Blue Timothy Osadebe

I’ve made a lot of career mistakes over the past few years, and I’m finally honest enough to admit it.

My biggest mistake was constantly trying to do things I wasn’t physically built for, instead of focusing on the gift God actually gave me — consulting.

For years, I have always been good at one thing:

Finding the root cause of a business problem, diagnosing it, and giving a clear, practical action plan that leads to a result.

I’ve been doing this for 8+ years.

It comes naturally to me.

It is where my real value is.

But for a long time, I didn’t believe organizations would value that skill enough

Especially in Nigeria, where many companies expect you to “work endlessly” instead of thinking strategically, where your value is measured only by your physical input and not your strategic or mental input.

So I kept trying to “prove myself” by adding extra services just to earn — graphics, content, video editing, digital marketing, etc.

Yes, I’m extremely good at them.

But the truth is simple: they drain me.

I live with sickle cell, and I have physical limitations I can’t pretend don’t exist.

Every time I pushed myself beyond my limit, I paid for it with a crisis.

And each time, the money I earned went right back into treatment.

But I kept making those mistakes

I kept overpromising.

I kept trying to impress organizations by doing more.

I kept offering services I wasn’t passionate about.

And I kept putting myself in situations that jeopardized my health.

All because I didn’t think my consulting ability was “enough.

But I was wrong, it was actually enough, & it was worth more than I thought.

The number one deliverable of a consultant is simple:

(A clear, actionable path to a specific result.)

And that is what I have always been exceptional at — leadership, diagnosis, strategy, structure, growth, clarity, management, and action plans that actually work.

And guess what, it is more than enough from me, not many people could do it.

It was one thing I excelled at, & it deserved more pay than I wanted to believe.

In Igbo land, we have a saying that goes like this, (Ekere oru eke), meaning that the work is divided.

I didn't have to do everything just to prove I deserve the pay; I just had to focus on the one thing I was good at, and other professionals could handle the rest.

I don’t need to be the one doing the graphics or running the ads.

I don’t need to sit for hours video-editing.

I don’t need to “prove my hard work” with physical tasks.

My value is in my mind.

My strength is in my clarity.

My gift is in seeing what others don’t see.

And going forward, that is exactly what I’m going to focus on.

No more overpromising.

No more trying to offer everything.

No more putting my health at risk because I want to earn money.

I am a consultant.

I am a coach.

That is where my true potential is.

That is where God placed my gift.

And that is what I’m going to start promoting and offering — confidently

There are organizations out there that don’t need my physical strength.

They need my brain — my ideas, my strategy, my clarity, my guidance.

And they will value it, because it delivers real results.

If there’s one thing we can learn from a suya man, it’s this:

“Give them a Taste first, and if it is good, they will come for more.”

That’s what I’m going to start doing — showing what I can do instead of trying to convince people with words.

My goal has always been the same: to help businesses grow so they can create jobs, improve society, and make a real impact, and that is why I am so passionate about helping businesses grow as a consultant.

So yes, I made mistakes.

But those mistakes taught me something important:

I cannot build the life I want by doing things that break my body.

I can only build it by doing what truly aligns with my gift — consulting.

And that is exactly what I’m committing to from today.

Thank you for reading!

What career mistakes did you make, and when did you figure it out?

Let's talk in the comments!