I frequently hear people describe themselves as “self-made”, and while everyone is indeed entitled to their opinions, I beg to differ with this claim.
If you really think you were “self-made”, what about your parents that brought you into this world? How do you account for all the time they spent keeping you warm, changing your nappies, cuddling you, feeding you, putting you to bed, and nurturing you into the exceptional man or woman you have turned into?
What about your teachers that invested their time and effort in you, ensuring that you got a good grasp of your education, which has propelled you into the successful career that you now have today? Don’t they deserve any credit?
What about the people that now work with you or for you, ensuring that every tiny detail in that your business is well taken care of (considering that you cannot do everything all by yourself), don’t they deserve a pat in the back?
No man is an island, and as long as we continue to remain in this world, we can never underestimate the utility of our fellow man in our lives. We all have gotten to where we are right now (irrespective of where that place is), by some form of communal effort. Other people have invested in our lives either directly or indirectly, which accounts for many of the successes (and maybe some failures) we have recorded so far.
Be it the laundry man that ensures that you always have your clothes ready for that all-important meeting, or the woman at the coffee shop that ensures that you always have your coffee served in the right temperature and flavor-we have all gotten to where we are in life by the help of others, whether we like to acknowledge it or not.
The reason this is so important is that, when we see our selves as “self-made”, ascribing all our successes to our own abilities, the tendency to lend a helping hand to someone else in need, may be diminished. Because we may tell ourselves that, “if I could get to this height in life by my own strength and abilities, then everyone else should be able to do the same”, forgetting that no 2 fingers are exactly equal, even if they reside in the same hand.
So, the next time you are tempted to proclaim to the world that you are “self-made”, take a look at what you have on your body from your head to your toes; and if you didn’t make all of what you have donned, you may want to reconsider making that statement.
To your continued success. Cheers!!!
Evi Abada
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