Step Out of Your Shell

By Tawanda Silas Chitiyo

The book aims to provoke and challenge people to live their lives to their fullest potential. The author discusses issues that hinder people from achieving their best and does this through the use of what he calls, ‘The Human Shell.’ The author encourages people to live purposeful and impactful lives through knowing and identifying what their Gifts, Loves, Abilities, Talents, Interests and Strengths (GLATIS) are. The objective is to ultimately provoke people to step out of their shells in order to reach their greatest heights and he uses real life stories, studies and his own experiences to achieve this.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tawanda Silas Chitiyo
• Release date: Jan 24, 2018
• ISBN: 9781370840700

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COPYRIGHT PAGE

Copyright © 2017 by Tawanda Silas Chitiyo. All rights reserved.

This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Disclaimer and Terms of Use:

This book is designed to provide information and motivation to readers. It is sold with the understanding that the author and publisher is not engaged to render any type of psychological, legal, or any other kind of professional advice. The content of this book is the sole expression and opinion of its author and not necessarily that of the publisher. No warranties or guarantees are expressed or implied by the publisher’s choice to include any of the content in this volume. Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for any physical, psychological, emotional, financial or commercial damages. Our views and rights are the same. You are responsible for your own choices, actions and results.

Printed in the Republic of Namibia

First Edition, 2017

ISBN:9781370840700

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STEP OUT

OF YOUR

SHELL

What Causes People Not to Live to Their Fullest Potential?

By

Tawanda Silas Chitiyo

DEDICATION

To my father, Mr. David Chitiyo and to my mother, Mrs. Emily Chitiyo. Your hard work and commitment towards each other has made me who I am today. You have instilled in me the principle of hard work. You have stood by me in my darkest times. I appreciate you and love you both. May you have many more years of life even in your ripe old age.

And to all those who are discontent with being average and refuse to settle for less than what the world has to offer, this book is dedicated to you, the goal getters and legacy builders of our time. May you be met with great success as you strive towards attaining your highest aspirations in life!

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremost I thank God for the gift of life and for giving me the sanity of mind and creativity of thought to be able to write this book. You have given me the power to believe in my passion and pursue my dreams. I thank my current Pastor, Mr. John Hafeni Kamati for being a second father to me despite him already being a full time dad to his own four children. You equally have stood by me in my trying times and my acknowledgement also goes to your lovely wife, Mrs. Petrina Kamati for her kindness and warmness of heart. This book would not have seen the light of day without your help.

I extend my gratitude to the many people who saw me through this book and assisted in the editing, proofreading and design. Special mention goes to you Allen Kwenda for playing a major role in the design of this book. My gratitude goes to all my business associates and partners with special mention of you Erica Gatawa and Rauna Nghatanga. A special thank you to all my friends. May we be met with great success as we journey through this adventure called life and may our wildest dreams come true.

FOREWORD

In my many years of leadership in the corporate world, I have found that one of the main tasks of leadership is to grow people. However, I have noted that most leaders fail to grow other people because they have not taken time to grow themselves. I have come to realise that a lot of leaders fail to have confidence in other people and believe in other people because they themselves do not have confidence in themselves and do not believe in themselves. How can we make impact when we do not believe in ourselves? How can we have the confidence to make a difference when we do not have confidence in our own capacity and abilities? One of my fundamental beliefs is that you cannot achieve much in life or make a difference in people’s lives unless you first believe in yourself and your capabilities.

This book will inspire you to believe in yourself, in your capacity, in your abilities and to follow that passion that you have at heart. It will help ignite the spark within you to unleash your potential. We all have shells. One which I have particularly observed in many people is that feeling that the world owes them something. They wait on other people to help them grow instead of growing themselves. The world is our place to play and not to be timid. It is our place to show energy and to get noticed and it starts with the small things even from school such as debating in the school team, standing out in

your university lectures and utilising every opportunity that comes your way to exude energy and be noticed. Focus on what matters in your life. Optimise your time as mentioned in this book. Extend your day by investing in yourself and using your strengths, abilities and talents to realise your full potential even after your 8am to 5pm job. The world is our place to play. Let us optimise our time. Instead of wasting countless hours talking about other people and their flaws and failures, let us take that time to reflect on our inner selves, our strengths, our capabilities and what we can do to grow ourselves which inevitably helps us to grow others and make a difference.

As you read this book, you will be inspired to unleash your potential. You will be challenged to step out of your shell in order to reach your highest aspirations in life. You will be put to task to believe in yourself and in your abilities. This is a great initiative by the author to help grow others by sharing his insights and wisdom on unleashing individual potential. I strongly recommend this book to anyone who is serious about growing themselves, has great dreams in life and wants to do something about it.

