Biting the Finger that Fed You

9th January 2022.

These days it seems like a large chunk of our community has forgotten how to appreciate the people who have helped us, yet we blame them for every single problem we have in our lives.

I'm not going to get into the finger-pointing game, but I'm just going to speak on who is actually doing something.

Just because you are now successful does not mean you have to kick out the one who has been there for you since day one. This is more so a warning for people who are looking to have a good life and future.

Have you ever heard of an instance where someone helps a person and he/she was hurt in the process, that can be likened to biting the fingers of the one who fed you?

It actually is not a new phenomenon, because in history we have had several examples where some set of people fight for the freedom of the nation, and the people who emancipated them and made them citizens are now the ones whose fingers are being bitten.

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In history we see the Black people fought against the British, they won and they were emancipated and made citizens and they celebrated their freedom, but some of them are now fighting against the very ones who made them free.

Where were these people during slavery times? The slaves could not even say anything, but now that they are liberated they want to offer their opinions. Are they not glad that they are liberated? The problem here is that these people want to be in a position where they don't want to serve anyone.

Why am I not surprised?

At times when I see some people who are trying to be successful and make money but then get no one to help them or raise their shoulders, I pity them but on the other side, I can't apportion blame to anyone because we do not know if they will not regret helping the person.

Every good thing starts with self-love, if you love and appreciate yourself then you can appreciate whoever helps or supports you.

We have to love ourselves before we demand respect from others. How can we expect anyone else to treat us with respect if we don't even treat ourselves with respect? I don't know about you, but If someone doesn't respect me then I might not really care about them.

Many people would have touched and affected lots of lives around the world, but got setback because of how some people treated them.

Never bite the fingers that feed you.

My friend Gbemi helped someone. She was well educated and the other person was not. He was in a bad situation and Gbemi helped him. She made him a living, gave him money; he owed her everything.

The guy didn't have a job and he took $60,000 worth of training from Gbemi. And he was supposed to be her best friend and do her family favours. Instead of using the money to honour her, he used it for drugs and mistresses.

He did her a lot of harm, but I don't want to delve deeply into their story though.

"Biting the finger that fed you" is a proverb in English with several variations.

We are in an interesting time in the world of social media. We have recently seen high-profile individuals take to Twitter to complain about not being paid or credited. These are people who have benefited greatly from their association with Twitter, yet they bite the hand that feeds them by publicly disparaging those who made them well-known.

The long and short of my story is that not being grateful to someone who has helped you in the past is akin to biting the hand that fed you.

When a mother is feeding her child, and the baby bites the mother, the mother will angrily beat such child, that is the situation when we refuse to appreciate those that help us.

We need to learn to be appreciative when people are of help to us. Let them know you are grateful for what they did you, this will make them consider you when there's any other need.

Do no bite the fingers that feed you.