Whenever I hear the names of influential people in the world and read the things they do, it leaves me pondering about how successful they are and how possible it was for them to be successful.
It was difficult to comprehend how these people became famous and how their names were on everybody's lips.
I would sit every evening to listen to my dad tell me stories of these great people. He would read their biographies and autobiographies to me. These stories left me stunned at the end.
"How come they achieve so much?" I asked my dad, one day after he was done reading.
"Hard work," he said.
My brows arched. "Hard work?"
"Yes. They decided to stay focused on their studies and dreams while others spent time playing."
I nodded as I listened.
"If you want to go far in life, you need to pay the price and that's hard work," he told me.
These words sunk into my head and made me a dreamer. My dream of becoming a successful woman started at a very young age.
One of the autobiographies of the woman my dad read to me was Ngozi Chimamanda Adichie. I was so inspired. I got to read her book Purple Hibiscus in Junior secondary school and my deep desire to be a great writer like her was birthed.
This deep desire drove me to harness my writing skills and become more intentional about writing than ever before.
I decided not to hide my stories anymore but to put them out there to the world. I began writing and posting on my Facebook. I wrote every day and even more than once.
I got a few likes and comments. This got me discouraged and thought of quitting. My hopes of becoming a writer diminished. A friend who noticed that I had stopped posting reached out to me and when I had explained said to me,
"You don't have to stop. Not everyone would love what you do but you have to keep going."
"I'm tired. It's killing my creativity. It hurts," I said, with teary eyes.
"Times like this will come but you don't have to give in. This should propel you to work harder and be resilient," he said.
"It's not that easy." I mouthed.
"But it's doable. You can do this," he said.
His words powered me up and I returned to writing. This time, I switched to storytelling. It didn't get much engagement at first but as time went on people fell in love with my stories.
The engagements increased. This fueled my passion to write more stories every day. I would stay awake all night to write stories to post the next day and it became my daily routine.
I began to observe other story writers and how differently they wrote. There was something unique about their stories and I compared theirs with mine.
I found out that they don't only know how to write but they learnt how to write. This was the knowledge I didn't have. I didn't know how to write well.
I didn't have the money to pay for writing coaching because the fee was too high. So, I hoped that one day, someone would teach me how to become a better writer.
My hopes were not dashed as in no time someone who read one of my stories loved it and decided to coach me for free.
This was a huge opportunity for me to become a better writer. I attended the training without missing a day and put into practice what I had learned.
My writing became better and more interesting. People kept engaging and falling deeply with them.
Then, another opportunity came my way.
This was writing to earn money. I started writing on a platform and was paid for it. This was bigger than what I imagined.
I never thought of making money from writing. All I was after was to become a better writer.
I then recall the words of my dad.
"If you want to go far in life, you need to pay the price and that's hard work."
I was enjoying the benefits of paying the price which was hard work. All the nights I stayed awake writing wasn't in vain.
I was glad I didn't stop writing all because of low engagements.
