I know a story of a boy who came from a very affluent family of intellectuals. His father and mother were one of the most educated and succesful people in the community. They had made a name for themselves and expected suit from their children. This boy attended the best and most expensive schools, with his needs catered to the least. All his parents expected from him was to study and be as succesful or better than they were. He wasn't the smartest of his siblings and always barely made it in exams (he never failed though). His parents and others who knew how well his siblings were doing, constantly compared him to them and other smarter (or should I say "better grade") kids. They will tell him things like he was not as good as the other kids; he is the way he is because he is lazy. To add insult to injury, his teachers told him the same thing at school. He told me that at one time when he was in college, his father told him that he wrote worse than a middle school child. His self esteem gradually faded over time and he always thought he would never succeed like others because he wasn't as good as them. One day, a random staff at his school stumbled on a paper he wrote and told him he was a phenomenal writer and that he will make alot of money if he built a carreer on writing. Holy Cow!!! This boy was shocked. He always thought he was the worst student this world had ever produced. He immediately felt this sense of confidence and enthusiasm. He took the compliment at heart and began to write more often. Today, this boy is a millionaire professional writer and CEO of a major blossoming company in Africa.
Wouldn't the world be a better place if we lifted each other? The problem with society today is that most of us are seasoned Phd (PULL HE/SHE DOWN) holders. We are not only adamant to the needs of others, but we will do anything to pull them down. Most of us, succesful people, carry our accomplishment and success on our heads like huge Nigerian Geles (an extremely huge head scarf) and use it to block or obscure other peoples view of success. Like my people say, extinguishing another man's fire does not make yours shine brighter or longer. As a matter of fact, a candle you light today may revive your's when it quenches. If we don't help light each other's candles, the world would be a dark place when every other person's fire is extinguished.
Therefore, lets strive to lift each other as we climb. Helping another person up the ladder doesn't need to be a big deal. A little sentence of encouragement could catapult a person from a zero to a hero (like our boy). You don't have to buy a house for the homeless man down the street. Just giving him your left over dinner would lift him from hunger to fullness. You may not have a dollar to donate to the kid suffering from cancer, but you can tell them they still look beautiful even though they've lost all their hair to chemo.
On the other hand, sometimes we subconciously or unitentionally pull each other down. I'm sure our boy's parents said all they said in good faith because they wanted him to succeed. They didn't realise the damage they were causing in his mind. Therefore, before we speak, lets think!!! If you have to start a sentence with "I dont mean to hurt you," or "I don't mean to discourage you," then it is probably hurtful or discouraging. You either not say it at all, or find a better way to say it.
Life is good people, let's lift as we climb and make the world a better place.
This is mind blowing, and this is similar to my issue in ICT world, these people compared me with others on how great they are doing, it hurts but my faith and patience was intact i kept doing what i know and learning new things each day till i was able to prove them wrong by moving away from them and work hard with prayer. Now they want me, they want us to work together and share ideas, but im not comfortable with them anymore. People don't have the idea of how it hurts to bring people down instead of helping them grow with positive words.
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