It may be counter-intuitive for me to say the world is filled with talented people simply because all we see almost every time is an utmost display showing "lack-of-talent" even so, there's just enough talent in the world, around you or in your industry to put you on the back bench!

I saw a video effect that about 10 years back only a professional film expert could produce with sophisticated equipment! Today it can be done with a simple video editing app with almost a novice user. I know organisations working openly (open source) to see that video editing get even simpler. So the unique value proposition of such a professional today can't be "I can add effect X" Who can't? The ease in starting is enormous hence the crowded space, is it any news that today Raju + One DSLR = Raju Photography? So how can you thrive?

Know People

Someone once told me "every single person you meet is an opportunity," I thought to myself that there are exceptions but then, I realised there can be an opportunity to wreck something in your life, lose, do nothing, gain, move up your carrier ladder, whatever! There are always varying degrees of opportunity in every person you know. Yes! Where I come from it's known as "connection" even though it has a negative connotation it's not a bad thing to be "connected" as a matter of fact if you have to survive in our current hostile environment you need to know people as make use of them to improve on yourself and whatever you are doing. Many times if you know who to get to if you need A or B the task becomes easier.

Get people know you

You knowing people does not mean they know you! I know a lot of people who don't know me and I have met people on the streets who greeted me, call my name and tell me where and how they know me. Do people know what you can do? They lot's of people around you who asked someone to make a cake for them without knowing you can produce cake of better quality and taste! Surprisingly people knowing you is a matter of you knowing people. It's not so confusing! I told a friend there are lots of opportunities around here! lots of jobs for you! and he asked "why don't I have them then?" I responded, "You just need the right people to know you, that's all". How? sometimes it's as simple as moving up to someone and saying look I am a consultant I can help your business! or I saw you doing A or B. Heck! I can do it better. You are not desperate and it's ok if you are desperate. :) 

Learn what matters

If you can clearly point that "this is poorly done" then, you definitely know something about that area. However, whoever got it poorly done knows something or somebody you don't know. Can you persuade someone to allow you get it done? Do you know how to offer people reasonable proposals that only a greedy fellow would not accept? Do you understand "market issues"? I don't know what exactly it is that may matter to you, but other than your main job or service other skills including communication, presentation and negotiation matter.
 

Understand available tools and see improvement opportunities

Some years back only an experienced web developer and or programmer could put together a not-so-amazing website! Today you don't even need to understand the basics to map out a website of professional quality. Anyone with a very minimal curiosity can build a website in like 2 hours with WordPress! and WordPress is just one of them. And yes a lot of people are making so much from building websites using something a smarter made or can make while a lot of these smart or talented people make less. So the right thing to do is at least to learn (in many cases talented people don't even need to "learn" such trivialities) how to use these tools, understand their limitation and hurray that's where you come in.

Get into partnerships

In many contexts especially the African one, people think that they have to fight each other to survive! Yes, you have to fight but not each other or at least not everyone. Many businesses in Africa including some large ones are sole proprietorships! For a simple reason, it's my thing why should s/he benefit? On the contrary, you might be the real benefactor many times. If you know an untalented person who gets a lot of work walk up to them and create an association. This applies even with experts and those doing better than you! Work with people!

Be good

Many times talented people find themselves saying, I can't believe someone paid for this! It's so wack! God! they did not even take off the "Lorem Ipsum" from the template. Hope that's not what you are planning to do if you got the job because talk is really really cheap. I must say most of the "untalented" people who always get all the opportunities always know every on this list except this point itself. That said you should take the other points even more seriously because you are probably already talented.