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Fola Daniel Adelesi: The Temptation to Compromise
In these times when some people are trying really hard to keep their values and their character clean, there’s the increasing temptation to compromise. In every minute it looks harder or even senseless to keep the values that you thought will make you stand out. You have responsibilities that seem hard to meet, and the easy way out seems to follow the offered compromise to do all that you need to do.
Think about organisations, work places or even religious centres. Not too many people encourage the values we lauded. Those who try hard to uphold those values are the ones who are tempted more to renounce their values and follow the norm of doing the unacceptable in order to become accepted by the public.
I was speaking to someone recently and he asked how one can keep his values in these times without joining the bandwagon. Back at home, there are financial challenges – you have a family to look after. There is a wife that must get upkeep and children whose should go to school. The bills are piling while the salary remains static.
In fact, I saw a satirical cartoon showing some grownups and dwarf among them. The man who stood in front of the grownups (food stuff, rent, school fees and others) was asking the dwarf (salary) why he has refused to grow while others where really growing fast.
You may look around and there is no one to help. There is no one to borrow you money or help you start a business. You keep talking to different people but there is no way out so long as you are asking them to help you do something legitimate.
The moment you think about something that may not be legitimate or morally acceptable, you might get help instantly. When you need help to defraud organisations today, there are those who would have come to offer you that help or are on standby to help you. On daily basis you see others doing it but you don’t want to do it. You want to take a stand against all odds.
Interestingly as you intend to take a stand and are working hard at it all day, more and more challenges are staring you in the face. Just then you realize that a school term is coming to an end and that means another bill is due. You are running out of food at home and madam’s patience only lasts as long as the last grain. The gas is out and the kerosene is only being managed. In the midst of all, rent is only a few months away.
Your salary can barely pay all the needed bills and in some organisations, it does not come when it’s due. While a few people are smiling towards the ATM machines on the twenty fifth day of the month, you will be looking up to the skies on the fiftieth day (the following month) and even with no certainty.
Either as men or women, we may repeatedly find ourselves in these situations. We know we need some other streams of income to make things easier. We know if we have other businesses the pressure will reduce. The other side is that you have not even been able to set aside that money for the other business because of the current necessary bills.
Things look very hard and your guard seem to be coming lower and lower. In all of these, the temptation to compromise becomes stronger while you are struggling to take a stand.
Now let me ask you, rather than trying to be the know it all. How do you survive the temptation for compromise in the face of increasing challenges that need to be dealt with daily?
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