Good Things DON'T Come To Those Who Wait

 

For quite a few times in the past, I was quite peeved with the world WHEN things were NOT happening in my favor, akin to witnessing one by dominoes are falling down.  BUT after having gone through profoundly with a combination of soul searching, attending life-changing events, shedding those massive masks, overcoming huge obstacles that looked like huge, massive big boulders, I made that firm decision to take back control of my life, even if that meant, changing horses at midstream because GOOD THINGS DON'T COME TO THOSE WHO WAIT💚💛💜

WHEN I was at the intersections of those 'forked' roads, I realized I was on a 'snowball effect' high on massive changes and those were the most intense feelings recurring over and over again as the changes in my life kept unfolding naturally and organically.  BUT if you ask me, HOW WAS THE RIDE during those times?  I'd humbly admit that it was a roller-coaster ride at best because after secure small, modest wins, I would hit rough patches BUT through sheer perseverance, I told myself, WHEN YOU'RE DOWN, THERE'S NO WAY TO GO BUT UP💥💥💥

After months and months of persevering and really stretching my patience as far as possible, I began to realize that the wheels of my life weren't moving all too smoothly anymore.  And at that point, I started to retreat, taking a half-step back, and then a full step back, even as I had 'huge goals' then, big dreams on the horizon WHICH I thought were 'low hanging fruits' [from an optimist's view]. At that point in time, the turnout of things really scared the crap out of me WHEN things WEREN'T progressing💧💧💧

Until I was aghast WHEN I seemed to have taken on a 'passenger mentality' in my life, making excuses for my inactions and myself.  And WHEN things really worsened, it was a huge blow to my self-esteem, and almost pushed me to give up and 'abandon ship'.  Deep within myself, I felt ashamed to be in a place in my life WHERE I hit those failures, after being so happy in my previous mini-milestone successes.  In short, I let that sense of failure to gradually 'eat away' at my spirit and I felt becoming defeated in the worst possible [and least expected] way.  I was like the favored boxer to win only to get floored and almost knocked-out and counted out by the referee😕😕😕

Our takeaway:  Through all those debacles, I was waiting and waiting for something to come and shake me, wake me up out of that 'funky state'.  I seemed waiting for life to knock on my door step and say "HERE'S YOUR EASY WAY OUT".  So, being that perennial optimist, I kept waiting for that on my door step, and waiting for things to stop being so difficult, for things to ease up on my plate, for things to miraculously get better because it felt like a lot was happening to me.  After rounds and rounds of self-reflection, I 'finally' took ownership of things and modestly, allow me to admit that I finally wiggled my way out of that deep morass and ending up standing on higher ground BUT before I end up falsely raising expectations it WASN'T that easy to snap out of it BUT I kept reminding myself to retake 'ownership and gather that gumption to have that power to reverse the trajectory that bogged me down for quite sometime,  YES dude, GOOD THINGS DON'T COME TO THOSE WHO WAIT'📗📙📘

Knowing Yourself

Change is here and it is here to stay WHETHER we like it OR not.  Although sometimes change can feel daunting, overwhelming and even unwelcome at certain times, WHY NOT consciously make it a part of our lives, and learn to develop a taste for the perks that it always brings along?  Another element of change that plays a crucial role and that is KNOWING YOURSELF.  It's really that important to take some time to get to know yourself.  Sometimes it seems like others know us better that we know ourselves💥💥💥

And once we're planning for our future, it helps IF we know more about our own thoughts, values, ideas and personality.  Knowing yourself is really important for a lot of things such as making friends and understanding HOW we communicate best.  First and foremost, let us really figure out WHO WE ARE.  WHEN we're trying to figure out WHO we are, WHAT we think about life and WHAT'S important to us, it's hard to know WHERE to start because there are a zillion things we could think OR even try to do💚💛💜

Getting to know WHO you are, your personality traits, values and skills can take time, seriously.  BUT knowing these things about yourself can help you feel more confident and it can help you figure out WHAT you have to offer others like family, your organizations, employers and even your communities.  I've met a few people in the past, WHO, WHEN confronted regarding their own selves, were in much DENIAL as to WHO and WHAT they were.  Once I frankly told someone that he has to stretch his patient a bit.  To my aghast, he reacted like "I'M THE MOST PATIENT EVER", which almost floored me because I knew him quite pretty well up close for quite many years then💥💥💥

