So unless you know, don’t judge...

There is this African saying that “you cannot convince a monkey that honey is sweeter than banana,” and I agree, because the monkey doesn’t take honey. Having gone away from the comfort of home, seen different vibes and tasted different cuisines, I can confirm that familiarity can sometimes affect not only perception and awareness, but also judgement.

How au fait we tend to be when the ultimate responsibility isn't ours…

I had this boss who whenever I went bonkers at things I felt weren’t right, or get cheeky for no apparent reason, he will say to me: "Look! Omar, one day, you'll lead a team of your own, and this youngish I-don't-care attitude of yours will come back to bite you."

I was so naive to understand, but now I think I know what he meant. It is very easy to find faults, and to think how differently things would've been if it were you. It is so easy to assume that you have all the answers when the ultimate responsibility isn't yours, but whether it is really that simple is something you may not know until the moment comes for you to call the shots. That is when you will realise that thinking it and doing it are completely different ball games.

Ask those who took premature positions of responsibility, especially through ways that were contrary to the ordinary course of nature, simply because they thought they were ready for it. Trust me, sometimes it feels easier to watch over a herd of cows than to have a duty to deal with human beings.

Encourage yourself...

Listening to a sports (wrestling) radio show the other day and the incredible "wax sa xalat" music show today got me to the common observation that our people with special abilities and talents are generally dissatisfied, and for right reason too, because even though we say we do appreciate them, our actions are not making them feel appreciated.

Personally, I just want to let you know that your feeling is understandable. The best of performers are those who are valued most, especially by their own people. I tell people that the reason why brand America is prevailing is because every American is involved in the branding of America. They believe in their own, and that is why every American is proud to say he's American.

But tell you what? If your happiness is going to depend on encouragement from folks ayard, you will be needlessly discouraged, because most of us have this weird thing for everything from foreign, and that's a challenge we must accept in order to move on. Even those who have been in your shoes, and by God were able to overleap this hurdle tend to feel happier working with international than local collaborators, and that's not just a showbiz or sports thing, it's an everywhere thing, including corporate circles where no matter how brilliant your ideas are, they won't make any sense to folks unless validated by some consultant from foreign.

For my part, the solution is to encourage yourself, knowing the disservice it will be to you and to your talent to sit and expect a society like ours to build the type of world you want. You have to believe that you have everything it should take to create that world yourself. So whilst hoping that someday, we will be good at jump-starting our own, work towards making yourself, because right now, it is only success that attracts wide support not how industrious you're seen to be in your efforts.

Snippet...

I could have been strong enough to just remember the memory, grow from it and move on like a man, but I guess I was so blind to see and let go. Even when she insisted on walking away, I kept convincing myself that I could make the connection work.

Today I am just so glad that I got sick and tired of being sick and tired of painting that image of a perfect personality that she never was. And above all, I thank God that I was patient enough to wait for what I truly deserve. From a work in progress. Don't overthink it.

It's a complicated world...

Sometimes there's more than meets the eye to the length that people are willing to go to do what they gotta do, because it's a complicated world. Sometimes the evil that others are accused of, or may appear to be inclined to do isn't really so, because it's a complicated world. Sometimes when people act in ways that may be inconsistent with established standards of good taste, know that they may be acting out of desperation, because it's a complicated world.

Sometimes, recklessly furious people may not be as bad as may be presumed, because it's a complicated world. Sometimes your only armour is to act from necessity and be really good at the politics of survival, because it's a complicated world. Sometimes it is necessary that you lay hands on some influence; one that you can use to gain an advantage, because it's a complicated world.

Mind the new devils that come with new levels...

Someone was there for you since the beginning, through bad times when quarter bread and homemade mayonnaise was the thing; from way back undesirable times when no one else was there for you, and today based on what scheming little toadies tell you about this person, he’s assumed to be going behind your back or grassing on you!? I am not saying don’t react, but use the courtesy of trying to know the facts before you embark on your journey of revenge. If you don’t want to be sorry when the truth eventually surfaces that is. 

