Business and Economy
When 1$ Worths More than Its Value
Dr. Jarlath Uche Opara
Jarlathuche@gmail.com
Value or otherwise of a thing is determined by the need it serves or does not serve. It takes a hungry man to appreciate food and perhaps savour it with an amazing relish without minding how bland or sumptuous the food is.
Such is life and nothing would change it. It is natural, one is more driven to develop more appetite for something that is in lack than something that is in abundance.
Have you been in a tight financial situation when one naira is seen as huge as a thousand naira? I had experienced it. It was exhilarating and meant a lot. Perhaps wouldn’t have appreciated it as much as I did if I wasn’t in a desperate need of it.
I recently watched a 14mins clip that succinctly captured the above caption. The message so real and punchy, one could see the reality of the saying ” No man is an island and nobody is too poor not to give and none too rich not to recieve. We are all living , connecting to one another according to our strength and weaknesses.
Summarily, the clip told a story of an entrepreneur who turned in a proposal for a project that runs into millions of Dollars. He was called upon for the final closure of the deal by the company. By the time he arrived, it was already about the time for the company’s closing hour. His proposal was adjudged the best though but approval needed to be given on the payment of a paltry sum of 1 dollar as administrative charges within 10 minutes, before the deal could be sealed. That wouldn’t be a problem he told himself.
He opened his wallet, no cash, only his credit card, perhaps with lots of money in his bank.
Sadly the company doesn’t have POS machines. He wanted to transfer to their account, it was rejected, which of course was against the company’s policy. The payment must be made cash. One option available for him was to rush to a nearby ATM machine, make a quick withdrawal of one dollar and come back to make the payment . He had only ten minutes to do all that, and the time it would take him to get to the nearest ATM is more than ten minutes.
Obviously he was in a terrible mess, looking a multi million dollar deal slip off his grip. Such is life, it can dole out intrigues and intricate challenges, puzzles etc when one least expected it. On a normal day, what would 1dollar do for him? But life situation has made it look so valuable he could do anything to have it. As at that moment a one dollar bill given, would be more valuable than 1000 dollars in the bank or given thereafter.
In his confusion and distressed situation, a security guard around, volunteered to give him the only 1 dollar in his possession. For the guard, it means nothing. But for the guy it was a whole lot, the connecting link between him and his deal. For the guard, it was so negligible a favour, but for the guy, a restoration of his almost gone opportunity to seal the deal.
Life is a bitch sometimes, it throws up challenges, even your money, position, influence etc wouldn’t solve, leaving one at the mercy of those one perhaps feels wouldnt amount to anything. In the school of life nobody is so self sufficient not to need anything from anybody and nobody is too abject not to have something to give no matter how small. In the school of life, never flount around with an air of invincibility, within a twinkle life can deflate you flat.
In the school of life, while on your high horse, never be puffy, it might throw you off from the height to the lowly, leaving you at the mercy of those hitherto despised and denigrated to give a shoulder no matter how lean the shoulder is, for a relief.
Life is a bitch. Beyond your imagination it can shower one with life goodies. Same way it can dole out negatives, that would make one fall from an appreciable height of affluence and influence to a place of dejection and abjection. We are too vulnerable to be sure of what life holds by the next minute. Remaining rooted in God, excludes one from such embarrassing exigencies of life. At worst case scenario if happens, the way for an escape wouldn’t be blurred.
Hey! You who feel your domestic workers are less human and do not deserve simple courteous treatment, think twice, they may be that ace in your hole when you least expected. Life is like a pendulum, it does not stay at a place. It has a nature and its nature, very pendulous. We need one another. No matter how poor, how rich, how tall and short, one day life challenges may bring one to ones knees which none of what one thinks one has would help.
We need someone to tell us how our back looks like. That is the truth. Learn it, be intentional about it by treating everybody around with dignity, no exception, no preference and no favoritism. Life can be pendulous, swinging one sometimes to a place where only poor men have what would cover ones shame. These lousy statements people make ” who are you! What can you do for me! You worth less than a straw etc are statements of those who haven’t seen the capricious nature of life and how it would have disgraced many but for the help of that seeming misery looking guy out there. We all have our various deposit inside. Yours may be a gold, honed and dazzling doesn’t mean others with bronze and copper are not useful. A time would come when your life challenges would need not your gold to be solved but the copper of someone somewhere Life! A bitch!!😊