Is Hard Work All It Takes?

Dear loving people,

After hunting for a job all over the place to no avail, James and Jude came to an old farmer to ask for a job. The Farmer warned that he was tired of lazy workers and that he needed tough guys to work for him. James and Jude told him they were the best he could get and James even insinuated that he could do anything better and faster than Jude.

The farmer took them to a huge piece of land divided into two sections by a valley with tall trees such that both could not see each other working. The farmer told them that they would be paid for as much as they could clear the land before them and that the a bonus was reserved for he will will cover a larger surface areas. Armed with their machetes, they set to work at the same speed. There were many other workers on the land and as usual, some served as medium for gossip between James and Jude.

An hour later, James was informed by one of the gossip that Jude had stopped clearing for a while, realizing that this was his chance, James doubled his effort at clearing. Twenty minutes later, he was informed that Jude had resumed clearing. Then came the news of Jude breaking off from work again and again and again all day long. James continued working with all smile, feeling the smell of victory at each cut on the grass.

At the end of the day, James was sure he carried the day because he had worked nonstop throughout the day. He was absolutely sure to go home with a much bigger package and the bonus than Jude. How mistaken he was because after the sections they had cleared were measured, It showed that Jude had actually cleared a surface area twice as large as that of James and so was paid twice as much as James in addition to the bonus.

“How is this possible that he worked more than me when I cleared continuously while he stopped from time to time?” James asked the Farmer. “It’s impossible! I have been cheated.” Then Jude cut-in to explain to James “it’s very simple and as a matter of fact, each time I stopped working, I did two things: I rested and equally sharpened my cutlass while you kept on clearing so with less efforts and with a sharper cutlass, I covered more grounds than you each time I resumed clearing.”

Working for your success should not be a marathon race in which you compete with others because it’s not only about who gets to the finish-line first especially as you are in competition with nobody else to get there. It’s much rewarding getting to the finish line at your pace, safe, sound and with quality results – wealth, fame and happiness too.

The Coil-Spring Mindset

Dear lovely people,

You must have heard, seen or read about the coil-spring. In its most familiar form, a coil-spring is a toughened coil of metal that help things return to a particular position, but it can also be used to absorb energy (as in car suspension) or store it for long periods of time (as in watches and clocks). You can find springs in everything from automatic doors to ballpoint pens. What can we learn from the way they function?

When you use a pushing or pulling force to stretch a coil-spring, you're using a force over a distance so, in physics terms, you're doing work and using energy. The tighter the spring, the harder it is to deform, the more work you have to do, and the more energy you need. The energy you use isn't lost: most of it is stored as potential energy in the spring. Release a stretched spring and you can use it to do work for you.

Sounds familiar? What about the person who sets a goal to obtain a university degree with excellent grades for example? It’s tough going to school consistently every day, taking difficult tests and doing assignments. You are actually pumping in intellectual energy and braving the odds until you obtain your certificate which comes with improved know-how and gets you ready to land an excellent job where you will start releasing that energy to resolve everyday professional issues for a good pay package.

In the game of life as you work your way to success, you are certain to be bombarded with all types of setbacks. It could be discouraging messages from yourself, the media and the people around you. These difficulties sometimes stretch you to limits and you even fail many times over so much so that you feel like giving up on your dreams.

If you have what I call the coil-spring mindset, once stretched out by all the untold difficulties on your path, you will not remain stretched or broken by giving up. You will recoil back ready to be stretched over and over again just like a coil-spring because you have learned from your mistakes, you still have the desire to succeed, you want to try and try again and you self-motivate. Just like the coil-spring, you have the potential energy to burn in starting all over again.

“You're not broken beyond repair there is hope. There is a God who knows all the pain you endure and will heal, protect and rejuvenate you.” So says Pauline Seaport.

Rise Up Now

Dear lovely people,

“Success is the result of perfection, hard work, learning from failure, loyalty, and persistence” says Colin Powell.

Judson walked majestically into his new office, everything around him bore an aura of success and power. He was hence a celebrated executive that has always been his dream. With a press on a gold-plated button on his desk, his Secretary was summoned. He rained a couple of instructions on the elegantly dressed young lady one of which was to announce the holding of an emergency executive briefing that morning. She was equally instructed to serve him his favorite coffee before leaving.

After the secretary was gone, Judson looked around his new office, smiling at every detail and enjoying the power he now commanded, why not? his bank account was comfortable he told himself. Then, the phone on his desk started ringing to bring him to reality, he woke up.

“So it was all a dream again?” Judson asked himself annoyingly. He was seated on his wheelbarrow at the main entrance into the central market that drizzling morning with no work to do. Judson was dreaming of a life he was not sure to lead. At 26, he had been dismissed from five secondary schools on counts of gross misconduct and appalling grades. His parents, friends and family failed woefully to talk Judson out of his affinity for blind-rocking. At 36 today, he helps carry goods in his ricketier wheelbarrow for customers at the central market. Even before sleeping off into a dream that morning, his morals where down especially after carrying the goods of a former classmate who now works at a prestigious bank in town.

I tell you, the only way never to find yourself in Judson’s shoes is to invest your energy, intellect, and all into hard work in the right direction. Judson today works quite hard transporting goods in his wheelbarrow but at what price? For what objectives? And what is his vision? There is none and will never be a free lunch.

As bleak as Judson’s future seems, he can still rise up. You might be in a similar position right now or know somebody who is in it. Never give up but work to reverse the situation. Joel Osteen says “You must make a decision that you are going to move on. It won’t happen automatically. You will have to rise up and say, ‘I don’t care how hard this is, I don’t care how disappointed I am, I’m not going to let this get the best of me. I’m moving on with my life.”