3 Life Lessons I Learnt In 2025

All too soon, we are wrapping up on another year. A year as eventful as 2025 has left us with a lot of great memories. Some found love and others found new opportunities. For those who lost their loved ones, however, they will remember this year as one that brought upon them disaster.

As the new year beckons, I am grateful for all the lessons 2025 brought my way. As I take a look back at my successes and failures, only one thing is certain. Sometimes, you will win. At other times, you will learn. Some dreams may work out as planned. At other times, unfortunately, life will just happen.

Each day is an opportunity to learn something new, and this exactly what 2025 was to me. I lost and gained some opportunities and learnt from such. Each experience came with a new lesson. Indeed, learning ends when we stop breathing. Here are the three most important lessons this year taught me.

Stop cuddling poverty!
I hate poverty, but 2025 heightened my hatred for it. Observing some friends die because they could not afford medical care tore my heart into pieces. I lost it whenever I saw some creatives abandon their passion because there was no money to pursue it. I have seen many live a life that is not theirs, but 2025 made me see the worse. Thanks to poverty, I painfully saw some almost incorruptible people swayed into bad company.

Poverty is an enemy of any society. Any mindset that pampers poverty should be buried in a grave immediately. Do not accommodate anyone who finds excuses for poverty because poverty only finds a home where it is cuddled. Poverty should never be your friend. It should not be entertained. Despise it with all your being.

Stop hiding behind religion to be poor. A poor man’s dreams only live in his head. We need money to move mountains. The Good Samaritan would have been long forgotten if all he had was a good intention. Without money, good intentions look like no intentions!

Hate poverty with passion. Fight any system that leaves people poor. The poorer people are, the poorer their health will be. And the poorer their health, the shorter their life expectancy.

In 2026, I implore you to hate poverty by empowering the poor to jump out of their pit of poverty. 2026 should be our rescue mission. We need to learn more about money and how to genuinely get more of it to solve the challenges around us. Wherever poverty is king, it enslaves the destiny of men.

People are ladders!
I met some great people this year who did not look like it from the first glance. Like a tattered book cover, I nearly ignored them. However, they gave me a helping hand when I needed it most. They led me into spaces I could not have entered all by myself.

People are ladders. While some lead you up, others will take you down. This is why discernment is one of the greatest gifts to have. Some people may look flamboyant on the outside yet full of evil on the inside while others may look broken on the outside, but their heart is so clean.

Take no one for granted. If you address people by the way they dress, you may miss your destiny helpers. Some may not look it, but they will be the reason for your open doors. They may never see your destination, but they hold the key to that destination. Some may not get to the top, but they are the reason you will get there.

Not everyone who comes our way will be a blessing to us. It takes great discernment to know those who have the keys to some doors in our lives. Discernment means treating everyone with utmost respect because great men do not wear tags.

Don’t be a husband before you become a husband!

Recently, I saw a young man repeat the errors of his fathers. He had been taking care of a woman who was not his wife. He had intentions to walk her down the aisle, but, truth is, he may not have the capacity when the time is due. In 2025, I have learnt that many know the road that leads to hell but still dare to tread on it.

As a young man, the surest way to poverty is taking on the responsibility of a husband when you are not one. Whenever I see a young man paying for all the expenses of a young woman and her family, I see danger ahead. It is like asking a monkey to carry an elephant around. The days of that monkey are numbered because it is carrying a burden beyond its capacity.

Every young man must find himself a woman who needs a partner, not a sponsor. When a needy woman finds a man, she sucks life out of him. She lays all her burdens on him and nags all day when those needs are not met. She becomes entitled. When all has been said and done, she leaves the young man broken.

Young man, your fiancée is not your wife. Her parents are not your in-laws. An unmarried woman is the responsibility of her parents, not her fiance. Some women need a job, not a man. When a man is playing the role of a parent in such a woman’s life, that is too much of a job!

Dear young man. Don’t add up to the statistics of men who got themselves entangled in poverty because they sank their investments into the wrong people!

The writer is the Chief Scribe of Scribe Productions (www.scribeproductions.com) and Scribe Communications (www.scribecommltd.com).