Walk out of the crowd
“It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.” - C. S. Lewis
It is often said that change is the only constant in life, yet human beings are evolutionarily predisposed to resist change due to the risk associated with it. Despite this resistance to change, it is more necessary than ever. George Bernard Shaw once said, “Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything”
In today’s society, the degree of change is immensely faster, and it will continue to soar up. Persons and organisations that keep repeating the same thing and refuse to embrace change are 100% bound to lose ground and stagnate. So, no matter how difficult change may be, it must be embraced.
Perhaps Steve Jobs explains this better: “For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: 'If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?' And whenever the answer has been 'No' for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something” In others words, if you keep repeating the same ideas without results, something is wrong somewhere and there is the need for change.
Many times, the only way to improve our lives is to coerce ourselves to undergo some difficult transformation. That might mean severing and leaving a stale – but comfortable – relationship, terminating a mediocre – but stable – job, moving away from nice – but uninspiring – persons or locations, or anything else that’s holding us back from accomplishing our dreams.
“The person who follows the crowd will usually go no further than the crowd. The person who walks alone is likely to find himself in places no one has ever seen before.” Albert Einstein once said.
For many of us, being different or unique has a negative connotation. We tend to look at people differently especially if their actions or behaviour does not conform to what we consider as normal or common. You may be considered weird, stupid, and the worse, mad but whatever the name may be, those who truly know who they are and what they are looking for do not pay attention to the crowd.
Failure to distinguish yourself among others and walk out of the multitude does not only repeat the results of your actions, but has greater potential to kill your creativity, holds you back from being truly successful, limits your capabilities, above all, shrouds your greatness within. God created you with a purpose. Right from the beginning of your birth, you were bestowed 100% in every endeavour of your life, it’s your responsibility to either maintain that or level the 100% mark down. That depends on who you identify yourself with.
Jones and Jakes were both employed in a young burgeoning Company as Clerks. Apart from the fact that they were both well-paid, the Company also provides them with accommodation, free medical care, and scholarship packages for their wards below the ages of 18 years among other fringe benefits. After they successfully completed their six months’ probation period, Management of the company decided to seal up their appointment with a confirmation letter.
One year after, Jakes decided that he would pursue further studies in order to be relevant in future after all the company was growing at a faster pace. So he enrolled in a college to pursue a four-year bachelor’s programme.
Jones, on the other hand, apparently pleased with his overwhelming conditions of services refused to take steps to upgrade himself. One bright afternoon, Jakes approached Jones who also happens to be his closest ally with the intent of convincing him to also enrol on the programme. “Look, the way this company is moving at a faster pace if we don’t prepare ourselves for the future, one day we will have ourselves to blame.” Jones pleaded. However, Jones turned down Jakes’ humble appeal.
According to Jones, no matter how gigantic the company may grow, there was no way his position in the company would change. Assuming there was anything of that sort, the people whom they came to meet would have been either laid off or demoted, yet they were in higher positions. With time, he would also become a manager even without further studies.
Jones, therefore, decided he would buy expensive clothes, live big, buy cars and enjoy the rest of his money on the most beautiful girls in town. All efforts to get Jones on the programme proved futile. While Jakes was spending his last penny paying for school fees and on books, Jones, on the other hand, was revelling in the clubs with his money.
Within four years, Jakes had completed his programme and successfully graduated. Meanwhile within the same period both Jakes and Jones were promoted to the position of senior clerks in accordance with the company’s policy and regulation.
As if that was the beginning of good tidings, no longer a time, news sneaked in that the company was preparing to retrench some of its employees especially those without the relevant qualifications to meet the timing. The news suddenly spread like desert fire within all the branches of the company. The decision to retrench some employees of the company without the requisite academic qualifications like Jones and his kind came as a bolt from the blue. They were caught unawares but for Jakes who had prepared himself right from day one sees the latest development by management as no news at all, because he had envisioned that this would happen and in fact, it has been long overdue.
On the 7th of July 2010 Jakes was promoted to the position of a branch Manager in the greater Accra region of Ghana, whiles his closest ally, Jones and others who do not have the requisite academic qualifications were laid off. In less than five years, Jakes managed to put up a three bedroom house, bought one Toyota land cruiser, established a transport company that employs over fifteen staff, aside other benefits that come with his current job promotion.
