I have at one point or the other in my life tasted failures.
When I was hunting for a job, it got to the point that I was confused about what was responsible for my underemployment despite having a good grade from college.
The situation in the country is such that you need a godfather more than you need good grades to secure a job, especially with the government. I didn't have anybody close to being called godfather. I was submitting job application letters to organizations with the expectation that I would be called by one. That never happened.
I decided to go into farming and trading in farming produce since a job wasn't forthcoming. I did this for about two years and decided to invest the money realized into something else because the farming business was draining my energy coupled with the harsh weather of Northeastern State of Bauchi where I was plying the trade.
I bought a car with the money to be used for commercial purposes. Instead of getting relief, my situation was made worse as the car was dying today and waking up tomorrow. It was from one mechanic to another. The car nearly killed my friend and I when it went off the road when the shaft developed a problem.
After surviving that accident, I decided to sell the car at a reduced price and leave Bauchi. I went to Abuja to meet my sister. I met a man through my sister that promised to help me get a job. He requested some money to facilitate the process but I declined. However my sister convinced me to pay, telling me that if it were easy for me to get a job on merit, I would have gotten one since graduating.
I withdrew the money in my account and paid the money. After months of promise upon promises, it became clear that the whole thing was a scam. I was drained of my money without any job.
I am a type that detest idleness. I applied to a private school and got a teaching job. I was paid 26000 naira (about $52) monthly. This amount wasn't enough to cater for my needs. I was staying with my brother who was just starting a laundry business. Things were hard for us.
Some days, I trekked 4 kilometers to work to cut the cost of transportation. Any day I embarked on such a journey, I would be asking myself why life hadn't been smooth for me.
Am I a failure? Why am I back to this stage?
These were the questions that I couldn't stop asking myself.
The worst time came during COVID-19 lockdown. The stepend coming in as salary stopped. I would stay indoors for a whole day. The journey through that period wasn't easy. What helped me out was how I controlled my thoughts through reading inspirational books.
I saw myself as being somewhere in the middle of the queue of successful people. I was convinced that no matter the difficult situation and failure, I was doing better than some people. I tried not to just concentrate on the people ahead of me but I looked back to people behind me and this changed my perspective and believed that life wasn't unfair to me.
When I read the stories of some successful people, checking through what they passed through, I saw my failures as not close to theirs yet they became successful. Such conviction gave me the confidence to keep striving hard and never to give up. This helped me a lot. After the lockdown was lifted and school activities resumed, I went back to my school.
Another important antidote to being weighed down by failure is to cultivate the habit of celebrating with people that encounter success. By genuinely doing so, you are learning how to celebrate yours and also drawing such a day closer.
I did this through the period and shortly after the lockdown was lifted, I got an invitation for an interview and the story started changing. I was employed in a bigger school and from there moved to Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna.
I never allowed myself to break down and today, I can proudly say I am fulfilling my dream.