Once you have faced the mirror and fully recognized WHO you are, let us NOT miss out your accomplishments.  Surely, each of us have our set of accomplishments, things we're good at and know HOW to do.  We bet there are tons and tons of things you have accomplished to date, be it on a personal or professional level.  Maybe you HAVEN'T even thought much about it.  OR maybe you did already.  BUT knowing WHAT you do well can help identify things WHICH you have accomplished to date.  Worst thing in life is WHEN someone WHO fails to recognize his accomplishments.  I've known some WHO, to my shocking surprise, they either failed OR refused to recognize their accomplishments for reasons I just CAN'T fathom❎❎❎

Our takeaway:  Let us NOT be too rigid OR technical about definitions.  An accomplishment is basically a goal that you have met OR achieved.   It can be as simple as NOT being late to school for a school week OR making sure you brush your teeth everyday.  BUT frankly, achievements per se, to be more relevant, are sometimes complicated like really reaching an important goal that you set for yourself such as applying for academic acceptance in one of the Ivy League universities OR even be a topnotcher of a national licensure examinations for lawyers OR doctors.  Bottomline is, KNOWING YOURSELF is a must-do because NOT KNOWING YOURSELF is the worst undoing one can commit😔😔😔

Be Cautious When We're Advised To "JUST BE YOURSELF"

 

Surely we have heard about this social maxim many times, that is, 'JUST BE YOURSELF'.  On the surface, there is just nothing wrong with this as it could even be motivating enough.  YET, researches showed that it's really NOT the best advice to receive IF your very 'own self' is either uninteresting, awkward, and in terms of manner OR in terms of behavior, IF one is rude, abrasive OR even condescending OR if in terms of mindset, one is either prejudiced OR elitist.  NOT to douse cold water on whatever optimism OR enthusiasm that may be enveloping you now BUT if any of these exceptions, outliers they may be, seems to be existing OR being manifested within yourself, Be Cautious When We're Advised To "JUST BE YOURSELF"💚💛💜

HOW often have you heard the buzzwords like AUTHENTICITY and INTEGRITY?  NOT so often I guess BUT it's imperative NOT to lose sight of their value [even IF we rarely stumble across these words] because IF and WHEN we become the kind of person WHO always does WHAT you say you'll do, WHOSE principles and values are made clear, WHO acts in alignment with those values with consistency [and WHICH MEANS, with NO deviation], you will certainly standout even in a mammoth crowd❗❗❗

Through all these years, I consistently embraced this age-old adage "FIRST IMPRESSION IS LASTING".  And that becomes very telling and significant really WHEN meeting OR interacting with someone for the very first time.  One's manifestations during that first ever meeting has been proven to be a 'game changer' especially in the job market.  Remember there are NO second chances as a job applicant.  Once you blinked and the interviewer takes it as a demerit, that becomes a demerit that can significantly influence the final outcome of that job interview😊😊😊

Much as I have had my fair share of experiences as a job applicant [during those years WHEN my RESUME was in the active databanks of headhunters and the latter literally burned the midnight oil to reach out to me for opportunities], the biggest chunk of my wealth experiences is as the hiring manager.  WHILE others would spend time on the academic credentials like the transcript of records, I instead did a quick mapping of the candidate's key qualifications and validate from thereon✅✅✅

Our takeaway:  Lest I get misunderstood, please DON'T embrace hook, line and sinker "JUST TO BE YOURSELF" but instead, spend time on your 'inner game', building the attributes, qualities and characteristics for you to become your BEST SELF.  From there onwards, WALK THE TALK to be your BEST SELF and it will help to benchmark yourself with the "BEST FOLKS' around [i.e. if your performance is more 'AVERAGE' BUT you [wrongly] thought it's your BEST, then you got to calibrate things.  So, BE CAUTIOUS to 'JUST BE YOURSELF'💥💥💥

Why Motivation Still Falls Short???

 

Question:  WHAT's the correlation between FAILURE and MOTIVATION.  Bonus answer:  FAILURE can lead to MOTIVATION and vice-versa.  Many success stories tell us that FAILURE can lead to MOTIVATION and conversely, as there is NO guarantee that MOTIVATION leads to SUCCESS, WHO knows, even after you get MOTIVATED, you may still end up FAILING.  WHICH reminds me of a venture capitalist WHO blurted:  "I WILL NOT INVEST IN A BUSINESS UNLESS THE PEOPLE HEADING THE COMPANY HAVE FAILED AT LEAST ONCE".  And NOT surprisingly, many venture capitalists agree with that.  So, WHY MOTIVATION STILL FAILS???