See, for as long as your levels keep changing, you need to understand that devils will want to screw you over. And when they cannot get to you like that, typically because of the people around you; those that they know will remain loyal, they will try to disconnect you from such people and cause you to be defenceless. If you’re the ditched party, and based on accusations like that, just let go. I know wonderful people who have survived much worse.

University of Google

To an information addict like myself, the Google search engine is not unlike a university, because just like Google, all what a university does is to provide source or access to information, and to create an environment for diligent inquiry into facts, principles, theories, applications, etc.

The lecturers are only there to help you organise the information you will gather. If what you gather or went in with is nonsense, rest assured that you will graduate with organised nonsense. But from once you are an autoditact, you may not even need a lecturer to guide you.

However, let it be known that like the university, Google cannot replace the burden of using your common sense. I know this because I am a regular googler, and I can confirm that googling and making something out of it requires ability or skill if you like, and lot of common sense.

One of those kind of societies...

In a “mine is better, bigger, or prettier than yours” or “I am the first to say it and have it” minded society, even a level 1 retard with zero track record of excellence will feel better than everyone around him. And because of the resulting competition, the level of propaganda and prejudice between folks will be as hostile as a cold war.

Folks will be inclined to forget that regardless of individual ideologies, they still share the same culture, the same family tree and natural characteristics. So in the end, and because everyone is busy serving the ego, society’s tradition of loyalty in action, in affection, and in purpose will become dead traditions.

Thunder is loud, but it is lightning that harms...

Youth, listen! If you want to be called a “Youth Leader” in today’s world of oratory influence, not being afraid to be seen and heard is your surest road, even if what you think you have to share is nothing out of the ordinary. Today, it doesn’t matter how much you think you know, without the confidence to give of your best, you are as good as ordinary to the ordinary man. 

However, your inability to awaken attention should not be seen as a liability; people are different, and in these last days of yesterday, people are likely to like a thing only when it is done by the people they like. In high school, I had classmates who never raised a hand to answer a question, but today, those people are this country’s finest minds. 

Let me be allegorical lest I sound judgemental. Between thunder and lightning, there is a difference. Thunder is loud, it is rumbling and crashing, and because it comes with the bright flashes of lightning, it usually takes the limelight, and people panic about it more than the high voltage in lightning’s natural electrical discharge, but have you ever seen an object struck by lightning? Trust me, you’ll be scared stiff.

Impossible or I'm-possible?

Someone said: "because a thing seems difficult for you, do not think it impossible for anyone to accomplish." Presumably because people have different measures of stamina and persistence.

But do we all know this? Unfortunately I have to say no, and I am speaking from what I see happen in my part of the world. Here, whenever there is a difficult task to do, "impossible" is the common response of those who want to justify them giving up, and those who want to deter others from trying, mostly because they do not want to eventually look upon the successes of their own people with elevated feelings. To them, no local resource is as good enough as one that comes from foreign.

However, knowing that people are destined to be what they decide to be, and that none can be successful without ever failing at anything, those who are motivated and inclined to excel will hyphenate the word "impossible," so that it becomes the inflection of the verb "be" and the adjective "possible;" as in: "I'm-possible." These incredible people amongst us are of the understanding that goodliness is a consequence of "ideas" and not "ayeh-deeya" (Mandinka phrase for pleasant dispositions).

It's a Monday...

Long weekend done! It doesn't matter if yours was spent laying around, at some nightspot, or some gala dinner courtesy of the corporation you're affiliated with. It doesn't matter who got wasted and who got broke, or whose was to get photos to upload on Facebook or Instagram.

Monday is here to be given the honourable welcome it deserves. And remember, if you're new or just getting started at your place of work, no matter how qualified you think you're, don't underrate those colleagues that have been there before you. That way, you wouldn't make an error in judging their capacity.

Come with humility and they will open up and let you in on the road to take, including all secondary roads to the main road, and together you will achieve more. But act like you are the beginning and end, and you will be caused to face the beginning of your end. Trust me, the old school is brutally efficient in waging sabotage.

