Let me tell you something about friendship.
Do you sometimes look at your friends and wonder what
potential benefit they stand to add to your life in future? If such thought has
never occurred to you, then it's either you don't see them beyond the present
or you've probably assumed it's not worth the thought. But let me tell you
this, you need to start keeping/making friends in order to preserve a good
future for yourself and perhaps, your family. And I'll tell you why.
Take a look at our parents (age 50+) today and how well they
get along with their peers. I mean there is some who may not see eye to eye but
readily defend themselves when the going gets tough. Ask them why they cherish
their friendship/connection and they'll tell you they started small and would
like to see their friends prosper too. This is the reason why some of us were
able to land good jobs, get funding for scholarships, seal lucrative contracts
and perhaps, been gifted certain luxuries. Most of what we've become today are
as a result of the veritable personal and professional relationships nurtured
by our parents. Truly, there are others who didn't benefit from this and
instead, literally had to fend for themselves. But these people have or will at
some point realize the importance of breeding healthy contacts in order to
ensure their own children benefit from it in one way or another too.
It's quite disconcerting to see how our generation make
enemies out of one another for the flimsiest reasons, the most shameful being
political affiliations. The politicians we fight for go behind our backs to
drink Gulder and bang call girls like there's no tomorrow. Later, they'll come
and incite us to take up arms and draw blood from one another, peasants
fighting for the rich. They may be doing evil but literally have more to gain
than we ever will. Some of them grew up together and despite political
associations, have remained together and collectively feast on our national
treasures.
Back to my point.
You need to start wishing your friends well, not because of
anything else but the fact that the benefits far outweigh the losses. Imagine
five years from now and you already have friends occupying top positions that
command societal power. These are the friends that can bail you out of trouble
- financial, legal, marital, occupational, extracurricular - you name it.
Tomorrow starts today. Look around you and begin to think well of people,
especially your inner circle. Bother less about who will be the most successful
because it wouldn't matter at that point when somebody becomes a billionaire.
Show me one of Dangote's close friends, who is poor, or Otedola's, Adenuga's,
Alakija's, Elumelu's, Rabiu's or even Buhari's. There's the random acquaintance
or closet friend who later claims to be your true friend because of his poor
financial status and expects sympathy or support from you, then there's the
close friend who supported you from Day One either in pious, physical or
emotional capacities and has now watched you become a wealthy individual. The
friends who fall in the latter categories hardly ever suffer. Be like them.
Are your friends simply out to smoke weed all day without
giving any progressive thought to tomorrow? Is the success of your friendship
measured by how well you've learnt to drink Gulder or Trophy? Is your
friendship predicated on viable indicators of collective success? Ask yourself
this and decide on a strategy or reform. Start building your future by
supporting your friends in the good things they do and rest assured you will
reap from the commitment. Even if some eventually forget you, you'd have done
well enough for yourself to survive on your own accord. It's not rocket
science.
Start planning. Strengthen your friendships and connections.
Most importantly, choose wisely.
Remember, tomorrow starts today.
Damzy.