And NOT so surprisingly, Psychology creeps into this kind of discussion because it's technical explanation is that FAILURE teaches us lessons that SUCCESS never can.  And FAILURE teaches us humility and character, both of WHICH are highly valued and even rewarded by all our cultures, societies and even business [although society romanticizes FAILURE as the whimsical, hard-earned path to SUCCESS, it is the lessons it teaches us at the moment it happens that become more important and even useable.  At that harsh moment WHEN we realize that FAILURE is inevitable, it is a millisecond of self-confrontation💚💛💜

Admittedly, as this happened to me many times in the past, FAILURE can lead us to question our very own selves, our self-worth, efforts and even the value of our life.  Those dark days that follows our FAILURE is the most authentic form of ourselves as FAILURE can teach us empathy for fellow men.  It can teach thoughtfulness for those less fortunate and promotes tolerance and even acceptance.  YES, all those qualities are essential to our personal and even business successes💥💥💥

So, it is paramount to accept FAILURE with humility, to embrace it for the lessons it teaches you, albeit costly, NOT so glamorous and even humiliating.  WHAT happens next, your FUTURE can then be paved as FAILURE causes and triggers us to reevaluate WHAT we did, both wrong and right, and learn from it and FAILURE moves us forward [even if in reality, it literally sets us back in our journey] but even without being an optimist, I firmly believe that every single setback and FAILURE keeps us [at the very least] one step closer to our target goal[s] and dream[s]💧💧💧

Our takeaway: Looking back at my personal FAILURES in the past, I can frankly admit that WHAT led me to those FAILURES was the very fact that, with my leap of faith, I took the risk until I got hit and failed.  Let's admit it, we have risked FAILURE to strive for something big and came up a little short.  And WHEN we fail, it's possible we went big versus settling for mediocrity and that is the very crux and key to SUCCESS itself.  Dreams motivate us to think big and push ourselves beyond the status quo and into something better.  The catch here is if you set a mediocre goal to avoid failure, it will always lead to mediocracy.  As to WHY MOTIVATION STILL FALLS SHORT, our answer should right on our very finger tips, dude❗❗❗

Do You Need To Be 'JUMPING OFF THE PAGE'

 

WHO DOESN'T want performances that seem to be JUMPING OFF THE PAGE?  I for one, I would always relish those moments BUT just like in any competitive sports, even if you are recognized as the 'GOAT' [Greatest of all time] like NBA's Lebron James, every game your performance will absolutely NOT be JUMPING OFF THE PAGE.  I remember those days WHEN the company I was working with [that was SHELL for more than 12 years] was having its own professional basketball ballclub and in the mornings WHEN they had a scheduled game by evening time, the basketball players will strut in at our workplace to check their BIORYTHM😃😃😃

On the surface, PERFECTION sounds, well, PERFECT enough.  Indeed, a worthy aspiration.  BUT PERFECTION means being flawless, a pristine whiteness no less.  BUT for those [I was one of them before] WHO dealt with PERFECTIONISM, we now know firsthand that it's NOT all it's cracked up to be.  And far from making us our best own selves, PERFECTIONISM can indeed be a trap for us, our feeling of shame and guilt and low self-esteem, sometimes all rolled into one💚💛💜

Indeed it is very laudable if we embed within ourselves, to perform things with results that will be JUMPING OFF THE PAGE but more often, WHILE it's best from a motivational perspective, more often it's wishful thinking no less.  I fell into that trap numerous times before BUT I realized that it can cause us to limit our own choices and in the end, keep our lives small in order to avoid risking OR facing failure, whew💥💥💥

WHAT happens next?  far from making our life to near-PERFECTION, PERFECTIONISM can leave us feeling empty and lonely.  And in this age of the ever increasing influence of social media, it is obviously more tempting than ever to look at the perfectly filtered moments of other peoples' lives and to feel like your life is the only one that is anything less than PICTURE PERFECT [oh yesssss, I remember, even during that NOT so long ago Covid-19 Pandemic].  And WHEN we compare our lowest moments to everyone else's shiniest ones, our biggest flops to everyone else's top ten hits, our worst failures at everyone else's greatest achievements, we'll likely blame our own self❎❎❎

Our takeaway:  As nowadays, social media facilitates that instant internal comparison of our own selves at our worst to others at their absolute best, WHEN we buy into that idea that life should always look and feel "INSTAGRAMMABLE', we are then setting ourselves for one huge disappointment to another.  BUT again, PERFECTIONISM has been around us for the longest time, far longer than when Mark Zuckerberg first launched Meta's Facebook so it just makes sense that we need to look at things more closely as to WHY is it so tempting to compare ourselves to others and pursue perfection as if it were possible?  Just because someone's else BEST performance JUMPS OFF THE PAGE😡😡😡

Any Idea WHAT'S DRAINING Us?

