You’re On Your Own But Don’t Walk Alone!

Your destiny should be your headache. If you ever want to make your dreams a reality, you must not leave it in anyone’s custody. Your life is in your hands. Whether it would be any better or worse, it is your choice to make. In this life, you’re on your own.

However, no man is an island. Though you’re on your own, you can’t live this life all by yourself. Reaching the top is not a lone journey. Even though we are supposed to take our destinies into our own hands and create the future we want to live in, we can’t do everything on our own.

We need helpers. We need friends and partners. People matter. They need us as much as we need them. People need to help us overcome the challenges of building our dreams. When those dreams are built, they’ll in turn help solve the challenges of people. We need people to help people!

Success is far from a one-man baton race. We need others to watch our backs as we climb life’s ladder. We can’t do everything all by ourselves. We will sometimes need to delegate. At other times, we will need others to lead us to places we couldn’t have accessed on our own. The larger the size of your friends, the larger the size of doors that can open for you.

You can’t climb to the top of life’s ladder all by yourself. Your success in this life will largely be dependent on your network because success is teamwork. No one ever reached life’s peak all on their own. Behind them were a host of great people who contributed one way or the other. Behind every great dreamer [in public] are even greater dreamers in their closet.

Your life is in your hands but you would still need helping hands to make the best out of it. Though you’re on a lone journey to make the best out of your life, make friends while you’re at it. It’s over-ambition that makes us want to walk this life all alone. Sadly, walking alone will get you nowhere. You’ll needlessly bear burdens others could have borne for you.

Walking this life all alone is such a chore. You need independence but building a great network can give you what independence could only promise you. God made man for man!

Travel down the corridors of history. All the great men who ever lived were able to reach the top not because they came from another planet but because they made use of people from this planet. Talk about Jesus and his disciples. Talk about King David and his mighty men. The list goes on and on.

Success doesn’t mean you’re greater than everybody. It simply means you’re building a network of everybody to be great. A great network of helpers can give you value no amount of money can.

Build fruitful friendships. Respect everyone you meet on the street. Great men don’t wear tags. Treat people that you cross paths with right. Be honest with them. If there’s any help they need that you can give, just give expecting nothing in return. God will never come down to hand your blessings to you. He’ll always use another man!

Back in the day when I used to teach in St. Rose’s SHS in Akwatia, I quite remember how I gave each student the utmost respect. I taught them from the depth of my heart and inspired them from the height of my mind. I did all those with no expectations. Many years on, they have become such a core part of my dreams; volunteering for Scribe at the least opportunity.

When God gives a man a dream, He adds a team that would make that dream a reality. That man would meet every team member as he journeys on. It depends on how he would treat them. At all cost, try to keep the people you meet on your way in this life… unless they don’t want to stay.

Can you imagine the biblical Joseph’s breakthrough came through a man he had met in prison? This gentleman who happened to be Pharaoh’s chief butler mentioned him to the king and… that was it! There are similar stories of how people met others who held the key to their promise door.

Build your network. Be sociable. Make [good] friends. Be active in the social media space. Have your say in WhatsApp groups you are in. Make some new friends. Learn something new about their profession. In this life, you’re on your own but never walk alone. If you try to walk alone, you’ll needlessly die alone. Be like Liverpool. Haha.

All through my stay on University of Ghana campus (Commonwealth Hall), I came across an average of over thirty (30) roommates. Thanks to ‘perching’ which could illegally allow rooms to accommodate a lot more people. Fast forward to today. I can recall how quite a number of these ‘roomies’ have rendered priceless help to me. Your network will give you what you can’t access with your hard work.

The size of your network will cut down the size of your hard work. If you want to go nowhere, depend on your hard work. If you want to go somewhere, depend on your network!

Don’t depend wholly on others. Don’t depend wholly on yourself either. If you want to remain an island, life’s headaches will sooner or later flood you. Your future is in your hands but you’ll need other hands to create that future. Need I say more?

The writer is a playwright and Chief Scribe of Scribe Communications (www.scribecommltd.com), a writing company based in Accra. His upcoming play is TRIBELESS.