Pride Vs Progress

Stumbled on a very interesting thread on Nairaland involving a young man who was heartbroken and disheartened because he got fired for guess what? Refusal to carry his boss’s bag! The boss happens to be of the same age range with this guy and the daughter of the owner of the company. His question to Nairalanders: was he wrong for not carrying the bag?

At first, I quickly concluded that he did nothing wrong by not carrying the bag. But on a second thought after reading some of the wise comments by fellow Nairalanders, I agreed he should have carried the bag. Wait a sec, before you cast your stones at me for agreeing he ought to have carried his mate’s bag like a slave, please read my reason…

On our individual road to success, especially if you’re from a humble background without rich relatives and all, FOCUS is inevitable. This implies you may have to absorb a lot of trash on your quest to the top. According to the young man, he was about to take on a major project for the company before he abruptly got himself fired. My point, he should have focused on the project and consider carrying the bag a mere means to an end.

You know what? Some bosses have ego that must be fed. The thing is you keep feeding that ego as long as you have a plan and keep getting what you want. Some great guys we celebrate have done a lot worse than carry bags to get to where they are today. Look at them today, the demeaning stuffs they may have done in the past is not even written on their foreheads! Except some of them open up to you to tell you the kind of menial services they’ve had to render in the past, you may never know.

All I’m saying is: keep your eyes on the mark, you may have to do loads of stuffs you normally wouldn’t do, just do it. As long as it’s neither illegal nor against your conscience with a capability of stealing your peace, do it abeg! All the rubbish you’re going to have to tolerate, consider them collateral damages. Perhaps if the young man carried the bag, he’d still have his job. Please don’t ever make the same mistake he made, your progress is worth more than a momentary battered pride. Good luck on your quest to the top!