IF YOU MUST BE GREAT...

 

1. DON’T DEPEND ON THE GRADE

“Go to school, read hard, come out with a good grade and you will secure a good job and would live the kind of life you want”… this is a common phrase sang in the ears of the young one always, my parents told me same too. But in the present day in this part of the world, it has failed, and not just that it failed, it has crashed a lot of lives especially those who held to that kind of philosophy in life. Many people have gotten the good grades but still don’t know their bearings in life. Some have gotten the good paycheck, yet are not happy with their lives. How far you go in life has nothing to do with your grades. I would like you to pause and give this a thought.

Are all those unemployed today, people with low grades or people without certificates?

All those living meaningful life who also have recorded great success in their lives, are they graduates of one prestigious university with good grades?

The belief that schools can give you a better life has been the reason many are disappointed today especially when they have toiled all night to get extra certificates and yet have nothing to show irrespective. My pastor would always say, “Grades don’t make you but grace does”. If you think grades and schools are the major things you need to go far in life, to record success, then I’m very sorry to say that you are building a life of failure for yourself. You might not make the best of grades in school, but make sure you make the best out of your life using every opportunity God has made available to you. You might not make a first class in school but make sure you make a first class in life.

When I was much younger in my elementary school days, there was this song we sang regularly at the assembly ground when marching to our classes after the headmaster has addressed us, and it goes like this;

  “Parent listen to your children…… children!

   We are the leaders of tomorrow……tomorrow!

Try and pay our school fees; to give us a sound education”

It’s a nice song, but a lot of parents have been struck with amazement when they realized, that they have paid the school fees, the children have been schooled, yet nothing has changed in their life or in the nation. In fact you have to understand that schooling is not the same as education. You can be schooled yet remain uneducated. It’s so unfortunate that when you say someone is an illiterate, what comes to the mind of many concerning such a person is “…he didn’t go to school”. You can be an uninformed person with a PhD.  It’s not about what is taught in the classrooms. Mark Twain once said “I never let schooling interfere with my education”. This is because real education is different from schooling.

 My friend! Greatness goes far beyond just obtaining a certificate.  No nation was built by the president and ministers or senators alone. Every act of nation building was a joint effort of every citizen. A father who fails to give his child the proper training needed is contributing to the problem of the nation. A  parent who fails to caution the child when he steals little things in the house or tell little lies, is in turn making things difficult for the police officers in the future. When a father pays his way through for his child to gain a university admission even when he knows the child is meant to reseat an examination, he is only contributing to the numerous problems of the nation that is displayed on national television daily. When a child lacks morals and grows up that way to do unimaginable evil things, people begin to blame the government. No! That’s not true. Don’t blame the government. It wasn’t the government that gave birth to him. Nation building is not for presidents but for all of us.

No one is responsible for where you are. You just have to come to terms with the fact that you are responsible for your life, not the government or even your parent. When you have a vision, you become a moving train; you have direction. No one dares to stop a moving train. Men like Fela Durotoye are affecting our nation today, impacting into our youth incredible thoughts and dreams; not because the government did not give them a job. They had a vision. Go back and re evaluate your life. John Lennon said that “you won’t get anything except you have the vision to magnet it”.