Can We Learn Patience?

Good will always win in the end. Don't put your hands into things that you'll regret bitterly in the future...

I am deeply saddened by the wrong mindset that my generation has adopted. Gone are those days when people value due process. What due process am I talking about? I am referring to the due process of growth. There are stages in life. A child is born; he learns to crawl, then he stands before he begins to walk and run. He goes to school, learns some life skills, develops himself, goes through the process of growing his business or career, and then begins to reap the fruit of the work he has put in over the years.

These days, no one is interested in that. People are in haste. People want things to happen at the snap of their fingers. It seems like we've forgotten that things take time. Many young people look at great men and women living in influence and affluence and desire to have their kind of lives. There's nothing wrong with this. Every human being likes good things. It gets sad when young people expect to get to the level that these great men and women have gotten to immediately and without doing the work they did or making the sacrifices that success demands. The value system among young people has dropped. The things that used to matter don't matter anymore. The moral level has dropped drastically.

What many young people care about now are quick money and immediate success. Imagine a fifteen-year-old who wants to be as rich as Aliko Dangote or Mike Adenuga without putting in the work that these people did! It is impatience that has led to a drastic increase in the crime rate among young people. Ritual killings, internet fraud, kidnapping, and different kinds of robbery. The leaders of tomorrow are now the criminals of today. This new situation has got me thinking, what brought about this impatience? I mean, these rich men have always been there, and yes, there's hardly any society that is void of crime, but I think we can all agree that the current situation is becoming alarming with each passing day.

The things that used to be treated as a priority are no longer treated as such these days. There has been a drastic negative shift in the priority of youths. Is it that the coming of technology has helped people to flaunt their luxurious lifestyles more, thereby making people who are not living such lives feel inadequate? Or the wrong mindset that people are beginning to adopt is the root cause of this? Or can we say that all these "make six-figure in three weeks schemes," "six-figure side hustles," and so on have further promoted impatience in the youths? I'm not saying technology is bad, nor am I saying that there are no genuine skills or side hustles that pay more than a regular 9-5 job; I'm simply wondering the angle from which we are getting it wrong. (One thing people forget sometimes is that not everybody will make it through affiliate marketing, everybody must not go into copywriting or graphics and web design and so on. There is no one skill that can make everyone wealthy. What works for Mr. A may not work for Mr. B. Everybody is different.)

Sorry for digressing a bit; I had to clarify the point I was trying to make. Now, if we take a careful look at these wealthy men that are making a name for themselves, we'll see that most of them did not come into wealth until after a good number of years. Many youths these days only look at them reaping the fruits of their seeds, forgetting that there is no fruit without seed sowing. These great men we want to be like suffered in obscurity for years, started businesses that didn't last, and lost everything at some point before coming into the limelight. Some of these persons started reaping in their 40's, others in their 50's, 30's, and even 60's. But, it is said that youths forget these things. The media adds more fuel to this by portraying young people who are getting quick money by getting into one illegal business or the other as the 'happening people.' It is true that there are many young people who were either born into wealth or got opportunities to start making genuine money at a very early age, but it is important we never forget what I said earlier. Everybody is different.

Find your path. Develop yourself over and over. Keep going for knowledge and continue to implement what you learn as it applies to you. You will not blow in one day. You will not achieve success in one day. Keep pushing as you wait for your turn because it will surely come! Learn patience. Don't involve yourself in negative things because you want to blow today. I'm not saying all these because I'm perfect. I'm admonishing myself and you who are reading this. I see all the appeal that the world is presenting, so I know that it is not easy to stand your ground in doing the right thing, especially when it seems like everyone else is doing the wrong thing (this is a big lie; there are many people who are sticking to doing the right thing). Good will always win in the end. Be patient. Don't put your hands into things that you'll regret bitterly in the end.

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