So I boarded a bike last Sunday to the gas plant to refill, and after negotiations, we agreed on a transportation fee. While going I engaged the bike guy in a conversation and we talked about how young people value money more than strategic relationships these days. (now don't get me wrong, money is important).
He shared with me how he once picked a passenger/stranger who pleaded that he only had #200 for the fee of service worth #400. He initially declined but the passenger insisted he reconsider, which he did after some moment of thinking. On their way, the man asked him about whose bike he is using, and he said he hires the bike and remits a certain amount daily. The man now asked him if he is willing to take a bike and be responsible for it till the weekend before he remits an agreed amount. The bike man thought it was a dream or a big joke, if not how can a stranger he just picked a few minutes ago be willing to trust him with a bike? To cut the long story short, the young man is driving the man's bike today, he never fails to remit his weekly balance and he takes care of the bike as his own. He is now like a son to the man; the man trusts him not only with his bike but also with other affairs concerning the man's family and farm.
In your process of becoming you will need some goodwill and trust. I remember what the Anglican Archbishop of Jos, Bishop Benjamin Kwashi said at his daughter's wedding, he said young men must learn to build and live on goodwill. Rightly so, goodwill has raised a lot of young people in their lives to places they never dreamt of.
To become you will need the goodwill of others and you will also have to be a man or woman of goodwill. The question here is while looking for the goodwill of men, can you be trusted? The lesson for me from the story of the bike man is that good men of goodwill still exist, God will send them your way in the course of your lifetime, but can you be trusted? Are you trustworthy?
Let me not belabour this issue. For you to BECOME, after letting patience, hope, faith, consistency, persistence and all we shared last week take place in your life, you need to build goodwill upon the bedrock of trust. In the days of your making, amidst all the pain and the inconvenience, you will need to learn how to be trustworthy and build goodwill. It is so unfortunate that some young people cannot be trusted even with the minutest responsibility.
The bike boy sacrificed like #200 and picked up the man and he ended up with a better bike and a father figure in his life. Not only did he enjoy goodwill but proved himself trustworthy. Do not just crave goodwill, cultivate trustworthiness as well, you will need both. A few currencies will help you through life beyond money, and all of them are gathered during the process of making, two of those are goodwill and trust.
Do you have goodwill in your life? Are you a man of goodwill? Are you trustworthy?
Thank you for reading
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