Have a wonderful week ahead!

Do what you gotta do...

If you have someone, a friend or anyone with whom you spend time with, but someone who never agrees with your ideas, no matter how brilliant they are, and just because of his negative mindset or dispiriting attitude. Let him deal with whatever personality disorder he has. You gotta do what you feel is right, knowing that you cannot be everyone's stimulant, especially not someone who keeps looking for excuses for not being able to achieve the achievable.

If you need to do what you need to do, like ignoring a certain companion to make the best of an opportunity at hand, even if you are going to be morally obliged to patch the friendship later, just do it. If he's for real, he'll stay. You can't afford to sit in your tomorrow's moments feeling bitter about how better you could've been if you had taken the chances you didn’t take, and because you were waiting for the consent of someone whose only gift is the gift of putting you in a bad mood, or constantly putting emphasis on the worst of everything you want to venture into.

You need to know that you cannot stand out if you aren't willing to be different, and you cannot be different if you keep trusting every vibe-killer that comes your way. Sometimes though, some of them may be genuinely trying to protect you from the risk of heading to a direction that they do not understand. But whatever their motive is, you cannot make a start if you keep aborting your plans because of that. Once you believe you can, any other voice that says otherwise shouldn't count. Now if you wish, take this and move forward; thank me when you get there.

The devil is within...

Sometimes the reasonable thing to do is to ask not what you think people should or could've done for you in your time of need, but to ask what you did for them when they needed you, because more often than not, what you sow is what you reap.

Sometimes though, you can be as ultra-cool as Obama, be there for everyone, even at some cost to yourself, and in the end, ungratefulness seems to be the receipt in return for your largess. But hey! It is not about you; just take the jackassery to be the very definiton of human nature and move on. And if you ask me, ask no questions and you will hear no lies.

In times like ours, and in places like mine, those who tend to take cover in what appears to be a close relationship with you, will more than likely be the same people who will try to undermine you at every opportunity. So it is natural to undergo moments of betrayal like that, and trust me, your only choice is to stay good and stay strong enough to deal with it. By God, you will be fine. Now go take a shower, stay cute, go out there and act like you don't give a rat's arse. Enjoy the Friday!

Decent young men...

Being a decent young man is not just how fly you appear, or how serial a dater you are. It is about character, and about your conformity to basic moral standards. Unfortunately in poor communities like mine, young men like that are often perceived as soft or effeminate, especially when they have very close bonds with their mothers. I don't know, but I believe this is why a lot of kids tend to be so intractable these days, because the common conviction is that boys shouldn't be guardedly bred like that.

I know this because many years ago, some of my peers used to poke fun at me; called me a host of feminine names, and said I was a momma's boy, all because I was just trying to be a good kid; helping my mom get groceries from the market, being of additional assistance in her small business, and helping out on house chores that were considered feminine. But tell you what! Look who's laughing now!?

So if you are a kid like that in a community like mine, or you are trying to maintain a behaviour as decorous like that, you will be called names like that. But don't stress, because someday and very soon, you will be the one laughing and asking all their girls out if you want to. But before then, I just want to let you know that I respect you, and that you represent the very best of what every mother will want to have to offer.

The world we wish for and the world we live in....

We all wish for a world in which everything and everyone will work in perfect harmony, but our individual logics towards this end are not in harmony. Some 6th-grade-minded people believe that armed struggle is the way to it. Some travel the world attempting to spread a certain belief, and others a new political order. But there are theories that claim that the latter is a scheme to have the world under the dominance of a secret global elite.

Sometimes I think that is but unecessary fuss about nothing. But then as outlandish as it sometimes sounds, you can't but ask yourself, why is it that a few nations are in charge of every global decision there is to be made, and have the power to be rid of whomever they choose? Why are some if them insusceptible to the rules that they impose on the rest of the world? If their vision for the world is greater peace and stability as they claim, why can't they keep out of wars and cut their military budgets? Or are they also being controlled by powers that are profiteering off all these wars?

