A Lesson Five Thousand Years Old

A Lesson Five Thousand Years Old

Over five thousand years ago, in the land of the Hebrews, Jephthah was born. His mother was a prostitute. He was taunted and humiliated by his father’s legitimate children. The humiliation was so much he could not stay in town. He went to another place. Worthless men gathered around him and he became their leader. After some years, his townspeople came to beg him to lead them to fight against an enemy. At that point, Jephthah had negotiating power and he dictated the terms to those who were seeking his help. He told them that if he led them to war, he would become their leader. They had no choice but to accept his terms because they desperately needed his help. He became their leader and led them against the enemy army. Jephthah and his army won the war and he ruled his land till his death.

Moral of the story. Who you eventually become is a function of what you do with yourself. You cannot blame others as the reason your life turned out to be what it is. Whatever may be the perception of people about me, I can determine my fate by resolving to develop myself. From Jephthah’s story, it is evident that if I focus on developing myself to become useful to my society, people will forget my past, especially when they know they need my help. That was what Jephthah did. He went away and developed himself. He became a mighty warrior and his people who had taunted and humiliated him and even ran him out of town came and begged him to lead them to war. And because he had made himself relevant through self-development, he was in a position to dictate how the course of his life would run instead of just taking what life handed him.

I’m asking myself this question: If I was in Jephthah’s shoes, would I not have refused to strive to be the best I could be? Would I not blame my unfortunate background whenever I had the opportunity to talk about myself? Would I not tell people that if my mother had not been a prostitute and if I had not been alienated by my very own people, I would have turned out to be a great person in life? Would I not have given those excuses? How many people cite their backgrounds as the excuse they have for not doing well in life? How many people usually say if they had had wealthy parents, educated parents, influential parents or a better background, their lives would have turned out better? But the truth is that whatever background you may have, your back does not have to be on the ground.

Ben Carson, the foremost neurologist, didn’t have a great background. Chief M.K.O Abiola, one of Nigeria’s wealthiest men ever, had a wretched background. Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the best President Nigeria never had, had the humblest of backgrounds. President Ebele Goodluck Jonathan, Nigeria’s current president has become famous for his ‘I had no shoes’ story. Dr. Willie Siyanbola, a self-accomplished individual (and favoured by God too!), one of the most brilliant persons I have met in my life and currently Director-General/Chief Executive of the National Centre for Technology Management (NACETEM), one of the agencies under Nigeria’s Ministry of Science and Technology had a very terrible background but today his story is different.

What is common to all of these people? How did they overcome the challenges of their backgrounds? Self-development. Self-motivation. They knew what they wanted out of life and they went after it. When you know what you want and you want it bad enough you will find a way to get it. So instead of blaming your background, find out what you want in life and go for it.

YOUR BACKGROUND DOES NOT MEAN YOUR BACK HAS TO BE ON THE GROUND.