Elevate U with Ifeanyi: Ready to Pay the Price

Have you ever been to a grocery store before? Have you ever spotted something you wanted really badly in those shops before? I guess you have. Has it ever happened that you approached that item with the intention of taking it home until the price tag discouraged you? You want the item but you are not ready to deal with its cost.

Why are some people richer than others? Why are some more successful and others deeper in debt?

We all want to lead a successful life. We all want to ride in our dream cars. Everyone wants to have good money sitting in their bank accounts. Nobody wants to be a tenant. Everyone wants at least a comfortable and decent life. We all want to retire with good enough money to sustain us for the rest of our lives. No student enjoys ending the session bottom of the class.

As dumb as this may sound, we all know what to do to get what we want, but not many people seem to want to do it. We all want good stuff but almost everyone wants to pick them from the shelves and walk away without paying for them.

Success is not by accident and nothing good comes easy. For every good thing we desire, there is a price attached, without which we may not have it. Each year we make resolutions, set goals and try to keep moving. Many times, we have carried on with life as if we had not set those goals and at the end, we still come back to meet empty resolutions and plans that are not anywhere near execution.

If you see a poor young man with little or no opportunity who is likely to succeed and become someone tomorrow, you’ll not need the brains of an astronaut or a prophet to recognize this. His approach to his business, his zeal, his persistence, diligence and thoroughness will tell the whole story.

On a beautiful morning in September 1957, Dorothy Counts took a courageous step that would half a century later motivate future generations. She was African-American who lived in the days of clear-cut racism and cruel segregation. She walked into an all-white high school to get registered. Her sight and arrival was treated just the way a rotten egg would have been treated. The boys jeered profusely, they taunted, abused and even threw thrash. How do you stand your ground and not give up when children spit at you and push you around in sheer mockery while the older ones laugh and giggle without saying a word just because you want to get an education? But Dorothy’s heart was set: she wanted college education and until she got it, she wasn’t going to let anyone make her go away and I tell you, she laughed last.

I have come across some people for want of a better phrase I refer to as ‘excuse professionals’. O! I may not be able to go to the gym, today is not so good a day. We just can’t bear any comparison with that brand, they are far too ahead. The reason why I am not performing well at my job is because of my boss. I can never get good grades, my teacher is the cause. I can never be that rich no matter how much I tried. I am broke simply because of my husband. 

Spend just five minutes with some people and you’d be sure to get a hundred excuses why they can’t do this or that.

But then some of the people making these excuses may just be sincerely ignorant. The truth is no matter how good or interesting your excuse may be, it won’t pay the bills, no matter how sincere or ignorant you may be, people pay for results, and until you produce the desired results, you may as well decide not to wake up that day.

You could have an ocean of excuses why you would never be successful, why you may never be rich, why you may not be able to bear any comparison with the man or woman you are competing with but as someone rightly put it is that if we fail to dream, then we would spend our entire lifetime helping other people to build their dreams.

Get up take responsibility, go to work and challenge your status. You can achieve any goal no matter how lofty it may seem if only you’ll never give up at paying the price.

Photo Credit: William Thomas Cain/Getty Images

_______________________________________________________________________________
Ifeanyi J. Igbokwe is a seasoned writer, motivational speaker, consultant and an action coach with special interest with personal and corporate growth and effectiveness. Twitter: @igbokwe_ifeanyi Email: [email protected].