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By
Sphesihle Mthana

Copyright 2016 Sphesihle Mthana

Cover Artwork Nompilo Mjilo

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any
manner without the permission of Sphesihle Mthana.

Table of Contents
Title page.........................................................................................................................1
Introduction ....................................................................................................................4
What is success ...............................................................................................................6
Your success might be in a problem you solve ...............................................................8
The difference between your work and your job (your skill) .......................................10
Work..........................................................................................................................10
Job .............................................................................................................................11
The differences between your job and your work tabulated ...................................13
Purpose and possibilities ..............................................................................................13
The advantages of purpose...........................................................................................16
You understand the importance of waiting and being held back.............................16
You are able to perform in any environment ...........................................................17
You are fruitful in abundance ...................................................................................17
You make more money .............................................................................................18
You have energy........................................................................................................19
You have peace .........................................................................................................19
You have value ..........................................................................................................20
How do you recognize your gift ....................................................................................21
What do you do best when you are under pressure? ..............................................23
What happened in your life that you couldnt control? ...........................................24
What makes you angry? ...........................................................................................25
What do you care about? .........................................................................................26
What can you do that you have no problem repeating? ..........................................26
What do you love to do that looks stupid in other peoples eyes? ..........................27
What have you failed in? ..........................................................................................28
What have you succeeded in better than anyone else?...........................................29

What do you notice that others dont notice? .........................................................30

What do you have the urge to derive? .....................................................................30
Disadvantages of not finding your gift before tertiary .................................................33
You struggle ..............................................................................................................34
It takes a longer time to grasp the concept ..............................................................35
A lot of days of self-doubt.........................................................................................35
A lot of envy for people who are doing well .............................................................36
You make a lot of mistakes .......................................................................................36
Conclusion .................................................................................................................37
References ....................................................................................................................38

Introduction
The following information is good for every learner in South Africa. It will
allow him/her to effectively choose a career path which is tied down to what
they are purposed to do in life. Rather than going to a tertiary institution for
a career, one can go to perfect and enhance their gift. It is with deep sadness
to work hard at something you are not gifted in. I experienced this for 6
years, with my passionate self, at trying to become something that I am not.
This was due to a lack of information. To counteract this and to make sure
others dont make the same mistake, the following information will
definitely help our learners who are hoping to make it to tertiary and beyond
with the gift they have.
What is a gift? A gift can be best explained as (in the context of this book) as
a natural ability or a natural talent. We ALL have a natural ability or talent,
ALL of us. Yours might not show up in the classroom or at the playing field,
but we all have it. Why do we grow up in the same family, eat the same food,
hear the same teachings from parents and turn out completely different?
This is because we are all unique, and with being unique comes different gifts
and talents.

Your gift might not be visible in a classroom (Mabuza, 2016)or at the field (Times, 2012)but rest
assured you do have a gift.

You cannot find your gift, you are born with it. Your gift is your inherent
capacity to fulfil a function. You cannot find something that is within you, it
has to be discovered because it is something that comes natural to you. You
cannot learn something you are gifted in, you can only refine it (get better at
it). This is why going to university and getting a degree doesnt make you
successful because a university cannot give you a gift. The best thing to do is
to take your gift to university to polish it. Most people went to university and
are still not successful because they went there and polished the wrong
thing. This is due to not knowing their gift before tertiary. By reading this
book you will discover where exactly is your natural talent and ability, and
how you can use the education you are getting at school to help you to reach
your purpose and possibility (your full potential) and know what you need to
go and polish at tertiary level.

Anathi was not taught by anyone to draw. It comes natural to him. What is the one thing that comes
natural to you?

As mentioned, you cannot learn a gift but you can only refine it. The only
thing learned is a skill. I have a skill in engineering because I learned how to
be an engineer. I learned lots of maths and science courses that are
necessary in the engineering fields and have learned where to apply them by
working in a company. This is only a skill I developed and I have a career
through this. A gift is different. It cannot be taught. It is bigger than a skill
and it is the key to success in your life. All the great successful people never
made it with a career, they made it with a gift. Read on and you will see why.

