One time, my former boss said a phrase that didn’t sit well
with us the employees, even though none had the audacity to voice it.
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| pix courtesy i.enkiquotes.com |
“When the
desired is not available, the available becomes the desired.”
He was referring to the staff he was saddled with, who
weren’t exactly up to par with what he desired. What he desired, he couldn’t
afford. Still, though we were available, we remained the ‘not desired’.
Years later, running a service delivering business that
depends on certain services from others to meet the needs of my clients, that
phrase returns to mind and I see it a whole lot differently.
I have always strived to become ‘desired’ (adding quality
value) wherever I find myself. When I became a journalist, I had no experience.
Though I was coming from one publishing house to another, what I did at Hints
(Thrills & Booms) Magazine, writing romance stories, is a long way
from everyday reporting in the newspaper house. My first beat was Arts and
Entertainment. As I did before joining Hints, it is not enough that I could
write; I understudied the job to know what I needed to do to excel at it. I
would eventually cover the Education and real Estate beats before leaving
journalism a few years back to become an entrepreneur.
At first, really, it was all about writing my stories, then I
started publishing an entrepreneurial downloadable magazine, then editing other
people’s manuscripts and providing content. As long as it was related to
writing, whether or not I have done it before and it comes my way, I learn how
to do it.
In the second quarter of this year, my mentor contracted me
to ghostwrite a book for one of his clients. After delivering what I felt was a
wonderful story, I waited for his feedback. The day we met, he started by
asking:
“Uzezi, how many books have you read this year?”
For someone who claims to love books and reading so much;
scratch that! For someone who calls herself ‘a writer’, I stammered an answer.
It was embarrassing. He told me it was obvious from the manuscript I delivered,
that I hadn’t done a lot of reading in recent times. He was correct.
He gave me time out to read books and rework on the
manuscript. He even invested some awesome titles in my life. I had almost
forgotten the many benefits of reading. As I began to read again, they began to come back. When I eventually resubmitted the
final manuscript, the praise I received sharpened my pen.
What am I saying? Don’t wait to be told to grow, to learn
something new that can become a value-added service. When I started publishing
other writers’ books, my service ended at printing and delivering the copies.
Soon I added other services on the same title and currently planning on
introducing more services in the coming year.
One of the recurring challenges I have had over the years has
to do with graphics. I haven’t had the opportunity to work with one who
wouldn’t give me an issue. Getting my work back as at when due, never happens. Design; we go over and
over the same work, I get tired. And the one that finally broke the camel’s
back was an unbelievable phrase after we had gone over adjusting size of a book
cover to fit Amazon’s requirement. “Why can’t they just fix the dimension
issues of the cover themselves, since they know what they want?”
At that point, there were no more words to be spoken. I
started looking for a new graphic artist.
And then I remembered the phrase from years ago and realised while I
stuck with services that weren’t helping my business. When the desired is not available, the available becomes the desired.
No more. Whatever it takes to get the desired, as long as it positions every
part of my work positively, then it is welcome.