If there's one thing motivational speakers out there won't tell you, it is that it won't always work out... And the reason why they won't say that to you is because being positive pays the bills, while the opposite of that doesn't. So they give us this illusion that we will always make it if we try, totally ignoring the fact that while that might be true, sometimes it takes a hundred tries to get it right once.
Earlier today, I overheard a friend of mine speaking to someone on the phone and that conversation is what inspired today's post.
You see, about three/four years ago, when I was about to begin my third year in school, I had encouraged this friend of mine to also continue with me, but he had told me that he didn't have enough money to see him through the remaining two years in school and would rather go hustle to gather that money than come back to school...so I had gone without him.
I remember writing about him, talking about how all he needed to do back then was to start first rather than trying to see the finish line from the beginning of the race... And I won't lie to you, at the time I was making a good amount of sense or at least that was what I had thought.
Well about a year later, he had taken my advise and came back to school even though he didn't have enough money on him to see himself through, he was starting the race without trying to see the finish line just like I had advised.
Well a year after that, he dropped out due to lack of funds to do the necessary things he needed to do in school. Watching all of that unfold taught me a very vital lesson. It made me understand that although it is important to start first rather than bother yourself about how you will get to the finish line, nothing guarantees that you will get to the finish line just because you decided to be positive in the beginning.
Basically what I'm trying to say is that you could start with good faith and still fail miserably. That is something most motivational speakers won't tell you.
That is why in as much as starting first is a brave thing to do, it is also very important to have a plan if you can have one. In the case of my friend, he couldn't come up with a survival plan because there was none for him at the time and that ultimately meant that unless a miracle happened, he was going to fail.
Unfortunately, no miracle happened and he failed then. The good thing about this whole thing though is that if he decides to try again, he now knows what mistakes not to make.