Talent Is Not Enough -By Musa Affos (Rhapsodi)

Talent is not enough.

Talent is a natural gift or endowment given by God to every mortal being. When you consider the parable of the talent, one was given 5 talents, the other was given 3 and another was given one, but all were with talents. So everyone is born with a talent.

No matter how close one talent is to another, there are differences which are peculiar to an individual. That’s why even in music, we have Rappers, Afro singers,dancehall artistes & many genres.

It one thing to be talented, another thing to known you’re talented and it’s a different thing entirely to live with the consciousness of your talent. A lot of times we get taken by our talent & little shine and we feel our talent alone is enough to make us succeed.

“The fact you are talented doesn’t mean you will be successful; success isn’t just constituted of talent alone”. There are other things that you need to add up to your talent to be successful.

In as much as talent is the major thing but talent alone can’t make you successful.

This can be liken to cooking a vegetable soup; In as much as the vegetable is the main ingredient but the vegetable alone can’t make a sweet soup, you need other ingredients like maggi, salt, pepper and so on.

Talent is not enough, you need:

1. Character : is the mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual.
Talent can take you before kings but only character can make you eat with them. It takes character to stay with kings & become part of the royal family.
Talent is not enough you need character: talent will take you before kings, it takes character to make you seat and dine with them.
As an artiste, you could get signed to a renowned label but without character you won’t last, things like breach of contract etc will arise.
Beauty is not enough, you need character : beauty attracts the man, character makes him stay, marry & also keep you.
You might be liked, admired from a distance, as long as character is missing, Close range contact with you will send everyone away.

Anointing without character is also trouble. anointing automatically lures people but Character makes you better and gives you an edge among your contemporaries and makes you a living example of Christ you are portraying.

Nobody was born with a good character, it’s acquireable, developed and it’s free. Start developing yours today.

2. Packaging: Packaging gives you an edge above your equals, it makes people want to know what you have.
For example as an artiste, your cover art alone has a way of speaking about your song even before it is released, even when the song doesn’t turn out well but your cover art induced people to download it. That’s the power of packaging.
You wonder why the coke sold for 150 at a normal shop is sold 300 or 400 in bigger eateries? I read Richard Templar’s “Rules of wealth”, he talked about prize and value. I understood that packaging increases your value; and sales you better.
Allow to say “An untalented but packaged artiste will sale better than a talented unpackaged artiste”.
Packaging isn’t just restricted to a particular field of hustle alone, it is very important that while you work on your talent or brand, do not forget that packaging increases your chance of been patronized and preferred.

3. Self Discipline is an aspect of inhibitory control, is the ability to regulate one’s emotions, thoughts, and behavior in the face of temptations and impulses. It takes a disciplined artiste to survive in a label. A lot of times, lack of discipline has often times resulted in rifts between artiste & labels.

4. Humility: pride comes before downfall, so the popular adage says. It takes humility to be lifted. Don’t be too taken by your little shine & praises you get around, instead use it as a means to grow and be better.

5. Consistency & handwork: it takes hard work & consistency to keep pushing through the dark tunnel, heading to the light of stardom. Have an extra means of earning to support your talent before it starts paying.

6. Online presence: (For artistes): As an artiste you need to improve your online presence, the social media is a platform to sale & market yourself and songs. Most artistes got singed recently via SoundCloud uploads. Instagram, Twitter etc are platforms to create affiliation with other artiste & even celebrities too.

7. Avoid distraction: Especially for male artiste, most times you get distracted by the admiration of female folks, the quest to be a “starboi” among the ladies. Unnecessary partying & picking ladies isn’t synonymous to been a successful artiste. Always be surrounded by positive minded people.

8. Prayer: faith without work is death. Work without faith & prayers is also death. While we hustle, let’s not forget the supreme one.

There are many attributes that makes one successful, but I decided to talk about these few.

What feature or attribute do you posses that will make you preferred and edged above your contemporaries?

Spice up your talent, the world awaits you.

Musa Affos (Rhapsodi) is a Blogger & social media activist.

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