The Greater Thief, The Box, Love and a Motivational Book

The Greater Thief

So someone stole money meant for free Primary Education, while other people stole millions of shillings which were under transit. Meanwhile, elsewhere, someone stole someone else phone or chicken. If the long arm of the law decided to catch up with the above individuals, the ones who stole millions of shillings will end up with several months in jail while the phone and chicken thieves might end up with several years or even death sentences.

Most of you will have the feeling that the judgements handed in in such situations are completely unfair, and that those who steal millions from public coffers are favoured.After all, shouldn't judgement and the law be fair?

Lets examine the 2 situations deeper. Let us take a hypothetical situation, where someone has stolen your phone, some poor man has stolen some other poor mans chicken , and probably beat him up during the robbery. Some civil servant also stole millions of shillings from the public coffer.

What is the outcome of all the above situations.If your phone is stolen, you have very strong feelings against the thief, and most people would even prefer that the thief be stoned to death, when found. As for the chicken thief, robbing the poor neighbour of their few chicken leaves the neighbour in a more critical state of poverty, and beating up the neighbour during the robbery even makes it worse, as the neighbour has to spare some hard earned cash for treatment. As for the civil servant who stole millions from public coffers, most of us only noticed it when it was reported in the news. Most of us will even never notice any direct effect of this robbery.

So, when the court heavily punishes the chicken and phone thief while sparingly punishing the million-shilling-public-coffer thief, it is actually punishing them according to the causes of their actions. the heavily hurt victims of the phone and chicken robberies will feel that justice has been done, while the rest will receive justice-outcome in the news.

And therefore, the court still remains just.

The Box

For one to be successful, one is always encouraged to think outside the box. one is given examples of people, e.g. Richard Branson and Bill Gates, and told how they thought outside the box and ended up been successful.

The problem with the above theory is that it is false. the theory suffers from the common misconception of underestimating the size of the box. To be successful, you have to think inside the box.

Actually, one has to think within the box; think of how to occupy the box fully. Richard Branson started selling records in his neighbourhood from the boot of his car. Bill Gates used his ICT knowledge to give a solution , then coupled it with strategy.

It's actually very difficult to think outside the box. So examine your box carefully.

Love

2 people fall in love. They promise each other how much they will work to make their love last. 1 person works very hard to provide for the other person, all in the hope of making their love work.

Soon, the party working hard no longer has time for the other party. The other party feels neglected and let down, and that the first party no longer values their love, and off they go to look for a third party that has time for their love.

Thus one party fails in trying to work too hard to make the love last.

Motivational Book

Again, most people read motivational books to motivate them towards achieving success in their lives. Most people will take this quest further, and try living their lives off the motivational books, or trying to draw similarities.

Unfortunately, there are too many variables in the life of the book author and that of the reader. It is almost impossible for the 2 to be involved in remotely similar situations. the author has different characteristics from the reader, different surroundings, different people. Like fingerprints, nothing is similar.

As motivational book authors make money, many readers will end up disappointed by how unsuccessful they did not become. As to whether they became motivated, that was not their original intention.

Minding Your Own Business

The other day, I was talking with an upwardly mobile lady. An upwardly mobile lady is one who is doing quite well in life, has a good job, a good lifestyle and has planned out her life in a way that Wycliffe Oparanya, our minister of planning , would envy. However, my friend thinks that am favouring the above lady, and as he points out, an upwardly mobile lady should at least own the keys to a Toyota Vitz. Anyway, as a few of you may have realized, that wasn't the point.

The upwardly mobile lady told me that contrary to popular opinion in a certain secondary school, she did not reach such great heights while others slept. Matter of fact, she told me that they were wide awake, otherwise who would she have bought breakfast from in the morning and who would have ferried her to work? she told me that she had reached to this great heights by minding her own business. It is at this point that I raised a very strong objection. I was of the opinion that those had reached such great heights through the combined business of many people.

You cannot achieve such great heights if everyone decided to mind their own business. For example, if those in the great heights of the government decided to mind their own business, we would be in chaos. Unfortunately, they occasionally decide to mind their own business, while others are always minding their own business. In the beginning of 2008, they decided to strictly mind their own business, and any one who was considered not part of their business had a high mathematical probability of being slashed to death,shot to death or cremated alive without an opportunity to choose which method they best liked.

Then there are those who always mind their own business. How do you think people ended up in the Mau forest, or the Government decided to that Volkswagen Passats were the cars most close to gods of economics

The results of people minding their own business can be very tragic. If the owner of the matatu decided to mind his own business and maintain it with cheapest and most likely to fail parts, and the driver decided to mind his own business of putting alcohol first, and the traffic police mind their own business like they usually do, you might be a dead end.

That reminds me of a picture that appeared in the papers the other day. A North-rift 14 seater matatu had most of its body ripped off, and 5 out of the 14 souls were the only ones lucky enough left to tell a story. the story is that a trailer driver was minding his own business, and he decided to overtake another trailer. As he was minding his own business and overtaking the other trailer, the matatu was coming from the opposite direction. The road happened to be raised several metres off the ground, and the result was that the trailer and matatu swerved off towards the side of the road, and the trailer ripped off the front and side of the matatu. I have also seen a bus full of passengers leave the road to avoid a lorry driver who decides to make a side turn as the bus overtakes. the lorry driver returned to his side of the road and continued minding his business, and the bus passengers were left to mind theirs.

There is also the case of a few countries like Sierra Leone and Democratic Republic of Congo that happened to have been blessed with lots of business in terms of mineral. As a result, several people minding their own business decided to invest in a few high powered fire arms and square out whose business will mind over the business. There is also the peculiar case of Somalia, where they am still not sure whose business triggered a never-ending war.

Then there is Bush, who decided that a certain Saddam Hussein would make a very good input in his business. Right now, there are several people in Iraq minding their own business, and the business includes blowing themselves to the next world with the highest possible scorecard in terms of casualty.

And Ladies and Gentlemen, that is whys you should be wary of people who mind their own business. You might not end up appearing as crucial assets in their business, but as a liability to be ridden off.

Mind other peoples business, and you will reach to great heights. P.s. when it comes to minding your competitors business, please undercut them, and always make sure that you mind business of those who hold favours.