THE TASTE OF SUCCESS
A lesson to all is that people may never believe in you until you succeed. Never be discouraged when people do not believe in you, it is in the nature of man to seek the path of least resistance. Men would sway towards the pattern of least stress and would hardly vibrate to the rhythm of a ‘work in progress’. You shouldn’t be surprised to see that ‘happening’ people have more friends and fans than struggling people. That, however should be a pointer to how much we should strive to succeed, not because we want to be famous but because it raises you to a pedestal of influence. Until you succeed, you still bear the ‘failure’ label to many around you.
About seven (7) years back, I completed my first collection of poems, totaling a hundred in number. I was so proud of myself, especially after many respected people proof-read it and certified it publishable. I didn’t have the finance to push the project but I had the will power. I felt I had achieved something that my family would be proud of. I decided to present it to my dad on a fateful day.
I gave him the blue bound collection of my precious write-ups. This had taken me a time frame of three years and all the emotions and experience I had gleaned in life since I got to know myself. What in this book wouldn’t be met with applause and a financial pat on the back? Oh my, how wrong I was!
He sat opposite me as I handed over the book to him, doing my best to use words that wouldn’t implicate me and yet convey my deepest feelings of achievement. He took the book and without opening it, calmly but discouragingly asked me a question I couldn’t answer for a long time…
“What experience do you have to write a book?”
Did I hear well or did I just wake from a trance? My dad is someone I have always looked up to all my life, he was my moral foundation, my must trusted mentor, who wouldn’t tell a lie or play to your tune no matter the temptations that abound. I held to his words like life itself and here he was bludgeoning all I had staked to achieve in creative writing! This was a bad dream, trust me.
When he was done talking, I grabbed my book and anger overtook the tears that tried so hard to drip down my face. I looked at the book and hated myself. I felt I had wasted my time, effort and what I thought was my talent. I stood in that room and all the words of my editors and friends fled from my head. Where they just lying to me? Is this what friends could do to you? Flatter you until you are repositioned in reality?
But they couldn’t all be liars, not all of them. I had won little awards for essays and poems before now and I know how many birthdays glowed brighter because I dared to write some words from my heart. No, my dad must be wrong this time. He truly was wrong but I never found out until I took my time to meditate on how it all started and how far I had come in my writing.
Sometime later, after my confidence had surpassed people’s words and I was more grounded in what I would call my style of writing, I dared to approach him again. This time I did it in style. I handed him an international magazine that had featured one of my poems. I told him to turn to a particular page. He adored the print quality of the magazine and after satisfying himself with the cover page, he turned to the page I had asked him to.
He read the poem on that page and when he got to bottom of the poem, he saw my full name and I could see the smile as it broke from deep within him. He looked up while I looked away and his words I never forgot. He said “you wrote this?” I replied in silence and without waiting further he quickly added “You are even better than those that went to school to read English or Literature”.
I thanked him and told him the magazine was his copy. “Now who is the one that has been in a trance?”, I asked within me. Since that day, he has never doubted the efficacy of the “one who didn’t have enough experience to write”. I have since grown beyond seeking words to affirm my writes, I am proud of the poems I showcase and the ones I conceal. The secret is that I am my own number one fan.
I have grown to know that I write more from inspiration than from study, more from personal experience than formal grooming. I hope to write from revelation some day. For now I write as my heart beats. You too can take solace in the fact that we all grow daily; don’t give up because someone doesn’t believe in you. God believes in all of us that’s why he gave us talents and the wisdom to learn skills. Let no man put you in the background when God has placed you in a showcase.
Our Super Eagles may not have won our favour and support all along but they won the cup, now we celebrate them like we had their back all the way through. Whether you and I believed in them or not, they are the reigning champions now because they believed in themselves and we all are once again…PROUDLY NIGERIAN!
Success is a big tree which wouldn’t grow overnight. It will need some daylight and some night time too. It will encounter some trips and somersaults but in the end, the people that will celebrate you will prove your efforts worth the while.
Start from where you are, whatever you think you can do, do it with all your might, remember all those ninja films of old, the little boy trained by his master becomes better than his master in the end. If you have watched Kunfu Panda then I will say…its in you, the scroll is blank yet it is a reflection of your person. YOU. You are better than the best, if only you can see it ….IN YOU.
Stop disbelieving in yourself, you are better than you think and you will be better if you could just keep at what you do or learn something that is worth the try. Keep going, though your beginning be small, you latter shall greatly increase.
A man of great wisdom inspired by God wrote this “Seeth thou a man diligent in his business? he shall stand before kings; be shall not stand before mean men” Prov. 22:29
BELIEVE IN GOD, THEN BELIEVE IN ONE MORE PERSON….YOURSELF.