Hi my friend! How are you? Trust you’re doing great. Permit me to share with you some commonsense on relevance and being in vogue taking to mind that being up-to-date is the only bulletproof not to go out-of-date. So this is titled: Spark up or Pack up! Please enjoy your read!
“To keep glowing and going in life, there is the need to keep growing. Contemporary relevance and importance is tied to the wheels of continual branding efforts – ceaseless improvements.” – ‘Kayode Oyero
It was a Sunday evening. I sat down in my living room savouring an episode of a soap opera. It was a recorded transmission on a terrestrial television station. Cool and splendid was the natural gust of refreshing breeze that sipped in through the chinks of the cross-ventilated windows of my living room. Life without that composite mixture of elements called air would be nothing but a steel foundary, a blacksmith’s hearth, an oven, I am certain. No wonder its absence or insufficiency makes occupants of overcrowding locations go no longer at ease. Thank God for this panacea of suffocation! Life without it would have been hell I tell you!
The interruption of audio-visual commercials was tiresome, most especially those that flitted by right in the middle of tense, electrifying, suspense-filled and interesting scenes of the episode. In fact, almost thirty out of the sixty minutes allotted to the soap generously catered for sundry advertisements, campaigns, promotions and public notices, of course flagged by sponsors of the programme.
“Dis programme sef. Na wa o! I don’t even know if it’s a disguised trade fair for displaying products and services!” my sister squawked in disgust, hissing immediately afterwards – her body language complementing her disinterest at the commercials.
But discerningly, even at her heightened hatred for the deluge of commercials that littered that episode of the soap, I can’t but be fascinated to the attention-getting and carefully cooked commercials, both for products and services. It was so riveting. From the switch to product repackage to bonanzas, refined product delivery, newly introduced installment payment scheme, after-purchase free services, redefined eye-pleasing graphics, adoption of fan-loving celebrities for endorsement of products and services and other thrilling exclusive concepts. With these and many innovations, products and services in the same utility category were just out to out-fame one another. Hence, my conclusion that a number of these companies and business owners are conscious of a nine letter word: relevance.
As man, the desire to venture into adventure is almost insatiable. Of course, we are wired by nature to long for and cuddle discoveries, innovations, inventions and improved ways of doing things. We like regeneration, perhaps as an escape from going on a perpetual routine. The special specie of creatures, especially those called men dread repetition. An idea, concept, lifestyle, property, phenomenon, genre of music or even a fashion outlook captivating today can within a twinkle of become old-fashioned and once-upon-a-time if no repackaging efforts is injected into it.
The principle is quite simple: no innovation, more deterioration. People are always on the lookout for a new outlook; a creative design and innovative approach to things so fresh from the crucible. I’ll explain what I mean.
For instance, view the present outlook of a house gorgeously painted thirty years ago. Visualize the current state of a frock that was the kill of the town ten years ago. Peep through your mind’s eye and objectively tell which you now prefer between the motoring technologies of then and now – the Mercedes Benz, Volvo, BMW et al of the 1980’s or the Sport Utility Vans (SUVs), Hi-tech Muranos or Limousines that characterize the new millennium. Hmmn! Your preference no doubt is instructive that no individual wants to be identified with obsoleteness.
Dear friend, branding should not be solely restricted to material and inanimate vocations and abstract phenomenon like the advertisement of goods and services; its tentacles should leverage beyond that territory into the sociological patterns, lifestyle and general anthropological affairs of man.
Though as humans we may have no capacity whatsoever – whether magical or technological to reborn a younger version of ourselves like the mythical phoenix, but of course, we have the wherewithal to re-create, re-invent and re-brand ourselves. The largest room in life still remains the room of improvement, growth and development. The same you can only be refurbished by the same you. It’s all about energy!
Many a wife’s marital woes at the moment is as a result of laxity and complacency. No new delicacy or cuisine for one, two, three years. No new mating style. No new dress sense. No new positively picked up habits. A hairdo lasting for six months with repelling and tousled undergrowths before change. No invention of scintillating love names. Haba! All these and you expect him to keep ‘dying’ for you?! I’m sorry. I am afraid your nonchalance will make him keep ‘waking’ and consequently endear him to the nifty-handed mama put’s daughter who’s got the cookery ability to whet and wet his tongue with different spicy delicacies, day in day out. Mama put’s daughter applied no voodoo or philter on him; she only pulled at her most effective packaging string by bringing new cuisines to the table every now and then, icing her efforts with attractive and almost un-refusable body languages – that alone is enough to do the magic and get him inescapably hooked in her carefully spread bait. It may appear funny but it’s not a laughing matter I tell you.
