It is often said that a book should not be judged by its cover, as not all that glitters is gold. In various situations, we have had a notion about what we thought should be the case and ended up being proven otherwise. At some points, too, results have come just as we anticipated. Life is so diverse that we cannot state with certainty the outcome of any event, but we can make speculations and predictions, especially based on experience or nudges.
I have no doubt judged people to have ended up having an alternative perception, and to others, they turned out to be exactly what I had in mind.
Well, there is this acquaintance by the name of Damola, and we both attended the same church. He was the younger brother of a medical colleague of mine, even though we are not very close. The parents also attend the same church as I do, and I consider them fairly okay financially. Damola happened to be much younger than I am, even though he had a stature that almost intimidated me.
Damola had a bad habit of taking loans from me without returning what he borrowed. The amusing thing was that Damola almost always came for the same amount with the same promise of returning it as soon as possible. At some points, he would tell me he was on his way to the point of sale (POS) operator to make the transfer because his USSD or bank transfer was not functioning. He continued this attitude till I resolved never to borrow him any money further, irrespective of what may be. He exhibited this shameful attitude between 2018 and 2021.
Sometime within the last year, a neutral friend of mine who used to be a church member called me to inquire about Damola. He stated Damola had contacted him via Facebook to request a certain amount. Without hesitation, I told him the amount I suspected Damola had requested, and he was shocked at how I got to know. He called to inquire if Damola鈥檚 Facebook may have been hacked to warrant such a request. I told him immediately that the Facebook account was not hacked and that it was his usual practice of borrowing without returning. He eventually told me this year that he had loaned Damola some money and that, to date, he has yet to get his money back. This was discussed in the presence of a third friend, and he narrated how he has executed a project for Damola since 2019 and is yet to get paid.
In such instances, I will gladly judge Damola to be fraudulent in his dealings, and I am almost certain he will live up to the negative notion I have about him.
Now, let me briefly mention one of the moments I wrongly judged a book by its cover.
There is this superior I have at work that we have heard prior to his being transferred to be selfish. The office staff was told he was nice; however, he does not play with money. This notion was already stamped in my mind, and he partially lived up to expectation. However, there was an occasion I organized on behalf of the office despite not being in the unit supposed to handle it. He gave me some money to pay for the logistics of preparing for the occasion. At some point, I spent more than what he gave me, and I counted my money as a loss since this superior was in question. I was tempted to approach him about the excess money spent; however, I felt it was money I could let go of. The day we concluded the occasion, I was surprised when this same superior called me to the office and gave me money, which was about 5x what I spent as an extra charge. This really amazed me, and I was glad I did not approach him with a request for payment of extra money spent during the course of the discharge of the duty he assigned to me.
The same superior has nominated me for assignments with financial benefits attached afterwards, and sometimes he would mandate that I am on a particular committee, which I see as his way of expressing confidence and rewarding hard work.
Thus, I would prefer to understudy an individual or a process before passing judgment.
Thank you for reading. I would be glad to have you comments and contributions 馃