What is success
Until you find your purpose for life your plans for success will always
frustrate you. This is because the best success is tied to your purpose for life,
of which your purpose is tied to a gift you have. The good news is that you
have a gift, which means you can have success too just like everybody else
who is successful. This is because success is not an art, its a science. If you
follow the correct principles (not facts) you will be successful. Facts change
but principles dont. The biggest principle of success in my opinion is:
discover your gift, refine it to become an expert in it and success will follow.
This Principles of success will forever be the same. Whoever is successful is
good at what they do. What are you good in?
Discover
Your gift

Refine
your gift

Success

Schematic diagram of how success is achieved. Discover it, define it, refine it and success is
inevitable.

Dont try to be successful. Rather become an expert in your area of gifting.

This will cause you to become a person of value and success will follow you
automatically. The sun is important to us because it gives us light, warmth,
vitamin D and energy for plants to make food through photosynthesis,
amongst other things. It serves a purpose and its purpose makes it have
value. Your gift, once refined, will give you value because you will function
at your best. Without a function you have no value to the world.
All the people who function and successful are experts in their fields of
gifting. They are impossible to ignore. We follow them on social media and
love to see every move they make. They dont ask to be followed, they are
followed because they have mastered their gift to a point that people are
inspired and have a strong feeling to want to see more of them and what
they do.

Why? Because they discovered their gift, refined it to become experts, which
became a function in their lives and this gives them value.
How many times have people walked passed me without knowing me for
anything and any function? Only I can change this by discovering my gift
which will make me function.

It is impossible to ignore Beyonce. Her gift gives her value. (Staff, 2013)

We can boldly say that life is designed for you to succeed. If we dont succeed
our Creator is not happy because we are a deformed product.

Your success might be

in a problem you solve
In general, having problems introduces us to ourselves. This is because we
tend to find out our strengths and weaknesses and we also develop patience.
The best problems to solve are problems in our area of gifting. We enjoy to
solve these problems and our minds are at their sharpest as this is where we
think more out of the box. My manager at work once told me that although
studying engineering was hard, he enjoyed it a lot. And I can see by his work
ethic and his ability to tackle engineering problems with ease. This is his area
of gifting.
The smartest person in a classroom is known because he/she solves
problems which other pupils fail to solve. Your value shoots up when you
solve a problem .Do you know why Bill gates is the richest man in the world?
He solved a problem. Do you know why Mark Zuckerberg is doing so well and
making major moves in the app world? He found a problem and solved it. Do
you know why the Christian faith is so powerful and is the biggest around the
world? According to the bible Jesus Christ solved the problem of death. If
there was no problem of apartheid there would be no Nelson Mandela.

Nelson Mandela left his job as a lawyer and solved a problem (NEWS, 2013)

Mother Theresa left her job as a teacher and solved a problem (ROCCA, 2016)

Your gift is an answer to a problem we have in this generation. You were

born with a gift that can solve a problem. You are not remembered for the
things you avoided, you are remembered for the things you survived and
solved. Religious people pray for problems to go away, while people who see
beyond these problems strive.
Secret: the world we live in pays a lot of money for solutions. Dont look for
money, money follows solutions. Every problem is a business. As young
people we dont look for problems, we look for jobs. Having a job or a good
professional career wont make you great. Nelson Mandela had a career and
was a lawyer by profession. He left it and solved a problem of apartheid.
Mother Theresa left her teaching job to solve a problem of hunger that was
in India. Solving these problems made them successful.

The difference between

your work and your job
(your skill)
I am convinced that this is one of the most misunderstood concepts by
learners and young people, and a majority of older people. When I heard it
for the first time when it was shared I was astounded and amazed at the
misunderstanding I had.
These are separate explanations of the meanings of work and job (your skill)

Work
The original meaning of the word work (ergon in Hebrew) is a deed (action)
that carries out (completes) an inner desire (intension, purpose)
(Foundation, 2011). Another interesting description of this word was best
described by Dr Myles Munroe and he said the following,
The original meaning of the word work means
to become,
to manifest,
to fulfil,
to reveal,
to become yourself.

From the explanation above, we can clearly see that in todays times the
meaning of work has been completely altered. Your work is NOT a job that
you go to every day. Your work is NOT your skill that you are learning or
might learn at tertiary level. In fact we can go as far as saying that jobs
prepare us for our work.
Work is fulfilling because it is tied to a natural talent that is unique to each
of us. This might be the reason people change jobs so much because we
somehow think that we will be fulfilled. Fulfilment is not an external, it
doesnt start from the outside to the inside, meaning nothing external has
the ability to fulfil us including a job. Fulfilment starts from the inside, and
with work there will definitely be fulfilment because its an inner desire.
If I have an apple seed and I tell it to work, it will reveal its intended purpose
and become what it was created to be through self-manifestation and fulfil
its purpose of becoming an apple tree. In basic terms, an apple has a gift
which is the seed and when it becoming a tree it is working.

