To think of it at all is a mirage. Bet you can remember those days when a visitor comes into your living room holds those tender arms of yours and asks you that ageless question “what do you want to become in the future” smiles runs down your cheeks as you answer with the innocence of a child, I want to become a………..
Yes, you could remember yourself acting into the future, being the person of your dreams. You were the young doctor who happened to have treated your friends who feigned sickness while you were acting out those your poorly constructed scripts…hahahahaha. The engineer who in the name of repairing your sound speakers ended up complicating things. You were the nurse who stood by mum’s side when she was down with fever. The accountant who loved to tuck in the shirt and look very formal in appearance, do you remember if anybody or anything tried to hinder you in appearing or behaving in a way that tandems with your childish dreams, all you could do is cry? You were beaten and probably spanked for what was deemed to be a troublesome behavior yet in your own very eyes, you were living out your own very dreams.
Maybe I need to ask you why? It begs a question that has always been pondering on my mind. Must we all be entrepreneurs? Or rather are we all cut out to become entrepreneurs?
A very popular media mogul and serial entrepreneur as described by herself, speaking at the 2017 edition of the WIMBIZ said that not everyone is cut out to be an entrepreneur but are meant to be part of a team. She also retorted, that finding one’s purpose is a very difficult process but youth gives us the opportunity to dream and explore several opportunities.
In a nation where majority of its youth are unemployed, it’s safe to say that being an entrepreneur, is the way out. The popular saying ‘Think of what you can do for your country rather than what the country can do for you’ has been so much over-flogged that it has become nothing more than just mere hearsay; a platform under which “they” have chosen to hide throwing the gauntlet down to our faces.
The youth of today are very lazy they say; “they have everything to their advantage yet they have refused to make use of them” calumny at its best, mostly a case of trying to throw away the baby with the bathwater.
Why must everything be circumstantial? I ask! Can’t I just have the boldness to pursue my dreams and have a country to support me? I ask, is this a country that would enable those childhood dreams to become a reality or one that crumbles it on the altar of subsistence.
Not everyone wants to become the next Aliko Dangote or Tony Elumelu, neither are we seeking to become the next Folorusho Alakija. All we want is a nation that allows us to live out our dreams or what we choose to become. Modest as it may seem, the satisfaction and happiness it brings, is one that cannot be rivalled.
Some of us would still have to taste that pill of reality, we would have to fight for that dream of ours and this is not the best of times for us as a nation. I know the government is doing all in its power to encourage more youths in taking up entrepreneurial skills, facing the reality of a dwindling economy but then, you can also do something to encourage the aspiring biologist; engineer; lawyer, accountant; journalist; Architect; economist; environmentalist; educationist; scientist; linguist; broadcaster……….. The list is endless.
So when you see any of my fellow young aspiring folks walking along the street with a paper bag in their hands and a bag pack on their backs, it’s okay for you to laugh, you could have your own objections and opinions on what they should be doing or on whatever you think about them, but never you call them lazy. They are battlers fighting for their lives, careers and future.
Someone would need to pay the price now for the upcoming generations and it’s certainly not going to be those who are seated in the corridors of power, neither is it going to be my aged parents, that’s going to have to be me. The next Ben Carson, Phil Emegali, Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe, Steve Jobs, Chike Obi, Grace Alele-Williams, Dora Akunyili, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and many more of such we one day aspire to become. Can’t you see that this dreams of ours, are so great and we can’t just let go of them?
So please do us a big favor. If you feel helpless in making these dreams of us become a reality, stop making yourselves impediments to our efforts in making them a reality. For we have already, a great battle on our hands and there are some of us who would rather die fighting for our dreams than taking the so called circumstantial way out.
….. For we would not all become your entrepreneurs.