Reaching For The Goal

by Michael Ewetuga

I don’t read inspirational books, reason being that I believe they are junk. You know, books that tell you how to become a millionaire… I wonder if it ever works for anyone and if it did I would love someone to tell me who it worked for and I will go tomorrow and pick up volumes of such books.

I don’t read books that tell you how to get love either, reason being that there’s no telling what a woman would fall in love with in a man. What some women fall in love with in a man would make you think that they need to get their heads examined.

Most of the books that tell you about getting a woman will tell you what you need to get a woman is confidence. Well, some women won’t like you if they feel you are too forward or pushy, you know, a guy that is always in their business, talking to them about anything and everything. Sometimes, they will listen to you just to be nice and not really because they like the junks you’re dishing out. Sometimes they just want you to leave, but because they are decent people they will listen to you while wishing in their hearts for you to shut your trap and move on

In these days of sexual harassment, you got to be careful because you don’t know what some of these women would consider sexual harassment. Unless I misunderstood whatever is meant by confidence. I believe it is walking up to a woman and starting a conversation, appearing to be in command of the situation and all. It is said that women love men that take charge, this of course will not apply to women who like to take charge.

Sometimes women do fall for a guy because he is quiet and always minding his business. At any rate, I don’t really fancy dating at my place of work unless I have been dating the woman before we started working at the same place. Few times that I dated at my job weren’t exactly fun; I don’t think it is an ideal situation.

I don’t believe anyone can tell you how to study either, the best route to go is to determine what is good for you and stick to it. When I was preparing for the bar examination in Washington, the bar review that I bought included how I should study for the examination, I wrote to the author of the bar review on how I intended to study for the examination and he replied that he didn’t know anyone that passed the bar with the method I intended using. I passed the bar using my method because I believed if I used the method he was suggesting I will fail.

No one knows you better than yourself and no one can tell you what is best suited for you except you although some suggestions might be helpful.

I do find inspiration in the lives of some people; these are people who just lived their lives without really advertising same as inspirational to anyone. They did not write books asking others to buy them so they can be inspired, their lives are just inspirational pure and simple.

You must have heard that the only limitation to our potentials is ourselves, if we do not succeed we have no one else to blame but ourselves.

However, success is not measured by monetary or material yardsticks alone; it depends on the goals that we set for ourselves.

Jesus Christ, if all we read about him is true, was not rich but we can say he succeeded. His goal was not to become the richest man on earth, if it was of course he failed. His goal was to win as many souls as he could for God and in this area he succeeded.

Socrates was one of the greatest philosophers of all time. It is on record that he couldn’t even take care of his household. His goal was to bring knowledge to the youth of Greece, that he did and not only to the youth in Athens but to people who love knowledge all over the world.

There were and still are men whose main goals were to bring freedom to their people and the list is quite long. From Indira Ghandi of India, Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Patrice Lumumba of Republic of Congo, Marcus Garvey, Philip Randolph, Malcolm X, Dr. Martin Luther King, all African Americans, Nelson Mandela, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, Desmond Tutu, Stephen Biko, all of South Africa. Robert Nesta Marley, Peter Tosh, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, all musicians. Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, all African writers.

What all the people above have in common is selfless sacrifice, unbending, unyielding and uncompromising demand for the freedom of their people. Jailed, beaten ridiculed and killed but undeterred.

Today, success is attached to accumulation of material things and the rule is now everyman for himself and God for all. We have no respect for value, we do not thirst for knowledge and the notion of freedom for all is all but gone.

Except for few activists, we are no longer interested in holding the leaderships accountable for their acts. Bills come first in on our agenda and evil people, bigots, are having a field day promoting injustice and inequality.

But there’s still hope, there are those who see the obstacles placed in our ways as stepping stones to great heights.

If Obama doesn’t end up as the President of this great country at least he has blazed the path, he has shown us that no matter what anyone says, no matter how lowly the minority are regarded in this country, if we are asked if we can lead we can look them in the face and say “YES WE CAN! His is an inspirational episode for any member of the minority class who doubts as to his/her potentials and as to whether or not his/her goals can be achieved.

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