Job
Jobs give us the opportunity to develop ourselves. They allow us to interact
with people, develop good interaction and communication skills and give us
the necessary patience to be under submission. Jobs are only placeholders
for purpose. This is because they allow us time to discover and refine our gift
while having an income to keep us going.
Did you know: a job is created due to somebody elses work. Somebody
discovered a gift and refined it to the point of success whereby they need
somebody to help them, and offer to pay money for the help.

In the following passage I shall explain what a job is and try my best to
separate it from work by referring the two in parallel.
Jobs are always temporary, they are not permanent. Jobs are placeholders
while you refine your work. In contrast, work is permanent as it is something
trapped in you, meaning wherever you go you take your work with you.
People who have discovered and refined their gift succeed wherever you put
them. Meanwhile if a person changes locations they are not guaranteed of a
job even if they have a skill.
Depending on the level of skill that the individual has, one has usually no say
on how much they would like to earn from their job. With work, once the
individual has reached a point of perfection through self-manifestation, they
stipulate how much they want to be paid for their work. Why? No one will
do the work like them as the natural gift is unique to them.
You can get fired from a job. You CANNOT be fired from your work. Who can
fire DJ Black Coffee from being a musician? He cant be fired because he has
fully become himself. Nobody can fire you from being yourself. You retire
from a job once you are at the age of around 60 to 65 because you are
withdrawing from an occupation. You cannot retire from your work. You will
do it until you die. In other words you cannot retire from being yourself. In
fact your work is your source of existence because you are obligated and this
type of obligation will keep you alive until you complete it.
In most jobs a skill is a requirement. Work requires natural ability. But this
natural ability needs a lot of manifestation in order to be acknowledged.

The differences between your job and your

work tabulated
WORK
Purpose driven
you are always changing and
becoming better with every
day you put in
You cannot get fired
You cannot retire
Natural ability
You can negotiate your price

JOB
Money driven
Very routine, unless you get
promotion
You can get fired
You will retire
Skill ability
You cant negotiate

Purpose and possibilities

Ever wondered why some people look good when they do what is
comfortable for them? Why does an A-student in your class look so good and
it seem easy for them to just get a 90 percent? Why is it easy for some people
to have an ear for music and sing very well? Why is it easy for someone to
be able to talk more fluent in front of people and no be scared, while
someone else might be swallowed by the crowd? Why is it easy for someone
to use their body more while another person can use their brain more? Why
can one person get along with people easily while another person finds it
hard to the point where they cannot stand people and would rather work
alone? Why do some people prefer working indoors while others prefer
being outside? Why can some people work on many things at once and still
have everything done perfect while another person can only focus on one
thing in order to do it perfect?

I have an answer for you: Purpose. As mentioned earlier, a gift is a natural

ability or a natural talent. Thus it is easy to draw a conclusion that the
purpose of a person is directly linked to his/her gift. Your intended design
will result in your practical good use or effect. Everybody has an ability that
is unique to them, which will allow them to fulfil their purpose.
Without purpose nothing ceases to exist. This means that everything you see
around you is there for a reason. The purpose of a thing is its intended
design. Its the reason for its existence.
Possibility is how far you can go or become with the gift you have. Life will
usually determine your steps, but it is the individual that will determine
his/her stride (how far they can go).
The perfect example to use which will highlight purpose and possibility
would be an apple seed shown in the picture below. The purpose of an apple
seed is to become an apple tree that produces apples.

Apple seeds which are purposed to become a tree ((Massachusetts), 2013)

Now that the purpose has been established, what are the possibilities due to
the purpose (apples) in the tree? In other words what can the apples
become? How far can they take being an apple to good effect?

