WHY BEING THE BEST IN YOUR JOB IS NOT ENOUGH TO SAVE YOUR JOB

All employers want the best employees on their payroll.


Every Chairman want the best MD to head their businesses.


Every school thirst for the brightest students that would project a good image of their institution.


Every company want the best staffs they could assemble.


The original essence of interviews is to hunt for and acquire the best hands for a given job.


We are in a world where if you're not the best in your field, you may as well go hide in a cave. The world wants the best. The best or almost nothing.


Being the best at what you do would easily get you the dream job or catapult you to whatever height you dreamt, but is being the best enough to keep you at the job?


Between 2015/16, I worked for a big bakery. It's easily the biggest bakery I've ever came across in my lifetime.

This bakery produced enough to serve the whole of Ikorodu and the need to keep up with demand meant the management could only wish for whatever the best they could get in employees.


But the problem was that the job was tedious. And for the pay and the hours you've to work, it's one of those jobs you simply don't last beyond a few weeks.


I saw people come and go on daily basis. Some lasted a few days, others, weeks, and then they were those who gave up within hours of tasting what working there was like.


As a result, the few strong ones who have been toughened and seemed to have mastered the job to submission, were valued by the management. They were worth keeping for getting new recruits that could last months was a difficult task for them.


When I joined and in my characteristic way of always striving to do my best, I easily mastered the job to the surprise of everybody.


I won't say there's an exaggeration to how hard the job was, but to me, it wasn't as scary as everybody made it appear.


One of my biggest motivation then was that I was at a time, perhaps the only Igbo among the group of workers. The other Igbos were two girls that were working in another department. So I was determined to make a good representative beyond simply trying to keep my job.


The management was amazed. The owner would often come to admire me work. She liked the swiftness and precision with which I did my job.


But there was a big problem.


I had this terrible temper. It was disastrous. My attitude at work was very bad. Bad to a fault that not even doing excellently in the job was enough to keep me at the job.


Have you ever seen that look on a Boss' face when they have to say that regretful words of "I'm really sorry, I can't help it. I wish I can..."

I didn't get such touching words but I pretty much suffered that fate; the fate of being told to go by someone who really need you to stay.


I was a poison in the company. I was in everybody's good book and everybody's bad book at the same time.


I'm fighting you today. I'm fighting him tomorrow. I'm fighting everybody the next day. It was that bad.


Even the gate keeper became wary of me. He wouldn't conduct the customary search on me, carried out on all employees before they exited the company after each working day. The man simply dreaded me.


As smallish built as I was, I was dishing out headache to people who were thrice my size. I didn't really know what gave me the courage but I was a trouble to everybody there. From my department to the next department, it was a total fiasco.


A new recruit would come. He'd say 'look at the little guy'. Another boss would say, 'he won't try it with me' and tomorrow, I'm wagging a finger at his face to his total shock.


Several times, a group would be dissolved and merged with other groups and none of the leaders of these groups would want me in their group. No boss want a subordinate who have a reply to every of their words.


As a result, I was sacked three times from the same job. Sacked for having a terrible attitude and rehired for being too good. I got sacked and rehired and sacked and rehired. It was funny and tiresome. But I learned a lesson, a bitter lesson that no matter how good you are in a certain job, if you don't have the right attitude, you may not survive there.


I've seen people compromise for those who offer lesser value but but have the best attitude in their dealings. While it's great to be the best in what you do, if you don't have the best attitude to accompany it, that might stunt your growth or even throw you out in the cold. So while you're striving to perfect your skills, don't forget to work on yourself too.


There was once a player called Mario Balotelli who was going to do way better than he did in professional football, but...

YOU DON'T REBEL IN ROME

Between 2018 and 2019, I worked as a labourer shuffling across cities in Lagos.

In the course of my job, I found myself working with some group of people who have been in the jobs longer than I.

Unlike them, the job was just an improvised means of making ends meet for me. So I tackled the job with a different outlook.