 

Any idea WHAT'S DRAINING us [over and over again]?  Oh YES, success ISN'T solely about doing more.  Instead, it's about doing better.  BTW, doing things better DOESN'T require complexity BUT instead, it requires clarity.  And in our pursuit of excellence, we often overlook subtle habits that, over time, sap our energy and hinder our progress.  WHAT's most important is for us to pin down 

draining us.

• OVERCOMMITTING - On the surface, saying 'YES' to every meeting, opportunity OR favor might feel like leadership.  BUT over time, that behavior becomes one of the biggest invisible drains on our energy.  Next time someone INVITES you, think about it a hundred times before saying 'YES'

• TAKING THINGS PERSONALLY - WHEN we attribute every interaction a person has with you to HOW they feel about you, it can be exhausting and more often than NOT it's NOT correct.  And chances are, it's NOT about you and you're NOT helping the situation by TAKING THINGS PERSONALLY
• And HOLDING ON TO THE PAST?  - As the old cliche goes, PAST IS PAST, there's ISN'T utility to be holding grudges OR being angry [that's like 'killing' ourself] and the only person you'll be impacting is your own poor self

• ALWAYS CHECKING SOCIAL MEDIA - Before I get bashed on this, the reality is, IF someone has to wait a couple of hours for a social media message, then they end up waiting and stuck up.  BUT hey dude, the world WON'T end, so, let's sit back and relax.
• CONSTANTLY WORRYING - Verily true, worrying does NOT and will NOT solve problems at all.  If something is way out of your hands, then it's OUT OF YOUR HANDS, period

• NEGATIVITY - Oh Oh, that's another 'silent killer'.  The thing is, if you're NEGATIVE, you are NOT part of the solution and moreover, you're part of the problem.  On that note, you'll NOT just be draining yourself of energy BUT you can likely even drain others' energy, whether that's at home, at the workplace.
• UNHEALTHY LIVING - Oh Oh, this is a long list and we can start with sleep deprivation.  If you're sleeping less than 7 hours of QUALITY SLEEP, you got to fix that ASAP.  To complicate your health issues, if you're in a lot of processed foods, NOT exercising enough, getting dehydrated or skipping meals, you're dead on the water

Our takeaway:  Our own energy is at the very core of things.  And habits are the foundation of WHO we are as a person and even as a professional.  We are the product of our everyday habits and we choose everyday WHETHER we want to improve ourselves, maintain excellence OR contribute to our own discontent.  BUT first, we must be aware ENOUGH of those BAD HABITS that will only exacerbate in draining our energy.  So, that DOESN'T give us any reason to ask:  WHAT'S DRAINING US???

Valuing Vocation

 

Through the decades [and probably centuries], we [and that includes our forefathers] were taught that education is the way that paves us towards our goals and successes in the future.  No wonder, the educational business has been burgeoning everywhere.  And YES, it's an envy to hear one being admitted to one of the Ivy League's very exclusive list of top-tier universities.  BUT hold on.  Should we carry on that approach with regard VALUING VOCATION📗📙📘

Folorunso Alakija, one of Africa's richest women enrolled in secretarial studies diploma that landed her a job as an assistant to executives and bankers before she shifted gears to study fashion design and started her own brand.  She then branched out into real estate and oil exploration and ended up amassing a net worth of $ 1.8 billion as per 2024 data.  Many billionaires WHO succeed would make large donations to big universities WHEREAS Alakija donated at a technology college in Lagos, Nigeria to teach fashion design, welding, pedicure and manicure, hairdressing, makeup artistry and even shoe-making❗❗❗

WHAT's the rationale for that?  Alakija posited that we all can't be in an airconditioned office having all white-collar jobs.  Instead, she espoused that "YOU CAN BE YOUR OWN BOSS AND BUILD MORE CONFIDENCE IN YOURSELF AND PUT FOOD ON THE TABLES OF MANY MORE FAMILIES".  This success story of Alakija debunks the old school's mindset that for one to succeed, you got to equip yourself with a university degree.  Alakija's trajectory shows HOW a university degree is NOT mandatory❎❎❎

