Sunday 1st of July, 2012 found me all packed and ready to set out for Jos - the capital city of PLATEAU STATE. From the central republic of ilorin, we set out in this "superficially" good looking bus at about 8am from Kwara express Park. 2 hours into the estimated 12hour journey, our "so good looking" bus developed a fault and had to be repaired. Apparently, some parts of the front wheel had to be wielded and this took about 3 hours to fix.
We were all glad to be back on our way after the fixing and the driver who from my observation i'll wanna call an "imbecile" because his every action and manner of speech portrayed this stopped along the road to ask for directions. You can imagine my shock. a case of the blind leading the one-eyed.
in order not to bore you, i'l just give you the high points of the rest of the journey. the weilded part of the front wheel broke again and had to be fixed costing another 1 hour. at some point we went low on fuel and spent another 30mins in search for "black market" fuel and in the end got to jos at 2:45am on 2nd, slept in the bus and waited till dawn.
Wednesday, August 21, 2013
Monday, August 12, 2013
Recollections Of a National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Member - The letter
All hope was raised that i was going to be posted to Abuja - the Federal Capital Territory where according to general opinion, "the national cake" is being shared. Preparations had been made, arrangements finalized, strings pulled and deals sealed.
On that fateful Friday, the 29th Day of June, 2012 at about 9:30 am after a lot of queuing, hustling & bustling, shoving & blowing, i received my call up letter.
words are insufficient to describe the feeling that overwhelmed me. my hands were heavy, palms sweaty, mouth was dry and i instantly developed a headache!
Lo and Behold! boldly written on the call-up letter was PLATEAU STATE! . . . the rest is history.
On that fateful Friday, the 29th Day of June, 2012 at about 9:30 am after a lot of queuing, hustling & bustling, shoving & blowing, i received my call up letter.
words are insufficient to describe the feeling that overwhelmed me. my hands were heavy, palms sweaty, mouth was dry and i instantly developed a headache!
Lo and Behold! boldly written on the call-up letter was PLATEAU STATE! . . . the rest is history.
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Job realities
One day you will lose your job! Either by choice or by force! One day you will have to go away from that place you have been going and coming from for however long it has taken you. In life, everything has a start and an end, there is a day to born and a day to die, a day to begin and a day to end. Those who live the highest quality of life are those who live today with an eye on their end. The greatest liberation any human can ever experience is when his/her fears don’t hold him/her back. The same way that dying makes living exciting, the same way the thought of the day we’ll lose our jobs, should make you spend the time you currently have wisely!
I have heard of GMs, SMs, Ds who lived in big houses, drove the flashiest cars end up as high-class beggars and mere social and political commentators. Why? Because while they were on their jobs, they thought erroneously that it would last forever. They did not know that the end was nearer than far. While they carried buckets, they considered the act of stooping to build pipes too low for them. Some of them left their jobs with huge bank balances, but the entrepreneurial way, which as no respect for years of experience dealt them a knock out in the early rounds of their ventures. Some of them were thieves, what they got was stolen and it went the way of stolen funds. The words I write to you today, will stand firm as judgment for your future, if you ever live less than what you were created to do! When your life can be summarized by a routine that does not have a date of escape, you are like the children of Israel who kept on cycling round a mountain instead of making progress. Stop hiding incompetence or inability to add value behind a company logo. Start exposing yourself and getting yourself set for when you will lose your job. Mark my words, the first showers of the great storms is all that we have seen, many who are comfortable today will beg tomorrow. Many who are not developing skills today will be slaves tomorrow, and many who have ill gotten money today will be needy tomorrow. The storm is coming, let who is wise join the company of Noah in the Ark of deliverance that is being built and let the fools scorn and laugh. He who laughs last, laughs best.
1. Do not Steal!
Whatever money you make by fraudulence, by taking what does not belong to you, by playing on your employers intelligence will not last, no matter what you use it to do. Some people refute this perspective and say they can use the stolen funds to buy assets, build houses, invest in shares or other companies, if you care to know the truth, every activity you participate in is seed for your tomorrow and a harvest of your past. Ill gotten wealth is like a caterpillar, it looks like all it can do is crawl until it develops into a butterfly and flies. Be honorable, better a broke employee living within his/her means than a successful, wealthy employee with questionable resources. Life has it’s way of bringing the harvest - with loss, death, calamities etc If you have stolen before or are currently stealing, don’t just repent, go and make it right.
2. Get a life!
If most of your friends are in your office, you are being sucked into the maze. Don’t get yourself stuck with the same people you work with for the best hours of your life. Go prospecting for friends that are different from you, go for some clearly better than you, don’t have friends by accident, don’t be chosen, choose. Experts say you should watch the people you hang out with most, your life will end plus or minus 10% of their life! Financially and otherwise, your life gravitates to a region slightly below or above the life’s of your friends. It’s not how much you have in your account that always counts, it’s who you have access to that matters more.
3. Have Options!
Many people are slaves to their employment and their bosses, not because it’s so enjoyable but because they do not have options. They have a few other things they are doing but they are not sure of any of them. Their existence as corporate biggies makes majority only look for deals that are already big. Unknown to many, if you start big, when the storms of life hit you hard and take you down, you will need to beg to start big, but if you start small, you can always start all over again! Get options, be willing to start with nothing, be willing to start small. Don’t disqualify anything as below you, you earn 7 digits(NGN) per month today true, but if it all will stop when you lose your job, you are gambling with your future. Stop, think, ask questions. Venture, dare, take risks. You will lose some and you will win some. If you are willing to lose long enough, you will win long enough. There are people not as bright as you, not as opportune as you doing more with their lives, look outside the window of your office, once in a while.
