Once, a slave was burdened with the task of the day and was not allowed the luxury of time to take a break and approach the foreman on the other plantation for the previous day’s wage.
So she sent her six-year-old daughter to meet the foreman in her stead.
Now, this foreman was a haughty and callous man. He had no respect for anyone, least of all slaves.
It was a common custom for slaves to approach him feebly, eyes stooped downward, feet shuffling restlessly as if searching for some imaginary lost object in the tiny green blades of the evening grass.
Our little six-year-old girl, upon receiving the order to collect her mother’s wage, and at last finding a long-sought avenue to get out of the house, sprinted like a deer to the foreman’s abode
With abandoned glee, she stretched forth her tender arm and asked for her mother’s due. “My mother says you should give me her money for yesterday’s labor.”
The foreman, wearing a scowl across his face, replied coldly, “go away, tell your mother I don’t have money to give anyone today.”
The little girl stood still, arm still pointed, staring the mountainous figure before her in the eye and shouted in an authoritative voice that made one ponder the naivety of someone her age, “my mother has worked yesterday and she needs her wage today, give it to me!”
The foreman, shaken by the audaciousness of this girl and the unusual display of such daring demand, dipped his hand in his pocket and gave our girl a full day’s wage.
Her task accomplished, she scurried off with a zest akin to that of a fox strutting home with game for dinner between its jaws.
You just can’t help but be impressed with this little girl; how she withstood the foreman and got him to change his mind for no one else but a six-year-old.
Granted, we may admire this little girl’s bravado, but most of us do not possess the resilience portrayed in the above story.
For we approach the foreman—life—with feebleness, like slaves. We ask life for our dues, for what we are worth, but he yells “No!” in our faces, and we twist into ourselves and give up without a fight.
We knock, and because no one answers, we stop knocking, stop trying, and accept a quitter’s fate.
You must understand that life will test your resolve before giving anything of value to you.
Life will fight you and try to box you into a corner, and if you do not fight back, you will be fought down and trampled upon.
Someone once said, "life is like a battle for territory. The moment you stop fighting for what you want, what you don't want automatically comes into your life."
Never accept from life what you are not worthy of. Demand for your full due.
If life says “No” say “Yes” and “Yes” again. Sometimes, it takes seven Yesses to counteract one No.
Go out there and conquer your fears, your rejections, your failures. Try again, work harder, look for solutions, attempt other options, and resist the temptation to accept what you perceive as your fate.
Let this story inspire you when next you face a tough situation. Don’t think about giving up, look life in the eye and demand your worth.
Keep on keeping on.
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