But we still wonder why others get radicalised, and why some of us choose to be the sole focus of our individual efforts?

I gossip but I can't have you get away with gossip. LOL!

My strength differing from yours doesn't make mine a weakness; and vice versa. Also, just like I know I wouldn't gain anything by undermining your strength, you cannot water mine down by failing to appreciate it the way it is.

Talking about strengths and weaknesses, I don't know what this one is, and I don't care. The truth is, like everyone else, I gossip and I listen to gossips. Personally, my boss and today's capitalistic shit-stem are my usual subjects. But one disclaimer I always maintain is that if you choose to be an okra-mouth, always with something to tell about someone, I'll listen to you, because information is powerful, and being informed can sometimes be all the leverage I need. However, one thing I cannot do is to assure you that I won't say it was you that told me.

Now because of this, some people prefer to keep me out on issues relating to other people, because they think it's insane to rat them out like that. But, bloody hell! Isn't that plausible insanity, especially given the extent of petty behaviours and attitudes everywhere these days, especially in corporate circles?

Not all that is law is right...

Just because something is being allowed or prescribed by man, and/or drafted as law doesn't necessarily make it the right thing to do, and just because something is banned, said to be forbidden or illegal doesn't make it a wrong thing.

Living in times when things are rendered bad only when they stand between people and their desires, and when wrongs become wrongs only when they are committed by people that other people don't like, you cannot but expect terrible laws.

Propaganda...

Joseph Goebbels was said to have said that "propaganda works best when those who are being manipulated are confident they are acting on their own free will."

I agree! And today, propaganda is so widespread because everyone's trying to reach or play something at the expense of everyone and everything, causing some of us to deny the truth, because the misinformation we are being fed with feels comfortable.

The unfortunate consequence is that those things that we are made to accept will someday screw us over, and those people that will be here to witness it will look back with dissatisfaction, wishing they had taken heed and done it differently, but then there will be too little to do, and even if there was, it will be too late to do it. So wise up!

DON'T...

Don't try too hard to impress, you will have it all wrong. Don't spend what you can't afford just because you want to be accepted, you will not be able to sustain it. Don't fight a fight that isn't worth fighting, you will lose your cred. Don't burn your bridges, it will be impossible to go back. Don't prey on the weak to appear tough, you will be sorry when tables turn. I thought I should say that.

Beware of the trash you're dying to emit...

Check this out - gossip going down:

Hey! Did you hear?
Hear what?
Kinneh was busted at the red house with a couple of guys from overseas, but you can't tell anyone.
I knew it! I knew marriage won't tame that bitch. I don't know about you but me, I'll expose her.
Whoa, wait!
Wait for what?
Your sister was with her.
No! That's insane, my sister isn't that typa person. Please, you cannot let anyone know about this.

See how easy it is to rejoice at, or derive pleasure from undesirable events that involve others, but too hard to believe it when we or the people we care about become subjects and actors therein. If you ask me, just in case you can't wait to pass judgment, at least wait until you gather all the facts. The trash you say may be held against you or yours.

Feeling some typa way...

Writing this earlier than February 14th shows that I am not expressing affection on account of Valentine's day. Today I woke up thinking if the time I make for work, blogging and on here than with you is good enough to make you think I am as caring as you think I am. I woke up feeling so glad that you stayed, even when you had reasons to leave like those before you. I woke up feeling the need to tell you that whatever it is that I did or didn't do is neither a question of my heart that you got, nor a question of my abiding liking for you.

I woke up finding it necessary to let you know that like life itself, things do get complicated sometimes, and especially in a society that wants to tell us how to live. But I swear down I ain't messing with you. In fact, I promise I won't let you be solo for so long; not anymore. I want you to rest assured that I have got plans that will make you forget about the times they say you are wasting with me. If only you can take assurance in knowing that wonderful things do take time.

Devolution of the human race...

John Lennon — "We live in a world where we have to hide to make love, while violence is practiced in broad daylight."

