My fathers as a businessman of their own time was trading then on food stuffs of various kinds. From tubers of yam 🍠 to red oil, grated cassava, melon 🍈 seeds, etc. And all these he will buy in large quantities since he is a merchant who deals in wholesale. So what he does then was to buy red oil in drums 🪘, grounded cassava in sacks from the Eastern Nigeria and will load them into a lorry 🚛 know as trailers in this our time now and will transport them to Northern Nigeria. Sometimes the lorry might stay on the road for two (2) to three (3) days, especially if the vehicle develops any fault. But my father usually will take a bus that travels faster to go and wait for arrival of the goods.

When the lorry eventually arrives, he will distribute the goods to his customers and after collecting his money 💰 will buy melon 🍈 seeds, tubers of yam 🍠, dry fish 🐟, sometimes bags of onions 🧅 and others and will transport them to the Eastern Nigeria 🇳🇬 for sale. And these were the routines of his life as we the children was growing up.

And then my father’s siblings saw this business my father was doing as one that will not bring success to his life since sometimes his customers will not pay him in full, hoping to sell off some goods from their shades before making the final payment. His siblings started to advise him on how he should leave this line of business and settle for opening up a big supermarket that will make him to just be at a place and not traveling around, but my father refused to listen to them because he believed in himself. He told one of his brothers that he will surely succeed in this very business.

And time was able to prove his being optimistic and persistence right as he continued in this business without slowing down. The biggest opportunity came as he became the only one that was transporting red oil to the northern area where he is based in those days which made the sale faster and with more customers , he started making more profit due to quick turnover. And the rest was story because after few more years, my father became so successful in this very business that he was able to build a house and sent his six (6) children to graduate from the University.

Although I was a kid then among other of my siblings while seeing my father struggle in his business initially and the much efforts, persistence resilience, topped with optimism, I never forget what it means to believe in oneself without having doubts as I was growing up. And as an adult now, I became so strong willed with being optimistic and never giving up in anything am doing or facing which has helped me achieved many progress in life.

However, I have always remember the words of my father that hard work definitely will come with success. Although, success might be delayed, but being optimistic and persistent while waiting is the key to achieving set out goals and objectives with a clear mindset of never giving up even when overwhelmed with situations.

These are truly the lessons I learned from my father. Lessons that are everlasting because I hope my children will also learn the importance of “optimism and persistence”,

This is my response for @realtalk prompt #16. tagged “MOST VALUABLE THING YOU LEARNED”.

I invite @bipolar95 @kachy2022 to join in this week’s prompts #here