Success Signature

NOTHING REDEFINES THINGS LIKE PATIENCE

Today I want to share about the power of patience, the 'never-say-die' attitude.

When my sister Wangari cleared primary school, she was invited to join Moi Equator Girls High School in Nayuki town. Our mother, Mumbi, had just given birth to our lastborn, who was two weeks old.

We were extremely poor and there was no chance that Wangari would join Moi Equator Girls.

Yet our mother borrowed bus fare and travelled all the way to the school without a penny for school fees.

When she presented herself to the bursar, she was shouted at, humiliated, and sent away.

She didn't leave the school.

She went and sat with her children under the shade of a tree near the principal's office. Time went by, and my sister started shedding tears as she realized her dream had shattered into pieces right before her very eyes. The baby started crying. The breasts had run dry. In the morning, they had not even taken breakfast. Mom had to buy a Fanta soda to quench the two-week-old baby's hunger pangs.

Time was still going by. Mom was still under the shade. Waiting for what?

At about 3pm, she requested to see the headmaster. The bursar was reluctant, seeing it as a futile attempt and a waste of time. Mom persisted in her humble request.

Finally, the bursar bulged. The headmaster, Mr. Gomes, was of Asian origin. Rather than listen to my mother, she scolded, "Mama leta toto hapa bila pesa fikiria yeye ng'ombe takula nyasi? Hata nyasi hitaji maji"

She was chased out.

She went back to her shade!

At about 5pm, a gentleman from Mang'u just finished the admission of his daughter. On his way back to the car he remembered hearing a piercing cry from a baby, seeing a desolate woman and crest fallen girl. Now his feet refused to move beyond them and he approaches.

He gets the whole story.

God uses him as an angel of rescue.

He pays Form One fees for the whole year for my sister.

The rest of the years God intervenes in different ways and my sister clears. She joins 'A' levels at Mary Hill Girls.

And like they say the rest is history.

Ladies and gentlemen;

Despite the humiliation from the bursar and the principal, our mother remained focused on the goal rather than the insult. Her humility wasn't weakness; it was a strategic endurance.

If my mother had left when she was first shouted at, the gentleman from Mang'u would have found an empty shade. Success often comes down to being in the right mental state when the "miracle" or the "opportunity" finally passes by.

Make the "never-say-die" attitude is part of your DNA.