I don't know - I'm guessing because humanity is on a mission to bastardise everything that holds us superior to savages. Probably the reason why people are allowing indecency to exist and occur without interference, but always practicing extreme bigotry towards the few that are trying to be proper and becoming in their conducts. Like why can't humankind be interested in things without curse?

Obama the scapegoat...

Obama's so awesomely tolerant that people across seas scapegoat him for everything, including wrongs that he didn't do, but wrongs that they wish they could but cannot blame on their own governments, Obama

It ain't failure unless you give up....

Sometimes it feels like everything you touch goes bad, and you wonder if you're in fact not a failure. It happens to people all the time, just as it happened to those who today history celebrates best. What kept these people going was not because their potentials were obvious, but because their determination was not one that gives in.

I was told that Stephen King that today is one of the best-selling authors of all time had his first book rejected 30 times. I was told he gave up and threw it in the trash. But with believe, his wife took it out and encouraged him to resubmit it, and then the rest became the making of the man. So, starting out a certain endeavour with the opposite of success may not necessarily be a failure. Sometimes it is a stepping stone towards success, but you gotta believe.

God’s plans will always prevail...

“For mash Agidi for lepet noto problem, but for gee am na di wahala”  - Aku (Pidgin English) proverb. This in proper English means: To mash Agidi for the leopard is not a problem. The problem is how to give the leopard the Agidi  - and “Agidi” is a Nigerian cooking of mashed cereal or flour served with soup.

So once you have God’s blessing, it should be expected that not everyone will like you. Some will conspire against you, or agree to attempt to harm you, but the impossibly difficult task is how to harm you. Do you know the reason why when folks conspire to damage good people, they don’t only fallout but fail woefully? It is because their only thought is in the outcome of destroying, discounting the fact that the plans of the wicked will always be overtaken by God’s plans.

Education or E-ju-kensengho....

If you enlist in any institution dedicated to teaching and learning, be it formal or informal, and you play your cards right, the end result of the facts, skills and ideas that you will be caused to learn is called "EDUCATION."

But if you make a mess of this institution, you will still come out educated, but in a twisted sense. Actually, if you will pardon my French, the outcome of the latter is a Mandinka language representation of the pronounced syllables of the word education: "E-JU-KENSENGHO," meaning butt-naked. The choice is yours.

Just be you, it's easier.

Olof Njie neh jikko, ya ham bu baax mba bu bon, du ganneh, teh du toxu. Nyunneh kom kawarr la, so ko watteh beh fog neh ya si neka, mu sahat. 

Now let me try to restate that in English:

Personality is not an ordinary visitor that comes to stay with you by invitation, and it doesn't migrate; it is your selfness. Like the hair on your head will grow to assume its original condition over time, even if shaved, your personality will always wiggle its way out; it's just a question of when.

So at some point in life, you just need to be sick and tired of pretending to be what you are not, or what you cannot render valid by your actions. If people like you the way you are, wonderful, and if they can't stand you like that, it’s their business. Just be you, it's easier.

Don't give up - be a Njago...

"He who fights and runs away, lives to fight another day;" that's the claim.  But will you recede even though another day is not guaranteed? Wouldn’t you rather be like the Njago and go on with your thing, knowing that it could be your only shot?  

The reason for the Njago reference is because "hayhee Njago du jex," and the reason why he is hard to forcibly impose obedience on is not because he is invincible, but because he doesn’t give up, and it is hard to beat a person who never gives up.

Or maybe they're too busy to attend...

According to dailymail.co.uk, scientists have shown that the average human brain is capable of managing a maximum of just 150 friendships ... and "friendship" meaning those people that you're able to be for, with, and about at all times. So take this into consideration when next you have the urge to be annoyed that someone you know had an event and didn't inform you personally.

For my part, I take example from myself that had been to many to places, from Essau to Balangharr, Basse to Brikama, Janjangbureh to Wellingara, Madrid to Barcelona, etc. and known at least half of my friends and followers on social media, I know it is practically impossible to let everyone in on everything. And given the frequency of ceremonies ayard, we need to understand that some people are so close to us that we think it is natural that they will know.

