Influence; Why You Should Care!

The interesting thing about influence in our time, a great thing yet very difficult to do for the really smart and brilliant ones who were raised before the social media era.

I will use pastors and imams to drive this point home.

There is a trend that I see happening and even I myself am caught in the trap.

I believe that the most sound and enriching religious leaders (pastors and imams) in our case are not the ones in this new wave of rising leaders.

The bulk of those who are thriving and beginning to get national cum global recognition are those who have a solid social media strategy that they follow.

Now don’t get me wrong, these people are good at what they do but they are not necessarily the best. They are those who have put themselves under a digital media strategist, have fixed sound and ambience issues alongside several other things that make them easy on the eyes for today’s social media.

Their authenticity and individuality of style goes on to create a persona in the minds of people hence the following they are getting.

Their clips, messages et al are carefully delivered in max 1 min 30 secs videos that are easy to share. Of course these clips make sense (as it should) so we share, first affirming the message long before we realise we have in turn also accepted the person as a figure of authority.

It is just how influence works.

What I am saying is that you can be the sent person for this generation, between 2026 and 2030. You have the right words and all but without influence today you must plan and delivery for social media or waste in obscurity.

You have what the world needs but your inability to do the work required to reach the world will cost you everything.

You can be a well lit candle/LED light locked up in a room, on top of a hill which if opened and brought out can give some level of light and direction to the village beneath the hill.

Then the challenge, your challenge would be the fact that you know that you are the answer to the village’s darkness and direction problem..

You begin to feel that they should know you. In fact some of them already know you, they’ve seen you during the day so they cannot notice the LED dimension of you.

You feel betrayed that no one seems to notice that you are the solution to some of their problems.

You are your own chief mountain and obstacle… and not others!

See for every great potential in a person, there is an equal (if not greater) amount of work the person has to do to get others to see and notice that potential.

You have to break down the door of that room that locks you in at night one day if you ever want to be seen for who you really are. If you want to have influence.

That means you have to deal with the deadly cold night wind, wild animals jumping into the house and all because of the room’s elevated position. These risks are necessary evils you have to contend with as a result of your LED nature.

You will be injured, you will go through a lot of challenges just because you are you and although you proffer solutions to the village below, that same nature has follow come disadvantages… And oh, they will hurt you specifically

So stop getting angry and frustrated that other people not as deep and competent as you are blazing the trail… ask yourself what is the extra work they do that you are not prepared to do and begin to perhaps do it.

Also heavily talented people, people full of potential are often difficult to manage. They cannot manage themselves and they will not allow someone else to manage them.

Can you let yourself be managed by someone not as gifted as you?