Pep Talk 2: From Grace To Grass

Dear lovely people,

Just fifteen years after Sandrina made it big, she left imprints in the public’s mind as a high flying business woman. She had it all. A good life, thriving businesses, a wonderful family and according to her, she could not have asked for anything better. Sandrina then in her mid-forties was the pride of her family of five siblings, a husband and a daughter.  She had undoubtedly worked extremely hard to climb the ladder of success and just like a dream, she was up there.  Mingling with the high and mighty.  Wining and Dining with people that mattered in her field of business. Delivering motivational talks all over the place on invitation.

What a personality soon to be flushed down the drain when things took a sudden turn for the worse.  One wrong decision and Sandrina's business empire began to collapse.  Out of nowhere but systematically, things started falling apart, she lost everything she had.  It got so bad that she sold her cars and all the fancy clothes she had to make ends meet. As if that was not bad enough, her husband divorced her, her only child was withdrawn from the prestigious private secondary school that she was attending, four of her siblings abandoned her and Sandrina had to sell her sumptuous mansion to rent a three-room apartment at the outskirts of the city to live with her only daughter and the youngest of her sibling.

So, what was this wrong decision? Sandrina delegated the entire management of her businesses to her reckless siblings and opted for a lavish lifestyle, attending parties all over the place with friends. She completely forgot her roots, what it had cost her to get to where she was and before she knew what was happening, the combined incompetence and recklessness of her siblings and staff abandoned without supervision crumbled her businesses to floor level.

How could all this be happening?  Why did things go so wrong? Sandrina kept on asking herself.  Today, Sandrina is just getting by with the last of her thirty high-profile hairdressing salons. Her life has been completely shattered and she is mad with herself for allowing all that money slip away just because she was too busy enjoying life to plan for her future.  Endless tears roll down her cheeks each time she thinks of how much she wasted on fancy parties, first class flights to every destination and maintaining get-away houses. 

Rising to the top is sometimes not as difficult as maintaining yourself at the top. Unfortunately, there is no way to turn back the hands of time other that started afresh and in a better way if only you’ve learned the lessons.