Mind you, as it is in the feminine world so also it is in the masculine. Many a husband is archaic and far from being tender when it comes to love. Going on vacation with his woman for splendid experiences and pleasurable moments in new environments which affords greater and refreshed marital intimacy and bonding is no priority to him, hence making the matrimony a bland business as usual! So pathetic!
Dear friend that human cohabitation is not complex as some assume. Smooth untiring social co-existence devoid of boredom and full of corporate relevance at work and personal prestige, be it in marriage, courtship or relationship is possible and achievable if we constantly repackage ourselves; both intellectually and physically.
May I drop this on you:
Dynamism is the secret of relevance; Improvement is the oxygen that sustains it. Even the visually impaired appreciates a newly renovated property. Even the deaf relishes the sweet and tuneful sensation of a just released musical album. Even a widow can be mistaken for a sweet sixteen for branding sake. Even the rejected stone in business deliberations, having inhaled the oxygen of personal reinvention and cognitive re-equipment, can turn to be the BBB: Brain behind the Business, chucking out amazing and productive business strategies and ideas that eventually birth landslide successes, making his or her presence and views invaluable, indispensable and indisposable during business decisions.
My dear friend, for you to arrest contemporary relevance and distinction, there is the need for constant branding and re-branding as well as re-invention and innovation. Life becomes a gaunt bundle of boredom and monotony when things are done in a fixed pattern or behaviour, when nothing changes positively about us. There is nothing as disinteresting as a life at inertia. Indeed, when boredom sets in, relevance sets out and abandonment automatically holds sway.
You see, when something becomes a routine, its value becomes thin and before long, the world leaves it and move on to celebrate another thing. Indeed, people who don’t grow have no alternative than to groan.
Change is the only constant thing in life, so I have heard many people profess. But let’s face it. Anyone who refuses positive change, transformation and evolution faces the wrath of change. The world turns its back to anyone or anything that refuses change. Consequently, it suffers abandonment and neglect. Antiquity has no fan. Man generally fancy and cuddle new ways of doing things, new attitudes, new found fame and new electronics. We are lovers and connoisseurs of brand new things.
Getting started for constant personal rebranding to achieve steadfast relevance? Here are three wise decisions you must live in its consciousness.
Number One: Avoid complacency
Never rejoice long in the comfortability of a comfort zone. When you stop thinking, you start stinking. Remember: no innovation, more deterioration. Always strive for a better you. Read more. Acquire more useful information. Learn more skills. Attend more seminars, trainings and workshops. You can’t be loaded and not be needed.
Number Two: Flexibility
This is a civilization mentality. Go with the trend. Gone are the days of paper communication and documentation in the corporate environment; almost everything has gone digital. Acquire basic computing skills to thrive and survive this evolution if you have not. Also, brush up your diction. Polish your vocabulary; it is a golden opportunity to create a positive first impression. Remember the cliché: first impression lasts longer? Great! You are as brilliant as what you last wrote and your last utterance. Go with the flow. Those who don’t, lie low.
Number Three: Creativity
One of the easiest ways to miss it in life is imitation. Don’t be a conformer. Don’t be a prisoner of tradition. Tread paths yet to be trod. Go creative. Go exclusive. Embellish yourself. For instance, a couple tired of matrimony can spice up their marital relationship if they can just change their style of doing everything and go adventurous. Do something positively differently. A little change of style and approach will go a long way in making a positive turn-around difference to your life I bet you. Remember: someone initiated sachet water into the Nigerian economy. It was never in existence before. And today, it is the fastest resort of the common man whenever he wants to slake his thirst, thus, the emergence of many water packaging factories every here and there. Go initiative! Initiate something new. Don’t bother whether it would be accepted or not. Just do it. Risk-takers are fortune-reapers!
Dear friend, if you don’t move with the moving train you will be left behind. Life is a moving train. Inertia and stagnancy brings about irrelevance. Step up to the latest version of you. Being up-to-date is the only bulletproof not to go out-of-date. The gospel truth is: no innovation, more deterioration. It is either you spark up or you pack up. You may be as good as you are for the moment but may not be for the next moment if you rest on your oars. Please start sparkling! Be an unpredictable super-success!
© ‘Káyọ̀dé Oyèró | 2014
All Rights Reserved.
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