Some blunt truths that you won't like to hear - part 2

This is the concluding part of the article that I started the previous day. For the first part, I talked about how your thoughts don't matter when it comes to things you don't have control over. Don't know what I am talking about? You should read part one to fully understand what I am talking about here.

I will be kicking off with the second blunt truth nobody wants to hear

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2. Not everyone will be successful

Ouch! Feels like I just peeled off the band-aid from everyone's wound but this is simply the truth that most people will rather not think about (probably because it is also in line with what I talked about in the first part: thinking negatively). You might agree with me and say "yes, some people who aren't hardworking won't be successful", but what about hardworking people?

I don't know how it is in your part of the world but over here, most people believe that if a person works hard enough, consistently, and also with time, they will be successful but will you say that is a known fact? I will say no, and why? Because I have seen people who struggled all their lives and worked very hard to become very successful but they still didn't amount to much, what then happened?

On the other hand, you will come across someone who didn't put in much effort but they are having a better life than the very hardworking person and "should have" been more successful, at this point you will hear people say the usual "life is not fair". The truth is that several factors go into becoming successful. Before I continue, being successful has different interpretations and in this context, I will like to interpret success as being wealthy (financially).

Now about those factors; one of them is the environment of the person. Most of the time, a person who works very hard and should be very successful but isn't might just be in the wrong country (lol). They might be living in a country where the system is built to frustrate them and it will be very difficult to break out if you are not from a rich family or don't have the right connections (people in high places).

A perfect example of a country like this is mine; Nigeria. The system is rigged in such a way that a person who isn't of high status will find it very difficult to get to a high status. There aren't many opportunities and the little ones that are existing are being run into the ground by the government. It's not surprising that a lot of people are struggling to leave the country in search of better opportunities elsewhere.

But then again, leaving one's country to another in search of better opportunities doesn't still guarantee they will be successful. Like I said earlier, there are several factors that go into becoming successful and I have only talked about one; the environment of the person. Another factor you might want to consider is the form of "hard work" the person does.

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It's one thing to work hard and think you're doing something meaningful it's another thing to actually do meaningful and valuable work. What do I mean by this? A person might just be working hard blindly; they don't have a clear plan or purpose, they are heading towards a direction but they don't even know where they are going; no sense of direction, no idea of where they are, they don't know if they are making progress or not and most of the time they don't take risks; they rather remain in their comfort zone and again it's mostly because they don't have any plans or goals, they are just "working"; just passing through life without actually living it; just breathing with no purpose.

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That was a brutal paragraph but it's the truth; a lot of people are that way. Now, to a third party who is observing the person, they will keep wondering why the person is not making progress in life, they are just stuck in one place and again you will hear the phrase; "life isn't fair". But the observer is only looking at the outward effect of the person's work-life, they are not seeing the factors that are influencing it (no purpose, no goals, and all others).

Do you want to know another crazy thing about all these? A person who has a clear plan, a good sense of direction, is willing to take risks, and is doing meaningful work might still end up not successful, why? Do you remember the first factor I talked about? Yes, the person's environment might end up frustrating all their efforts. It's like a crazy loop where the success of one part might lead to the emergence of a problem in another part, and that's because there are a lot of factors that are involved.

Another one to consider is the person's lifestyle. A person might actually be in a good environment, doing meaningful work, and making lots of money but their lifestyle is flushing all that effort into the drain. Most of the time, the usual culprit in this situation is an addiction, especially those that involve spending lots of money.

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The person might be addicted to hard drugs, a chronic gambler, have a drinking problem, keep multiple scores of women, etc. They might be addicted to just one or more than one (maybe they are into hard drugs and also gamble or they have a drinking problem and keep multiple scores of women), you can see the problem here, right?

I can't count the number of times I have heard about someone very rich suddenly losing everything and hitting rock bottom and when you look carefully, you will find one of these social vices as the cause of their downfall. They had most of the right recipes to become successful but they ruined everything with their bad lifestyle.

Conclusion

All these might sound weird and not very pleasant to think about but they are the truth that a lot of people don't think about. But with all these I have said, does it now mean we shouldn't strive to be successful in life? I mean, what's even the point if you work very hard and life suddenly throws a bad factor in your direction and ruins the whole thing?

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Well, you should keep striving for success because the chance of attaining it is much higher than if you're just there doing nothing. Making sure to keep most of those factors in a good balance will go a long way toward pushing you closer to success (hard work, consistency, discipline, and time are some of those factors, I have mentioned some others earlier in this article).

Working towards success and making small progress daily is far better than not doing anything and remaining in one place, don't you agree? You might not be where you want to be right now but your current position is far better than where you were in let's say 2 years ago (think about it and you will see it's true). Keep aiming for the moon and even when you miss, you will land among the stars. In essence, keep pushing and don't ever give up. You want to know another factor that I didn't mention earlier? It's luck

Thanks for reading 💖💖💖

Wednesday July 20, 2022