shut up start up

SHUT UP, START UP
By ’Segun Aluko


Have you ever wondered why there is so much poverty in Nigeria whereas the land is so rich? Ask her how much that hair-do costs. I bet you it costs so much! You will also marvel at how much she spends on those finger and toe nails. What about the young man: He will go a long to look so good. He wants to wear Gucci loafers and would not mind if he could get that Thomas Pink designer shirt to go with it. Funny enough, he still complains of money. When you ask her why she looks so sad, pitiably, she would look up to you: “don’t you know things are so hard? I’m broke!” Then you would have asked her how she got so much to spend on her hair. These are actually some of our problems in Nigeria.

It has been proven that Nigeria’s problem is not really a physical one, it is a mental one. So also is poverty. Rev. Sam Adeyemi, the founder and senior pastor of Daystar Christian Centre, Lagos, Nigeria, has said in his teachings: “Advanced Financial Skills 1” that “laziness is not physical but mental – a person who runs away form mental exertion is lazy”. And who does not know that the fast way to poverty is laziness. I believe all have an idea of what laziness means. We complain so much on what we don’t have while we neglect what we have.

Then as a reasonable person and one who really wants to get out of a problem, you would have calmed down and thought of a way out. But it is quite revealing that it is not so far from us in Nigeria. Have you ever witnessed an accident before? Then you would be surprised at how indecisive many of our people are. At a car accident scene, you will see people shouting, wailing, crying, and pitying the unfortunate victims. What about rescuing the victims? You can still save lives! The same reaction would you experience at a fire accident scene.

There are actually many reasons for this. It is because we are lazy. Not the laziness you would have thought about. Many of us thought laziness is lack of physical exertion of energy. We thought that when we do something with our hands, that’s when we are working. But it is not! Laziness is lack of mental exertion! It has been proven that activities do not mean achievements. Rather than complain about your situation, why don’t you think and work out a solution.

Carl T. Rowan, former United States ambassador to Finland and former director of the United States Information Agency wrote as a syndicated columnist and was at the time of his essay, a Reader’s Digest roving editor. That essay was ‘Unforgettable Miss Bessie’. Carl had been Miss Bessie’s student between 1938 and 1942 in high school. He was unfortunate because he is black and was so sorry for that. But Miss Bessie would not allow him to. She believed it was not his situation that matter but what he could make out of it. “What you put in your head, boy”, she once said, “can never be pulled out by the Klu Klux Klan, the congress or anybody”.

One interesting event and which we should learn from was when Carl was leaving school one day. “Once, a few classmates made fun of my frayed, hand-me-down over-coat, calling me “strings”. As I was leaving school, Miss Bessie patted me on the back of that old overcoat and said, “Carl, never fret about what you don’t have. Just make the most of what you do have – a brain””. That is it! Rather than worry about what you don’t have, why don't you look at those things you have. You have you and “…a billion cells in your brain” wrote Dr. Myles Munroe in his book “The Burden of Freedom”.

Niyi Adesanya, co-founder and facilitator of Alliance for Motivational Speakers in Nigeria, has said that for you to have influence, you must not wait for perfect situations. Many people do wait for things to be fairly alright before they could get to do something. That’s where they got it wrong. Perfect situations will never come. You are the one who has to do something to get through. Life will not treat you easy.

I will not finish this essay if we don’t get to know how important it is for us to get prepared. Many of us will rather sit back and wait for money before we prepare what to do with the money. That has been identified for one of the reasons we squander a lot here. Henry Ford, the founder of Ford Motors, USA, and a person who made the American dream of having every American family being able to won a car once reportedly said: “before everything else, getting ready is the secret of success”. Brother, ask a boy scout and he will tell you, “be prepared!” No wonder, the American entrepreneurs are so rich and prosperous. It is out of much times spent in preparation, “spectacular achievements”, Roger Staubach said “come from unspectacular preparation”.

In all, rather than complain about nothing, why don’t you spend your time in something. Be mentally alert; think about what you have rather than what you don’t have. Use your brain and of all, be prepared! Shut up, start up!