Apple caramel (STAFF, 2016)

Apple soup (STAFF, 2016)

Apple cake (STAFF, 2016)

Apple donuts (STAFF, 2016)

Apple French toast (STAFF, 2016)

Apple pie (STAFF, 2016)

The advantages of
purpose
You understand the importance of waiting
and being held back
Why do they age the wine? It is aged so that it ferments, which varies the
colour, flavour, tannin profile and texture of wine. They don't crush the
grapes and then drink it the following day. They make it age for years. The
aging immediately tells you that the wine is good. Having a purpose and
recognizing it will allow you to wait patiently, and while waiting youll know
that you are becoming high quality so that when you finally show yourself to
the world you will have more substance and be more valuable similar to
wine.

Wine is aged so that it has value. Life will make you wait for your purpose because while you are
waiting you are becoming of good quality. (Sorokina, 2015)

You are able to perform in any environment

If I take a mango seed here in South Africa (one of the best economies in
Africa) and grow it in Zimbabwe (one of the worst economies in Africa) it will
still grow. The seed doesnt care that it is growing in Zimbabwe, all it knows
is that it has a purpose to grow into a mango tree, and it will grow no matter
its location. A gift can perform anywhere. It can manifest itself anywhere and
under any conditions. We have all heard stories on learners who have had to
study with a candle in rural areas and still be able to get seven distinctions in
matric. This is because having purpose will push you, even in dry places of
life, to become, to manifest, to fulfil, to reveal and to become yourself.

Mango seeds will grow where they are planted. (Press, 2014)

You are fruitful in abundance

Being fruitful is being profitable and efficient, in ABUNDANCE. You can only
be fruitful in abundance in an area where you are purposed and gifted. It is
impossible to be efficient in an area where you are not good, where you are
struggling in and where you dont have passion. Being fruitful is a norm to
people who are driven by purpose.

Kevin Hart sold out a football stadium. He was the first comedian to headline an actual comedy
show in front of a reported 53000 people. His gift allowed him to be fruitful in abundance. (Hype,
2015)

You make more money

Many people with jobs agree that a salary will never be enough. When you
are in your purpose (doing your work) you are of service to the world. Work
(service) will always be paid more than a job. This is because NOBODY can
do the service better than you because you are designed and purposed for
it. It is your purpose, it is where you are most creative, it is where you will
think out the box more and it is where you will be the best. People pay big
money for the best things in life. They give the best contracts to people who
are the best at what they do. Thus prosperity is inevitable when you have
recognized your gift. A gift makes more money than a career. The problem is
that a gift has to be refined first before you start making money out of it.

Bill Gates is the richest man in the world. He became rich off his gift. In fact he was studying for a
career and left university to pursue his gift. (Hutton, 2015)

You have energy

Purpose gives you energy to wake up in the morning and strive to do what
you are obligated to do. Energy is the expression of purpose. Urges are
powerful to the point where they can push you to do something without
even thinking about it because there is a strong need for action, which might
sometimes be forceful and vigorous. Imagine having the urge to do
something that you love. The urge will turn into your energy required in
order to fulfil your task in hand. This energy will vigorously propel you to your
possibility as there is an urgent need to fulfil the task.

You have peace

If you know you have the ability to do something, you will always trust in
yourself. This will cause you to be peaceful. If I Im writing a test on Monday
and I trust in my ability, I can be peaceful the whole weekend and actually
study Sunday night. Why? I have the natural ability for that particular
subject. All the more reason people with a purpose REST while at work.

They are not anxious and do not doubt themselves and their ability because
they know their level of gifting they have. This rest introduces a level of
creativity caused by being peaceful and comfortable.

You have value

As mentioned earlier, the sun is important to us because it gives us light,
warmth, vitamin D and energy for plants to make food through
photosynthesis among other things. It serves a purpose and its purpose
makes it have value. Your gift, once refined, will gives you value because you
will function. Without function you have no value to the world. All the people
who function are impossible to ignore.

