It was raining that evening, so I couldn't continue my journey home.
I had to pause and find shield in the shop of a woman selling (beans cake) akara. She accommodated me so I sat on her bench waiting for the rain to stop. This woman had just finished setting up her coals for frying, she started fanning so that the fire circulate on the local stove.
Just then, her nearby neighbor, who was also a salesperson, entered. She had a stainless bowl in her hand and intended to take some fire from the akara vendor to light her own (since the weather was cold, making fire was quite difficult). She was able to borrow some lit coals from her neighbour, and she did so gratefully.
Few minutes later, another guy came in holding an iron plate, it happened to be a close by neighbor again who makes and sells (grilled meat) suya,he was in need of fire and she permitted him to fetch some.
Moment later, the fire the akara seller had set up began to go down, it began to quench. She had to start struggling to revive it again but she couldn't and the weather was not helping. She added more coals and kept blowing but it seemed too late, the fire had gone off. She had no option but to look for somewhere to get hot coals to set up her fire again.
Right there, it dawned on me.
I began to see why so many who started well ended up failing. I saw the reason why so many people who once lighted their world ended up begging to be lighted.
It is simple because they were so carried away by helping other people shine that they forgot to keep themselves shining. Most times we want to help people grow, we want to help people achieve, we want to help them become. We fix classes for them, seminars and conferences to give others room to learn from us and we forgot to create an opportunity for ourselves to keep learning.
It is not wrong to let people fetch from your tap, but if you don't create a system to keep your tank pumped, one day you will get dried and no one will come to fetch from you again.
The truth is, when you have a flourishing well people will keep coming to fetch but as soon as it dries up, you will see that people were really not in need of you, they only needed your water. So create a system for yourself to never, ever go dry.
Keep your fire burning.
It was raining that evening, so I couldn't continue my journey home.
I had to pause and find shield in the shop of a woman selling (beans cake) akara. She accommodated me so I sat on her bench waiting for the rain to stop. This woman had just finished setting up her coals for frying, she started fanning so that the fire circulate on the local stove.
Just then, her nearby neighbor, who was also a salesperson, entered. She had a stainless bowl in her hand and intended to take some fire from the akara vendor to light her own (since the weather was cold, making fire was quite difficult). She was able to borrow some lit coals from her neighbour, and she did so gratefully.
Few minutes later, another guy came in holding an iron plate, it happened to be a close by neighbor again who makes and sells (grilled meat) suya,he was in need of fire and she permitted him to fetch some.
Moment later, the fire the akara seller had set up began to go down, it began to quench. She had to start struggling to revive it again but she couldn't and the weather was not helping. She added more coals and kept blowing but it seemed too late, the fire had gone off. She had no option but to look for somewhere to get hot coals to set up her fire again.
Right there, it dawned on me.
I began to see why so many who started well ended up failing. I saw the reason why so many people who once lighted their world ended up begging to be lighted.
It is simple because they were so carried away by helping other people shine that they forgot to keep themselves shining. Most times we want to help people grow, we want to help people achieve, we want to help them become. We fix classes for them, seminars and conferences to give others room to learn from us and we forgot to create an opportunity for ourselves to keep learning.
It is not wrong to let people fetch from your tap, but if you don't create a system to keep your tank pumped, one day you will get dried and no one will come to fetch from you again.
The truth is, when you have a flourishing well people will keep coming to fetch but as soon as it dries up, you will see that people were really not in need of you, they only needed your water. So create a system for yourself to never, ever go dry.
Keep your fire burning.
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