CONNECTING WITH PEOPLE

Getting involved with strangers sometimes could be tedious and sometimes rewarding depending on one’s disposition with life. From experience, some relationships that started casually have ended up bringing the parties involved into fortunes that have transformed their lives. Let’s look at the story of a friend, Adetoun (not real name) who had a chance meeting with a state governor in company of his friend and in the course of interaction, the governor was able to link Adetoun with a life changing job opportunity in a bank and years after, became the better for it.

The Governor of Lagos State, Babatunde Raji Fashola, is said to be a living example of how to connect with people. According to his story, it was a chance meeting with the ex-governor of the state, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and his decision to stay connected with the man eventually paid up when in the later years, Tinubu became the Governor of Lagos and chose Fashola as his Chief of Staff thereby opening an opportunity to become the state governor years later.

There was another story I read in a national newspaper, about a boy who came from his village in search of greener pasture in Lagos and on arrival, he met a total stranger who posed as a Good Samaritan offering a helping hand. By the time he could realise it, the village boy was introduced to an armed robbery gang, which changed the course of his life and eventually he got killed in a gun battle with the Police during a robbery operation.

Relationship has a way of leading one to either prosperity or poverty, depending on what side of the divide you find yourself.

So the act of building a relationship or connecting with people should be seen as critical to one’s survival in life. Admittedly, that you do not have a choice of who is your father, mother or siblings. You cannot determine which country you will be born either, but definitely, you have the prerogative to choose who your friends are, who becomes your close ally in life and even the kind of neighbourhood to live in. You also have the right to determine who you will love to live the rest of your life with.

“The quality of your life is the quality of your relationships.”
-Anthony Robbins

The basic rule to be adopted here should be how you could ensure that you are in the right relationship at all times. Whether you like it or not, there is a correlation between your success in life and the kind of relationship you keep. So the need to ensure that you explore the right relationship to build enough goodwill for yourself at all time is imperative to your choice of a relationship. The quality of relationship you build could ensure the quality of life you live, so make sure that at every point in your life, you consciously take decisions that will bring you close to the right people. And if per chance you found yourself within a circle that fall below your defined standard, take a quick step to discontinue such and move ahead with your life. 

* This is an except from my forth coming book; Living an Enduring Lifestyle