When I was 10 and my brother 12, we used our free time to share quotes of great visionaries from the distant past.
It was more like a role play kind of conversation.
I’d quote the words of one visionary and my brother would immediately reply with a counter quote.
One of such moments remains fresh in my mind…
That day, I said to my brother…
Archimedes said,
Give me a place to stand and a lever long enough, and I’d move the world
My brother responded that this is not always the case.
Remember the words of Socrates, he said,
Let him that would move the world first move himself
I went cold. No words to counter him.
Life After University…
After I finished high school and went on to University, I forgot the “moving yourself” lesson from Socrates.
Graduating from university, I got a job teaching high school biology. My monthly salary was less than $100 a month.
As if this wasn’t poor enough, the school owner owed staff salaries ranging from 3 to 8 months.
I managed to survive working there because I lived with my parents at the time. Free meals. Free shelter.
Since I wasn’t paying rent or buying food, I got by with whatever little cash I saved until the next salary came.
In this kind of culture, my self-esteem got battered.
I knew I deserved better.
But how could I change my story?
Turning Point…
One weekend my brother came visiting.
Over dinner, I started whining about my condition, about how I was wasting away despite having so much potential.
He looked me in the eyes and said…
If a man must move the world, he must first move himself…
That was the turning point.
I knew instantly that I had to move myself. There was no other way.
Moving Forward…
The next Monday, I put in my resignation letter despite not having another job.
I started calling up friends living in Lagos to see if I could put up with them while I hunted for jobs.
After so many failed tries, I got lucky.
A male friend to my then girlfriend (who is now my wife) agreed to let me squat in his place while I look for a job.
I jumped on this opportunity and set out for the big city, leaving the trash job I was doing behind.
Long Story Short…
After 3 months in Lagos, I got an entry-level job where I started earning over $500 per month and with better opportunities for career advancement.
3 Lessons You Can Learn From My Journey…
Start with moving yourself
Looking back to my time in that teaching job, the only regret I have is that I didn’t move as early as possible.
No writer captures the importance of moving better than the Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe,
“The world is like a Mask dancing. If you want to see it well, you do not stand in one place.”
Get Used to Overcoming Pain
Most people are scared of feeling any form of pain in their journey. We prefer the devil we know to the angel we do not know.
But you need to overcome pain if you want to create your best self. Marcus Aurelius captures this beautifully in his Classic Meditations…
“The impediment to action advances action what stands in the way becomes the way.”
This is the foundation of Ryan Holiday’s “The Obstacle Is the Way.
Get Comfortable with Not Being Complete Before Starting
We fail because we think too much about what we lack, instead of focusing on how we can use the resources we have to get what we want.
Most times when I ask people what is stopping them, they immediately draw up a long list of inadequacies.
But once we start going over these inadequacies one after another, they immediately see that they lack nothing.
This is because nature has already given them the means to get what they seek.
Paul Coelho tells us in the Alchemist…
“And once you want something, all the universe conspires to help you achieve it.”
Make moving yourself a “want” today and see how the universe will conspire to help you achieve it.
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