people unable to join military forces? Maybe big stomach, short stature or something else – these are not bad in itself, the point here is that they aren’t relevant leverage assets useful for the force.
Did you notice that people, after they get 1 global opportunity, it almost looks like they keep getting more? Yes, one of the major thing at work here is called leverage.
Maybe, they met other global citizens, from there on they leverage on the network, expertise, brilliant and gifts of those people to break through closed doors.
A book comes to mind, please read that book called, “Outliers” by Malcolm Gladwell.
How can you tweak leverage in your favour? Like always, I will only tell you what has practically worked for me.
What I did (and still do) in the past years was to highlight most of the skills and connections I have, the work I did and the places I had been to.
I make a huge list – my family, Church folks, team at work, friends from all schools I went, neighbours (including children), place I volunteered, villages and cities I lived, people I met on the bus, plane, train, boat, email addresses from my work and personal conversations etc.
Then, I ask myself, “what, where, who, why am I trying to access?”
My next question: who, what and how does anything or anyone on my list connect to what I want to access.
When I find the solution, I’d go ahead and ask them for what I am looking for. I hated asking anyone for anything when I was younger. I felt it was a mentality of neediness. But, my elder sister scolded me on this. I could be dying, starving and really need support and I just won’t ask for help.
I learned this much later at Prikkle Academy that asking when you also have something (no matter how little) on the table is more rewarding.Asking, from a place of abundance (and previous optimal relationship) is easier and effective.
Most times, I wouldn’t have asked up to the 5th person. Then, boom. Gates open, Access Granted.
Let me ask you, what do you have around you that you have not been leveraging on?
Again, what do you have around you that you have not been leveraging on? Yes, it takes work.
If you don’t want anything, don’t bother trying. If you really do, please leverage everything within your reach.
With Love,
– Limitlessfash.
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