Several years ago I was sent by my boss to represent him at a seminar, on getting there, I discovered that I was too low compared to the participants in the seminar, they were captains of industries, academicians and successful people in the society. I felt like an odd person out, my little brain couldn’t comprehend their kind of knowledge. They speak impeccable English, they comport themselves with gait and elegance far from my level of understanding.
What can I do? I just tune off and slept, I slept throughout the seminar only to wake up when the keynote speaker was about to round up his address, thank goodness I did, because then I heard the most potent word I’ve ever heard in my life till date.
……….. He said, “finally my brethren I beseech you, to live your life like a mini skirt, short enough to attract attention and long enough to cover the details”.
Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr, Mao Tse Tung, Mother Teresa, Mahatma Gandhi, Rosa parks, even Malala Yousufsai, and many others are serious examples of people that have lived a life of a “mini skirt”, they cross the ts and dot the i ‘s. They lived a life of impact, they added value to their society, friends what impact have you made? What value have you added?
I posted sometimes ago that Kanu Nwakwo is arguably the greatest sportsperson that we have ever had in Nigeria, some of my friends called to remind me of some very skillful and fantastic footballers we’ve had in the past, but I told them “No I didn’t say he was the best, I said he is the greatest “. You don’t have to be the best to be the greatest, Skill and dexterity may make you the best in your field, but impact alone will make you the greatest.
I don’t think Gani Fawehinmi was the best lawyer we ever produced in Nigeria, but he’s certainly one of the greatest.
You seldom hear anyone say Awolowo paid my school fees even though he must have paid a lot, but you’ll meet thousands if not millions that will say “if not for Awolowo, I wouldn’t have gone to school” . The difference? The former was a good gesture while the later was a good impact, good gesture can be forgotten, but good impact will for ever announce itself.
No matter how much you hate Awolowo, will you deny free education? Can you say free health never happened in the SW? Will you downplay first television station in Africa, first radio station in Africa? Cocoa house is still standing my friends, liberty stadium is not closed yet. These and many more are impacts that he has left behind.
Mum once told me that if you go out throughout a day and by the time you want to retire to bed, you couldn’t remember anyone that have said “thank you “to you for that day, please put a minus sign in front of that day, because it’s a wasted day. A life of no impact is a life of no value.
Let me drop this caveat here friends, yes, you can also make a negative impact, and negative impact is as good if not worse than no impact at all. While the society will remember you for a wrong reason, your children won’t be able to wear your name like a toga. I lived about five years in Germany I never met the son or heard about the grandson of Adolf Hitler, I’m a Yoruba man nobody has ever told me that Dr. Oyenusi was his father, I have a lot of Benin friends none of them ever told me that they met Lawrence Anini children, thank God for Evans but none of his children will ever say my father was so so and so a.k.a Evans. Even the son of shekau will only say so in sambisa.
Let me conclude by living you with the lyrics of one song that I’m yet to know it’s artist, it says “Akoko to nlugi nigbo (a woodpecker in the bush) is making an impact, a life of no impact is a life of no value “
Deeply Pause To Deeply Reflect!