The suns purpose makes it have value to us. Without its functions we as humans would not
function. Your gift serves a function which will give you value that we cant ignore (Frellick, 2016)

How do you recognize

your gift
Recognizing your gift in life is one of the best things you do for yourself and
your life. It is a determining factor of success or failure in life as a whole. The
earlier you find it, the better for you and the more time you have to refine
it. Your education will not make room for you in this world, only your gift
will. Depending on their purpose, the most influential people on earth right
now have no tertiary qualification. And if they do they are not using it.\
If you read the book of Proverbs that was written by the wisest king that
Israel had, it says that a mans gift will bring him before great kings. The
question will arise as to how do you actually recognize it? It is an easy
question to answer but it needs an honest introspection to oneself. It is very
easy to associate yourself with another persons gift just because it looks
good and you think you also have the ability. To prove this, watch the
auditions on Mnet Idols. All the people auditioning think they can all sing,
even the ones that can't. But because they saw a finished item of
somebody else, they also think they can also do it and only to find out that
they are only embarrassing themselves.
There are two ways of getting down to your core (discovering your gift and
what you were purposed to do). You can either cut down to it yourself, or
you can rot down to it. Lets look at each of these separately.
Cutting down to your core means you look past everything around you and
be honest with yourself as to who you really are. Questions are set up below
which will aid you.

Rotting down to your core means life will reveal your gift and your purpose.
Rotting is associated with mess. There will be many detours that you take
which are unnecessary, that will waste your time and which you wish you
never did. This means that it will be a mess first before you actually find out
who you are. This mess is caused by you not being honest with yourself. Thus
you'll rot down to your core which is not a pleasant experience at all. Your
time is your life, so if time is wasted, life is wasted also.

You can either be honest with yourself and cut down to your core (apple 1) (KENDALL, 2014) or
you will rot down to the core (apple 2) (Vaughan-Nichols, 2016).

Life is a mystery. Once you start asking yourself the right questions and being
honest to yourself the mysteries will be revealed. Everything you learn about
yourself has always been there, it is just waiting to be revealed to you. Only
you can go through that process of revealing it unto yourself. The following
questions should be answered HONESTLY. They will guide you into
recognizing what you are really gifted and purposed to do. They will help you
to cut down into who you are and what your gift is, instead of rotting down
to them. I shall use myself as an example on how I used these questions to
recognize my gift. Of course your story is completely different to mine.

What do you do best when you are under

pressure?
Pressure will reveal what you can withstand. It is not wrong to fail under
pressure in a particular area, it simply means you have no strength in that
area and your gifts do not lie there. In order to find out your gift you need to
know what pressure is too much for you, what is your limit and what you can
withstand. Elastic bands were designed to stretch but if stretched beyond
their limit they will snap. This is their pressure point. Some people will say
that we MUST withstand pressure. Why? If we cant cope with something
why do we keep doing it? Some things are just too much for you. Why dont
we do something where pressure can be handled?

In life you want to be stretched but you dont want to pop. The thing you handle best under pressure
(when you are stretched) is what you are gifted in (Wikipedia, 2015)

During orals at school I always had the best marks. This was because standing
in front of other learners and delivering something of value to them made
me shine. I was not the best in the subjects, nor the best at the playing field
but when it was time for oral assessments, I was always first. When other
learners stood in front of the class the stage swallowed them, but not me. I
excelled under the pressure.

One of the best advice I heard in my life was that I was not born to do
everything. This decreased the pressure in my life of wanting to succeed in
everything. Knowing your limit will also allow you to know which things you
need to do with your whole heart and which things to do for the sake of just
doing. You are a limited resource and your heart cannot be everywhere as
your energy will be divided, resulting in less energy for your gift.

What happened in your life that you

couldnt control?
Any time you look at your life as one piece of the puzzle you will fail to see
the bigger picture. But if you take one piece and put it with other pieces then
you will understand why it was necessary for you to go through what you
went through that you couldnt control. The best social worker to council you
if you were a victim of rape is a person who was raped themselves because
he/she is connected to the crises. The best nurse to help you in hospital is a
person who was very sick themselves and had to be hospitalised. This is
because they are connected to the crises themselves. Most people dont like
nurses in public hospitals because they treat patients badly. This is primarily
because these nurses saw nursing as a career, while not having the passion
of really helping. You are called to a purpose and given a gift because in some
way you are connected to the crises of the purpose.
Your life is a piece
of puzzle that fits
together. Anything
that happened that
you couldnt
control adds to
your puzzle
(Waskow, 2013)

I faced a crises of not performing well every semester in my life for a long
time at university and having to see other students do well even though I
work equally as hard or harder. I couldnt control the situation. But a few
years later I can now see that what I couldnt control at that time in my life
is the missing piece of what Im obligated to do. And I can do it so much
better now since I have been through the hardship

What makes you angry?

