Boldness

As I sit in my room musing over what to write, a funny story I heard in my secondary school comes to mind. It’s titled Boldness (courage). I hope I don’t bore you with its length. 3 naval divisions each from 3 different countries assembled together on a warship somewhere on the high seas. The countries represented were USA, Japan and Nigeria. The different commanders of these divisions soon got embroiled in an argument of who had the boldest soldiers in his division. After much deliberation, they decided to enter into a boldness contest.

The Japanese commander was the first one to give an order. “Jackie Chan!” he shouted, “Swim round this ship 5 times”. A fit young japanese sailor retorted “Aye, aye sir!”, jumped into the ocean and swam round the ship 5 times. The japanese commander looked at his colleagues and asked “Did you see what that man did? now that’s boldness”. The american commander proceeded to give his own order “Chuck Norris!” he yelled, “tie your hands behind your back and swin round this ship 3 times”. “Aye , aye sir” responded a lithe young soldier before plunging into the sea and swimming “no hands” around the ship 3 times”. His commander, the american, with a wolfish grin on his face turned to his colleagues and said “See what my man just did? men that’s boldness.Then came the turn of the nigerian commander. He looked around the ship and bellowed “Pasuma Wonder!” “Aye, aye sir!” answers Pasuma as a huge black man steps out of the ranks. “Swim round this ship once! Anyhow!”, commanded his boss. The nigerian soldier looks in bewilderment from the sea to his boss and back again. His visage quickly changes from shock to wrath as he runs at his boss and begins to pummel him with blows shouting things like “O fe pa mi ni? Mi o ni baba! Mi o o n’iya! O fe pa mi sinu omi abi!” Apologies to non-yoruba reading viewers. It simply translates as “Do you want to kill me? I am an orphan! You want me to die in this water? Anyway, after venting his wrath on his commander while the whole camp watched in amazement, he stepped back a few paces. The nigerian commander picked himself off the ground, dusted his uniform and signals to his colleagues to come closer. “Did you see what that man just did?” he asked them, “Now, that’s boldness. I’m sure none of your men can try that.”

I hope I didn’t bore you too much with that story but my point (even though not in the right context) is that boldness sometimes typifies doing the unpopular and extraordinary. One week ago today, I started working at my new office after I had resigned from my former effective the day before. I sent in my resignation on the 2nd of January. I left a very lucrative and professional career for an entirely new one. Just before you say good for you let me open your eyes to the details. In my last office, I was due for a promotion in less than 2 weeks that will more than double my salary and benefits, I was about to be made a regional lead/manager of a northern region. Basically, I would start the office from scratch and run it exclusively. I would be responsible for recruiting, training, finances and day-to-day running of the office; I would liase with the clients to ensure that the working relationship is at the best it can be and then report to the head office in Lagos. I had worked in this career path for about a year and had held various leadership roles within the organisation. In fact, the management was looking to me to provide leadership for the other team leads in the north; but I LEFT. WHY?….. because I was BOLD. I Broke out of the normal thinking pattern (don’t leave).Opened my eyes to possibilities and opportunities.Left the position of stand-still in the direction of destiny (left Egypt for Canaan).Dared to dream. I’ll let you in on the details soon…but till then..Be BOLD