I left medical school about 8 years ago and just like you, I had great dreams and aspirations. I believed that with my medical degree, I would never go below a certain level. I had heard and felt pretty convinced that I would be able to afford most necessities of life, people would appreciate what I do and make life easier for me.
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At first things were working just as I imagined. I did my internship at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital and treasured the feeling of having my own money to spend. It was really fun mixed with all the love stories that surrounded my life at the time. NYSC was not much different as I was served in a brand new philanthropy hospital owned by a politician with a fair pay, an accommodation with all basic necessities of life including internet even though it was located in a village.
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I was beginning to imagine that life would be all rosy until I found myself in an empty apartment in a local government in Akwa Ibom state after I left hurriedly from my PPA when someone decided to steal the sound proof generator valued at six(6) million naira thus landing me and other staff in police cell.
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I was forced into business full time when I was planning for part time. I could have given up and packed my things to the comfort of my parent’s home but no, I took the bull by the horn and launched into business for the very first time with all its challenges.
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During this period, I had to make friends with a lot of secondary school leavers in the area and I still remember a day when we went to paste posters for the business. We would drive to an area, alight from the car and be looking for the best place to paste the posters, the snide remarks from some individuals notwithstanding.
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Since my business depended on referral, I had to meet all kinds of people for referrals and took all the insults and unreasonable demands in good faith. I put up with all of this until things improved for me but before that happened, I had slept on a carton with a white bedsheet as my curtain in an almost empty house for 6 months. Sometimes I was plunged into darkness, at other times I found myself eating the same meal three times a day. I remember the woman in the village market where I used to go to eat swallow while hoping for the best as regards my intestinal health.
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Truly everybody does not have to go through this same experience but we all have our individualized training modalities through which God takes us through the desert experience to develop our stamina for things to come depending on our destinies. He apparently knew I would be encouraging people some day and if I never went through those experiences, I would not be able to relate with them today and hence be unable and maybe even unqualified to address them.
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For the most parts of my NYSC, I had two jobs and still found time to go market my book and on one occasion, a principal scornfully asked if I’m taking good care of my patients seeing that I have time to be marketing my book.
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Today, I look around and while there are many hardworking youngsters, a great lot now want to suddenly become stars with millions of dollars in their bank account overnight. They want to drive the latest Lexus Jeeps at 21 even when they have no jobs and are not even willing to put in the work.
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Hire some of them for a simple job and you will begin to hear of excuses you never knew existed before then. They often wonder why they should work so hard for the pay and it shows in their action, attitude and commitment to the job. I had a receptionist that felt it was okay to go chill with her boyfriend on a work day and fabricate lies for me. I nearly bought it until her friend exposed her.
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What is really wrong with us. Listen to all the billionaires in Anambra state, from Cosmos Maduka to even the politicians (If you think politics is easy go and run for counseling office in your ward and you will know that there is no free money anywhere for grabs.
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This is a clarion call for us to embrace the culture of discipline and hard work. Internet fraud is not a career. It almost always ends badly, you can ask Hushpuppi and the 6 boys killed the other day in an auto-crash in Delta state how far?
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Hard work has hardly killed anybody. Never be ashamed to get your hands muddy in order to survive and succeed. The renowned Les brown once had to cut grass to make a living. Don’t be afraid to go low in order to come up in life. Stop looking for tricks and hacks on how to “hammer”. Such monies don’t last and are not sustainable because you were not even ready to manage it.
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How many Big Brother Naija winners have become billionaires or outstanding business men and women in Nigeria despite the millions of money they received. They mostly end up doing what they were doing before going to the house. Money does not make the man, rather it’s the man that makes the money. If Coscharis motors had received 1/10 of what they give BBN winners, he might be the richest man in the world today.
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Go and learn something guys, shun laziness, stop sagging your trouser and hanging around barbing salons rubbing powder and combing your hair all day only to return home to eat food sponsored by your elderly mother. Some will come on Facebook looking for who to beg for money which is utterly disgusting. (By the way, that is the fastest way to get blocked by me). If you have to carry blocks in a building site, then go do it. Do whatever legit thing you have to do at the point in life where you are now. It doesn’t necessarily define your future.
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Finally, sharp and fast fast riches always flies away just as rapidly as they came. If you to to to like eat 20 life chicas as I saw in a particular-life life video to make money, just know that nothing goes for nothing in this life. You will pay someday with either your life, your health, your family or your eternity.
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Don’t be ashamed to get your hands sandy today on the way to your desired future.
Remember; Nobody can tell your story better than you so don’t be ashamed to do the things that will make it end well.
©Dr. Chidiebere Nwachukwu.
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