I'm close to a perfectionist and I often have to try not to put my 100 in certain things.

I usually go to these jobs with my bag which to their humour, contained my cosmetics and no food. I rarely ate on the job. I'm psychologically wired to really want to relax after a meal.

My schedule was totally different from theirs. Once I finished work, I'd take my bath, and race home looking like a PA to the president.

Back home, it's usually past ten in the night already. I'll sit something on the stove for dinner and then go ahead to do some laundry before taking another bath.

As it is, I wash on average of six days per week. No matter how busy I am or what comes my way, I always find a way to wash and something to wash. I like washing.

So after taking my bath, I'll have late dinner. Late dinner is another habit I don't know what to do with.

I've had some concerned people in the health sector advise me against it but I guess, to me, it's one of those things a man can't just stop doing even if it kills.

Anyway, after my late dinner, I'll delve into Facebook and WhatsApp. Check my Mails and reply Sms I wasn't able to handle during the working hours.

Then, I still had to read. I still had to review stuffs I'd written. I'm always modifying my works and before I know it, I'm looking at 2:30 A.M.

I'll nap and wake up around 7 AM to repeat the circle. So when I look at this and compare it to my co workers' schedule which more often than not take the pattern of, they come to work, finish work, have dinner at the working site, reach home and hit the bed.

The result is that I always want to finish up with the job and get going.

I thought I was doing us a favour whenever I started doing the jobs of two men put together. At first, they hailed me, then as time progressed, I realized they didn't look too pleased with me again.

I didn't know why. They started telling my lies. They'd say there's no work tomorrow. When I report to work two days later, I'll hear they came to work the day before. I didn't know what I did to them.

Someday, they'd try to send me back home before the supervisor will report to work through several mischievous means.

One day, we were already working when they complained that there were too many labourers and that there's need for layoff.

Of course, all fingers pointed at me. Even the few of them I considered friendly were snickering and avoiding me.

Anyway I dressed to go. Outside, I met the supervisor and asked him in our customary way to give me #100 make I take jump bike.

He started fumbling with his pockets and then a thought came him. He asked me where I was going. I explained that we exceeded the number of needed workers so that counted me out.

'What?' He rushed into the site and started barking at everybody. He has great admiration for me and enjoyed how hardworking I was. How I don't spend hours eating lunch, hours eating breakfast and hours drinking water. 'So someone have to go and it's Henry?' He started laughing. 'You're all joking,' He told them and said if anybody had to go, that they should caste away one of them. I changed and resumed work.

He took my number. Without their knowledge. They'd lie that there's no job. And he'd text me at odd hours when works has already started and ask me why I didn't report to work. I'll tell him there's supposed to be no work today. That surprised him and severely, I saw myself hurriedly going to a job I didn't prepare for at very unusual hours.

So one day, I talked to a friend on WhatsApp about it. He said he knew why they were treating me like that.

He said it was because unlike me, that job to them, isn't something to finish. That if everybody there started working like me, they'd end up working four days rather than six days every week. That was why they were not in a hurry to finish the jobs.

 They weren't paid for their individual effort or hourly output, rather it was a fixed rate. That it's like a government job for them; just lazy around as much as you can, waste whatever time you can, take your payment and go home.

It's not their father or uncle that own the money. They don't care if it takes a hundred years to finish the work so far they get paid shifting a few bricks from here to there each day.

And that was why the Engineer, supervisor and management liked me and that was why my coworkers detested me.
 They saw me as a threat to the system that's the rules they operate under. Also my working extra hard, meant pressure on them to step up their efforts and that's an inconvenience to them. Shortly afterwards, I left their job for them.

So while I was expecting praises from my co workers, I didn't know that I was a problem to them.

And this is an answer to your question of why people change when they assume power.

We've all heard and read people ask how good people suddenly turn to what they don't know once they're in a position to affect any change in a system they've so much criticized.

That's why Nigeria isn't working. And that's why it will never work with the present foundation.

