Lately, my friend John has been complaining a lot about the unfairness of the world that we live in. He claims that the devil and all the agents of hell must have conspired against him to thwart all his attempts to make it big in life. He claims that many of the successful people in this world seem to be riding on his original ideas and discoveries. That each time he comes up with a new idea, someone else steals it and makes big with it in life. He has even become suspicious of all his close friends thinking that one of them might be leaking his ideas and life plans to the world. He acknowledges that he is well gifted in spotting both life and business opportunities but some spy somewhere appears to be riding on his innovative genius. What baffles him is that even when he decided not to disclose his ideas to anyone, he still found out that some other people were already doing well with the same idea while he was busy planning how and when to launch.
So I met him last weekend to try and make the head or tail of his allegations. And yes, he is a disturbed man. The world has ‘robbed’ him of bigger things than just business ideas. In fact, I found him with a collection of evidence on how unfair the world had been to him and he narrated some of the ordeals to me. He still had not gotten over Susan, his almost permanent girlfriend whom he hoped would one day become mother to his unborn children. He had not proposed to her in all the five years they had been together. Susan got married a year ago……to another man! John was devastated. All he remembers is that she used to ask about his marriage plans but he never saw anything serious in it. He was still planning. Apparently, she got bored and someone swift made away with her. John was left counting losses.
He tried to forget her with little success especially after he suffered another blow a couple of weeks ago. He had been admiring another girl for some months in a bid to move on and work out his life, matters marriage. The girl in question had been his good friend for long and he had been planning to approach her with a statement of feelings and desire to graduate their friendship to another level. He had been developing a formula of facing her and after three months, he figured out how. He asked her out for lunch and she agreed; at this point, heavens seemed to be opening up in his favor. As he opened up and poured out his heart to her, he found reason to curse the world…she declined! She had just been proposed to by another friend of John’s a couple of days earlier and she had accepted. John counted more losses.
Away from matters of the heart, John has not been spared in the business world either. He runs a supermarket which has been doing well, at least for the period that I have known him. A year ago, he had mentioned to me his intention to start door to door delivery for heavy shoppers who lived within a radius of 2Kms from his business. A year down the line he was finalizing on logistics when another supermarket opened next door and came with the idea of door to door delivery. These days, his supermarket only receives customers who are in a hurry; all the traffic went to his neighbor’s shop. He is still counting unfairness while biting his finger. His list of examples is long.
John has had weird wishes as well, he has wished it were possible to patent thoughts, words, feelings and everything else. Unfortunately all these things are independent. One’s conception of an idea does not stop another person on this planet from conceiving a similar idea. That you have feelings of affection towards someone does not automatically lock out other hearts from developing similar feelings towards the same person. It is a world on the move.
John is not alone in this. So many of us have suffered the same predicaments in our various realms of life. Many people have rushed to conclude that the world is unfair and has no slot for them. Nothing can be far from the truth. Life was never designed to be fair; it is a mystery to be lived. Life does not give you what you deserve but what you demand, what you push for. Success goes the way of those who not only conceive good ideas, but follow through with the corresponding good actions. The only way we get to know that you have good intentions for this world is by us witnessing your good actions. Yes, every battle is won in the mind before getting to the battlefield, but for that mind victory to be confirmed, some action must happen on the battleground. We live in a competitive world and timely action is paramount. Unnecessary delays are costly. John has suffered purely due to unnecessary delays and not the unfairness of the world. This world has got two people: those who see opportunities and those who seize opportunities. Please join the latter group. Do not just see opportunities, grab them. Delay at your own risk. Seize them, make mistakes and learn as you move along. Be swift because YOU CAN DO BETTER!
Roy Okonji,
Motivational Speaker and Author.
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