The Different Facets of the School of Life.
I must have a read a quote or coined one that I feel summarizes the paradox about life. I mean there are never masters of life because what happens daily sometimes is out of our control. You can imagine a dam bursting in Solai and then realize that there are things we can not fashion or control in our lives. They just happen least to our expectations.
The greatest paradox of all is that we grow too old quickly and become wiser too late when the glimmer of our light has begun to dim. At a time when we are preparing ourselves for the graceful dusk of our lives is when we begin to realize how unwise a people we were during our hay days. It is one of the undesirable facets of our very gem lives.
At a time of my writing this article, I woke up wondering about the kind of decisions I have had to put up with in my life. You can agree with me that there are moments when you did all the nonsense in the name of instant gratification only to realize that you have created a permanent scar that will live with you for as long as you live.
In the USA for instance, a certain young man was recently sentenced to sixteen months in prison for social assault. It was alleged that the young man had asked for the number of her female colleague who declined to give it to him. The young man decided at this level to go online and extract the photos of this young lady and editing them along pornographic ones before sending them to their bosses. You are never taught how to react in such a circumstance.
In making the ruling, the judge remarked about the permanent effect the act had for the young lady. She may live with a lot of fear her whole life thinking that someone might from nowhere Google her name and those awful photos crop up. The feeling that someone is not going to understand how it happened to that level is even scarier. The online social media leaves permanent scars in our lives once misused. It is another facet of our lives we learn too late when the damage is already done.
In an interview some years back, Mansuklal Patel, the owner of the Solai dam inferred to a lesson given to him by his dad. It was to do with mastering the school of life and how critical it is to us. In the interview, Patel talked of his own grading of self that fell on the lower second class. He was still learning for his upper second class level in his life. I don’t know if he has attained a masters yet but trust me, mastering the school of life is not as easy as sail.
To master the school of life needs one to relief themselves of the self in them so that they can learn. The leaning as a matter of fact is often the hard way. The beauty of the whole thing is that learning through fail never leaves people the same way. Perhaps going forward, Mansuklal Patel will have learnt a very great lesson that will stick with him for as long as he lives and in the way for any of his future decisions.
To put this other side of life into perspective, I will quote Theodore Roosevelt. He said, “Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty… I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life.” So take it from the older experienced lot, there is nothing to learn from a life lived out of ease.
Robert Kiyosaki in the book Rich Dad Poor Dad hints on the priceless lessons he learnt from his two dads. I tend to pick a lesson that at this part of his life, he cherishes both of them. They influenced his life in a wholesome way which has determined how he has brought up his children too. Tony Elumelu of Heirs holding which owns the United Bank of Africa (UBA) was so much influenced by his dad. To be the entrepreneur he is was due to the dad. Aliko Dangote became the world’s richest black man courtesy of his uncle. The influence of his uncle was the foundation of his tremendous wealth. It is important to learn that the influence we give other people especially our children and those close to us may as well as determine who they become as they grow older. As Maya Angelou said, “Our legacy is not in the things we did but in the lives of those we touched.”
Back to history a little, all the greatest philosophers of old influenced each. Socrates was a teacher to Plato who also became a teacher to Aristotle who in turn became a teacher to Alexander the great. In other words, one was a master of the other. For us to master any fields of expertise, we need mentors. They will make the walk less cumbersome. Apprenticeship is a craft that is losing value in our generation but if you want to succeed in any area of your life, be an apprentice to a successful mentor. It is very important.
For one to succeed, the desire for success should outweigh the fear of failure. It doesn’t mean you won’t be fearful, nay, but at least your greater desire to succeed will keep you in motion to get going. In another language to mean; for one to succeed, their desire to get going should outweigh their desire to give up and stop.
Personally in my entrepreneurial, social as well as spiritual journey, I have failed a million times. I have fallen several thousands and I still keep falling and failing, not that I chose to, but because I am a learner and what has kept me going is the belief that it is not over until I give up even to last of my breath. The most important facet of the gem of life is the fact that we better get going and giving up should never be an option to us.
Remember there has never been a long night that never dawned to a day. Keep doing what you are doing and at the end of it never stop caring and doing well to humanity. The lives we touch becomes the treasures we hold on to when the glimmer of our lives dims by.
End.
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