Accountable People can handle money without becoming proud, money is not the problem. 

by | Apr 11, 2017 | Editor's Muse, Faith & Logic, Inspire | 4 comments

Okay, my people. Money is dangerous and most importantly it makes you a servant to everyone. Money makes you accountable or you become a proud man. Remember that joke?

“a taxi driver told me he was his own boss, till I told him to turn right”.

I have this bad habit and I don’t know if I want to change it or not. There is this thing that happened while I was President of Educational Development CDS group Awka. I think I am exactly like the treasurer and financial secretary then.One of the things I made my group members do was to keep records, we even made a CD collection of all our projects and reports from every executive was included.

These guys hated me for being so harsh on them, for always asking for their reports. The financial secretary and treasurer thought I was just being “over sabi”.I could not explain to them that just before NYSC I lost a Job opportunity at P&G because I had no specific records of how I did the things I said I did as an undergraduate.

Maybe if I was Accountable

I could not offer any facts and figures…since that time I have been obsessed with numbers and you may have seen me use numbers a lot in my posts.

Now that’s not even my bad habit, it’s about how I run my freelance business ideas.

A few years back I started a writing group and platform, probably since 2010. It got really serious towards the end of 2016. I decided to start helping writers publish and promote their e-books, this is only one part of the business idea.

Read this Personal Experience 

A friend showed me her novel and I encouraged her to publish and sell, she put a copy on the cfwriterz.com/shop. We started having some issues with reports, the figures were not adding up.I was working my head off trying to solve the issue but my bad habit is that I don’t like talking until I have found a solution. I also don’t like too many repeated questions on the same matter, especially when I notice you don’t seem to discuss any other thing again.

I eventually found a solution to the reports, now writers can know how much their book has sold and the money they have. It felt bad though since I expected that a friend would trust me not to misappropriated their money. However, I just remembered that this was the same excuse my treasurer and financial secretary gave for not having their reports after we concluded our tenure.

Then I had the same feeling of annoyance when writers who had worked with me on a project kept asking about payment for the project, while I have been working my ass off to get their money out.

Sometimes I feel insulted, I expect these guys should trust me but then money is a master. Like where I started out on this post, money teaches you to serve others and not yourself.

People claim that money makes you proud, yes it is usually the outcome of these bad habit. When you start thinking you should not be accountable to others, then pride comes in.

This post has helped me work out these thoughts and I made a decision earlier to always make it a point of duty to respond to query with the best attitude possible. “Pride goes before a fall”….money is a good servant but a bad master.

4 Comments

  1. ChinyereDistinguished

    Apt – money is a good servant but a bad master.

    When it comes to money matters, I painstakingly record all income and expense transactions. Be the business with a friend, family member or otherwise, no matter how little or grand the business is. Once beaten, twice shy…

    Thanks for this article Damilola.

    Reply
    • jonathanoladeji

      Thanks for the feedback Chinyere, really the best we can do is to make sure we always remain in the clear when it comes to money matters.

      Reply
  2. dee

    Truly, money is a master… at list those are friends.. how about when a parent doesn’t even trust thier own child over thier finance, I fun it really insulting… but then what can u do about it in an African setting where the parents are always right even when they are wrong and they no it…

    Reply
    • jonathanoladeji

      Hello dee, I can really understand your pain and I must let you know that you don’t have to give up on your relationship with parents. I remember my Dad would say that I should prove to him that I was mature enough, I should not just expect him to believe that.

      The same way, we need to prove we are trustworthy by giving account and not feeling insulted.

      Reply

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