What it is All About.

“Try not to become a man of success. Rather become a man of value.”  - Albert Einstein

One of my students recently interrupted me while teaching and asked a question. He said: “Why do we do all this? Why do we wake up in the morning, get all set and leave our homes? Why?” With his question came sixty watchful eyes and attentive ears. They seemed more interested in the answer to this question than to any other thing I had taught in the last hour or so.

Lucky for me, I did not need to think too far to get what I hoped will be an appropriate response. This was because I had thought about this same question several times from my early secondary school days. I remember observing the early morning hustle and bustle of people and old vehicles in Kaduna and wonder why people needed to go through all these daily.

Why not simply sit at home and rest your life out?

The easy answer that presents itself is we do it for the money but I say no! I am not about to tell you that money does not play a part, after all it is popularly said, and believed by many, that money makes the world go round. But as writer, John Stainbeck states, “Anything that just costs money is cheap”.  My life should not revolve round only money and neither should yours.

We get up in the morning, take our baths and leave our lovely homes so that we can add value to the society. Without value everything is worthless. Indeed you must think in the direction of value for anything you do be worth your effort.

You are a nurse so that you can add value to the profession and society’s well-being. You are a policeman or woman to protect the lives of people, thereby adding value to the profession. You are part of clergy so that you can build people morally and spiritually, this adds value to the vocation and society.

It is always a sad thing meeting professionals that care little about the value they add daily to the society through their jobs. They would rather pray change comes by some divine impact than add their part of value, little as it may be, to the society through their fields. I dare say your little part of value is more important than your prayer. If you go the extra mile and combine the two you will have an explosive combination!