Jerry Muadinohamba

Entrepreneur and Former CEO of MVA Fund Namibia

PREFACE

The thought, There must be more to my life than this, is a thought that every great mind has pondered upon at some point in time. The human spirit longs to be stretched and exhausted to its full potential to make this world a better place. Many people journey through life oblivious of their purpose for living. Many settle for less and live below their full potential eventually taking their potential with them to the graveyard. Others fully recognise their potential but pursue their parent’s dreams or the wrong vocations and careers altogether. Resultantly, many people in our imperfect world are dissatisfied and unfulfilled in their daily lives because they are not being, simply put, THEMSELVES. The statement, This is not me, comes to mind. How different would the world be if each person fulfilled their purpose, if each person fully utilised the resources within them to make the world a better place. It is my greatest desire in life is to see each human being on this earth live out their life to the fullest of their potential. My desire is to see each person fulfill their purpose here on earth. It is my mission to provoke and challenge you to become the best version of whom you were created to be. It is my observation that the majority of us have betrayed ourselves. We have betrayed who we are at the core of our being. We have chosen either the easier path in our lives or the more popular path in our lives in the bid to survive, or simply put, to please people. We have shun the less popular paths that would bring us the most fulfillment and have opted for the more convenient and comfortable paths in our lives which leave us unfulfilled and asking, ‘Is there not more to my life than this?’ But why is this so? Is it fear of the unknown, fear that we are incapable, fear of criticism, fear of failure, fear of ridicule? Whatever the reason may be, most of us are living below our potential. It is my sincere desire that I will awaken the greatness within you and cause you to step out of your shell and live your life to the fullest. And as is my motto, my desire for you is the following, that you:

‘Live Your Life Full, Die Empty, and Take Nothing with You to the Grave!’

INTRODUCTION

As I start writing this book it is 6:20pm and I am replaying in my mind the events that have unfolded throughout the day. A few hours earlier, I gave a motivational speech to a group of young entrepreneurs who are the leaders and pillars of tomorrow. The speaker who spoke before me is a well renowned Namibian entrepreneur who eloquently talked about what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur. I would like to just briefly share his story with you as I relate it to the concept of ‘The Human Shell’ that I am introducing in this publication.

This entrepreneur took it upon himself to write a book based on his many previous business failures. The irony of his story is that though things were tough at the time of writing his book, he titled his book 'New Money Masters.’ The thing I find interesting here is that though things were not rosy at the time, he still was bold enough to write a book about making money. How contrary that is to most of us. Some of us would have wined and groped about our circumstances and gone on pity parties, but not this man. A lot of us would have postponed writing that book until we had actually become rich enough to have credibility to write such a book. But not this man. Despite his negative and contradicting circumstances, he used what he had at his disposal at that time. All he had were many failed business ventures. Instead of looking at this in the negative light, he was positive and realised he could use these experiences to make other upcoming entrepreneurs learn from his failures. As a result, he titled the book, 'New Money Masters' and also put an interesting and very relevant subtitle, 'How not to make a hundred million.’ This book was more of a 'learn from my mistakes' kind of book and instantly drew people's attention. The book went on to sell like hot cakes and helped propel his business career and open opportunities for him to travel the world and access opportunities that he might not have accessed if he had not written this book. The two lessons to be picked up from this are that:

Any negative circumstance has a positive to it. It is usually within our reach but requires us to look deep within ourselves to see what we can use to create room for ourselves.

Complaining, grumbling and going on pity parties because of the circumstances we find ourselves in never made anyone successful in life. It only takes taking positive action despite negative circumstances to experience progress in our lives. For this entrepreneur, it was writing the book despite all his negative circumstances that made the difference.

When this entrepreneur finishes his presentation, I then go on to give a motivational speech. The title of the speech that I give after this entrepreneur is titled, 'Step out of your shell!' In my speech I talk about how the earth was once just a vast expanse of natural resources but has become a hub of such brilliant inventions and technology because of mankind's inborn potential. Not a single invention can be attributed to a divine being or angel doing the work here on earth. No! It was all mankind who made such wonderful technologies and inventions by utilising the natural resources provided to him and the GLATIS and potential within him. Every human being on earth, regardless of sex, age, gender, race or ethnicity has what I call GLATIS which consists of the following:

G Gifts

L Loves

A Abilities

T Talents

I Interests

S Strengths

This is true of every human being on earth and if one has not yet discovered their GLATIS, it does not mean that they do not have them. It simply means they have not discovered them yet. I liken it to a well.

Unless a person decides to deliberately drill deep down into the earth’s crust to pump up water, they may not know or be able to utilise the water underground but it does not necessarily mean that the water is not there.

Nevertheless, what exactly is human potential? It simply refers