Announcement: There will be a Business Opportunity Meeting on Saturday 1pm, 3rd Floor, 71 Allen Avenue, Ikeja Lagos. If you are interested or you want to book a sit for your friends. Send a text to 08034772724. Send the names, and phone numbers. It’s Free this Weekend.
“Life is a gift, and it offers us the privilege, opportunity, and responsibility to give something back by becoming more” – Anthony Robbins.
I have been extremely busy in the last few days, travel, meeting, e.t.c. I’ve been unable to sit down and craft out the thoughts of my heart. I have many pending things to say, and as I write this morning, my heart is being tugged into many directions. I hope I’m able to withstand the temptation of writing 3 articles within the next 2 days J.
I read a story sometime ago, about a young lad who was caught by the police for snatching a wallet with less than $10. He was caught, kept in custody for a while and later arraigned before a juvenile court. When the judge asked him weeks later, why he had stolen the wallet, the young lad replied, “because the world owes me a living”. Apparently he had grown to buy the philosophy freely expressed in his environment. That we did not ask to be in this world, and hence the world owes us a living. Of course if you live in the west, it probably is easier to develop this mind frame, even the way the governments operate, it’s easy for the people to feel they are entitled to somethings. Interestingly however, we who live in the side of the world where our government makes it clear that we are not entitled to anything, still live like we are. We waste our time and energies demanding and hoping for entitlements!
“Too many people think the world owes them a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.” – Mark Twain
The world does not owe you, you owe the world. Every civilization you currently enjoy was bought with sweat and blood. Hours of people’s lives, days of people’s sweat and months of people’s blood were shed to construct that road, build that house and invent that gadget. You owe the generations before you for not leaving the world like they met it. You owe all that added value to your life, who added ease to your journey and excitement to your strides. The world doesn’t owe you a living and you have no entitlements. If you want something, you were created with the capacity to go ahead and get it!
“Man must cease attributing his problems to his environment, and learn again to exercise his will – his personal responsibility.” – Albert Einstein
I once shared with a graduating class of students that asked me to talk about being a 1st class entrepreneur in a 3rd world. I explained to them that it’s not so bad being 3rd world. Third means that there is first and second ahead of us, and we can learn from their shortcomings and from their successes. The greatest plague that ever hit humanity is not a physical disease, it’s a mind disease. Once you resign yourself to fate, and assume that you’ll get what you want because the world owes you, you have damaged your potentials. Nothing kills initiative and a sense of responsibility faster than the entitlement mentality. The entitlement mentality manifests in different ways. It manifests as HIV (Having Insufficient Vision), STD (Short Term Drive) and LOI (Lack of Initiative. When you think you don’t need to give anything to get what you want, you set up yourself for sure failure. America today is groaning under the burdens of social security and “basic minimum benefits”. The demands of the “basic minimum benefit” to Americans puts an annual burden of $1.5trillion on their government, and the social security system is expected to crash latest by 2041 with a lifespan of 50yrs. Whatever system we create that makes us sell people entitlements will only hurt them in the long run.
The world does not owe you a living! The world however owes you chance. A chance to try, a chance to venture, a chance to know, a chance to succeed, a chance to use your talents, a chance to leverage on your relationships. Just chance! That’s all you and I get. Interestingly however, that chance is good enough. The first leap an entrepreneur makes off the level of an employee, is coming to understand that he would earn nothing, if he does nothing. When you become enlightened to the reality, that even if you are on salary, you are really not entitled to what you don’t earn, you take the opportunities you have more seriously. Your eyes open to new possibilities, and the parts of the human brain that God locked up from people who don’t need it, gets opened for you. We don’t all start off in life equal, our backgrounds, our families, our talents, skills, privileges and all differentiate us. There is one thing we all have in common however – time. In that time is our chance, and how we spend or invest it, is what defines what we get out of life.
