Rich guy vs. Poor guy

At the dawn of each day, every society youth hopes that in a near future, he is going to be wealthy. I think it is obvious that when we look at the older generation, we realise that not all hopes actually become reality. Is there any particular reason why some people succeed and others fail? Personally, i’d say it’s an accumulation of more than one reason.
In modern day Nigeria, a young man looks at the rich guy around him and with so much respect and a little envy says “Wow, this guy has really worked hard and achieved so much for himself. I can be like him and i would strive to be better”. Another young man looks at the rich guy despite the fact that they are not of the same generation and feels defeated and in the process, utters words like “He was just lucky. Most of the money he has was gotten from his parents or by dubious means”. Honestly, the latter might be right anyway but would definitely lack something the former has and that is the zeal to succeed.
From my little sojourn on this earth, I can say it is very easy to distinguish between the words that come out of the mouth of a future ‘rich guy’ and the words from a future ‘poor guy’. The future rich guy is a dreamer and speaks with optimism while taking steps to help him achieve his dream while the future poor guy has impractical ideas and speaks with so much pessimism. No matter how well things may be going for him, he says and always expects the worst. The future poor guy counts on luck to help him achieve his dreams. The future rich guy may at the end of the day end up being the one that gets lucky- as most people would term it, but I think I’d just refer to it as providence.
I know a guy who was born into a struggling family and had a strong will to write his own story. He has a mentor in renowned brain surgeon Dr. Ben Carson and wants to be a doctor. At a young age, he recognised his strengths and put it to use in the quest to making his dream become reality someday. Today, he is in medical school, getting his wonderful grades and very soon, he is going to be a medical doctor. This guys major strength is his ability to get anything he puts his eyes on stuck in his memory whether images or texts. Where I am going with this is the importance of recognising our strengths and putting it to good use in achieving our dreams. Believe it or not, every one of us is born with strengths and weaknesses. The future rich guy looks at his strengths and thinks of how to put it to use to enable him be part of the beautiful picture he sees in his dreams while the future poor guy who by reason of his poor thinking has become a natural pessimist, finds it easy to recognise his weaknesses and totally ignores his strengths. He looks at the rich guy and tries to walk in the exact footpaths of the rich guy to enable him become rich also. The result is obvious. He gets stuck along the way and can’t go any further. In our quest for success, it is important to recognise your own strength and put it to good use no matter how silly you or even the people around you might think it is. The truth is if you identify your strength, you realise that you are happy when putting it to use and trust me, there is nothing better than doing what you like and also good at.
The friends we keep also play a big role on our road to success. The future rich guy seeks the company of happy people with strong will just like him while the future poor guy finds himself some frustrated folks that are skilled in finding joy in people’s setbacks and are heart-broken when other people succeed. The future rich guy sees the good and the bad in everyone around him and is not ashamed to learn from anybody. The future poor guy is not interested in learning from those around him and always deceives himself that he is better than everybody despite the fact that deep down inside of him, he knows that some of them are far ahead of him.
Going back to the beginning, as each day draws to an end, some society youths look back at the day and are certain that their hope of being wealthy is gradually becoming reality while some others just look back without any element of certainty and realise they are still where it all started- hoping to be wealthy someday.

Brief summary of my life over the last year.

Its amazing how single young people wish for the semi-perfect life. Realistically, we wish for more love from our families, the best friends, the semi-perfect girlfriend/boyfriend, a career, a good job, fun, fun, fun, as well as a lot of money. And for those of us that choose to be religious, we seek to experience God better.

Well, I'd say about 65% of my wishes have come to pass and I live it everyday.

I am a Computer Engineering graduate from a leading Federal University in South-West Nigeria. I am currently partaking in the National Youth service scheme. It has been 8-9months since I started serving and this period as exposed me to life on a different scale as well as different people too.

At the end of last year, i.e. 2010, I wrote a note on my Facebook page acknowledging and appreciating some of the most influential people of my year. The essence of doing that was of course, to appreciate those that their names were mentioned but it wasn't limited to that. I also wanted to charge those that were mentioned to be better friends by showing them that all their little deeds in private and public were noticed and appreciated. But an important thought actually skipped my mind. Time and location changes and also changes those around us. Phases of life do not always require the same inputs from previous phases. At least, in most cases.

I have spent a better part of this year in a different land from the lands I have ever known. (Note: better part doesn't mean better time). I work as an IT consultant in an Abuja based privately-owned IT consultancy/Project Management firm. The company has about seven(7) functional practices- IBM solutions, Microsoft solutions, Infrastructure, Software development group, amongst others. I am part of the software development group. Actually, I'm not sure of what my main duties are here though but I know I get involved with system analysis, database modelling, SQL table creation, writing stored procedures, applications user Interface designs e.t.c. I like it sometimes and other times, I don't.

Looking at myself from the my own perspective, I am interested in IT project management. Everything I do in the office though is in a way linked to that because I get an overview of IT itself which would be a great edge in IT management. I am currently studying for my Project management exam which I would sincerely say I haven't been totally dedicated to because of a lazy part of me and also maybe because I don't have the examination fee($555) and I don't find it interesting to bug my parents for the money. Before I forget and go too far, I didn't mention earlier that I have 2 brothers, my parents and a very beautiful girlfriend- She's going to be called to the Nigerian bar by December 2011. My older brother is a lawyer while my younger brother is currently studying to be a banker. Going back to my project management story, I have to write my exam before the end of the coming month. The pass-mark for the exam is 61%. Just before i started this blog, I just took to practice tests online and scored 75% and 66% in both. The are both above the pass-mark but they didn't make me happy because the one's I missed, I feel i shouldn't have missed. Well, that's me. I am under pressure from within to take and pass the exam because asides from the fact that it would boost my career confidence, it would also boost my CV as it would be my first professional certification.

I have met alot of people over my service year and a few names would be mentioned in my subsequent notes. I have a group of friends that I have kept since 2003.(That was when I resumed in the University). We are about 12(We call ourselves-Ward9ine). We are quite close and of course I am closer to some than others but generally, we could be said to be close. Everybody is going to be mentioned in my blog. I have a lot of other friends and many of which would also be mentioned in my blog.

I am a Christ-Lover and I love the life I live. Don't get me wrong. Like every other human being, I am not satisfied with where I am and what I have and I strive for more. But as i said earlier, Life is in phases and everything changes. I am happy about my current life and I think what makes me even happier is the picture of a brighter life ahead.

I don't know how often i'd write blogs but i'd try to be as consistent as I can. Until my next blog, I think i'd just keep looking at my future and take giant steps towards it daily.

Keep living.