Absorbing more Alakija's insights, we can indeed realize that the field of vocational training is particularly relevant for developing economies WHERE university degrees obtained are realistically OUT OF REACH for many across their populations.  Taking a leaf from Alakija's successes, across Africa, particularly in Uganda, Mali and Burundi, the number of secondary technical and vocational education students more than quadrupled the past decade and that trajectory continues till to date✅✅✅

Our takeaway:  Across cultures, studies show that many labor markets see a mismatch between the types of jobs that college graduates have prepared for and expect the job types that are actually hiring.  BUT to qualify, studies confirmed that vocational training programs that are well targeted toward in-demand sectors ideally can bridge the gap and provide a more viable alternative to a well-paying job than a pricey university degree.  Your choice, your take dude💚💛💜

EVERY GAME IS A NEW GAME

 

How often do we hear people blurt, like: NO, BEEN THERE, DONE THAT or WHAT ELSE IS NEW IF I TRY AGAIN or I CAN DO IT AGAIN BUT SURELY I'LL FAIL AGAIN.  Those are NOT alarming statements BUT if shove comes to push, I'll readily admit that hearing those statements seem like alarm bells giving us the cue that there's a TICKING TIMEBOMB now activated.  In the NBA, the world's undisputed basketball championship grounds, WHEN the tourney reaches playoffs stage, until today, the Best-of-7 format is adopted until the Top 2 teams advance to the championship round.  So, WHY is that Best-of-7 format that popular till today?  Simple.  It's because EVERY GAME IS A NEW GAME, period📗📙📘

NBA history has shown over and over again that even if one team gets overwhelmed in Game 1, DON'T give up on that team because there's a 51% probability that that team will bounce back.  WHY?  Precisely it's because EVERY GAME IS A NEW GAME.  WHAT does that mean?  In life, after we lost 'big time' today, WHAT is expected of us is to go back to the drawing board, find the root cause of our failure and find the fix💧💧💧

Much as we would struggle in our debacles, never count ourselves out of the game because EVERY GAME IS A NEW GAME [unless you want to lose by default and play the next game exactly the way you lost the previous game???].  So, WHAT exactly do we do come next game?  Regroup.  Review.  Reassess.  Re-plot.  Re-plan.  And RESET.  To RESET means you have to forget that you lost the previous game as well✅✅✅

Let's NOT look farther than doing a LOOK-UP of our annual New Year's RESOLUTIONS.  Statistics show that just by the eighth day in January, 25 percent of people WHO made resolutions have failed to keep them.  And moving forward by end of the year, fewer than 10 percent of resolutions will have been kept.  Some psychologists point to our willpower as the culprit.  We only have so much energy to put on new endeavors and as the day-to-day grind of new obligations pile on, we lose our motivation to reach the goal we enthusiastically set at the beginning of the year.  LIKE losing 30 pounds in 30 days sounds great on a magazine cover BUT its a 'STRETCH GOAL' for most people.  Stumbling, even once, will likely dampen and even end up destroying one's motivation😡😡😡

Our takeaway:  I heard this slogan before:  THE POWER OF NEW BEGINNINGS.  Humans, it seems, are attracted to the power of NEW BEGINNINGS.  Scientists call the dates to WHICH we assign such BEGINNINGS as those 'temporal landmarks'.  Now, here's a modest mental hack I want to share.  Every year on my birthday, I'd take stock of WHERE I've been the past 12 months and WHERE I want to reach in another 12 months.  Understanding that mental hack remains as my powerful tool as it leads me to build FRESH STARTS, a mindset which I humbly take pride as in parallel with the motto that EVERY GAME IS A NEW GAME💚💛💜

Those Wild Cards a.k.a. TOUGH EMOTIONS

 

EMOTIONS are cards and TOUGH EMOTIONS are the WILD CARDS in life.  NOT one of us is shielded from all flavors and versions of EMOTIONS.  WHICH reminds me, many years ago, I was caught in particularly strong mental rumination as I agonized over a decision that could be a 'game changer' in my life, WHICH meant my trajectory can go either north OR south.  And for months, I did fight in my head against that situation and my own fears, desperately wanting it to be different than it was💚💛💜