His once closest ally who chose to spend his hard earned money on the prettier ladies in town instead of investing in his education, searched here, there and everywhere over years for a job but to no avail.
Disappointed? Well, such is life! Whereas Jakes chose to be what Pastor Mensa Otabil describes as a “generational thinker”, his colleague chose to be the direct opposite. The message above is obvious and simple: Jakes chose to walk out of the crowd.
Let me embellish the above story further with the Scripture below.
“A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”
Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, “Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, “Why are you thinking these things? Which is easier: to say to this paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk’? But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the man, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!” Mark 2:1-12 (NIV)
Whenever you find yourself in a difficult situation, two options are always available: you either adjust yourself to meet the situation, or you adjust the situation to meet your strength.
The poor paralysed man and his trusted allies happened to find themselves in such an unfortunate dilemma. However, for them there was only one option; they must adjust the situation to their advantage.
I don’t intend to have some Bible lessons with you, but if you study the text above carefully, the following can be gleaned as far as “walk out of the crowd” is concerned.
One, there was a high degree of commitment on the part of the individual in need. To distinguish yourself from the multitude, you need to show some level of commitment and zeal else, no serious individual will be willing to associate him or herself with persons who are not serious in life. Commitment and self-enthusiasm are necessary ingredients to walking out of the multitude.
Two, the gentleman has a goal and was determined to have that goal attained no matter the cause. Solid goal backed by determination is one of the best keys to achieving success in life. People who do not have solid goals are gullible. They believe in anything. He knew what he wanted; therefore, nothing at all could have hindered him from pursuing his goal, not even the crowd. He had to change his way of throwing the stone. He walked out from the crowd. Do you know how long it could have taken this gentleman to see Jesus had he waited in the queue? The probability is that he might not even see him let alone present his petition. He took a bold decision. Perhaps, what is keeping you from where you are now is the inability to excuse yourself from the multitude.
The third point is he identified himself with the right calibre of people, people that share his vision and dreams. I wonder how this gentleman could have made it to the top of the building let alone cut into the roof of the building without his trusted allies. You do not really need thousands of friends to change your destiny; you just need simple but few trusted friends who share your vision and dreams. You need to connect with people who are willing and capable of helping you in time of need and not hypocrites who pretend to love you but in reality are your enemies within. The help needn’t be monetary. In this case for instance, the gentleman’s friends did not support him with money, he needed a push. One of the reasons why many of us fail in life is because we are not associating ourselves with the right company.
Four, you cannot walk out of the crowd if you lack creativity. You need to be creative. You need to be yourself. “Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on….” Creativity at its best. It takes only someone who thinks out of the box to come up with such an idea within the shortest possible second. His determination to get results for his situation gave birth to that creative idea. He could live and die with his paralyses should he allow Jesus to go without making change in his life. Thank God he had true friends that shared his vision.
Also, he took advantage of the opportunity right at his door. Many of us have negligently allowed some golden opportunities to slip through our fingers without noticing. I am told we have Unemployed Graduates Association in Ghana. Isn’t this interesting! After they had the chance to have been engaged in the organisations they served as national service personnel, most of them wasted the opportunity to be employed. I am not saying that it’s a must to be employed in the organisation you did your national services, no, but the fact is some of us have allowed golden opportunities to slip through our fingers without realising. Even as disabled he never allow the opportunity to go unnoticed, he grasped it and make better use of the opportunity. What about you?
In addition, they had faith. Faith as defined by the Holy Bible “is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” – Hebrew 11:1. In fact, it was faith that drives them right from the house to Jesus’ location. Healing the man wasn’t really the problem, but the ‘how’. If you have faith in nothing is impossible. You certainly need faith to walk out of the multitude.
Every good and profitable investment involves some intensity of risk. In other words, risk is inevitable in a worthy investment. Likewise, to walk out of the crowd involves some degree of risk. However many of us fear to take risk. You must be a risk lover in order to succeed.
Finally, the good news is they had results at last. “…..So he said to the man, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”
The refused to listen to the multitude, they refused to follow the crowd and in the end got the results they wanted.
I shall end my piece with the following quotes: "it's better to walk alone, than with a crowd going in the wrong direction" - Diane Grant.
"The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark"" - Michelangelo
You are winning if you don’t quit.
By Analimbey Adobe-Rah Chris
@analimbeychris
analimbeychris@gmail.com
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