Last week, I told you a story that exemplified the Power of Determination, the story of Mrs Bolaji Adedotun, whose positive determination helped her and her family rake in a daily income of about N10,ooo.
Today, I will share with you the story of a Man, who also makes N10,ooo every day. The only difference is that he makes his living by picking other people’s pockets. His name, Terry Umuokoro. I choose to call him Bros Terry.
He made this confession in June 2013 when he was arrested by the police. Interestingly, he was not caught when he was trying to pick yet another pocket. Due to the success of his ‘thief-ing’ venture, he ‘ported’ from his family home to a Hotel around town. The Hotel became his operational base, his home. I can imagine all his friends were hailing him… “Big Boy”, “Baddest Guy”, “Pepper-rest.com” etc.
Well, in another part of Lagos, a crack team of Police Detectives were making headway in their water-tight investigations. They were after some dare-devil armed robbers who had visited a poor resident and among other things, they made away with his Blackberry 9900 (popularly called Bold 5). Thankfully, the special homing device which the Police deploys to catch thieves was working and it led them to the hide-out of this ‘thief-ing’ bunch. Alas, it was the same hotel where Bros Terry had made his home. He must have been relaxing after a hard-day’s job when the police came calling. As usual, they arrested everyone in sight. Now, don’t ask me why!
While at the station, the innocent ones who knew nothing about the robbery tried to extricate themselves from the whole thing. Our man, Bros Terry, quickly joined them. He not only denied being an armed robber. He also went on to say the following,
“I pick pockets for a living, I am not a robber. I started (stealing) in January 2013 because I had no job after completing my secondary school education… I only steal Nokia phones because you can sell them easily. I steal about three phones daily and have a buyer at Boundary bus stop in Ajegunle. I give him the phones and get paid in return. I make about N10,000 (USD$63) daily.”
Even though he reminded me of my stupid friend Akpos, His confession got me thinking about the choices we make.
Mrs Bolaji’s husband lost her job and she had to make a decision. She had to make a choice. She decided to do honest work, howbeit stressful. She chose to be a Bus Driver and she happily makes N10,000 (USD$63) a day. Bros Terry on other hand, completed his secondary school, didn’t find a job and had to make a decision. He had to make a choice. He chose a dishonest vocation- pick-pocketing and He was making about N10,000 a day. The only difference is that he is now in Police net for armed robbery.
The truth be said, your choices can make or mar you. Your choices can lift you up or bring you down. Your choices are either leading you to life or death, blessing or cursing, victory or defeat, success or failure, wealth or poverty, joy or unhappiness.
Your choice is a seed. It is like a little acorn today which will become a mighty oak tree tomorrow. The choices we make is a decision. We don’t just chose. Based on certain criteria/factors, we decide what to choose. The choices I see you making today is giving me a very good hint of where/how you will be tomorrow.
What choices are you making today? Are you thinking through your options well before you choose? What information are you basing your choices? Will your choices move you forward or will they take you backward?
Dear friend, your choices are powerful. Remember Bros Terry.
