A Poor Man’s Mentality
Events in the last few days of my working relationship with a senior colleague have prompted me to some conclusions. How one’s outlook on life determines what he gets from it.
One of the greatest impediments to a poor man’s emancipation is his mentality. I hope you haven’t been contaminated with one of the debilitating mindsets of the average poor man. There’s a virtue called integrity a poor man is eternally tempted to compromise in his quest for wealth. It is a constant battle between his conscience and himself. He rarely wins. The lure to cut corners is appealing. After all, the end justifies the means he often rationalises.
Therefore, a poor man is not interested in the process. He wants to get done with it and reap the attendant benefits. His chief motivation is hardly passion for what he does but for survival. At the end of the day, all a poor man gets is a temporary succour. His impatience to wait the long haul makes him unscrupulous. He is soon cut off from a channel that promises emancipation. Typical to type, he shakes it off without remorse and finds yet another channel; only to repeat the same mistake.
Many times, the difference between a poor man and a rich man is their mentality. And one of these mentalities as observed in this note is the perceived unimportance of Integrity. I know a poor man shall discard this note as inapplicable to his present state. He’d soon repeat old follies. For him, it is a long walk to freedom. Apologies to the late Madiba.
