I had the opportunity to speak with a 67 year old man for about 5 minutes today and I think I’ve learned a lot than I have the whole of this year.
Over here when in Ghana, the moment you are 60 years, you go on pension especially when you are in the government sector. I’m not so sure about how it is in the private sector. So he is currently on pension from his government work but still a CEO of his finance company.
I was curious to know how he’s been doing it for all these years so he started talking to me. While he was talking, another young man joined the conversation and along the line, he was trying to explain to the old man that life is not fair so his advice is not so valid. Oh don’t worry, he said it in a very polite way.
That was when I heard the most golden words ever. He said that as we think life is happening to us and we’re facing a lot, we shouldn’t forget that we are also happening to life and a lot is facing us. For me, I laughed because it sounded funny but he started talking about his life.
According to what he said, he made us know that he was born and raised in rural area which I haven’t even heard of before. Before he could walk, he lost his dad and his mom left right after he was born. He said life was very tough but he knew what he wanted to achieve in life so he also decided to be tough.
From what he said, it looks like he decided to face life head on with everything he had. He studied so hard and went to school with scholarship. When he finished school, everyone in his village was so proud of him as he was the first in the village to have graduated from the university.
At the very first job he got, he knew he wasn’t valued so he left and started his own company. But along the line, he needed money to invest so he went into the government sector. And in the government sector, people have the privilege to acquire loans so it was a solid plan for him.
In the end, he realized that life was exactly how you make it and sometimes when you think it’s unfair, you should get up and make it fair. He then concluded that even when he was a kid, he knew there was no way he could afford education. So that was why he made sure to study so hard for scholarships and that was him making life fair for himself.
I’ve learned a lot today that life really is how you make it. If life is going left and you don’t like it, take it and go right or wherever you want. We all have the power to do whatever we want so we should put in the effort to make the right things happen for us.
Images are mine