If you like, go and put Obama in Aso Rock. If he do more than they're willing to take, they'll cut him down to size.

That's why if you become Nigeria president today, you won't do better than Buhari. That's why GEJ couldn't win a second term running against a candidate like Buhari and that's the same reason the outspoken Osinbajo has turned to a rainbow, appearing once in a blue moon.

If you enter a city, you ask who owns the city first so you'll know where to direct your respect. If you enter Rome, you act like the Romans. You play to the rule or you pay for it.

Are you playing to the rules or you've broken the rules and now waiting for your praises? It'll come in form of a brick hitting you on the head.
Wait for it.

Enwerem Chukwuka

Nollywood actor, SAM LOCO EFE

SAM LOCO EFE

Born Sam Loco Efeeimwonkiyeke on 25th December 1945 in Enugu coal city of Enugu State in the south eastern part of Nigeria.

Sam Loco Efe is originally from Benin City, Edo State in the south southern part of Nigeria but was born and bred in Enugu and Abakaliki respectively both in the south eastern part of Nigeria. He lost his father at a very tender age and had to struggle to help his mother in her trade in order to earn income for the family. His mother was a petty trader who sold akara.

Sam Loco Efe completed both his primary and secondary school education in Abakaliki and Enugu respectively.

His first experience with acting was at his primary school when a theatre group came to stage a play called “The Doctor”. In elementary school, he played the role of Julius Caesar in a Shakespearean play which earned him a scholarship.

After the Nigerian civil war ended, in 1972, Sam Loco traveled to Lagos in search of greener pasture and to explore a possible career in football.

In Lagos, he worked with Michelin tyre for a while before joining Dunlop. While at Dunlop Tyre, Sam was casted in the popular NTA series, 'The Gods Are Not To Blame' an adaptation of the book of the same title by award winning play writer, Ola Rotimi.

He later left his sales job and ventured fully and professionally into acting, joining Nollywood in 1992. He auditioned and got the lead role in a movie titled “Langbodo”.

That seemed to have given him his desired break and Sam Loco would go on to feature in over 130 movies including:
 Tom and Jerry, Final World Cup, My Love, Ukwa, Osuofia in London, Atinga, Our Uncles, Drunken Master, Association Of Village Men, Evil Son, Second Tenure, Hypertension, Slow Motion, Things Fall Apart, Alice My First Lady, Daddy Must Obey, Old School, A Fool At Fourty.

And as a director, good Sam have Osuofia And The Wise Men both 1&2 to his credit.

The Nollywood comic actor, television personality and a comedian who always features in comedy movies is known for his use of heavy grammatical word.

He is unarguably reputed as one of the best comic actors in Nigeria and also one of the best performing actor of all time and was one of the most sought after in the profession till his sudden demise.

He has won several awards which include Best Comic Actor in Nigeria at the Africa Movie Academy Awards, Most Promising Actor in Nigeria at the Africa Magic Viewers Choice Awards and Best Actor in a Comedy at the City People Entertainment Awards.

As at the time of his death, in 2011, the legendary actor had an estimated net worth of over $400,000 which leaves him one of the richest and most influential comic actor in Nigeria.

To cap his effort more, he was in 2009, awarded a Member of the Order of the Federal Republic (MFR) which remains the highest honor and award given to a celebrity who has contributed immensely to the economy growth and development of the country through entertainment.

The comic actor was actually a strict person, so strict that not even his children dared talk about his heavy smoking habit.

He died on 7th August 2011 in his hotel room in Owerri while on a business trip.

He is survived by six kids, which comprise three daughters and three sons.

Enwerem Chukwuka

THE WORLD HATE THE WEAK

Have you ever heard the 'the world is a jungle' phrase?




As humans, we may pride ourselves with having laws that regulate our lives which may distinguish our environment from a jungle. But ours isn't really that much different from a real jungle in the sense that the biological survival of the strongest theory, still apply to us.




