Life is a Cheque

“Some people will throw away a signed blank cheque because they don’t want to spend money to buy a LeoSmart pen” - Unknown.

The above is an acute description of my generation, the generation Y.

I live in a time and generation where the average young person wants to succeed before working hard enough to achieve that success. It baffles me that someone would want to eat his eggs before even laying them! It is only in my generation that someone would beg you for garri (cassava flour), yet ask for the sugar and groundnuts to accompany it!

Two words stand out in the above phrase; “blank cheque” and “pen”. It is very simple, for every measure of greatness to be achieved there is an accompanying measure of investment required. However, we are blinded by the cost of the investment so much we fail to see its benefits.

I remember speaking to a group of final year students on the need to embrace volunteering opportunities immediately after school while looking for jobs and I recall the look on their faces at the mention of “do it for free if need be”. Their consternation only reflected the mentality of the youths of my time. Yet, ask Steve Harris and he’ll tell you working for free was the pen he bought to write on his blank cheque! I remember having to pay through my nose for certain programmes where I could listen to Nigeria’s finest speakers/trainers or even travel long distances, just to learn a thing or two from an event.

Life has presented a blank cheque to you and my dear, it is called LIFE! The pen you need to buy to write on it differs even as your hopes and dreams differ from mine. If it’s a job you need, volunteer. If it’s a relationship with God you desire, study His word and pray often in addition to listening to messages and reading books. If its business, buy the books that relate to the field and study how others excelled in such field. Learn that trade, pay for that class. 

I’ll close with the words of my mentor Steve Harris “invest in yourself as you are your best product”.

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