Yesterday being
mothers’ day, I made a huge pot of fried rice using a recipe I had perfected
over the years from experience, I looked back and realized how far I had come
and most importantly the falls, bruises, ascents and scars that have been
significant in my process of accretion.
I recalled
one experience that has never left my memory. I was about 6 years younger than I
am now and the youth in my parish were organizing a cooking competition, I was
selected to represent my group alongside another member of our all- winning
group. All necessary preparations were done, armed with money in our pockets, we
went to the market and bought the necessities for the big day. I come from a
family where purchases especially kitchen supplies are often made in large quantities
because of large number of mouths to feed and also because of my economic principle
of buying more to save more which not everyone will understand. I bought
accordingly.
On the big
day, we presented our ingredients and set off cooking, we cooked deliciously of
course but we ended up with the second position. The judges did not only buttress
our strengths and successes, they also told us where we went wrong. Ours was in
buying and presenting more than we needed for the competition at hand, ours was
in not applying simple planning strategies, we failed to plan accordingly for
the project, we had excesses, it was outright waste.
Knowledge isn’t
always enough for success, having the wisdom to apply knowledge appropriately
is an indispensable key. In every project and every activity, proper planning, budgeting
and allocation of available resources not only ensure success, they leave us
with a feeling of satisfaction. Why do it anyhow when you can do it the right
way.
I take
every failure and loss I encounter very seriously, not because I lack the
spirit of sportsmanship but because I usually have a hard time getting over the
feeling of inadequacy and unpreparedness. I always beat up myself for not
having done better when I clearly could have. It comes with great prices of
sleepless nights but at the end of it all, the experience equips me with
lessons and a decision to do better next time. When such opportunities present
themselves again, knowing where I had failed earlier, I come out better because
experience taught me so.
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