EXPECTED REWARD

There are times in my life that I become so frustrated with the things going on around me, and are forced to make critical decisions to mitigate my losses. I have lost a lot of time trying to make things work or achieve goals I set. I would say I have lost way more than I have won and that's no cap. This is mainly due to the fact that I have gone through life with lots of trials and errors. It wasn't as though there was a blueprint or life manual to guide me, and even if there was, I'm not sure I have found it even at this stage of my life. And if something like that did exist, perhaps my limitations got the better of me making me not to look at it. But in all my losses, I can boldly say I have learned ways things do not work while still searching for what works.

It's easy to say life is not fair, there was a time in my life when I said it too often, but now I have realized that perhaps it is not fair, but we can't argue the fact that life always seems a balance somehow. It might not be as we expect, but it's always there. This balance usually concerns people who put effort into making something out of life. For someone like me who has failed countless times more than I can even imagine, I have seen that no matter how low a man falls, there is always a window of opportunity to rise if that man is able to learn from what made him fall. And no matter how high a man gets, there is always a window of opportunity to fall back down if one isn't careful. I tend to see it as the financial market that is always trying to balance from either a bullish or bearish run.

From this balance comes the sweetness of life, the time when all you get all you have ever worked for and you sit to stare at it. At that time the joy one has isn't the jumping type, but the silent type as you look at your success and reflect on your hardship. I experienced such joy when I got a promotion in my office. With the whole salary increment and everything that came with my new position, I was happy, but what I looked at the most where the sleepless nights, times I would stay awake working on something I wanted to submit the following day, times I stretched my body to the limit because I wanted to finish up my tasks, and times I closed at odd hours because the work must go on. Thinking about all those things I said to myself that the promotion was something I deserved. Looking at one of my colleagues who boldly asked; “when did you come that you are already getting promoted?” The question sounded funny to me, so I gave a light smile until I heard another of my colleagues say; “All the times he was closing late, you were going to church”.

Truthfully I didn't really think about it like that, but it was true, I wasn't in competition with anyone, I just wanted to work hard to get a promotion I thought would fit my level of knowledge and experience regardless of my certification and I got it. When I tell people that in as much as a degree is mandatory for jobs along side a certification from the NATIONAL YOUTH SERVICE CORPS (NYSC) if you know how to do things the right way, you can work hard enough to climb the success ladder. For me this hard work began when my parents were no longer able to afford my school fees making me drop out for a while. As much as I was devastated, I told myself I was going to gather the right skills and experience, so much so that I will have an edge over those with certification. Today I have almost 10 years experience in my field, got a job without those certificates because I was able to convince the company board of my abilities, and went further to get a promotion. This shows that hard work pays, it can be unfair a times, but it pays.