In many particular moments in my past, I felt like standing on my own feet and yet I was being gripped with fear and indecision, all rolled into one.  And in a sudden twist of things, I did turn toward my fear to take a curious and closer look at WHAT was actually there.  I somehow stopped resisting and I let go of the struggle to pave the way for my fears to go away.  From my limited vantage point, I came to grips with very valuable realizations💧💧💧

Underneath all the ebbs and flows of my emotional turmoil, I came to acknowledge that NO matter how much I tried to get a good handle of things and even do all the 'RIGHT' things, I had to come face-to-face with my own vulnerability and putting my hand atop my heart. In the subsequent days, weeks and months that followed, WHILE my situation hardly changed [NEITHER to be better OR to be worse], something did release in me akin to that loud knocking on your main door in the dead of the night WHEN you felt so defenseless and vulnerable.  Within myself, I somewhat peered at WHAT lay behind my fears only to find acceptance of life as it is, with fear only being a part of it💥💥💥

And in my willingness to look at and be with fear itself, I also discovered my courage to help me move forward, WHICH had NOT been present in my resistance and struggle.  Lo and behold, I was able to move forward with much greater ease and trust in my capacity.    Indeed, those unpleasant EMOTIONS often arise WHEN there is a discrepancy between the way things are and the way we want them to be✅✅✅

Our takeaway:  NOT to speak like SUPERMAN but I did learn the ropes of softening those wild cards in life a.k.a. TOUGH EMOTIONS.  Firstly, I would start to think of the circumstance that's causing me a lot of TOUGH EMOTIONS and in the midst of it, I try NOT to get lost too much in a storyline, BUT just get in touch with WHAT it is that's troubling me.  Segundo, of all the EMOTIONS, I'll choose the one I most strongly feel.  Thirdly, instead of resisting, I soften around those EMOTIONS, refocusing my awareness on the edges of the EMOTIONS😊😊😊

Are We Missing The Boat Here [With More TOOLS Than SKILLS]?

 

Are we missing the boat these days?  That boat that would have brought us over to learn our SKILLS?  BUT instead, we are stuck in a quagmire, overwhelmed and buried under tons and tons of TOOLS which have been available, on-the-fly and right-on-our fingertips.  WHETHER your device is running on Android OR IOS is immaterial because both Google Play Store and App Store are right there.  And free download sites of free wares are just one too many, you will end up dizzier and more confused more than ever.  Are We Missing The Boat Here [With More TOOLS Than SKILLS]📗📙📘

You might stomp me with "WHAT'S THE FUSS?"  Here's the fuss dude.  With technology taking over our lives [regardless WHETHER you live in the First World OR even deep down Myanmar or the remote African regions, the point is almost all of us [and that includes me, BTW] are caught up in learning new tools and newer tools and then the newest tools.  Point is, we should NOT get too caught up in learning TOOLS WHEN it's the SKILLS that will help us most📌📌📌

You might retort that TOOLS do help us.  Without those TOOLS, even our SKILLS may have been of little help.  True and very true BUT here's the flip side.  Let us NOT get mixed up between TOOLS and SKILLS.  WHILE TOOLS will help us cross over to perform a specific step OR action, SKILLS will equip and reinforce our arsenal of capabilities for the long haul.  That's the huge difference between them.  Tools come and go WHEREAS SKILLS will get developed especially if we keep enhancing and nurturing them.  For techies, web development is a good example because of the multiple technology stacks and tools and each of them peddle their respective UPSIDEs & DOWNSIDEs💧💧💧

True, that analogy may make me sound to be contradicting because logic will tell us, WHY bother with other technologies WHEN you as a techie can do multiple things in a single stack?  Let's take a more practical view here.  If your goal is simply to get a job, then surely keeping your options open is the best way to go BUT WHAT IF if you're looking at 5 potential businesses.  Your options get narrowed then💥💥💥

Our takeaway:  Sticking up to the TOOLS thread, once you learned a TOOL, the theory of it will help us learn a similar tool BUT WHAT IF you learn programming languages, WHILE they have similarities, they vary in syntax and in the long haul, your capabilities widen based on your SKILLS which could have spread out.  For those worrying that they might end up as a MASTER OF NONE, just DON'T worry too much, DON'T pre-empt problems WHICH very much farther down the road.  LIVE IN THE MOMENT, LIVE IN THE PRESENT and endeavor to be more SKILLED while TOOLS are just available on-the-fly😌😌😌