When I was in grade 1 and 2, I used to travel by train to school. I passed
robots along the way. It amazed me how little people looked at the robot in
order to cross it. They never knew when they should cross or when they
should make way for cars. I ended up standing next to the robot and showing
them the green man at the robot because I was angry and frustrated at them
not looking at the robot at all. A passion for teaching and sharing information
was always in me, I just had not recognized it yet.

People dont normally look at this sign when crossing a road.it made me angry. (Wikipedia, Traffic
light, 2016)

Two brothers sleep in one room. For some reason the room becomes dirty.
Brother 1 doesnt care while brother 2 is angry that brother 1 isnt cleaning
because it was his turn to clean. Which of the two brothers can make a
difference? Of course its brother 2 because this situation makes him angry.
He can actually do something because it bothers him. You are the one that
can fix something that bothers you. What bothers you? What makes you
angry that others dont care about?

What do you care about?

Caring is the ability to anticipate a need and meet it. If you care, you can
meet a need. I personally saw a need to write this book because I saw that
many of us lacked knowledge on where success originates and we had no
knowledge of our gifts which caused us to battle at university doing
something we werent purposed to become. It is where I anticipated a need
and sought out to meet it so that next learners do not to not make the same
mistake. What needs do you want to meet? Where do you anticipate a need?
Where do you anticipate that there will be a shortage? These questions will
aid you in this area.

What can you do that you have no problem

repeating?
Recognizing your gift is good, but you still have to refine it because people
cannot eat raw fruit, the fruit has to be ripe. This means you have to still
grow and develop your gift and do it over and over until you become good.
This why it was said that people are rewarded in public for what they have
practiced for years in private. Recognizing your gift is not enough. Refining it
is part of the process, which means doing it over and over.

What is the one thing that you can do alone in private repeatedly without anyone watching?
(Colourbox, 2012)

What is the one thing that you can you perfect in your life? And can you keep
doing it for years in private every day? Can you withstand the mediocre times
where it seems like nothing is happening? Can you still be passionate about
it as in day one when you started?

What do you love to do that looks stupid in

other peoples eyes?
We have probably all heard that we must do something that we love. Why?
This is because love withstands all. Hard times will come in life where the
staying power of an individual is tested. You can only do something and
keep doing it if you really love it. The late Steve Jobs, the owner and founder
of Apple, always stressed the need for people to do what they love because
when the hard times hit and life throws tests, the love you have will be
tested.
All great ideas have one believer initially and the believer is the person who
thought about the idea. Life goes out of its way to make you look stupid when
you are going to do something of significance that is central to who you really

are. Most people of success will tell you that they looked stupid when they
started with what made them successful. What have you attempted to do
that you loved which made you look stupid and that you disappointed people
with (even your parents)?

What have you failed in?

Sometimes we fail in something simply because our strength is not in that
area. Failing sometimes simply means stop what you are doing and recognize
your gift and focus on it. In your area of gifting you will always succeed
because you have a natural ability. In an area you learned you always have a
possibility of not succeeding and failing in developing the skill required.
Somehow we have this notion that if we fail at something then we should
keep going until we pass. This is mostly instilled in us by our parents, teachers
and mentors because they want a better future for us, resulting in them
pushing us into learning or going to school for a career.
Success in an area of gifting is natural. It comes with ease. You dont need to
wait for a sale to happen or for something to go well so that you pass. Your
failures reveal your weaknesses and what you cannot achieve. We will never
be good at everything, and failure reveals what we are not good at
My ability is not in solving analytical problems, it is in solving psychological
and social problems which involve human development. I failed dismally
while at university. I was studying hard like everyone else but the return of
the marks on tests always disappointed. Although I did end up finishing the
degree but it was a horror experience I would never go back to. Going
through this experience might just be reason why I have so much conviction
and obligation to help you into not going to tertiary for a career, but rather
to go sharpen and refine who you already are. Why go to learn at a tertiary
institution when you can go refine what you already are?

You know your ability, and you know what you did not do well in. Aim for what you can achieve
(Polsky, 2015)

What have you succeeded in better than

anyone else?
What do you do that people say you are good in? What have people clapped
their hands for you for? What were you commended for by a person you
trust? What awards have you achieved or came close to achieving? What
were you acknowledged for? What subject in school did you get high marks
for?
What have you succeeded in where you exceeded expectations greatly?
Because we have our eyes set on a different goals, we tend to ignore our real
successes where our talent lies. We also ignore our giftings because we want
to mimic other people. When I was in matric learners who did maths and
science looked cool and I wanted to mimic them. Although I got the marks
needed for engineering studies at university, it was not my gift.

