JymWrites: How Many No Is Enough?

At the Young Leaders Summit, 2019

Life can be many things depending on the angle you are viewing it from. I remember six years ago, I held on to the belief that life is hard and that people owe me in helping me out one way or the other. Today, my point about this different, six years ago I was standing in a position that allowed me a certain view to life and today I’m in a different position because of the view I have now about life.

One of the most difficult positions to be or stand in life is a place of a beginner. Kobina Ansah said in his recent article that one of the most difficult places to be in life is to be a starter. And if you are not careful, you will start thinking that life owes it to you to help you figure out your life. You may think the people around you owe it to you to help you get to where you want to be in life but the truth is, they don’t.

Let’s get this straight, life, in general, was built to force us to yield the control of our life over to life’s situations or circumstances. That is why no one gives up on their dreams, they just give in to the circumstances they face whiles pursuing that dream because if the path was smooth you will go ahead and get what you want but the very moment you are confronted with what you are not expecting, you are likely to yield the control of your life over to the situation.

There are situations you are presented with sometimes that requires that you give up and there are situations that forces you to give up because that is the easiest way out. I’m talking about you taking the easy way and throwing your life around, soon you will catch 40 and you will wonder what you did with your life all these years, by then you are still working for the government or the boss you hated so much all because you enjoy life forcing you to yield the control of your life over to him.

I remember I put my heart into studying for my WAEC exams all because I wanted to pursue a higher education. By the grace of God, I passed on the first attempt and I had to wait four years later to get the chance to higher education. During the waiting, there were other offers on the table I could have considered, these offers may have seemed like the easiest way out but deep down I knew if I give up on higher education because my finances back then were saying no to me, I would’ve ended up being a bitter person today and I may not have lasted in whatever I may have decided back then.

Apart from my hunger for higher education, I love writing and honestly, I can say how many times my articles or menu scripts were rejected, but in the face of that troubling reality life was presenting me with to yield over the control over my life I became stronger and hungrier. If there is one thing I have learnt in life over these few years, it is the fact that no one is going to hand you the life you want just because you want it.

You need to know this, you need to know that there are lots of no’s waiting for you every day. There are lots of reasons you should be considering to give up but whiles you are doing that, make sure you are not doing that because it is the easy way out because no amount of no should stop you from pursuing your dreams.