Don't you wonder why man haven't been able to solve the begging problem of inequity? Why the few strong still posses enough for a majority of 'the weak' to live on?


In our world, as much as we try to shy away from this simple fact, what we have for the weak is simply pity and no genuine sympathy. It is so because the strong must eat and if they need to crush the weak to do it,



they won't hesitate.




Nobody wants to starve in their course of being too sympathetic to his fellow man's plight. Those who tried to thread that part didn't live well enough to tell the tale.


It's a fiasco and scramble out there in the real world. Very different from what our classrooms sold to us and what they prepared us for.


We are in a world where one must strive to survive or be smothered in this scramble for survival. You can either keep going, stand beside, stay behind or get trampled on; you can't block the way.


In this mad dance for survival and supremacy, the weak are mercilessly crushed. The world hate the weak, that's the truth. The weak are liabilities. They're obstacles and they obstruct movement of those working towards a defined goal.






I remember those days in school, how the finest players were fought for during football hours. Everybody wanted them in their team. It wasn't a question of love or sympathy; it was a business of lose or win and everybody wanting to belong to the winning side, always vied for the best in the game.


The best sailors want the best captains on-board with them. The best pilots want the best copilots. The best Engineers want to partner with the best and the best are always courted for their service. As much as anybody might claim to love the weak, it's different in this practical world where there are losses and gains and everybody is looking to gain.


This is not about physical weakness, but about those who aren't willing to go the extra mile to being the best in their chosen field. Those who aren't willing to pay the price to win the race.






The world will simply leave them behind.




The world do not care about your tears. In fact, your complaints irritates the world. They don't care if you are blind, mute, from a poor home or from the gutter. They're not interested in that your pity-me story. If anything, they would do anything not to hear it.




The world is only interested in what you can do. What do you have in your hand? What are you doing with it? Nobody is interested in what you lack.


Even in your family, you see things like this where your own family would be the first to demean you. You might be an upcoming artiste who have to endure having your family listen to songs that may have nothing on your little effort in quality, while ignoring yours. So you want your family to read your books? When there's still some Achebe's classic on the shelf? You must be joking. Who are you yet?


Your tears won't move them. Your cry won't solve it. You'll have to accept the fact that these people may not really care. It is your job to prove strong and rear your head up as a winner and that would leave them no option than to celebrate you until then, you'll have to bear the loss because it's a jungle here and nobody care unless you're willing to win or unless you've won.


The world will loath you, disappoint you. Make you feel bad, terrible and worse. The world would betray you and do you all sort of discouraging things. You'll have lot of terrible experiences but the world really don't care. It's either an 'Did you overcome?' or 'Are you a loser?' question.






Nobody is interested in what you might have passed through as everybody have a pity tale to their names.




Unless you'll sit at a corner writing beautiful poetry about flowers and painting images with words. Even at that, other more stubborn poets and writers would crush you without mercy. If they were awards to be won, they'll beat you to it. If there were contracts to be won, you won't smell them. If there were audiences to be captured, you'll be left with little or no followers.




The bottom line is that you either stand up or nobody is ready to look at your direction. The world isn't interested in those lagging behind. They only care about the front-runners because it's all about winning. Sympathy does nobody no good when someone have to eat.


Try putting a cat and a rat in a cage. The next day, come there and you'll see the cat grinning from ear to ear and you won't see any rat anymore. Then put a lion and a beautiful lamb. the next day, the lion would be annoyed because it was by no means a satisfying dinner but, no he didn't spare the lamb because it had to eat regardless of what sympathy he had for it. Now, put two lions in a cage, and they might decided to be a team because the strong want the strong with them. They want them by their side. They know what a waste of energy it would be for them fighting against each other.


The world has really been unfair to you but nobody is interested in that your tears. You either become strong and rear up your head or remain fallen on the floor but be assured there won't be any genuine sympathy for you.


Stand up and grow, start running if you want the world to notice you. Taking pride in your weakness would only drive people away from you. Because they're not impressed by your complacency. It's bad energy.