Finance
How to Become Useful: Why Money Follows Problem Solvers
Someone asked me in the comments yesterday:
“Sir, please teach me to be useful.”
That question took me back many, many years.
While I was at the university, sometime around 2003, I noticed something at FUTO.
Many students were struggling with their final-year project documentation.
Many students were struggling with their final-year project documentation.
At the time, I had learned how to type, format and design documents using my Pentium 3 computer, and I knew how to use it very well.
Think about the opportunity for a moment.
Almost every final-year student needed to prepare a project, yet there were fewer business centres then, and many of them were still relying on outdated equipment and photocopying machines.
I saw a problem I knew how to solve.
I started helping students type, arrange, correct and format their projects. I would prepare everything properly and print all five original copies, so there was no need for them to photocopy the work afterward.
Suddenly, I had become useful.
Students were willing to pay me because I was solving a real problem for them. That was how I eventually made my first one million.
It taught me one of my earliest lessons about money:
Money follows usefulness.
When you develop a valuable skill that solves a real problem for people, you create value. And when people can see the value you create, they are often willing to pay for it.
Usefulness Can Open Doors Money Cannot
After graduation, I carried the same mindset with me.
At one point, I worked for free in my Chairman’s business centre at Mbari Street because I saw a problem I could help solve.
I was not thinking only about what I would be paid immediately. I was thinking about how I could contribute.
That small act of usefulness opened a relationship that eventually connected me to Barr. Anselem Okorie, and that relationship later took me into the MDGs space.
Now imagine if my attitude had been:
“I cannot work or become useful because nobody is paying me.”
I might have missed a door that eventually changed the direction of my life.
That experience reinforced something I had already started learning: not every opportunity arrives looking like money.
Sometimes it arrives looking like a problem.
Sometimes it looks like work nobody wants to do.
Sometimes it looks like a difficult situation that everyone else is avoiding.
I Stopped Running Away From Difficult Problems
From there, I kept learning and trying to solve harder problems.
I stopped running away from difficult things.
If I did not know how to solve something, I studied it.
If I failed, I learned from it.
If something looked confusing, I stayed with it until I understood it.
Over time, that habit increased my capacity.
And that same mindset eventually followed me into business.
When I started Pamtech from my little salary savings, I was not simply looking for where the money was.
I was looking for problems.
I asked questions.
What problems were people facing in the oil and gas industry?
What was difficult or frustrating for filling station owners?
Where were people losing time?
Where were they losing money?
Where was trust breaking down?
Where could convenience be improved?
We started solving some of those problems.
As we became more useful, we started growing.
Every Business Exists to Solve a Problem
When I look at the different businesses we have built today, there is one thing connecting them all:
Problem solving.
Autoland solves mobility problems.
Oil and gas solves energy and supply problems.
Real estate solves housing and investment problems.
Media solves visibility problems.
Technology solves automation problems.
Mentorship solves problems around knowledge, structure and business growth.
Different industries. Different customers. Different business models.
But underneath them all is the same principle.
Someone has a problem, and someone else has developed the capacity to solve it.
That is usefulness.
So, How Do You Become Useful?
If you are young and asking me how to become useful, my answer is simple:
Look around you.
What are people struggling with?
What are they constantly complaining about?
What keeps disturbing businesses around you?
Where are people wasting time or money?
What problem is everybody avoiding because it looks too difficult?
Find it, then learn how to solve it.
If businesses around you are struggling to sell, learn sales and marketing.
If people are struggling with technology, learn AI and digital tools.
If your workplace has one difficult problem everybody keeps running away from, become the person who understands that problem.
Study it.
Ask questions.
Experiment.
Learn from people who already understand it.
Keep working on it until you can solve it reliably.
That is how you gradually become difficult to replace.
Your Usefulness Cannot Grow Faster Than Your Knowledge
There is another part many people miss.
You cannot continue becoming more useful without continuing to learn.
If your knowledge remains the same, eventually your usefulness will remain the same too.
Read consistently.
Observe your environment.
Ask questions.
Listen carefully when people complain. Complaints often reveal problems, and problems can reveal opportunities.
Study people.
Study businesses.
Study your industry.
Pay attention to the things people wish were easier, faster, cheaper or better.
And most importantly, create time to think.
Many people are so busy moving from one activity to another that they never stop long enough to notice where opportunities are hiding.
Sometimes you need to sit quietly and ask yourself:
“What difficult problem around me can I train myself to solve better?”
That question can change your life.
I did not become useful because I had money.
I became useful because I kept learning how to solve problems.
And every time my capacity to solve problems increased, my value increased. As my value increased, opportunities increased, and eventually, income followed.
So today, ask God to open your eyes to the problems around you and give you the wisdom, discipline and capacity to develop the skills needed to solve them.
Do not only look for money.
Look for where you can create value.
Look for what needs fixing.
Look for what people find difficult.
Look for what people are frustrated about.
Then become exceptionally good at solving it.
Your next level may be hiding inside somebody else’s complaint and frustration.
NC
About the Author
Engr. Ndubuisi Chidomere, MNSE is a Nigerian engineer-turned-entrepreneur, founder and CEO of Pamtech Group, a diversified conglomerate operating in automotive, oil & gas, media, and innovation sectors. He is a Forbes Business Council Member and thought leader on African entrepreneurship.
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