Sometimes we encounter unexpected situations that are difficult to overcome. Life is indeed full of ups and downs. Today we rejoice over our win, and tomorrow we may be facing a difficult moment. I think hard times are part of life, no matter how we try to run away from them. However, the most important thing is our ability to overcome such situations and learn from them in order to become better tomorrow.
Personally, one of the most difficult times of my life was the time I had to borrow money from my friend and my elder brother to invest in an agricultural investment program without the consent of my husband.The fact that I hide this investment program from my husband was another tough time I went through on its own in my home those periods. Let's forget about my loss first and talk about the lack of peace I faced from my husband for taking such decisions without letting him know. He felt I disrespected him, and secondly, I have started to keep secrets, whereas all I wanted to do was surprise him with the massive ROI I was promised to get. In my diary, where I usually write down my daily goals, I wrote somewhere how I am going to surprise my husband by using the big profit I will get from the investment to replace our couch, not knowing that things will turn upside down. I had to apologize and keep apologizing for my mistake until he forgave me but left me to deal with my losses all by myself so that when next I want to invest, I may deem it necessary to let him know while he advises me on what to do based on his experience.
So about the wrong investment, a friend told me about how she was cashing out 100% return on investment from the agricultural investment she was making. According to her, the woman in charge cultivates cucumber and watermelon, so investors can pay for a plot and be guaranteed 100% Roi every 4 months as cucumber doesn't take time before harvest. I saw millions of Naira alert on this friend's phone, and I was convinced that they were genuine. Then, I was still an office worker receiving salary, but my 70% salary was on loan repayment. I thought of borrowing to invest; this is how desperate I was. I reached out to one of my old friends, and she transferred the requested money almost immediately. I called my elder brother for another loan from him, and he said, Nkem, I will borrow you this money, but have you done a thorough investigation and found the investment to be genuine? Hmmm, I didn't want to process that question from him; I just answered yes, and he sent the money. I quickly invested in two slots and went into fantasy, imagining how I would receive plenty of money in four months.
Oh no, the whole thing gets to my turn and becomes a story. 4 months turned into 6 months and one year. The woman kept telling stories of how the Fulani's heards men scattered her farmlands and how erosion destroyed the whole plantation. It dawned on me that I had entered one chance. Many people invested millions; mine was almost half a million, and I nearly ran mad knowing that I borrowed the capital.
To say that it was a difficult part of my life was an understatement. I lacked peace in my heart, I lacked good sleep, I was restless, and I had no money to pay back those who borrowed the capital to me as my salary was still on loan repayment.
We the investors, later teamed up to arrest the woman, but it didn't change anything to date. This was how I lost that money carelessly, but then I pleaded with the people from whom I borrowed the capital to give me time to pay it back. I was paying back gradually until I finished and regained my peace of mind. Later, we found out that the woman never owned any farmland; he was just snapping people's farmland to upload to her Facebook account, claiming it was hers.
It was one wrong investment that made me always to double-invest before getting myself involved in any kind of investment. Really a difficult moment of my life with nice lessons learned.
This post is in response to the #hivelearners contest on the topic titled Embracing The Difficulties
Thanks for reading❤️❤️❤️
Image is mine edited in canva