I don't even know why I am writing this, because me, just like I don't have the time going about blaming people for the oversight of not personally informing me, knock yourself out if you don't want to grace mine because I didn't come to you to tell you. You're only going to make room possible for lesser people, hence more food.

Ambition...

Being eager to obtain something that will confer distinction, preferment, honour, superiority, fame; just anything that will distinguish you from the ordinary man is a good thing; it is called ambition. However, an inordinate degree of ambition can cause your gain to be your loss, if you allow it to make you lose touch with reality, with your responsibilities as a friend, a brother, a sister, a parent, and above all a human being.

Believe me, I have seen people betray their most precious beliefs to gain relative importance and it usually doesn’t end well. Sometimes you need to understand that you don't have to try too hard to get things that are meant to occur naturally.

Like, why are you in so much hurry when you can take your time and enjoy the ride of life? Can't you see that sometimes that which you think is everything is just nothing but noise, and you wouldn't know how unnecessarily hyped this noise is until you get it, that's when you wish you had settled for something modest; something that will at least make you happy. But it takes common sense to know this.

Obama's visit to a Mosque...

President Obama's visit to a Mosque and the beautifully genuine smiles on the faces of those welcoming him shows how so inclined to peace Muslims are. If you ask me, what's not too peaceful is the way people are acting toward Muslims today. But as could be expected, Barack Obama is truly not only the first Blackman to paint the Whitehouse black, but THE President of many heroic and historic firsts.

Can you imagine the degree of goodwill he earned himself, and only because he visited a Mosque, and that was a great thing, because the increased efforts of Muslims to present Islam as a peaceful religion cannot be attained if people aren't willing to get closer, and if they are not willing to stop passing judgments based on misconceptions and doctored information seen on tell-lie-vision.

My type of lady...

Let my lady do as she pleases; let her be completely wayward if she likes, I don't care; I will manage. But let her at least be able to maintain an expected standard of familiarity with reality and current affairs.

I will prefer such a lady to the type that is at best offhand at everything she does, and at worst totally ignorant. One whose life's purpose is limited to the following:

Compin, Turr, Endor_sait, Ngenteh, Ngomarr, Tanambirr, Ndey_ndikeh, Chait, Palalleh, Daylor_teranga, Yorbou_wolis, Taki_gorr, Murr, Jaybal, Yeahka and stuff like that.

You know, the kola nut or cooking oil type of lady; one renowned for her frequent, enthusiastic attendance at everything that resembles a ceremony, even if uninvited. I'm just saying, and I'm glad I don't have one like that.

Too much rhetoric...

If repeated hope-filled rhetoric, word-craftsmanship, pre-election beliefs and views that are completely at odds with practical life is all what it takes for a people to develop, Africa, being the sexiest continent on Earth would have been one big federal sovereign nation with an unrivalled dominant status on the globe. But unfortunately it takes a lil more than talking.

But what do I know?

If you volunteer vows out of deep lust, or you jump into marriage just for the heck of starting up a new relationship, or for that deceptive courage attached to the practice of having more than one wife, I swear down you will breakup sooner than you makeup, and in consequence of the same reasons you were hooked up for. No ifs, ands, or buts about that.

Wrongdoing is a liability on your balance sheet...

How can you be given a fresh start if you are not willing to take some amount of responsibility for the wrongs you made in the first place? Where is the lesson to learn if exoneration is handed to you just like that? But if someone is willing to make up for the pains he caused you, why would it be so hard to show some kindness? Didn’t they say "to err is human, to forgive divine?"

But why must one be a perpetual perpetrator? What makes them think they can do wrongs and get away? Don’t they know that one day we will all depart this life and convene on the other side for a final trial? What is going to be their defense? Don’t they know that in matters of judgement like in bookkeeping, every debit must have a corresponding credit entry, or would you like to go in there having everything you think you own shown as a liability on your balance sheet?

Those who don't matter, don't matter...

