You are permitted to start small

Every thing great in this life, started small, you are permitted to start small but do not remain small, you may make mistakes but don’t throw in the towel, explore your mistakes and see how you can convert them to opportunities. Rise up to the challenge, you can be great and the truth is; you will be great. The best time to start is now, and the best place to start from is where you are. So stop complaining and get up to work.

I read of a youth corps member in the newspapers, who was posted to serve in “Abeokuta Ogun State” (Western Nigeria) for one year under the compulsory National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme for all high institution graduates in Nigeria. This young man identified a need within his host community and met it. From his one room apartment, he decided to start after school lesson for school children at a fee, after some few month, it was observed that children that attended his classes performed better in school and he had several parent in the neighbourhood enrolled their children and in returns, he was making some income. Some fellow corps member around him probably got motivated by him and also started their after school class for student in the community, but it was observed that they did not last long in the venture. For the pioneer youth corps member, his story was different, after his one year service, he got an uncompleted building in the community through the assistance of some members of the community and he started a regular school. By this time, he had so many students at his call, he kept at it, doing what he knows how to do best and today; he owns one of the leading private schools in “Abeokuta” with several employees on his pay roll. This young man probably did not go to university to learn how to teach or start a school but he took advantage of the academic challenges in his host community and made success out of it.

Someone may ask; so what do I start? Anything! Yes, anything you know how to do best. It does not have to be what you study in school. Let me tell you some thing about school, is a means to an end, it’s not the school itself that matters, but what you can do with what you learn from school. The school helps to prepare you for the task ahead of you in life, so it is not all about your course of study; it is expected of you to be vast in knowledge so that you can take up anything and make success out of it. That’s the difference between you that went to school and the other person who didn't.

If you get a job in your field, fine, if you do not, explore other opportunities around you; don’t be discouraged if it appears you don’t know much about the job, if you get a job today, you may be the best student from school, but the company will still have to train you, so it makes no difference how good you are, what matters at this point is your ability to adapt, learn fast and interpersonal skills that will determine your success in that company. More so, this is the time for you to be creative in your thinking and improve on the things you know how to do best.

There are millions of student who attempted to gain admission into university when you did but couldn't, but you did successfully, there are several others who gained admission with you but couldn't graduate, but you did successfully, if you could get this far, there is hope for you because you have not come this far to be jobless, you are on your journey of success and there is no stopping you.

Image credit (Pixabay)