Ever felt like you're just not measuring up to others or constantly doubting yourself? Well, you're not alone That nasty feeling called "inferiority complex" affects a lot of people. It's like this nagging feeling that you're not as good as everyone else and I believe most or even every one of us have experienced it at one point in our life or another.
This sort of feeling usually starts as early as childhood and that's usually when most of us experienced it but as we grew older, we learned to change things that are within our power or just accept things the way they are. But when inferiority complex becomes a problem is when you don't break out of it and allow it to ruin your life, it can eventually lead to things like low self-esteem and lack of confidence.
Whenever I remember this story, I always laugh and give thanks to God for helping me to make the right choice. So, back in 2018 which was the year I got admitted into the university, I went back to my family house after the second-semester break and I noticed something different about my neighborhood. This was the same year that a lot of youngsters were going into Internet fraud or as we call it in Nigeria; yahoo.
Some guys I grew up with in the neighborhood suddenly went missing for several months and word on the street was that they all went to Ghana to learn the art of defrauding people. Well, those guys were back in town and they all had cars, that was the "something different" I noticed in my neighborhood. Most times I will be at home and I will suddenly hear the sounds of cars driving and loud music and when I step out to check, I see a fleet of cars; Lexus, Toyota, and Benz.
I hated myself back then because I didn't even have any source of income, I was still depending on my parents and meanwhile, some of my friends are driving their own cars. It became worse when my roommate in the university called me and said two of my closest friends who went to Ghana a year ago are back and they want to meet. I put on my best clothes that day to go and meet them and I still felt very small among them.
They all had the latest iPhone back then and Samsung phones and I couldn't even bring out my phone from my pocket. I felt so out of place among them and I kept telling myself that I'm no longer on the same level as these guys. At one point I was even open to the idea of joining them in doing Internet fraud if it means I will no longer feel inferior when I'm with them.
These were the same guys that went to the same secondary with me and sometimes I even buy food for them with my allowance but now they have made so much money that they can buy whatever they want. My roommate brought up the idea of following them back to Ghana whenever they were going back so he can learn how to defraud people too and make some money. I quickly agreed to the idea without thinking much about it.
I was ready to drop out of school and run away from home, "at least my parents will no longer be angry when I eventually come back with a lot of money", was the excuse I gave myself. My friends agreed and even said they will take care of the transport fare, then they gave us 3 days to get ready, which also mean I will have to go look for a laptop. Luckily for me, my roommate has several laptops at home because his uncle sent them from abroad to his dad to sell.
On the day we were supposed to leave, I was having second thoughts. I can't bring myself to tell my parents about my plans, which means I plan on just running away from home and I started thinking about the effects it will have on my parents. Secondly, I am not even running to another city or state within my country, I'm going to an entirely different country, what if something happened?
After several thoughts, I called my roommate and told him I was no longer interested and he said okay, that he is still going to go and he did. Well, to cut the long story short, he came back after 3 months with nothing and when he narrated to me what he experienced in Ghana, I just thank God I made the right decision and didn't choose that path.
It wasn't easy to get past that experience and it even made me reluctant to go home during school breaks but after a while, I told myself that it's better if I move through life at my own pace rather than looking for shortcuts and venturing into the life of crime. One thing with those guys that have made a lot of money from Internet fraud is that they can't walk freely; they are always looking over their shoulders and watching out for law enforcement agencies.
They have become the personal cash bag of corrupt policemen who always jump at the opportunity to extort them. Some of them even end up losing all their money after a while because all they do is squander it on drinks, hard drugs, and women. I know of some of them in my neighborhood who are currently struggling to feed, even though they had millions a couple of years ago.
One thing about inferiority complex is that you either let it eat you up or you do something about it. When it comes to doing something about it, there are also two paths: the right path and the wrong one. I almost ended up on the wrong path when I chose to go into Internet fraud but I'm glad I didn't go through with it and eventually ended up on the right path. What is the right path? Of course, it's making money the legitimate way.
That experience pushed me to start looking for ways to make money online. I did blogging for a while, then went into forex trading (2019), later on, it was online surveys, cryptocurrency, and ponzi schemes (covid-19 lockdown of 2020) before I started taking graphic design jobs (towards the end of 2020). Luckily for me, I found out about cryptocurrency blogging in 2021 (Hive, readcash, and noisecash), and that has been a big blessing in my life.
I have been able to sustain myself in the university for over 2 years, all thanks to these wonderful platforms. The funny thing is that I actually signed up on these platforms in August 2021, which means this month is my 2 years anniversary on Hive 馃榿. Well, that was my story on inferiority complex and I thank God for where I'm today. Who knows, I might be in prison right now like a lot of fraudsters that have been arrested if I had made the wrong decision 5 years ago.
Thanks for reading
Connect with me on:
Twitter: @kushyzeena
Readcash: @kushyzee