Wayne Van Niekerk succeeded better than anybody else in the world in the mens 400m race. What
have you succeeded in that you did better than anybody? (Sport, 2016)

What do you notice that others dont notice?

This is similar to what makes you angry. If you notice something wrong
with my shirt collar youll automatically reach out your hand and fix it.
Everybody can do this. But not everybody can notice what you notice that
when it comes to what you are gifted in. Anything that has to do with what
you are gifted in youll notice easily. And to give a simple proof: others dont
notice, or if they do notice they dont care.
Imagine a choir singing in the school assembly. Everyone hears the choir
singing good but you notice that the altos are off key. Only you notice it, we
all hear them singing good. This happens to you because only you noticed it,
and only you can fix it. What you notice is what you are called to fix.

What do you have the urge to derive?

During university we derived equations because we had to obtain the logic
behind them from their source or origin. As engineering students this was
required since it would shape our thinking of scientific phenomena and the
way we apply it. The reason they called for us to understand the derivation
was because naturally students who are gifted academically have the urge
to want to do more with the information they receive rather than just
applying it and getting an answer. Similarly you must recognize the one thing

that you want more of (the thing you want to derive) and want to further
break down because this is where you can do more get more success out of.
There are too many people who live a routine life of application and less
people who are busy with derivations. A career is good but it is an
application. With a gift you will go deeper, rather than just applying what
you know. You will even develop new methods and new ways and new
methods of application that have never been seen before. A career will allow
you to apply application, but a gift will take you a step further to derive
application.

You simply cannot give gifted science students a formula of motion without deriving it. They need to
see the steps that were done to arrive at the formula. (Patidar, 2014)

After asking yourself all the above questions, the main question you should
ask yourself is, Does this gift benefit me or it can benefit everyone else? If
your gift is only going to benefit you then it is not a gift, its a secret ambition.
Your gift is like fruit, it is there to feed everybody. When you have refined
your gift, you are like an apple tree. People will want your fruit and will come
to you to get it. They dont want you, they want your fruit (your gift) and they
will pay how much it takes to get it.

Having wrong motives leads to secret ambitions. This is why you find top
businessmen in big companies being greedy which leads to corruption. It
impossible to have wrong motives when you have discovered your gift and
are refining it. This is because once you have recognised your gift you have
come to a place where you have been honest to yourself, your limitations,
your strengths and your weaknesses and you know exactly what to do and
what not to do to gain success.

Disadvantages of not
finding your gift before
tertiary
It is better to go university for more knowledge in your area of gifting rather
than going so that you have a career in something in order to sustain
yourself. You already are an engineer, lawyer, teacher, nurse, librarian,
doctor, accountant, administrator (and all the other careers not mentioned)
before coming to a tertiary institution.
We all have an assignment to do. Our assignment is carried, not in education,
but in our gift that we must bring forth and make a difference with. The
education we receive is an aid to help us refine our gift, thus enabling us to
understand our purpose. You can be successful without going to university.
As mentioned earlier, a tertiary institution cannot give you success. The
dilemma comes when we go to tertiary for a career thinking that this will
bring us success. DISASTER!
The following is what happens at university if you go for a career:

You struggle
When you do something that is not within your widths end (something that
is not you) you struggle. You will NEVER get the results you want. You will
aim for an 80 % but you will always fall short. You will aim for a pass mark
(50 %) and you will simply fail. You will think you wrote your best in a test or
an exam but you always fall short of the result you expected.
An area of gifting to the person comes naturally. This means they will
naturally get high marks, they will naturally aim for a 70 % and easily exceed
their expectations and get an 80%. Working hard to them is nothing at all
because they are doing what they were destined to do. You see it as working
hard, they see it enjoyment and practising. In fact gifted people develop a
tendency of working smart. You can only work smart in an area of gifting. In
other areas of your life which are not natural to you, you will always see it as
working hard. This is why you never hear people who are working at their
gift say I work hard. This is because they find rest while they are working.
You can also rest while working, you just have to recognize your gift.
A gifted individual doesnt need to go over something many times in order
to understand it. They just understand it easily without too much practice
because the concept to them is natural. The time you have for learning at
tertiary is limited. This means if you do not know something in a short time
or you will get left behind. This is a problem because it means you will have
to work extra hard than the next person who is gifted.
You must adapt quickly and unfortunately some learners dont adapt quickly
enough. The reason one cannot adapt is because you came to learn. And
learning something might take a longer time for you, while it takes a shorter
time for another person. I am sure you heard the term If I had more time I
would have done better. What this actually means is I did not have the time
to grasp the information, thus I couldnt grasp the concept, which will always
result in in failure to understand.