You want to be knowledgeable, go ahead and read! You want to be wealthy, go for opportunities. You want to be wise, walk with the wise. The bush rabbit isn’t going to run through the forest maze, hit it’s way to town, make it’s journey to your house, burn it’s fur over fire and make it’s way to your cooking pot. When that kind of scenario presents itself to you, you are being set up. Run! Just like the law of gravity, there are other laws that govern this operation of this world. Your awareness of how they work, does not alter their function. They work wether you know it or not, and one of such laws clearly demonstrates, that to get anything you must give something. It’s called the law of sowing and reaping. Everything that is happening to you today, is harvest for certain seeds you have sown. What will happen to you tomorrow is harvest for the seeds you are sowing today.
Let’s stop expecting opportunities to fall on our laps, let’s place our laps where opportunities are falling. Everything you have worked for, everything you have made moves for, everything you truly desire and deserve is heading your way today, but you need to be out there in the field of action to connect it. Today is another chance. Maximize it!
“The greatest thing a man can do in this world is to make the most possible out of the stuff that has been given him. This is success, and there is no other” – Orison Swett Marden
44 thoughts on “What the World Owes You”
I hear you sir!
This brings to mind the holy words by the preacher in Ecclesiates that the race of life is not to the swift nor food to the skillful, or battle to the strong but TIME and CHANCE (opportunity) happens to them all. I believe irrespective of our background, we all have equal opportunity by God to make a mark and affect posterity.
I like the meaning of your mnemonics- STD, HIV…
We owe our world all the latent potentials God has bestowed on us to better the generation unborn.
May we die empty.
Nice one Deolu, “Let’s stop expecting opportunities to fall on our laps, let’s place our laps where opportunities are falling” a word they say is enough for the wise. Thanks .
We owe it to ourselves and the generation that will follow to make the world a better place.
This is Fantastic,we must take matters into our own hands, we must strive to achieve whatsoever we desire,it’s time to wake up and move, the world owes us nothing rather we owe the world. GO DO SOMETHING !
Great post.
Do not think of what the world will do for you but rather think of what you can do for the world.
Inspiring and thought provoking as usual.Wouldn’t have been said better.
Opportunities often come in capsules called “action”.
This line: “If you want something, you were created with the capacity to go ahead and get it!” echoes my views in one of my posts: “God does not owe you anything”
Cheers with Luv!
hmmmm….. the world does not owe u a living, word!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Nna Hen,
I feel this thing very deeply. It may not be right to quote, but some said “Heaven help those who help themselves”. ‘Makoja mi Olugbala, ki s’orin akunleko’ (apology to non Yoruba speakers).
really wold leave this opened so i can read when i get home kind of really tied up now, but i trust it is going to be insightful as always… Thanks for the biz opportunity seminar.
As insightful as ever! We indeed ought to leave this world a better place than we met it.
Thanks chairman!
GOD BLESS U 4 THIS !!! spot-on !
This is good news. I am so happy to know that what is happening to me today is harvest of seeds sown yesterday and that what we happen to me tomorrow is harvest of what i am sowing today.
We however need to position ourselves for opportunities rather than wait for them to fall on our laps.
Thank you Adeolu for this insight.
I feel you my bro..i am temporarily living in the so called advanced world and i shake my head when i see how laid back they are..and i tell myself.. if it was reversed..without our current mentality for corruption and low maintenance..they will know what it is to have an advanced country indeed..right now..there are beggars in the street..”working” and “workless” people in homeless kitchens being feed by charity organisations and churches, people all over are asking for the government to bail them out of all kinds of situations and i laugh most times..that they should come to Nigeria..am sure for some of them..it will be daily mass burials! God forgive me! God help them to bail themselves out by taking hold of the opportunities on their lap..and first of all go to school as adviced by their President..and stop this mentality of the Government owe them something! Thanks for all the new meanings to words like HIV.STD … and LOI…like Peter i love the part of “Let’s stop expecting opportunities to fall on our laps, let’s place our laps where opportunities are falling” . God help us all and God bless you richly for this!..as usual, i will post the link on various groups on facebook!
what we really need to start doing is to position ourselves for opportunities.everything we need to survive in this world is around us all we need to do is just position ourselve and they will come knocking.
