Rainmakers by definition are people who make things happen. They are people who are relied on by others to create paths and chart the road to success and achievement.

In sports, corporate circles and in almost any sphere of human life, we see how rain makers impact and are celebrated.

It is however quite easy to assume that life has limited spaces for rainmakers.

I believe the contrary. I believe that every man and woman was born a rainmaker, but we only see and hear of those who take the bold steps to fulfilling their calling as rainmakers. I have been quite fascinated by the concept of rainmaking for the best part of twenty-five years and have come to the conclusion that rainmaking is a process and everyone including you and I have the ability to make rain.

Studying the lives of Kwame Nkrumah, Ben Carson, Nelson Mandela, Sir Richard Branson, Steve Jobs, Prince Kofi Amoabeng and Patrick Awuah to mention a few, I have gleaned some pillars of rainmaking and I share them with you.

Rainmaking is not for super heroes but for every human being that dares to work on the pillars I share in the following text.

1. TALENT is a person’s natural skill or aptitude to do something. The stories of many rainmakers reveal that they were able to accomplish greatness because they used their natural and inborn abilities to create for themselves relevance and value. Some have natural oratory skills, others have a knack for numbers and some have a natural ability to understand and solve complex problems. Whoever you are, I believe you are endowed with a natural skill or aptitude to do one thing or the other with great ease.

Talents often manifest in most people at a very early age however there is a chance that they are often overlooked and therefore not harnessed into the value bearing abilities they are. This doesn’t suggest that there is no chance of spotting and using your talent once you are past your early developmental stage. Life has room for late starters and your talents are never out of place for as long as you don’t give up finding and using them to make a difference.

2. INSPIRATION is a common thread I found in the stories of the rainmakers I have studied so far. In the lives of many rainmakers you’ll find that inspiration is often the catalyst that moves a person to start using their talent to affect their life and those around them. Inspiration is important to achievement, it stimulation of the mind that informs a person of the possibilities around them. Inspiration sparks excitement and when the excitement is harnessed it leads to action which is required to bring one’s talent’s to the fore and make rain. Take the story of the founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg for example. He was inspired by the dream to see a university campus where everyone could be socially connected in cyberspace and this led to the creation of the world’s number one social network worth billions of dollars today. Many rainmaker stories have been born from simple inspirations followed by action.

3. PERSPIRATION simply put is sweating. Nothing is achieved in life without persistent action to see a cause through to its end. I am yet to find a rainmaker who did nothing to achieve success. There are many talented people who go through life and have a lot of inspiration and yet achieve nothing. When talent and inspiration lack action, nothing happens. Talent is not enough to become a rainmaker. Perspiration is however not necessarily a physical action, it also may be the mental strength to push ahead when you face bouts of failure in your quest to make rain. Thomas Edison once said “Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration”. We therefore cannot underestimate the importance of hard-work, diligence or perspiration if we are to make rain. The stories of the rainmakers I have come across clearly showed that without their individual drive to work hard they would not have achieved anything.

4. PRACTICE makes perfect it is said. I agree to this statement because I believe that talent is key in rainmaking and thank God we all have one or more talents but talent is not enough. Without fine tuning your talent through practice along with the other principles mentioned, you run the risk of not becoming a rainmaker. No sports personality achieved global dominance and success by just having natural skill and aptitude. Taking you talent and constantly sharpening it, shaping and making it a potent advantage is definitely the way to go. Practice will help you learn what works and what doesn’t. Practice will present you with scenarios and instances where you learn new and more effective ways to use your talent.

There is a rainmaker within every human being but without taking deliberate steps to bring out what’s within, we run the risk of existing when we could live fulfilling lives and leave major footprints on our world. Anytime you think of the achievements of individuals like Kwame Nkrumah, Ben Carson, Nelson Mandela, Sir Richard Branson, Steve Jobs, Prince Kofi Amoabeng and Patrick Awuah, remember they have a story and in that story is their ability to use their talents, recognize inspiration and act on it with persistence to achieve the successes we have come to know them for.

It is within you to make rain. Go Forward and be the Rainmaker you were born to be.

Shalom, I am Nhyira Addo, The Rainmaker