This Thing Called Life

Photo Credit: DaveLawler via Compfightcc

Over the last year, between when I started youth service and now, I have come to understand (and not just know) that life is not one-dimensional. There are always two or more ways to look at things. I now understand that life isn't always about right or wrong. And it’s not always black or white. Sometimes, it is both and more.

Let me illustrate my point with my experience.

Before I was called up for NYSC in August 2014, I laid out a couple of plans and set some goals I wanted to achieve during the youth service year. One of those goals was to start a business of my own. I had no idea what business to start but I just knew I didn't want to work for anyone. I didn’t know that life had planned something else for me, as it almost always does. Usually, what life plans and what we plan are two different things.

During that period, I read a lot of business and management books. I read up on small businesses and what it was like to start a company. I was eager to put all I learned into practice. But each time I conceived a business idea, I would bury it. I kept having the feeling that I wasn't ready. Each time I succumbed to that feeling I would beat myself up. I like being hard on myself; I am my biggest critic. So I castigated myself a lot, questioning my ambition and drive to succeed in the process. But what I didn't know was that life was simply having its way. Which, sometimes, is not a bad thing as I have come to find out.

Once I was done with NYSC, I got a job working at an ecommerce startup. I felt working there would provide the motivation I needed to launch out on my own. I went to the startup with the mind to learn and get myself ready to start up. I learned and I built myself quite alright, but not until I realized what life had been trying to tell me all along: I wasn't ready to start my own business.

It took me a while to accept that truth but when I did, I found peace. You know, many times, we hear stories of people who started young and were able to become 'successful' early (mind you, success is relative). The media and Hollywood do not help in the least bit as they keep hammering us [young people] with stories of 'Forbes 30 Under 30' folks and so on. Many young people are being deceived into thinking that working for someone makes them less ambitious. Or that accomplishing great things as an employee [of someone] means they are less successful than the so-called great entrepreneurs.

Thinking about it, I find that this notion can be damaging because it makes people launch out into deep waters where there are storms that their sails can withstand. And by doing so, they lose bearing early in life and become discouraged because they took the right step at the wrong time.

Maybe one day I will start my own business. But until then, I will bide my time, waiting at shore and learning all I can about the deep blue sea. When the time is right, I will sail out. Or maybe I won't. Time will tell.