LAnother blockbuster, the world owes me nothing, absolutely nothing. Abraham Lincon said in one of his famous speeches, “never think of what the world will offer u, but what u can offer to the World”, what an honor of deep thought and deep sense of magnitude. The best people in the world are not the thermostat who watch things happen but rather thermometer who definitely makes thing happen. For how long are you going to sit there sobbing and keeping your finger crossed, waiting for free bees, when other people who equally have the same time and same number of brain cells just like you do, are out there doing something beyond your imagination.
You know, couples of hour ago i was chatting with an old friend’s kid, and i was dazed and astonished at his responses and his level of thinking, he has great ideal and he knows exactly what he is aiming at, remembering that the world steps aside for those who know where they are going, i commented. So who the hell am i not to get on my toes and start running, cause the era of walking as gone. Hey bro thanks for those words.
PROUDLY NIGERIAN.
Good words,that reminds me of a discussion i had years back on opportunities and how to grab them and it was simply concluded,that “opportunities are every where it takes only the Man that is insightful to see and the one that is watchful to actually come by it.Its like a boat in the middle of the ocaen,if it does not come to the bank(your way) then swim to it.You cant” expect the rabbit to find its way into your cooking pot “.Most of us just actually want to be spoon fed,take it up upon yourself to seek and tell me whether you won’t find.Make that move right now!Deolu nice Nnemonics of the STD..and the HIV.
Another great one Deolu,
‘For [even the whole] creation (all nature) waits expectantly and longs earnestly for God’s sons to be made known [waits for the revealing, the disclosing of their son ship].’ It is when we give our time, talents, and even our money that we get a true sense of fulfillment. For it is more blessed to give than to receive.
Time! One of the greatest asset God has given us, and as you rightly put it, ‘In that is our chance, and how we spend or invest it, is what defines what we get out of life’.
Shalom!
I agree with you Deolu, the world does not owe us anything. but I believe we owe one another the benefits of the humanity we all share together. The “developed world” we sometimes look up to has shown us that any social system that exists by ignoring the responsibility that indviduals owe to themselves and to others will come to it’s knees sooner than later. Communism did, and “capitalism without compassion” has shown in the last year that it can’t survive for long. biddy rightly pointed out the perils of overdependence on other’s, but we also MUST NOT lose sight of the danger posed by obsessive individualism. I want to believe that Deolu as an example, writes a blog not solely for the sake of personal profit, but because he is most probably connected to that human ideal of “agbajoowo” (togetherness and selflessness). That is the message we need to send to today’s world, with it’s gluttonous quest for personal enrichment. That message is what we owe our world.
well “said”
ORO!!!!!!!!!!!!(word)
Making the most of the opportunities and stuff you have got give great chances. Stop inaction and make a most of your own stuff. Ineterestingly, no one is without a stuff.
We live to lead.
We lead by accepting responsibility to serve our generation according to the will of God
To fail to lead is to live below our means and a dereliction of our natural duty. Pathetic!
We owe our world–of business, economy, family, politics, academics, education–leadership.
When we came to this world,everybody waiting for our arrival were filled with joy.This is because a new gift is added to human race,in otherwords, a saviour in making as come.Whether we live as a saviour or a visitor will be determine by our contribution to humanity.Whatever we can do to affect our world to move forward,let’s do it. Because one day,our good deed willl out live us.
it is my responsibility to make the world a better place….
“Responsibility is the price of greatness.”
Thanks Deolu,
Those who bring light to others can not hide it from themself.
Life did not owe anyone as you pointed out, we must pay our debt/bit of bill while here though the bill can not be wiped clean.
It is not what happened to us that is the news but what we make of it. Life has never been fair and has no such promise.
It was never His choise but He was born all the same in animals abode. Amazingly He became the greatest who ever lived
Jesus
He did not foresee it but his house was buggled and all he had, including his family were carted away. While everyone around wanted him dead only one person thought otherwise – himself, ‘and David encouraged himself’.
