By Doyin Adenike Ojoola

Certification according to the Oxford English Dictionary is the action or process of providing someone or something with an official document attesting to a status or level of achievement while fulfillment is the satisfaction or happiness as a result of fully developing one’s potential. Certificates and degrees do not reveal people to themselves; they, at most, measure our Intelligent Quotient (IQ). If you remove your certificate from the picture, what are those things you can do effortlessly well? You will definitely need the knowledge you have acquired in school, but they must not define your limitation. Do not allow your certificate to put a limit on what you are capable of doing. I have seen many graduates being successful in areas that have nothing to do with their course of study. Most students are studying what they do not even like in tertiary institutions, and further placing them in industries that have nothing to do with their passion and gift. This becomes a waste of their potentials.

The solutions to problems around you will always put a demand on skills that are beyond your certificate. In order to live a successful life, you must be willing to travel and navigate beyond the confines of your degree. The problems that you will solve on your journey to destiny fulfilment will require skills that you never acquired while in school. Formal education makes you a living; self-education makes you a legend. Formal education will teach you how to conform with society. Self-education will teach you how to get out of conformity so that you can fill your life with adventure and beauty. So many people spend their precious years in school only to end up acquiring certificate, NOT education! The solutions to the problems that you have been called to solve will demand that you think beyond your degree qualifications and certificates. Don’t allow life restrict and define your ability through your certificates.

You are full of limitless possibilities.

Never attach your identity to what you studied in school. Who you are and the problems that God has called you to solve are both far beyond your certificates or degrees.
Socrates said, “Man, know thyself.” The secret of success and the highest form of enlightenment lies in self-discovery. Self-discovery with self-mastery is real power. We need a generation that is more self-aware.
Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “‘Make the best of yourself because that is all there is of you.” The pertinent question is this: How can you make the best of yourself when you don’t even know who you are? I have often told people that there is no ‘recovery’ without ‘discovery’. A poor man is simply someone that has not discovered himself; poverty is lack of self-discovery.
When you realise your intrinsic worth, you will stop accepting peanuts as salary. The more you discover yourself, the more you realize the treasures that are hidden deep within you. We carry inside ourselves latent treasures that can only be unveiled through self-discovery. The essential part of the process of learning is gaining an understanding of ourselves. The main purpose of education is to take us on a journey of self-discovery and to unravel our hidden potentials and gifts, but the kind of education we practice in the world of today, with Africa being the worst hit, stifles our initiatives and ‘blankets’ our gifts. Galileo Galilei said, “You cannot teach a man anything, you can only help him find it within himself.”
We must know ourselves to grow ourselves.

The greatest hindrance to personal development is personal neglect. Aristotle once said, “The purpose of education is not the assimilation of knowledge but the development of personality”. “Who am I?” is a question we ask ourselves throughout our lives, in so many ways. Although popular imagination consigns self-discovery to adolescence, the work of finding yourself is life-long. Understanding and deciding who we are can bring a clarity of purpose, healing, strength, fulfilment and a steady sort of pleasure to our lives.

The 21st century employer does not necessarily pay you salary for the certificate that you possess but for the problems you can solve. Your certificate is useless if you cannot use it to solve problems. As a graduate, when your ability does not go beyond your certificate, you will ultimately become a liability. Your winning edge in life is not the degree you have acquired or the certificate that you possess. Your winning edge is in your ability to solve problems. The greatest form of disability in life is not knowing your ability. Never attach your identity to what you studied in school. Who you are and the problems that God has called you to solve are both far beyond your certificates or degrees.
Graduates who don’t think beyond their certificates will ultimately be employed by those who do. Never allow your certificate to block, blanket or hinder your unique abilities.
You are poor because the skills that are needed for you to be rich are beyond your certificates. Acquire experiences that are beyond your certificates. You need exposures that are different from your qualifications in school. If you are not committed to learning beyond your certificate, you will ultimately miss out on great opportunities. Think beyond your certificates and your possibilities will be limitless.

Ojoola writes from Lagos, Nigeria.