Chude: You need to know in life, the things that you can do and you cannot do. 

Many years ago, I received another invitation to join the government in Nigeria at the highest levels, and I called my second mother, Obiageli Ezekwesili. I said, ‘Aunty, he’s putting me under pressure; he wants me to join this government’. 

So she asked me a question: “In your deepest of hearts, do you think that you could truly make a difference in that position at this time and will it give you joy?”

I thank God she framed the question like that because it became very easy for me to answer. I said no. 

Ali Baba says when Obasanjo wanted him to be a minister at the time, he didn't do the things that they asked him to do “because he knows himself.”

Sometimes, people ask me, why don’t I join the government? I say it’s not, because of some moral superiority because government needs to be joined. We need people to join government, we need politicians, we need public servants but one must look at one’s self and say: is that the environment in which I would most thrive?

Can I wake up every morning and still keep my Soul and Spirit in this position?

Will I get joy from doing this?

Will I feel a deep sense of satisfaction doing this thing no matter how much it will ‘change my life’?

Many people have gotten into positions that have robbed them of their integrity their soul’s purpose, of what makes them special. 

And most times it’s because we feel that every opportunity that comes we must grab, that every road or door that opens that we must enter. 

We need the presence of mind and self-awareness to know what is for us and what isn’t for us - and to stay in our most authentic truth.

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