4. Learn!
Invest in knowledge. Empty your pocket to fill your head, and your head will fill your pocket. Learn like knowledge is running out of fashion. Read books, watch interesting history, attend seminars organized by people who have seen things different from you, learn from experience, others and yours, get a mentor. Do whatever you need to do within ethical boundaries, but by all means learn! Empty bags can’t stand tall, empty heads can’t be confident. Wisdom, which is the application of accumulated knowledge, makes a man’s face to shine. Your confidence level is an indication of the stuff that you have. If whatever you are doing doesn’t give you an opportunity to learn, run! Take your life off the flames!
5. Give Exceptionally.
I have found out in life, that those who have the propensity to give the most, get wealth the most. The universe is set up by God based on principles, and the principles cannot be broken. If you give, you will reap it somewhere in your future. If you don’t faint in doing good, you will be rewarded! Don’t wait until you are stinking rich before you begin to give scholarships, sponsor students, take care of orphans or contribute to worthy courses. Start now, before you lose your job! What you will regret in this life is not how much you should have gotten, but how much value you could have added, how much a difference you could have made, and what else you could have done! Don’t work like a moron - going and coming and going and coming without leaving a lasting impact on your world. Give yourself and give of yourself!
I have heard of GMs, SMs, Ds who lived in big houses, drove the flashiest cars end up as high-class beggars and mere social and political commentators. Why? Because while they were on their jobs, they thought erroneously that it would last forever. They did not know that the end was nearer than far. While they carried buckets, they considered the act of stooping to build pipes too low for them. Some of them left their jobs with huge bank balances, but the entrepreneurial way, which as no respect for years of experience dealt them a knock out in the early rounds of their ventures. Some of them were thieves, what they got was stolen and it went the way of stolen funds. The words I write to you today, will stand firm as judgment for your future, if you ever live less than what you were created to do! When your life can be summarized by a routine that does not have a date of escape, you are like the children of Israel who kept on cycling round a mountain instead of making progress. Stop hiding incompetence or inability to add value behind a company logo. Start exposing yourself and getting yourself set for when you will lose your job. Mark my words, the first showers of the great storms is all that we have seen, many who are comfortable today will beg tomorrow. Many who are not developing skills today will be slaves tomorrow, and many who have ill gotten money today will be needy tomorrow. The storm is coming, let who is wise join the company of Noah in the Ark of deliverance that is being built and let the fools scorn and laugh. He who laughs last, laughs best.
1. Do not Steal!
Whatever money you make by fraudulence, by taking what does not belong to you, by playing on your employers intelligence will not last, no matter what you use it to do. Some people refute this perspective and say they can use the stolen funds to buy assets, build houses, invest in shares or other companies, if you care to know the truth, every activity you participate in is seed for your tomorrow and a harvest of your past. Ill gotten wealth is like a caterpillar, it looks like all it can do is crawl until it develops into a butterfly and flies. Be honorable, better a broke employee living within his/her means than a successful, wealthy employee with questionable resources. Life has it’s way of bringing the harvest - with loss, death, calamities etc If you have stolen before or are currently stealing, don’t just repent, go and make it right.
2. Get a life!
If most of your friends are in your office, you are being sucked into the maze. Don’t get yourself stuck with the same people you work with for the best hours of your life. Go prospecting for friends that are different from you, go for some clearly better than you, don’t have friends by accident, don’t be chosen, choose. Experts say you should watch the people you hang out with most, your life will end plus or minus 10% of their life! Financially and otherwise, your life gravitates to a region slightly below or above the life’s of your friends. It’s not how much you have in your account that always counts, it’s who you have access to that matters more.
3. Have Options!
Many people are slaves to their employment and their bosses, not because it’s so enjoyable but because they do not have options. They have a few other things they are doing but they are not sure of any of them. Their existence as corporate biggies makes majority only look for deals that are already big. Unknown to many, if you start big, when the storms of life hit you hard and take you down, you will need to beg to start big, but if you start small, you can always start all over again! Get options, be willing to start with nothing, be willing to start small. Don’t disqualify anything as below you, you earn 7 digits(NGN) per month today true, but if it all will stop when you lose your job, you are gambling with your future. Stop, think, ask questions. Venture, dare, take risks. You will lose some and you will win some. If you are willing to lose long enough, you will win long enough. There are people not as bright as you, not as opportune as you doing more with their lives, look outside the window of your office, once in a while.
4. Learn!
Invest in knowledge. Empty your pocket to fill your head, and your head will fill your pocket. Learn like knowledge is running out of fashion. Read books, watch interesting history, attend seminars organized by people who have seen things different from you, learn from experience, others and yours, get a mentor. Do whatever you need to do within ethical boundaries, but by all means learn! Empty bags can’t stand tall, empty heads can’t be confident. Wisdom, which is the application of accumulated knowledge, makes a man’s face to shine. Your confidence level is an indication of the stuff that you have. If whatever you are doing doesn’t give you an opportunity to learn, run! Take your life off the flames!
5. Give Exceptionally.
I have found out in life, that those who have the propensity to give the most, get wealth the most. The universe is set up by God based on principles, and the principles cannot be broken. If you give, you will reap it somewhere in your future. If you don’t faint in doing good, you will be rewarded! Don’t wait until you are stinking rich before you begin to give scholarships, sponsor students, take care of orphans or contribute to worthy courses. Start now, before you lose your job! What you will regret in this life is not how much you should have gotten, but how much value you could have added, how much a difference you could have made, and what else you could have done! Don’t work like a moron - going and coming and going and coming without leaving a lasting impact on your world. Give yourself and give of yourself!
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