David
O Lord make me an answer to the prayers of men in my time, an asset to my genration, and a light to many unborn. And the people say…
This is very profound! “stop expecting opportunities to fall on your laps, place your laps where opportunities are falling”. I believe this is the way to live life to the fullest!. God bless you.
Nice piece!
And so the preacher writes… Time and chance happens to them all. I think this is a great piece because it rhymes with our everyday life and the greatest gift God has given to us all is 24hrs. What we do with it is our gift to him (God). I am blessed to read and to know that i come from my beloveth Nigeria where i was made to understand that the world owes me NOTHING. God bless you oga D, for my heart will continually incline itself to the truth and practicability of these great words.
As i read the comments of my fellow commentators, i delve with clearity the words of a preacher i listened to in America. He said the problem America will continue to have is the dependence on social security where the gorvernment will even provide for people who are not ready to work. According to him, that will put America and Americans to dept as they are violating the teachings of the bible that a man must work if he must be able to feed and take care of his everyday needs. This is indeed true and that is why i love what Biddy says, when he said “if it was reversed..without our current mentality for corruption and low maintenance..they will know what it is to have an advanced country indeed..right now.” As a matter of fact, I am proud to be a Nigerian, we might be going through mind crisis now, but we will overcome and become the strongest nation in the world as long as christ tarries.
Thank you my fellow commentators, your comments are a list of inspiring wise sayings and sagical espressions.
The world owes me nothing except my input into life. The law of sowing and reaping will always have its way…
Thanks
inspiring…….chairman
The story of the man at the pool for long and painful 38 years shows us that our circumstances will not just change because of how long we’ve been there but when we know and conciously do what will change our situation.
I have this post on the story at my site.
when money is not it badly(
and most offensive if he clever men
As we Live in the little corner of these world, let’s strive to impact our environment…become an asset and not a liability…!
The lesson is learn’t !
This is da bomb!
U ARE A BLESSING
If we don’t run things, things will run us. We are where we are today as a result of some choices we made.It is true what the world owe us is the chance to rule and in return what we owe the world is to make it a better place for ppl coming behind.Thank you for this great piece,sir!
WONDERFUL PIECE! A JEWISH PROVERB SAID THAT A GOOD MAN LEAVES AN INHERITANCE FOR HIS CHILDRENS CHILDRE. WHAT IT MEANS IS THAT THE QUALIFICATION TO BE CLASSIFIED AS ”GOOD” IS DIRECTLY PROPORTIONAL TO THE OPPORTUNTY YOU MAXIMISE.
THERE ARE MANY COMPLAINERS WHO COMPLAIN ABOUT EVERYTHING FROM THE ECONOMY TO BAD GOVERNANCE WHILE OTHERS ARE LOOKING FOR SUCH PROBLEMS FOR THE CHAMPIONS IN THEM TO COME OUT.AGAIN ITS A QUESTION OF HOW WE ALL SEE THINGS. IF I SEE A PROBLEM IN A PARTICULAR SITUATION AND SOMEBODY ELSE SEE A SOLUTION, I HAVE LOST THAT OPPORTUNITY.MAY GOD HELP US SEE, SEIZE AND MAXIMISE OPPORTUNITIES AND ALSO IDENTIFY THEM EVEN WHEN THEY COME AS PROBLEMS.NOT FORGETTING THAT THE WORLD DOESNT OWE US RATHER WE OWE IT TO THE WORLD TO MAKE IT A BETTER PLACE THAN HOW WE MET IT.
NAIJA 4 LIFE!
i wonder what a world it would have been if life gives us what we want but thank God life gives us what we desire.
what really matter is what we do will what matters
someone will most likely find that it’s not exact enough and is adjusted over too high a temperature range. Cooking takes place over a range of 100-250F and a degree of inaccuracy of + or – 10F is not critical. Cooking thermometers will reflect this.
nice blog…..I stumbled on it looking for that Mark Twain quote to use against liberals….who so love to be generous….with everyone else’s money but their own…..been debating this very point with liberals….which of course fell on deaf ears because they’re so wedded to the entitlement mentality