People who’ve found their place in life will always employ those looking for a place to work

“Until you find your place in life, you will be displaced” — Mike Murdock

Bill Gates was not a too fantastic student while in school; he struggled with dismal grades and poor results. There was also a young chap in his class, apparently one of his closest friends, with top grades and fantastic results. To the teachers, the young chap was destined for greatness, or so they thought.

Gates eventually dropped out of school and became a fugitive for his passion. Everybody doubted the sensibility in his decision, but nevertheless, he found his place in life. The software guru has this to say many years after: “I failed in some subjects in exam, but my friend passed in all. Now he is an engineer in Microsoft and I am the owner of Microsoft.”

Archimedes, the legendary Greek Mathematician and Physicist, said: “Give me a firm place to stand and I will move the earth.” The ‘shakers’ and ‘movers’ of the world are mostly people that have found their place in life. There is a place for you.

When Usain Bolt was asked to clear the ambiguity on who the fastest man was between him and Michael Phelps, he said: “I can’t, I won’t compare myself with Michael Phelps. I’m on the track; he’s in the water. We can’t compare too much. He’s best in what he does.” People that have found their place in life don’t only shake the world; they don’t compare themselves with anybody.

Frederick Buechner said: “The place God calls you is the place where your deep gladness and world’s deep hunger meet.” Whether in career, business, relationships, gifting or creating a niche for your brand, you would have to find your PLACE.

People like Gates, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerbeg, Michael Dell, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Lionel Messi, etc have only one secret that made them tower above their colleagues and contemporaries- they found their PLACE.

Henry David Thoreau said: “When it is time to die, let us not discover that we have never lived.” Many people are living a life that is not theirs. Jobs said: “Your time is limited, don’t waste it living someone else’s life.”

You would never find your place in the world by being like everyone else; your life was never meant to be lived like everyone else. Your PLACE would always be connected to an unmet need or an opportunity to do good to others.

William Wilberforce found his place in seeing to it that slavery was eradicated in England. Nelson Mandela found his place in challenging the demeaning scourge of apartheid in South Africa. Rosa Parks, the woman mostly referred to as “the first lady of civil rights,” found her place in a bus in Alabama when she vehemently refused to give up her seat for a ‘white,’ as stipulated by law. Martin Luther King Jnr. found his place by fighting racism and bringing it to its knee. Gates found his place in ‘programming,’ thereby unleashing and stretching the capacity of the computer. Jobs found his place by putting the whole ‘world’ into a phone.

It is only the people that have found their place that would make impact and meaningful contributions in life. The greatest attack on destiny fulfillment is being in the wrong place, as it would bring the wrong people and wrong things into your life.

To find our place in life, we must follow our passion, discover our latent gifts and talents, discover and use the ability God has given to us to bless our audience, find the right company and turn our experience to expertise.

When we intelligently articulate all these five pointers, then we have discovered our PLACE.

Passion:
The easiest way to find your place in life is to simply find your passion. John C. Maxwell said: “People don’t need to follow the common path to be successful. They need to follow their passion.”

The secret of fulfillment in life is in following your passion. Most people are playing to the gallery of people’s applause and not their inner satisfaction. You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough, so find your passion and live your life.

Latent Gifts:
Myles Munroe said: “To know the right places for people, we must know their area of gifting.” In life, you would only shine in the area of your gifting. It has become an obvious truth that when we discover our gifts, we find our arena of authority in life.

Ability And Audience:
When you use the ability God has given you to bless your audience, then you have found your place in life.

I have always known that youths are my target audience. This knowledge helped me significantly over the years, as I took my time learning about the peculiarity of youth. I learnt about their language, their challenges, their needs and their ‘appetite.’ This has actually helped in reaching them better, carving a niche for myself as a youth coach and specialist.

Stardom is nothing more than discovering and reaching your audience with your unique abilities.

Company:
when a man has bad friends, the devil leaves him, because he does not deal with finished people. You would never find your place in life if you keep staying with the wrong people in the wrong places. Your company would ultimately determine what accompanies you in life.

Brian Tracy said: “Your choice of people you associate with will have more impact on what you become than any other single factor.”

Experience:
What we are going through is always linked to where we are going. William Wordsworth said: “The education of circumstances is superior to that of tuition.” It is only in adventure that some people succeed in knowing and finding themselves.

In the book, Long Walk to Freedom, an autobiographical work written by the late South African President, Nelson Mandela, he enumerated the central part played by his personal life experiences in the unfolding of his life assignment. His 27 years in prison became the crucible that eventually formed him in the fight against apartheid and tackling institutionalised racism and inequality.

When the late sage was being praised by journalists for becoming an extraordinary man as the first black President of South Africa, he quickly cut short the appraisal and said something worth noting: “I am not extraordinary because I am the president of South Africa; I became extraordinary because I went through extraordinary circumstances.”

Look inward, stop ‘wasting’ away by following the crowd. Find your passion, discover your gifts, reach out to your audience with the ability God has given to you, stay in the right company and don’t waste your experience.

The Bible says in Romans 8:19 that the whole world is waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God. The world is just waiting for you to find your place. There is a gift in you trying to find expression; there is a passion in you that is struggling to express itself. There are potentials in you waiting to be unleashed. You can’t fully live life until you learn to give expression to your passion.

What is your passion? It can be music, writing, acting, painting, sports, fashion designing, teaching, arts etc. Normal Cousin said: “The greatest tragedy of life is not that we die, but what dies in us while we live.” Don’t carry your passion to the grave.

Your own PLACE can be in the entertainment industry. You may even have a PLACE on screen as a screen goddess. Your PLACE can be in sports. Your own PLACE can be in the medical or nutrition world. Your own PLACE can be with helping youths and children find purpose in life. Your PLACE can be in women empowerment. May be you are even pregnant with books that the whole world is waiting for. The easiest way to find your PLACE is to find something that you are so passionate about.

Finally, I want you to know that you were born to do more than just go to work, pay bills and die. Stop living casually; those that live casually end up becoming casualties in life. Have you found your place? If you have not discovered your PLACE, you would be displaced. Life is too short to stay in the wrong places; find your PLACE.