ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE IS OVERRATED !
Did I just say that? Oh yes, I said it. Being top of your class does not necessarily guarantee that you will be at the top of life. You could graduate as the best student in Finance but it doesn’t mean you will make more money than everybody else.
The best graduating Law student does not necessarily become the best lawyer. The fact is that life requires more than the ability to understand a concept, memorise it and reproduce it in an exam.
School rewards people for their memory. Life rewards people for their imagination and creativity. School rewards caution, life rewards daring. School hails those who live by the rules. Life exalts those who break the rules and set new ones.
So do I mean people shouldn’t study hard in school? Oh no, you should. But don’t sacrifice every other thing on the altar of First Class. Don’t limit yourself to the classroom. Do something practical. Take a leadership position. Start a business and fail. That’s better. It’s called Entrepreneurship 101.
Join or start a club. Contest an election and lose. It will teach you something Political Science101 will not teach you. Attend seminars. Read books outside the scope of your course. Go on missions and win souls for Christ, for eternal rewards.
Do something you believe in! Think less of becoming an excellent student but think more of becoming an excellent person.
Make the world your classroom!!!
If there was a visitor in our palour, drinking Tango, (how many of you remember Tango?) and mama wanted us out of sight, all she needed was to clear her throat and we would disappear fiam! If that visitor called us to bring our cup and share of the Tango, who born dog? and Mama would pretend she was not the one who ordered us out!
If the visitor suspected that we disappeared or declined the offer to drink on our Mama’s prompting, Mama would try to clear herself by repeating what the visitor said: Mama Lagbaja (the visitor) said you should bring your cup and share…” but we knew whoever brought a cup would go to heaven and return that same day. My Mama? Kai.
Mama told us that there are three types of body language with which you can train children:
1. Omo Oju – Children that are taught by merely looking at them.
2. Omo Egba- Children that are taught by being beaten.
3. Omo Oro – Children that are taught by being spoken to or abused.
These days, these children!
Try passing messages with your eyes, they would shout… “Mummy, why are you looking at me like that?
Hit your foot on the floor… “Mummy, is mosquito biting you?
Mothers, WAKE UP !!! You are breeding a generation of children without moral scruples.
