It is not supposed to be easy “These days, people no longer want to DO something, they want to BE someone.” That has to be one of my most important lines - paraphrased - from ‘Iron Lady’, the story of Margaret Thatcher. Left unsaid: How do you “become” without “doing”?  Yesterday, I placed an urgent to a a mentee of mine yesterday whom I love dearly, and this was the message I had - that that which she seeks, from place to place, job to job, she won’t find; because she has to look inside for it, and she has to stay the course to find it. I repeated my point. Do. And keep doing. Because I had to reach out and pull her before she gets sucked in like much of our generation. They who quit because they want to be happy today, and tomorrow. And if they aren’t happy today, and tomorrow, if they don’t find that joy, that peace, that fulfillment, that love, that achievement, that position today, or tomorrow, then they will quit. Because, you know, these days, quitting is easy. The options are plentiful, and so many are the opportunities. And you know, the motivational speakers say you should believe in yourself and anything is possible. And, you know, look at Mark Zuckerberg, look at that guy who sold Tumblr to Yahoo for $1bn, look at Jason Njoku who got thousands of dollars, look at Toyosi Akerele who met Michelle Obama, or Adebola Williams who got on Forbes. Or you know, everyone great, whose stories they haven’t been patient to understand. Even the brightest of the lot fail in the day of adversity - because, one-eyed kings in the land of blind men, they are surrounded themselves by a generation of slackers. But they don’t know. They don’t know that the work that lies ahead, to greatness, is yet hard slug. Because they think it should always be sunny and joyful, and happy, and seamless, and lovely and bright. So they won’t move until the venture capitalist arrives, they won’t act until they get sponsorship, they won’t spend two years until they move to the next job, they won’t wait to prove their stuff if their boss doesn’t trust them immediately, they won’t suck it up and earn their stripes. And when it doesn’t go according to their dreams - they stop. Oh, by God, they stop. And you just want to hold them tight and shake them up, shake them up and ask them - who told you it was supposed to be easy? It is supposed to be hard. To be excruciating, and demanding, and frustrating. Sometimes - many times - you want to give up. But then you don’t. Which is how you win. Because when it gets much too hard, THAT is the exact moment when you have to make the decision to keep going. And, no, it is not unfair. That is exactly as it ought to be. That’s the way the world is wired to run. That’s how you know it’s real.
Posted on: Tue, 25 Jun 2013 18:29:48 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015