Patient Versus Shotcutts @ekeke
When i finished college getting into the University my Dad was a lecturer we all feared and respected him.He was the kind of man who didn’t need to raise his voice to command silence. If he walked into a hall of two hundred noisy students, the room would go quiet like a grave yard.
One day, after class, he called me looking directly into my eyes as if I did something very terrible
he said, looking me
straight in the eye, “I want you to come to my office tomorrow afternoon. I have something to show you
My heart skipped. You know that kind of lecturer whose face is always hard to read? I kept wondering if I had done something wrong.
Then later that day, I went to his office. His table was stacked with books and papers. But right in front of him were two brown envelopes. He tapped them gently.
“Do you see these envelopes?” he asked.
“Yes, Dad
“This,” he said, pointing towards the smaller one, “then he said son there's no great success in shortcuts . It is filled with quick gains, fast money, easy pleasures, and bending rules. At first, it looks sweet. But in the end, it carries bitterness. This,” then he touched the second one, and he said son“ the path of patience. It is filled with struggle, discipline, rejection, and hard work. But first, it tastes bitter. But in the end, it carries sweetness.”
I was worried" Dad, why are you showing me this?”
He leaned back in his chair. His eyes grew soft. “Because I see where your life is going. You are intelligent. But you are also restless. People like you can be tempted to take the first envelope. You will think it is easier. But I warn you now whatever you get fast, you will lose faster. The real reward of life is not speed. It is endurance.”
He slid the envelopes closer to me. “Pick one.”
I looked at him, shocked. “Sir? Pick one?”
“Yes. Pick one. Right now. It is symbolic. The choice you make today will follow you.”
My hand trembled. Something in me wanted to pick the first envelope after all, who doesn’t want life to be easy? But another voice whispered: “If you want to last, don’t look for shortcuts.”
So I picked the second envelope. The path of patience.
My dad smiled for the first time since I had known him. “Good,” he said. “Open it.”
I opened it. Inside was a single sheet of paper with one sentence written in bold:
“Nothing good comes easy, but everything easy will cost you something good.”
Those words entered my spirit.
Years passed. Life tested me. I had opportunities to cheat, to cut corners, to betray people for quick gains. And sometimes, the temptation was strong. But I always remembered those two envelopes, and the choice I had made.
One day, I met an old classmate at the bank. He was flashy, driving a big car, dripping with gold chains. He laughed at me.
“Blessing, you’re still hustling? You’re still trekking and writing proposals? See me, I don arrive. Easy money, my dear. Forget all that suffering you’re doing.”
For a moment, my heart sank. But two years later, I heard he had in been arrested. Everything he built vanished like smoke.
And me? The seeds of patience I planted began to grow. Slowly, steadily, my life started carrying . Easy things don’t last. What is built with patience endures forever, today I'm successful.