In the world of business as well as in our personal lives, we often are in deficit of assets and excess of liabilities. We owe ourselves daily when we fail to pay ourselves the values we need to inculcate, build independence, collaborate and earn fulfillment.
It begins with our failure to develop our natural gifts to the level of skills and then use them to negotiate our growth and accomplishments. Sure, we often are unaware of what we have intrinsically. A failure of self-awareness means a failure of self-development. Unless we are able to develop our gifts and make of them honed skills, they cannot become assets to us.
This is our first step into the sojourn of acquisition of liabilities. We become a liability to our own selves. Because we fail to find ourselves, we become a burden to others who have spent time to develop themselves in order to gain independence, which is the enabling force to play effectively in interdependence, and secure more assets.
Again, our failure at using independence as a means of enduring accomplishment through the right use of resources pushes us into liabilities. We often complain of inadequate earnings but perhaps the present lockdown should teach us how wasteful we have been.
Prior to this time, we have only been generating and spending; till we even spend what we don't earn. We have been very bad managers of the little we earned. We only always complained of inadequacy of money. Do we know any better or different now?
There is never going to be a time when we will have enough money or when we will have all the money we seek to have. But there can be a time when we can check our endless thirsts to acquire the things we don't need and go to places that are only meant for showing appearance and making impression. There can be a time when we can earn self-mortification.
We engage in wrong spending, buying things we do not need to impress people we hardly know and do not love. We often ego-trip and through this ill-nature, we acquire liabilities through false and plastic living. We try to belong in the wrong circle all because of poor self-worth. We do need to shift that paradigm. You must uninstall that program that keeps you in debt and causes you so much misery.
Today, we have more liabilities than assets due to our ego-driven tastes. We spend more than we earn. We buy things we don't need. And even when it comes to specific needs, we aim way beyond our earnings because we want to impress. We choose accommodation in locations beyond our pockets. We buy cars we can't maintain. We enroll our children in schools we can't afford. We owe school fees and change the children's school as if we are changing clothes. We buy clothing way beyond our reach. We eat in restaurants we can hardly afford.
Tell me if there is any other reason we have liabilities instead of assets. Those earnings we class little or nothing is what some have invested wisely to build personal empires. Ask Awolowo how he built the Cocoa House. Ask him if he used oil derivation money or if he used Cocaine funds or proceeds from fraud. Find out from other prudent persons around.
We do all these things because we seek to have "friends", not friends. Funny enough, the people know, as much as we do, that we are killing ourselves. In all of these, we incur debts. We mount up liabilities upon liabilities. You are aware that you are doing yourself harm. You are the enemy of yourself because you have refused to cut your coat according to your cloth.
How much longer can you go? Now is the time to beat a retreat. What lesson does this lockdown teach you about many things you have been wrongly involved in? What lessons have you learnt about the many wrong "investments" that have earned you nothing but liability, pain and despair. What does your balance sheet say?
What are your personal values? Ask yourself this question. "What do I really care about?" "What are the things that I enjoy doing but, are costing me peace because I don't sleep with my eyes shut?" "Why can't I go to places I used to go?" "Why is it difficult for me to drive through some places as I used to?" "Why is it difficult for me to take some calls?" These are questions for you. Nobody is going to answer them for you.
Now you can see that it is possible for you not to see some people. Now you see that you can actually not spend what you don't earn. Can you adopt a partial lockdown lifestyle after the lockdown and post Covid-19? If you can apply the lessons you have learned during this period, you can start on the journey to end your liabilities and begin to acquire assets.
Be continent. Have self-control and restraint. It is the self-discipline you need to overcome liabilities and acquire abstract and concrete assets.
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