Shamelessness: A Key to Visibility

When I was younger, there were certain fields I thought I would definitely build a career in. I come from a family of artists, and creatives. My grandfather was, and still is an avid writer, artist, and, he also served as the Assistant Protocol Officer under J.G Fingesi at FESTAC ’77. My father was the young man who produced and directed the first Nigerian home video film “Living In Bondage”, and subsequently, many other movies, birthing Nollywood as we know it today. Creativity runs in my blood. So when I was a little girl, I sang, I acted, I read, I wrote. I did it all and it all came easily to me. And whenever I was asked what I wanted to be in future, I wanted to be anything that would let me keep doing it all.

Growing up, and I’m still growing, I know, I took my natural gifting for granted. They came “too” easily. I didn’t have to work hard at them. So I never quite put in the work into doing more of those, or making the best of the little I could do.

In addition, I had imbibed this air of faux-humility that made me shy away from lauding myself and “showing off” my talents. I fell into the habit of deliberately taking the backseat in an attempt to prove to myself, and others that I was a “team player”.

Today, I find so many people excelling at things that I can do with so much ease, and they do it with considerably less skill than mine. This is not to toot my horn. Not to say that I will not be tooting my horn in this article, but at this juncture, I am not doing that yet. I am merely stating facts. If anything, I am addressing the ways I have failed myself. Today, I am not really any of those things I thought I would be. Yet. I am neither known for music, nor my writing. I am also not known for movies. Most people who know me in a professional capacity are only just now discovering these parts of me. That points to something.

Currently, I am barely two years into the labour market and I’ve come to realise this: Nobody cares. Okay, that might not be exactly accurate. However, it is true in a few steads.

For one, nobody really cares about what you can do if you are not actively showing them that you are capable of it.

Secondly, in this “superficial” world, everybody wants to be associated to a success story. If other peoples’ work is good, and they are famed for their good work, and yours is better, but nobody has heard of it, best believe people will go for the good work. Why? Because value here is, or at least, appears to be doubled over and there is a feeling of safety and certainty that comes with the “tried and trusted”, even if it is not the absolute best.

Thus, nobody cares about your good skills till you demonstrate them and show them why they should care. If you want to get more out of your career, or even life in general, you need to be visible. So, yes, develop yourself, but don’t fall into the trap of thinking your skills are all you have to bring to the table to “sell market”.

I’m quite certain that a number of you reading this have heard this saying, “good work speaks for itself”. Well, if you’re waiting for your works to blow your trumpet, you might be waiting a long, long time. Speaking of, there’s also that saying about not blowing your trumpet. Why shouldn’t you? If the trumpet is indeed yours, it makes no sense to rely solely on other people to blow it for you. And if that is what you do, you cannot be upset when they play a song you don’t like with your trumpet. Trumpets are meant to be blown, so blow yours.

It is important to note that the reason we keep making these mistakes and selling ourselves short is most likely because we have been taught that it is a virtue to do so. To self-deny, and to shy away from accepting well-deserved credit. This indoctrination can come in various forms of advice, such as these;

Your work should speak for itself

There is no “I” in team

Self-promotion is pride

All of these schools of thoughts and others like them teach us to shrink ourselves, and feel uncomfortable with strategically positioning ourselves to get our next goals, or to attain that breakthrough we dream of so fervently.

However, the truth is these are just mindsets. You do not have to be bound to them. Divorce them. They serve you no purpose.

No, you are not asking for too much when you want to take on new challenges at your job. No, it is not impossible for you to get recognized when you put in the work. No, it is not far out to dream of getting recommendations, and votes of confidence from members of teams you’ve worked with.

Visibility is key to achieving all of this. And while we are talking about visibility, it is also important that this does not take away from the place of skill.

Essentially, visibility is the guarantee that your skills will be noticed, and nobody can make this happen for you better than yourself. View skills as the standpoint upon which you build the trajectory for your visibility. Visibility ensures that you are known, while skills define what you may be known for.

So, this is my charge to you; be shameless about your visibility!