Needless, unnecessary, unhelpful competition, by Emeka Oparah

Yesterday, as I was taking my morning walk, I listened to one of my favourite preachers, Joel Osteen, speaking on the topic “Be Comfortable with who you are” and it struck a strong and important chord in me. Not only that it struck a cord, it reminded me of an incident from where I got the above caption.

It was in December 2017, I believe-Yuletide. I has just recently taken delivery of a new official car, a BMW 640i, a car I’ve always wanted to own, a dream car, so to say. A fast and powerful sports sedan, the Grand Coupe is so aggressively built that it’s always rearing for a race. All the driver wants to do is to race once the engines are fired. So, this harmattan Sunday morning, I elected to travel from the Island to Ikeja to attend Mass at my “Home Parish”, St. Agnes Catholic Church. And one of the reasons I occasionally took that trip (with all the churches on the Island) was to fire my BMW!

So, this particular morning, I headed out taking my time to drive gently until I got on the 3MB (Third Mainland Bridge), where I could kick down the pedal and fire the engines. Right after the Dolphin Estate, as I made to join the 3MB, a Mercedes Benz 850 McLaren pulled up to my side. The sound alone stirred my spirit and before the driver gave me the thumbs up, my adrenalin was already pumping. I shifted the gears to Sport Mode and we zoomed off.

I noticed the dude smile. May be he felt sorry for me; I don’t know, but he surely looked down on my intention to engage him. To be fair to him, he gave me a head start and after like 500 meters he came wailing monstrously towards me. I took off, he took off too. Then, he flew past me-and that was it! I didn’t see him again (I only heard the wailing of his engines) until the end of 3MB. Nice guy, he slowed down by Oworonshoki Bridge, gave me another thumbs up and took off. I followed him like a wounded lion, but he was gone. He had a better, bigger, faster car. A V12 Engine!!! Mine was only half the capacity of his.

But here’s the thing: I went after this guy who was heading towards Ojota, probably out of Lagos, instead of my destination, Maryland, Ikeja, where St. Agnes is located. By engaging in that NEEDLESS competition, I not only missed my way or veered off my route, but I also got to Mass late, after doing a rigmarole to find my way back from Ojota to Maryland. Don’t also forget the risk I took racing on the not-so-smooth 3MB with all manner of drivers and potholes! Stupidity in high octane.

Now, this is what happens when we involve ourselves in unnecessary competitions. In such circumstances, we tend to take stupid risks, lose our focus and end up worse than we were or ought to be. You don’t even have to take up every challenge. If you have a plan, you will not but rather stick to your own agenda.

Your classmate builds a mansion. Instead of rejoicing and thanking God with him, you want to build a mansion. Or your neighbour drives a brand new Bentley, you discard all you had planned for the year to buy a Bentley unbeknownst to you it’s a gift or an official car. You see a friend in a Private Jet and you immediately want to fly one too. You send your kids to schools you can only ill-afford because a colleague’s kids are in that school. You don’t know the spouse’s employers probably pay for their kids to attend the school. And so on and so forth.

Do not get me wrong: I have not said competition is wrong per se. No. There is something called healthy competition. That is good, when kept within due bounds. You want to challenge yourself to do more, go further, fly higher, etc, etc. You want to be the best in what you do-in your industry, in your team, in your class, in service delivery or product manufacturing. You want your kids to be the best behaved, smartest, best in their class, etc, etc.

The key is this: Do not go out of your way or over-reach yourself just to keep up or be better than the Joneses! As we say in Nigeria, “no go dey do pass yourself”! Davido says “run your race”!!!

Imagine the unnecessary and avoidable risks I took racing an unknown driver heading to an unknown destination on a Sunday morning in an Ember Month rather than focusing on going to Mass, for which I had properly prepared and actually set out! At the end of the day, I missed my turn, went further out of my route, had to find my way back and, of course, I was late. Just negodu!!!

Please take a moment or two to think about this. You will realize, at the end of the day, that some of the competitions we enter are unnecessary, imprudent, even dangerous and costly!

If this message has blessed you, share it with your friends and remember to avoid unnecessary competition.

Have a blessed day!

Mr Oprah is a Vice-President at Airtel Nigeria