What Is The Measure Of Hard-Work?
Material possessions?
Does it mean that all the poor people are lazy and that is the reason why they are poor? I often asked myself this question.
I visited my alma mater again yesterday. My good friend is still there, yet to graduate and I miss him most of the time. Once in a while, whenever I can afford the time and means, I like to visit.
Under this huge Pride of Barbados tree, now withered in the dry season, we like to sit and just talk about life. State of the country, where we are, where we are going (where we want to go), and how to get there, our dreams, hopes and aspirations — you know — and everything in between. No catching up to do; we are always up to date with each other. Yesterday was no different.
Only after some time, he tells me there’s a lady who has political (student union) aspirations and wants/needs counselling. I say okay and he calls her on the phone saying he was there with me.
After no time at all, she shows up looking very delicate and remarkably fashionable and I'm instantaneously sceptical.
My people say, a goat aspiring to be a lion must first of all lose appetite for grass. Student Union politics isn't a beauty contest. At least, that's the general sentiment.
It's not exactly accurate though, like all general sentiments.
Her words are straight to the point and her gaze is set resolutely. I liked her and was convinced Student Union politics isn't, giving up my initial bias, something she cannot do. I tell her this. Then I give her a full scoop of my political acuity, forged by an extensive consumption of autobiographies and biographies of successful statemen from which all the right lessons were culled, applied and evaluated by my practical experiences. Also, I pop the one-thousand-dollar question: how do you plan to fund your campaign?
Enterly from my pocket, she declares. I raise a brow incredulously. I remind her that we are talking about a sizeable sum here.
Nodding her head, she says she isn't misinformed, then states: "That's why I work very hard."
Okay, what do you do? She works with an International NGO that pays her in dollars, something around 200 dollars per month. If you aren't a Nigerian, that figure might seem small to you but currently, one dollar exchanges for around 1,700 Naira which means she earns way over 300,000 Naira, as a student. To put that in perspective, the starting salary of a medical doctor is less than 200,000 Naira in Nigeria.
Thoroughly impressed, I say wow, and she repeats: "Yes, I work very hard." Right, that old shibboleth again - I work very hard. She'd repeated it more than four times now and I couldn't help but notice the smug emphasis she put on it. So, metaphorically bringing out my mental jotter and pen, I say to myself let's determine how hard she works, shall we?
I poke: you are still a student, so how did you get this job? It was a good friend of hers that put her up for it, she answers.
I tick that point in my mental jotter — her friend. Right.
I go again: I’m curious, how do you receive your salary when almost all escrow platforms have banned Nigerian banks? Again, she answers, this same friend of hers lives in America so she set her Stripe and Wise with a U.S domicile account she got for her. I wondered how that was possible without her present but didn’t bother to ask. For somebody you are meeting for the first time, she’d told me too much already. Moreover, I got what I wanted already. Again, I tick the point in my mental jotter — her friend, again. Right.
After she leaves, thanking me profusely for "everything", I analyse the points with my good man.
1. She got the job because her friend, who is in America, set her up for it. I have no doubt she does it really well, because from the conversation she sounded quite intelligent and had a determined countenance about her too. But the defining factor is: she first got the job because her friend, who is in America, set her up for it. There are a lot of people quite as intelligent as she is with no job at all because they haven't got a friend in America.
2. Being a Nigerian and residing in Nigeria and receiving payments from other countries on the internet is a real hassle, especially recently. To do it right, it takes time and outdoing a lot of hitches. Myself, I have been trying to get a U.S. checking account from Payoneer to link to Stripe for some time now to no avail. Though, I'm quite certain I will succeed with it soon, it hasn't been easy trying one thing and then another continuously for some time; it really tests your patience and determination.
I wouldn’t have even known there was a way to get a U.S. checking account out of Payoneer when I did if the omens hadn’t brought me in contact with the gracious Akaahan Terungwa who immediately took it upon himself to guide me through the process. It surprises me how people undermine how the universe conspires to aid us on our journey towards success, highlighting instead "I work hard", and "I’m smart… Can’t. You. See?"
Without the little nudges here and there — serendipity, that is — occasioned by the universe, we’d be doing futile work no matter how "smart" we think we are.
Like this lady. Her friend in America got an otherwise tricky and expensive process done for her in a matter of a day or two yet the point she’s rather quick to make is — "I work very hard."
Right next to my friend’s room is another acquaintance’s. This guy works from 5 pm to 5 am at a place where they pay him 40,000 Naira a month and proceeds from there to a phone repair shop where he works for many hours more to make a few extra Naira. One of the hardest working people I’ve ever met, I wonder how he still manages to pass his courses. Still, he doesn’t make up to half of what this lady makes in a month. He lost his father at a young age. He takes care of his younger sister. Essentially, although he works as hard as anybody can, he’s broke, with barely a penny to get a nice pair of jeans.
And, if he said confidently that "I work very hard", won't the world look him from head to toe and ask what do you mean?
In the gospel of "work hard", the only thing the preachers are interested in is — what have you got? What’s the evidence that you work hard? How many digits before the decimal point are there in your bank account? Where’s the car? No? Are you sure you are working hard enough? Double up, gee! If you snooze, you lose!
Easy. Easy. That's a charlatan talking, reader. Pay no heed.
Are you doing the best you can do? If yes, then eat some good food and go to sleep sighing softly like a baby.
A man can only work hard to some point. Considering that we all started at different distances in this race of life, it is only reasonable that we arrive at different times.
And arrive where exactly? Is there an empirical measure of a person's hard work? What is the unit? The amount of material possessions?
Like this guy next to my friend's room, for example, if he doesn't get to drive a Mercedes ever, how can you convince me that everybody with a Mercedes works harder than him? Or smarter?
Would the world ever recognize that he "works hard?" Most importantly, I asked myself, will he ever get the opportunity to confidently say "I work very hard?"