My advice is: dont go and learn, go and refine. When learning something
there is uncertainty, which will cause a struggle in your life.

It takes a longer time to grasp the concept

Tertiary is a place of speed learning and speed working, especially for
students wishing to enter the field of science and engineering. The following
statement is something which I have seen in my life as a student, and which
I am obligated to say, You can only speed learn and fully grasp a concept in
an area of gifting. If you are learning something that is not your gift, you will
spend more time doing a lot of repetitive studying. This will intern require
you to work much harder and require you to be more disciplined with time
as all your time must be focussed at learning.
Im sure youve seen certain people studying less than you and got higher
marks. Why? They are doing something that is central to their core. They
dont need to burn a lot of fuel studying because whatever they see when
they read their notes or when they do those calculations resonates with
them naturally. It makes sense to them. It is amazing how when something
makes sense you tend to not forget it. This is the reason why critical points
like in an exam or a test they exceed expectations.

A lot of days of self-doubt

When a person is stealing no one has to tell them its wrong. They know what
they are doing is wrong because of conviction. Similarly when you are not
doing what you are supposed to do in life, you get a sense of emptiness. This
might lead to many things especially if you are already at tertiary level, and

One of things it might lead to is self-doubt. It is dangerous to feeling this

way at tertiary this is the time where you are preparing for your future and
it is a necessity to be confident at this level mainly due a lot of elements that
are at stake including time, money and the pride of wanting to be successful.
I have seen people give up at university due to self- doubt. Whenever
something bad happens to them, like failing a test or a course, they got
discouraged and fell into more self-doubt. Eventually when they couldnt
take it anymore and they quit. Studying/ learning something that is natural
to you can never give you self-doubt. Your knowledge becomes your
confidence.

A lot of envy for people who are doing well

Envy is a feeling of discontented or resentful longing aroused by someone
else's possessions, qualities, or luck. The reality of why am I not doing well
the way I think I should will always be lingering on your mind when
something that is not in your purpose and possibility. This is because you will
not be efficient as someone who is doing what they were destined to do. At
times youll ask yourself the question of why am I not doing well like so and
so. You will feel like you lack something which other people have that you
dont. Although envy is a trait that greatly depends on a persons character,
it might develop in you due to these reasons.

You make a lot of mistakes

If human beings dont know what to do they experiment. It is completely
natural for us to do this. Experimentation with things is good because it
makes one get more knowledge on what to do and what not do in order for
the thing to function. But experimenting with your life is painful. The
problem with experimentation is that there are consequences. These

consequences delay us, make us spend a lot of money and leave us with a
lot of questions which we cannot answer. Knowing your gift will reduce
experimentation and produce a vision for your life. This vision is what will
discipline you and prevent you from making unnecessary mistakes because
you know where you are going. You dont only know what to do, but you also
know what not to do. Not knowing your gift before going to tertiary will
cause you to wander along life. This means you will be moving along with
other people, but you will not be exactly sure of anything, causing
experimentation that leads to uncertainty.

Conclusion
What is written in this book is good for you. Read it over and over until you
get the concept and you can clearly recognize your gift. Things that are
good for you might not be natural to you. You have to force something on
yourself that is not natural to you and put extra effort into it.
A big part of knowing who you are is knowing what you are not. After
reading this book you should be comfortable of who you are and not look
at somebody elses gift and wish to be like them. You are equipped and you
have all the talents necessary to make sure that you succeed.
How can you be happy if you dont know your purpose in life? Your gift is
your territory. You have full control and you have full access. Dont bother
yourself with what you cannot do. Reserve all your energy for your territory.
It takes all of your time and energy to mind your own business.

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