LEARN FROM MY PAST MISTAKES - BY OTUNBA TUNDE ALABI

Friends, please learn from my mistakes!

As a teenager I heard that a teenager got drowned in a swimming pool so I vowed not to go near water. I did not learn swimming. Unfortunately, my inability to swim was what denied me a good job after graduation. Now I can swim but the job was gone.

The day that I wanted to start learning driving was when a young man drove himself to death on Aba road in Port Harcourt. I mourned the guy, thanked God that I didn't know how to drive so that I won't die. I abandoned learning how to drive. Two weeks after, a juicy employment opportunity propped up and I came top in written and oral interview only to lose out because I couldn't drive. The position came with a Toyota Hilux attached which must be self driven.

Sometimes ago, I was offered a Nigerian representative of a Chinese  company but because I didn't see far into the future I declined. The company is today well established in Nigeria and some other African countries and I'm just here on Facebook ���

I later realized that my problem was the quality of my thinking. I was narrow minded and saw tragedies instead of opportunities. Everything changed from the moment that I realized my mistakes.

If you are the type that sees only calamities in every situations then you need to change your mindset. Stop being a pessimist, every calamity brings its own opportunities. Look deeply.

The last time Lekki was flooded some poor people were thankful to their gods that they were not Lekki residents because they saw only tragedies they didn't see the opportunities.

When the stock market crashed some poor people celebrated their luck because they had no investment in the stock market. They saw disasters they didn't see opportunities.

Now that the country is effectively in recession, don't resign your faith. Don't see doomsday, look deeper and see the opportunities. A critical time like this demands for critical thinking. Be strong. Be strengthened.

Learn from my mistakes in the past!

God bless you.

Tunde Alabi
17th September, 2016