In a society where riches, favours, and expectations dictate what is to be said and what is not to be said about people and their qualities, even dust-bags can become heroes if they are willing to put in a sizeable bid. But tell you what, intelligent people don't care about self-serving okra-mouths, let alone what they think or say about them.

In this life, if you are valued by those who matter, and by that I mean loved ones, don’t be bothered by off-putting remarks of those who do not matter. Free yourself from emotional pain by letting negativity go down quick into hell. Stop giving substance to things of no importance, because the more you make them significant, the more you will be in needless concern.

It took me a while to become conscious of this, but since then, all I can say is Alhamdulillah. I have realised that a lot of folks are such that when you are of no immediate help to them, when you lack interest or refuse to take comfort in their social interactions, you are deemed guilty of something until proven innocent, and I don't have time for false conclusions like that, especially not from people who cannot let others be the way they want to be.

If you ask me, of all the things we need right now, introspection should be priority, of course with the intention of letting go of our desire to hurt others unnecessarily. But in the mean time, tell those rumormongering idiots to go screw their feelings about you.

Your GPA may be something but not everything...

In this world of endless possibilities, school grades and a slavish devotion to everything academic may be a good thing; just not my thing, and you cannot make it everyone’s thing, neither can it dictate tomorrow's everything. So, my best wishes if your dream is to achieve a magna, summa, egregia or even a maxima cum laude, but that doesn't mean you should think little of some of us that may have fallen for that ‘we-don't-give-a-fuck’ type of attitude in school.

The other day I was talking to a friend about a friend we knew way back, and I told him that if real world success was the ultimate result of excellent academic history, then that dude would’ve been everything he isn't. But that means George W. Bush wouldn’t have managed to become the president of the world’s most powerful country.

So just like having a perfect GPA doesn’t guarantee your success in life, seeking to carve your own path in ways that may seem wild cannot be an indicator for failure. In fact, at some point in your life, your GPA will be as good as irrelevant, because no one will ask what yours was. Or will you dare ask Eminem about his grades to validate the bars he spit?

Recognise where recognition is due...

Even if you think you are in a thing for a greater good, and no matter what it is that you are in, the fact that you are in it as a team requires everything you do to be done in line with the principles of collectivism. It’s only right to render unto others the things which are theirs. That way, unto you the things that are yours shall be rendered.

Failing to acknowledge or give credit where credit is due may not stop others from doing what you think they are doing, but you cannot also stop them from deliberately damaging or obstructing the progress you desire, because come tomorrow, they will want to be able to point you to your failings and say: "Sucker! You got served."

Give a man a fish...

They say give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, in view of the fact that he will go hungry again. But if you teach a man to fish, you are feeding him for a lifetime, because anytime he is hungry, he will go and fish to feed himself. But I guess that was before temporary support became a permanent job.

Today, teach the average kid how to fish, he will sell the boat and the entire fishing tackle. Best case, he will attempt to go abroad by any means. In the worst-case scenario, he will buy a smartphone, a pair of Jordans and divide up the rest between the proprietors of McCaesar's, Tottie’s, Wow, Luigi's, The Elite’s Club, Milly’s, Duplex, Taj India, Poco Loco, Aquarius Nightclub, The Butcher’s shop, etc.

When he is broke, instead of taking responsibility for his decisions and actions and grow from the experience, he will become so easily upset about everything, blaming causes that never were, and for choices he freely made. Any close relation he believes can be a source of bailout will be considered an enemy unless able. Look, I know these things because I have been there.

Idiot not ingrate....

None can be needlessly retributive, calculatedly forgetful, and blatantly disregardful than a onetime dependant who thinks he is now so comfortable that he no longer needs anyone.

But isn't it said that even a blind squirrel can find a nut once in a while? Exactly! Now, if a squirrel takes his piece of nut for a guaranteed supply and starts to be cheeky towards those who once provided for him, wouldn't they be far more careful the next time he needs them? Just what I thought.

Y'all call such people ingrates, but I call them idiots, because an idiot is to an unexpected advantage like a two-year-old is to a chocolate bar, or a new toy; no sense of consequence.