FAILURE:A SURE SIGN OF SUCCESS
In my little sojourn in the University, I have come to the understanding that over ninty percent of students read because they are afraid of failure. They have sleepless nights not because they want to learn but because they want to pass. Lots have got first class and many more are on their way to getting first class through the same method.
Of course, getting first class is not bad but we need to ask ourselves some important questions before we continue running the cat race: how many first class graduates have we produced in this country? Countless, aren't they? How many of them are contributing into making Nigeria a better place? Little, if there are, maybe our lecturers! How many of them do you hear making great moves and inspiring lives? How many of them can you point to in all these questions? Aren't people who were once average students the ones in power? Aren't them you invite to give business lectures, economy and motivational talks? Aren't the "Low classers" the ones in the realm of power? Aren't they the ones that determine the rise and fall of minimum wage?
This post is not written against getting first class in school but against how we get it. Is a student a first class student because they are able to cram their way out? Or is a student a failure because they are not able to do so? I will be glad if this post is regarded as a book that shifts attention away from running after grades to after what really matters in life because there is more to life after school. Get this right.
The education system we are operating has so much structured our minds that all we are all after is grade:alphabets,for God's sake! What a life we live! We live a life giving premium to things that do not worth caring about at all. The rule is always if you are not "shanacious"-as my friends call anyone that gets A's in most of their results then you have no value. In fact, the more A's you seem to have the more you will most likely be respected. Is that all there is to life?
Why do we want to waste our lives running after things that are not necessary:grades! Who cares about grades outside school? Grades don't matter friends! What matter is knowledge! What can you do with the course you are studying after school? How many first class graduates did your school produce last? How many of them are now changing the world? What are they doing with their grades now? You still don't get?
You are probably thinking that the hands behind this work are failures who are only "wa eni kunra"( looking for people to join their league). We laugh, we are not failures; we are rather products of many failures. We know the "apade" and alude" (the beginning and the end) of failure. The sound of failure is music in our hearings. But we ourselves are not failures. Though we have failed a lot of times( just as everyone does) we have never been a failure once.
This is not a discussion about ourselves, it is one about failure. Let's face it.
The point of discussion here is that failure is good when it births knowledge in you. And success is an enemy of progress when it leads not to acquisition of knowledge. You can continue to have as many A's as possible without increasing in knowledge. Yes, you will succeed, at least, the school may decide to give you an employment immediately. You will become a lecturer and start teaching students to run after grades too. You will start producing students of your kind, you will start writing theses so you can be called a professor. You may also become the Vice Chancellor, wow! And then, you will retire and your name will start going into extinction gradually. Of course, you will still be rich.
If you are interested in making waves, in setting paths for yourself, however, you need knowledge its full sense. And most importantly, you need to admire the power of failure. You want to start something new and failure has always been the case, keep at it. You want to invent something but failure has always been your guide, keep at it. You will soon see yourself at the corridor of achievement. Believe me, you're just a step behind.
In my little sojourn in the University, I have come to the understanding that over ninty percent of students read because they are afraid of failure. They have sleepless nights not because they want to learn but because they want to pass. Lots have got first class and many more are on their way to getting first class through the same method.
Of course, getting first class is not bad but we need to ask ourselves some important questions before we continue running the cat race: how many first class graduates have we produced in this country? Countless, aren't they? How many of them are contributing into making Nigeria a better place? Little, if there are, maybe our lecturers! How many of them do you hear making great moves and inspiring lives? How many of them can you point to in all these questions? Aren't people who were once average students the ones in power? Aren't them you invite to give business lectures, economy and motivational talks? Aren't the "Low classers" the ones in the realm of power? Aren't they the ones that determine the rise and fall of minimum wage?
This post is not written against getting first class in school but against how we get it. Is a student a first class student because they are able to cram their way out? Or is a student a failure because they are not able to do so? I will be glad if this post is regarded as a book that shifts attention away from running after grades to after what really matters in life because there is more to life after school. Get this right.
The education system we are operating has so much structured our minds that all we are all after is grade:alphabets,for God's sake! What a life we live! We live a life giving premium to things that do not worth caring about at all. The rule is always if you are not "shanacious"-as my friends call anyone that gets A's in most of their results then you have no value. In fact, the more A's you seem to have the more you will most likely be respected. Is that all there is to life?
Why do we want to waste our lives running after things that are not necessary:grades! Who cares about grades outside school? Grades don't matter friends! What matter is knowledge! What can you do with the course you are studying after school? How many first class graduates did your school produce last? How many of them are now changing the world? What are they doing with their grades now? You still don't get?
You are probably thinking that the hands behind this work are failures who are only "wa eni kunra"( looking for people to join their league). We laugh, we are not failures; we are rather products of many failures. We know the "apade" and alude" (the beginning and the end) of failure. The sound of failure is music in our hearings. But we ourselves are not failures. Though we have failed a lot of times( just as everyone does) we have never been a failure once.
This is not a discussion about ourselves, it is one about failure. Let's face it.
The point of discussion here is that failure is good when it births knowledge in you. And success is an enemy of progress when it leads not to acquisition of knowledge. You can continue to have as many A's as possible without increasing in knowledge. Yes, you will succeed, at least, the school may decide to give you an employment immediately. You will become a lecturer and start teaching students to run after grades too. You will start producing students of your kind, you will start writing theses so you can be called a professor. You may also become the Vice Chancellor, wow! And then, you will retire and your name will start going into extinction gradually. Of course, you will still be rich.
If you are interested in making waves, in setting paths for yourself, however, you need knowledge its full sense. And most importantly, you need to admire the power of failure. You want to start something new and failure has always been the case, keep at it. You want to invent something but failure has always been your guide, keep at it. You will soon see yourself at the corridor of achievement. Believe me, you're just a step behind.
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