You must learn to fail. You cannot say cos you were born a genius, you will not fail
You must look forward to failure, you must embrace it, you must look forward to it with excitement cos it bares the fuel of your success
Your tears yesterday morning from your failure to get the job touched me
I felt sad cos I was not near you to hold you, lift your beautiful face, stare into those luminous eyes and say to you, you crazy?
Your grandfather failed. He failed so badly that he lost his job twice
He cried and wailed like you. He would come into the room and cry beside me.
He followed me to school and lay beside me and cried
But would jump into a bakery load bread in his car and go to Ketu market to hawk and sell with pride
He did everything to put food on our table-sold sugar, tried to apprentice in a stationary shop and failed in everything
But succeeded in one major thing. He delivered to Nigeria five graduates something the richest of men find hard to do.
You come from a family of failures. Your Uncle Ernest lost his job, your Uncle Charles lost his job for a year, your dad, me, lost his job thrice and went to jail once
But one thing about your genes is the fighting spirit
Oh my God. We know how to fight and bounce back
So allow yourself to cry, go into the depths of despair, throw a pity party, call Joe and wail, its all allowed
But you must emerge with a fire. The fire in your belly, knowing full well that the world is yours and that you have your crazy father behind you and most importantly Jehovah is your last weapon
My beautiful and brainy daughter, you make me so proud, you give me hope for my old age and I swear to you, that you will deliver on my last dream, which is to stand on top of the mountain and proclaim – yes, I lived a good life
You are that mountain. So stand up from that bed and go face the world with a smile.
God bless you
Joe
Last modified: February 16, 2025
