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SPEAKER_00: Have you heard the
word corporate visibility?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, corporate
visibility.
Two words.
SPEAKER_00: Corporate and
visible or visibility, as we
want to call it.
You know, rightly put, to be
seen, to be known.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: So in my early
career, some time ago, not too
far future, I mean past that is.
I had this experience where
someone came into my office and
was like, Where have you been?
I said, I've been here.
So we've not been seeing you.
I said, Why?
I'm here for work.
And it was like, you know,
visibility has something to do
on your career and all that.
And I was like, okay, how do you
mean?
So don't get me wrong, a lot of
us interpret this thing the best
way it suits us.
Like, no, you must be seen.
People have to see you.
How do you want me?
Or how what do you mean by
people have to see you?
So a lot of us within that
corporate space, corporate
simply put, uh workspaces.
You know, human life thrives on
work.
And we we we we we go as far as
defining these things to suit
us.
So what is that visibility?
This is how I see it.
I see it from the space of
solution provision or solution
providing, whichever you want to
pick.
You are visible based on the
solution you provide, the
answers you give to questions or
solutions you bring to problems.
It brings you to fall, it brings
you before, you know, those who
quote and unquote matter.
You know, scripture tells me
that seeest thou a man who is
diligent in his business, he
shall stand he there now, as in
referring to mankind, he shall
stand before kings and not men.
That this is the word diligence.
So being diligent, it's about
owning.
Yes, ownership.
It's about capacity building,
that I will call it you
capacitating yourself, so to
say, you building capacity, you
working on yourself.
Whether you want to believe it
or not, it's an order it will
bring you that we have a good
number of us have come to look
at the corporate visibility
thing from a lens, I think, that
is very blurry.
You know, how more of what we
call the eyesetis thing.
Because someone will tell you, I
think you need to dress in a
certain pattern.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not
saying you should look tardy and
all of that.
But if you have to be in
people's faces, then it should
be from the point of view of
solution provision.
It should be from the point of
view that you have an answer, it
should be from the point of view
that you have uh what it takes.
You are not just sitting in a
room for the sake of sitting,
but you are sitting there
because you carry what it takes.
And that does not just come by
uh wishful thinking, it comes by
working.
Yeah, working behind the scenes,
off the camera, not in people's
faces.
But you're working, you're
curating.
A good example to point to what
this subject or this concept is
what happened to somebody like
Joseph.
You know, Joseph eventually
stood before Pharaoh, the king.
But let us look at before the
king, before standing in front
of Pharaoh, from the recorded
history, from what the
scriptures painted out for us to
see.
Joseph was busy capacitating,
enlarging his knowledge base,
growing his knowledge muscles,
if I must use that word, what we
call competence.
He became good, he became
better, if not one of the best.
So you see, and eventually what
happened?
There was a problem to be
solved.
The answer was already there in
the person of Joseph, and he
solved the problem, he became so
visible, and there's another
thing.
A good number of us don't see
that visibility brings a lot of
responsibility.
It comes with this level of
responsibility, it comes with
this demand that sometimes, if
you're not careful, it breaks
you.
You know, it breaks you.
So you must look at it.
We must look at it from that
lens of responsibility.
Are you ready to carry it?
Are you ready to bear it?
Are you ready?
So you now see a lot of uh
things play out between
colleagues, between friends, at
the workplace, even in the
society at large, because you
want to be visible.
Now let us ask ourselves: what
is the cost of visibility?
SPEAKER_01: Is there a cost to
visibility?
SPEAKER_00: Is there a price to
it?
If there is a cost, if there is
a price, which there is, the
next question is, are you
willing to pay the price?
SPEAKER_01: Are you willing, are
you ready to foot the bill?
SPEAKER_00: So those are the
kind of things you must ask
yourself.
You know, when you find yourself
in places where, you know, you
just want to be seen.
You just want to be known.
The question is seen for what?
SPEAKER_01: Known for what?
SPEAKER_00: So there's this
language we use in in Africa, in
Nigeria, which I think it's even
on a global scene, it's known.
Busybody.
You know, you're a busybody, and
you are now called, all whatever
you're doing is for eye service,
just to show off.
unknown: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: So now what do you
do?
So you ask yourself, am I ready
to pay the price?
Are I ready?
Because that is what visibility
is, I mean, visibility is all
about solving problems, solution
oriented.
And you're always willing,
ready, open to learn something
new.
Yeah.
So this generation are Gen Z and
millennials, Gen Z and going
forward and all of that.
It is one lesson you must
embrace.
Don't be in a hurry to take the
stage.
Don't be in a hurry to climb.
Don't be in a hurry to jump on
it.
But do you know what it should
be?
In a hurry to do, grow capacity.
Expand.
Build competence.
Be in a hurry to do that.
Be in a hurry to learn.
Be in a hurry to gather, right?
Information, data, build.
Because eventually all of those
things will sum up to what?
Visibility.
It will bring you.
Somebody say, how will that
happen?
It will happen the way scripture
has said that the law.
A diligent man will stand before
kings.
So there is this what you want
to call it a magnetic pool
between diligence and
visibility.
Visibility attracts diligence.
Diligence commands visibility.
Did you hear that?
Visibility attracts diligence.
Diligence commands visibility.
So one cannot do without the
other.
Yes, there are some people who
have come to like uh fake it,
push it, but there's something
about it, the foundation is
faulty.
So over time you come to see the
cracks being exposed.
And what happens when you begin
to see cracks all over?
It collapses.
That's what happens.
But if you are building, if
you're diligent, one block on
top of the other, a little here,
a little there, and you're
building.
You stand before the king, you
stand before decision makers,
you stand before those who have
the power.
SPEAKER_01: All right then.
Don't be in a hurry to be seen.
SPEAKER_00: Don't be.
When you fulfill the conditions,
when the conditions arrive, the
light will shine.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
Go be diligent and just be
patient.
The stage will come to you.