A few months ago I was in a bus en route home from town. It
was a Sunday afternoon. I sat next to this father who was speaking to his son
on the phone (okay, it was either his son or someone else's son but there was
frequent use of the word “Kababa”). I could not hear what the person on the
other side of the telephone conversation was saying (partly because it was none
of my business and partly because this man was talking too loudly and I just
wanted to shut him off my mind trail), but you could tell by the words of this
man that the person on the other side was important. He kept asking the other party if he had been
working hard and if he held on to his dream. He kept reassuring him to keep working
on that dream and work hard so that he may not end up like his father (Enough
with the pressure already lol).
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| Source: www.npr.org | |
Fast forward to a month ago when I sat in an audience where
a person I admire from work was sharing her story. Well, hers is not the riches
to rags story, neither is her story like what most people use in talk shows and
such forums where they say how they are from a humble background (note, as a
friend of mine said, coming from such backgrounds does not give you monopoly over suffering),
and they rose above adversity to succeed. Don’t get me wrong, I do love those
stories too, they are a source of inspiration. Hers, on the other side, is a
story of how she set goals for herself, kept her eyes on that dream and worked damn hard to be where
she is, regardless of where she came from. She is a dreamer, a hard worker, a spirited go-getter, and has neither
the time nor the space for mediocre or substandard things. And you can see the
result from her work to her family, her husband (you should see them together) and
the way she runs life in general. Now, before you start fussing and start
telling me how I may not know what she is going trough and that no one can have
it all, lemmie remind you that what she kept insisting on was hard work.
H.A.R.D W.O.R.K.
A good friend and I have been talking about dreams, goals
desires and what we are doing about them a lot of late. *By the way, friend who
shall not be named, this is just a permanent and polite reminder that you owe
me a shout out. Remember. SOTMIII*. Where was I? Yes, Hard work. I always tell
some girls I mentor that I am one staunch believer of hard work. Yes, success
(and achieving dreams) comes in many ways and using different avenues but if
there I one that I can take to the bank and I was brought up with is hard work.
The good book states very well that
“In all toil there is profit, but mere talk tends only to
poverty.” (Proverbs 14:23)
I have never met anyone who worked so hard and it never
worked out. If you meet one, please let me know so that I meet them. What we
have these days are people who want it easy, people who are not willing to work
hard or sweat for their dreams. Hell, we don’t even dream anymore or have these
goals and aspirations. #YOLO has become a mantra that will destroy us, if we
are not careful. Remember that dream you had when you were young? That goal you
wanted to achieve, that person you wanted to become? What happened to those
dreams and aspirations? Sure, you will say life happened. Sure, you will say
priorities changed. But you know what, a dream never dies, no matter the circumstance…your
gut still holds on to that dream, wanting to pursue it so bad. A dream never
dies.
We all know that 10,000 hours
theory, right? I talked about it here. What if we all started working on that
dream? What if we started yesterday? What if we started today? What if we so
badly wanted that dream? What if we were willing to spill sweat and blood to
achieve it? What if we worked so damn hard? For our families, relationships, companies,
ourselves? What if we did it #ForMyCity and for humanity?
What if we worked hard?
Facebook:
Njeri Kareithi
Twitter: @deekareithi
(The campaign dubbed
#ForMyCity led by Poetry Spot. Follow the
conversation here)
