Do You Have a Backup Plan?

'Most times when the first option of survival or subsistence fail, we cry to God, we cry to people for help or even blame both. Who is really to blame'

For the first time in my life I understand what it means to have a backup plan; the message really sank in due terrible experience. My computer hard drive is under threat and I stand the possibility of losing everything on it. The computer technician has promised to work around the situation yet he is not giving me 100% assurance. Who is to blame should the situation become irreparable or irredeemable?  Me and only me! I know about backup, I know its effects and functions. For the one years plus I used in studying MSc I subscribed to an online backup. The first warning handed us during fresher’s week was that 'I lost my work, my system crashed' etc. were never tenable excuses for handing in any assignment late and I had to submit at least a lengthy assignment every fortnight.  I cannot afford to lose any work or even restart any work after lengthy research so I subscribed for a backup which enabled me access my laptop from any system and anywhere in the world once there was access to internet but I stopped subscription on completion of the program. Now my computer is under siege and I am about to lose everything; books, journals, business plans and proposals, documentaries, name it and it is as if my whole world is coming to a crash. Just like this simple but complex case of negligence many of us live our lives like that. We have comfortable and paying jobs and we think it will last forever. We never had backup plans. Thus when there is retrenchment or bad times we fall victims of circumstances.  Some are in booming business and we think all will be well all the time. We quote the scriptures as guarantee against bad times. I know God is the best backup plan we can have but any business whether booming or not does have period of harsh economic conditions. It is easy to blame the government for not planning for crash in oil price or other harsh economic conditions depending on the country but how do we run our lives as well? We fail to diversify the business we have and when bad time comes we blame just God. For every man under the sun has witnessed opportunities and fortunes in life but we misused it while many complain that their own fortune was not enough and that was the reason they messed up. We pray to God but the fault is ours because He has given us all things that pertain to life. I brought out the laptop and prayed on it but God would not do anything like restoring it because that is not His business. Who was the cause of the damage in the first place? Me. I read and do researches and I don’t have a comfortable chair and table for my reading so I do most of my reading and research in bed with my laptop placed on bed. The ventilation duct of the laptop is always blocked by foam and thus the air cooling fan became damaged. The system had been giving me prompt of possible damaged but I failed to notice the message because of negligence which I gave the excuse of been too busy, but when I could not login to my profile I sought for a technician. How many of us run our lives like that, reacting to emergencies on daily basis instead of doing the needful. He (God) provided us with what we need by what He has invested in us. Unto Him that is able to do above all that we ask or think of, according to the power that works in us. Thus all things we need to exist and survive ,He has invested in us through the knowledge,  experience,  education etc. that we have acquired but we refuse to think, use the knowledge we have and sometimes only see others problems and the only problem we refuse to see is ours. The main reason for education and knowledge is to first fix ones problem before seeing that of others and trying to fix or even criticise them. Now I see my problem: that most of my praying and asking are due laziness because God has fixed those things by the amount of investment committed to my life.

The technician who came to examine the system is planning to go to University.  He wants to study at higher institution but I made him to understand that he has a skill to sell and that higher education is only meant to enlighten him. I made him value what he had because most graduates are jobless because they have no skill. BSc, MSc etc. does not confer any skill and employers do not employ people without skill. Hard message to tell a graduate with distinction but the common question that separates employable people from unemployable peoples are: 1 what do you do? 2. What have you contributed to your previous place of work?  3. Why do you think we should hire u or what can you do for us? If you messed up those questions your degree is in flame. You can say, well I am a fresh graduate and do not have a skill. Go pick up a volunteer job and get a skill. Go pick up that little job of ten thousand, twenty thousand and thirty thousand Naira job (as long as it keeps body and soul together) and get a skill. Whatever you are doing now, create a role profile for yourself and a title.  If your present job gives you a job title that does not reflect your role profile and contributions, change your title to match your role profile and contributions.  Is that cheating? No! Your employer gave you that title which diminishes you so as to keep you in the job as long as possible so be smarter