Properly Estimate the Value of Your Contribution

Sometimes, you have to remind people who you are and why they love you. Sounds like vanity, I know. But there is more to it than stroking your ego.

Fundamentally, leadership is service and vice versa. That is, when you optimize your natural gifts and talents, it requires that you help your people solve real problems. Ironically, that's when the trouble often begins.

The Yoruba say, it is when the patient is cured, that he will slap his doctor. It means that people are apt to become arrogant and disrespectful as soon as they get a little relief; as soon as they learn a little, as soon as the pain subsides, as soon as they get what they want, you become obsolete. Some of them will even claim that it was they who did you the favor.

This is totally consistent with the organizing principles of Yoruba spirituality. The Holy Odu OsaOyeku literally means, You run back to me to avert death. In this particular Ifa, Orunmila teaches us how the patient refused to recognize the value of the babalawo's service. Subsequently, it was not until she had one foot in the grave that she went running back to Ifa to be rescued.

Even the Orisa have been susceptible to forgetting their benefactor. The Holy Odu IrosunOse tells us how the divinities once proclaimed that they were responsible for the universe and did not need Olodumare. It was not until the Creator withdrew his ase and the entire universe came to a screeching halt that they came to their senses and realized that they are not the SOURCE of life; they merely MANAGE and SUSTAIN the forces that Olodumare has set into motion.

The key here is that you must properly estimate the value of your contribution. Part of your service includes knowing exactly what problem you solve and being able to articulate what happens when people fail to adhere. ​

To be absolutely clear, I am not talking about doomsday predictions, fear mongering or making claims of having absolute truth. I am talking about how important it is for you to articulate natural consequences. For example,

• If you're a dentist, you might say "This is what happens if you do not brush your teeth" 
• If you're a mechanic, you might say, "This is what happens if you do not put oil in your car" 
• If you're a marriage counselor, you might say, "This is what happens if you do not show respect to your husband" 

In the Orisa Lifestyle Academy, I teach my students and apprentices the importance of embracing their natural gifts and talents, largely because it is through those talents that the students have gained unique insights into natural consequences. They have intimate, firsthand experience with certain practices.

• The artist knows the detrimental effects of not being exposed to creative thinking.
• The advisor knows how the seeker will become distracted and get lost without direction. 
• The activist knows how the people's lives will be unfilled without a cause to which they are devoted. 

I am looking for leaders who are committed to improving the world through positive influence. If that is who you are, find out how Obafemi Origunwa and the Orisa Lifestyle Academy can help you take your practice and your life to the next level. 

Learn more: ObafemiO.com