It is a common question that generally asked in banking interviews.
If a candidate said that I am a hard worker then interviewer will ask , why
hard worker- elaborate it. So here I have tried to find a way to answer those
questions in a different style. In general we can say it as a communication
skills checking .
Nigeria is a country
where majority of the population hustle day in and day out for survival.
Students hustle in school by doing a lot of “runz” here and there to ensure
they pay their way through school, those who are fortunate enough to have
guardians or parents to pay their fees are left with a lesser burden of
hustling to pass and finally graduate from school. The same happens in
different spheres of life too, people work miles from where they live and go
through the strenuous traffic day in day out, in a bid to hustle for daily
survival. Walking on the roads of Lagos on a busy work day or even during
weekends, people are seen dashing off to various places, with the common aim of
earning an income at least enough for survival. So as it is, most people are
given to working really hard throughout their lives till the very point where
they become feeble and unable to work.
Now the question is does working really hard throughout your
life time take you beyond mere sustenance to life long sustainability? Can
hustling alone create the kind of future you want when the strength to work
hard is no longer available?
Now let’s do a little illustration here. A young man by the
name Rufus, 23 years of age with a senior secondary school certificate gets a
job as a driver at Ikoyi with a salary of 20,000 Naira every month. Rufus who
lives at Alakuko in Lagos State leaves his house very early in the morning at
about 4am and does not return home till about11pm every week day. Everyone who
knows him would admit that he is a very hard working man who hustles for a
source of living while his mates remain idle and waste away. He was lucky to have
been able to retain his job and retires at the age of 60 of which his salary
had risen steadily to 35,000 Naira at the point of retirement.
Now let’s see the story of Rufus’s twin brother Reuben who
also got a job as a driver at the same place in Ikoyi with the same level of
certificate and at the same pay rate. Reuben puts asides some of his money in
order to save up for the tuition fee at a polytechnic or a university and
eventually gets in and becomes a part time student. After he his done studying,
he gets a higher paying job with his new certificate, he saves some more and
takes some classes for some professional exams or additional qualification in
his field and gets promoted. He also keeps saving up more of his resources and
invests it in a business or the purchase of an asset. Reuben retires at the age
of 60 too like his brother but is also entitled to a huge amount of gratuity
and a monthly pension.
Now looking critically at the life of Mr Rufus and Mr Reuben
with full consideration for the various responsibilities they had to handle as
family men till the point they retired, do they have anything to fall back on?
Who would you say lived a successful life and maximized fully all the
opportunities that were available to him? Which one of the twin brothers have
been able to improve on the financial status he had when he was 23? Which of
them made substantial progress in life?
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