SMALL BEGINNINGS

The Good Book in Zechariah 4 v 10 stated “Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin………..” ,

No one is particularly crazy about starting small or being small. Imagine how embarrassing it usually is when an older family friend reminds you of the silly things you used to do as a child or how you looked back then….. I know I roll my eyes and hope the person disappears into thin air.

The truth though, is just about everything has to start small. We forget that as children our foundations were formed, we forget that our ability to pronounce big words and spell them was simply because we learnt the alphabets and did the whole A for Apple bit….. We fantasize that we never once ate and spilled half the food on ourselves. But the beginnings of all human undertakings are untidy, they are always messy.

John Dryden did say “Mighty things from small beginnings grow”. Rome was not built in a day, as a matter of fact; the house you live in was not built in a day. I love tennis, its my favorite sport ever, anytime I watch a good match I end of jumping around swinging my imaginary bat, screaming like Sharapova….. But I have never taken tennis lessons, never even touched a real tennis ball. Lame right. I know. That’s the only thing I will ever do if I don’t take that first step of going out to buy a racket and a ball and decide to learn how to play, don’t get me wrong I have no intentions of playing professionally, but without taking a step, all I will ever do is play imaginary tennis!!! What is not started today is never finished tomorrow.

I have this group of friends, I don’t know if I tell them enough how proud I am of them, but I am. After school each one of us went back and started a whole new chapter, forgetting everything and starting small. It must have been a difficult decision but they all made it. Maybe as students of Plato we all realized that the beginning is the most important part of the work.

I don’t care how impossible it may look right now, but without starting it won’t look any easier. Lao Tzu said “A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step”. Don’t wait till the conditions are perfect to begin. Beginning makes the conditions perfect….. There will never be a time when its conducive to begin a new endeavor especially when you are at a certain age, but the longer you wait to begin the longer you have to wait to get to the end. Now it seems like I went back to school just yesterday, but I can see the finish line not too far away.

Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step - Martin Luther King, jr . We can’t all start a business with 1million dollars, we don’t all have some cousin who will help launch our careers by signing us to his record label or featuring us in his movie…. Your present circumstances don’t determine where you can go; they merely determine where you can start. Dangote didn’t wake up one morning and was one of the richest men in Africa, 2face Idibia’s humble beginnings back in the plantation boys days was hardly an indication of where he would be today.

It’s hard, I know. I’m always the one that’s all talk and no action, but whenever I’ve put myself out there in pursuit of a new endeavor, it’s been worth it. Go get your degree, start that business, send out your Cv. Just move even if all you can do is crawl, then crawl. If you have a dream, then you have what it takes to accomplish that dream because the dream and the dreamer are always matched.

And so as Rita Bally said “Start wherever you are, and start small”

                        “Though thy beginning was small, yet thy latter end shall greatly increase” The King James Bible Job 8 v 7