winnersdontquit chambers,
palmgrove, lagos.
year 2010
The entire human body is a veritable vocabulary of expressions. It speaks volumes, every part of us, not just our tongues. For example, our eyes speak deep fear when they clamp shut. They speak anger when they blaze. They speak seduction when they move coyly. The cheeks speak ‘mirth’ when they bunch up and spread. Our hands, even legs speak embarrassment when they twitch involuntarily. The skin speaks horror when it recoils or contracts sharply. Our chests talk excitement when they heave up and down rapidly.
Our necks speak ‘despondence’ when they hang our heads to a particular angle. Is that not why my ancestors say “ibanuje sori agba kodo?”
There are many lawyers going about with their necks bent at disconsolate angles. Tired, weary and forlorn are they. Unlike the sly but resourceful Russian metaphysician G.I. Gurdijeff who could actually sell sand to a Tuareg Berber in order to survive a tight corner, these forlorn lawyers are yet to find cogent answers to the “Material Question” to wit, the eternal problem of money.
Of course it is difficult and hardly bearable in a material world to exist without answers to the material question. Sans money, sans comfort, and of course sans enjoyment.
Thus affected lawyers, and they are many, are thinking of “checking out.” As juniors in chambers, they receive only pittances. As self-employed barristers, they only have their pretentious titles and rat-hole chambers; no briefs, no clients! No money, no joy!
Thus like a dying bovine, they are hanging horns. But I say, gentlemen, hang on, don’t hang horn.
Why should you hang on? It’s because if you hang on and change the fundamental perspective of your professional life, you’ll “eat the good of this land.”
This is not an impossible feat as you may be thinking now. Those you regard as “successful lawyers” may actually not be better than you are. To get out of the rut, you have to learn to re-invent yourself. It may help to get a copy of my book, …"Understanding the Secrets of Successful Lawyers" http://www.squibpublications.wordpress.com and other motivational tomes.
Remember, nobody is intended to be a failure by his Maker. If that’s true the fault then is not in your stars as you may have been thinking.
Do not throw in the towel. Don’t call it quits. Never say die. Never say never. HANG ON, don’t hang horn!
*YORUBA TRANSLATION OF THE ABOVE AT: http://www.ojogbonsakabula.blogspot.com
