Lessons About Hard Work To Learn From Funke Akindele’s Stunning Success In “A Tribe Called Judah” -By Isaac Asabor

There is no denying the fact that life is a continuous learning experience as it is crystal clear that throughout our lives we keep rising and falling, picking up important lessons along the way. While some of such lessons come from personal experience, others more often than not come from watching or reading about what other people are passing through in life.

Against the foregoing backdrop, the question on everyone’s lips, particularly among the circle of friends of this writer is “Why aren’t Netizens celebrating Funke Akindele’s N1B Breakthrough with same verve variously used in condemning her in trying times, whenever she is in the news for the wrong reason?

Without resorting to being her advocate in this context, it is expedient to opine that she has unarguably passed through ups and downs of life so much that in May 2023, Funke, in a tweet, shared an emotional take on the reality of depression and the value of being kind to others. Expectedly, Nigerians on social media empathized with her as not a few of them expressed concerns over her depression message. The Jenifa actress tweeted: “Depression is real. Please be kind to others. Yes, don’t trade your happiness with anything, but still, be humane in all you do. We are all on a journey in this world. Be conscious. Be aware. Share. Make peace. Take risks and be grateful for success and victory. Yet be aware, love, forgive, and stay happy.”

While others retweeted to encourage her, like @abayomiibitunde, who tweeted to her thus: “Hope you are doing fine, Funke? Please be fine. Be free to discuss with trustworthy folks if you need to unburden. Be fine”, others tweeted to taunt her. For instance, @now14128311 tweeted, “How much have you lost for the election that makes you depressed, madam? Better days ahead, and keep your head up.”

In fact, during her trying periods such as during the time her failed marriage was made public, and when she was arrested by the Police on a particular Sunday evening for holding a house party amidst coronavirus lockdown, Netizens were agog with Pull-Her-Down (PHD) kind of stories that revolved around her travails whilst newspapers; both traditional and online, were by each passing moment lavishing their readers with stories about her that calls for worry. Some indeed published feature articles that surrounded her plight without seeing any need to plead on her behalf, or at least make case for her.

But among her fans and those who are unarguably her dyed-in-the-wool followers, the swirling media attack on her found little traction, and not a few of her supporters, in fact, rubbished those attacks, especially those from the Netizens on array of social media posts.

At this juncture, permit this writer to say that there are some element of virtues to learn from Funke Akindele’s charm and conducts on the ever acrimonious and boisterous virtual space as she has uncompromisingly carried herself that she is not cantankerous and overbearing like some few female actors and producers in the Nollywood sub sector of the economy who are notorious for being so. Rather, she has all along exemplified herself by working hard, and letting her success make the noise as she has just done with the success of her film, “A Tribe Called Judah” that has made history by becoming the highest-grossing Nollywood film ever with a reported N1 billion earnings at the box office.

Personally assessing her success in Nigeria’s film industry, the quote that readily comes to mind is unarguably the one credited to Frank Ocean which says, “Work hard in silence, let your success make the noise”.

Without resorting to being big headed in this context, permit this writer at this juncture to share a story on how he ignored discouraging counsels from colleagues, friends and relatives who he in the early 80s shared his ambition with that he wants to become a Journalist; even whilst he was then a Security Guard under the employ of a company in Victoria Island Lagos. However, in defiance to their discouraging counsels, he got admitted to the University of Lagos as a part time student, and graduated in Mass Communication, and which invariably pave the way for him into the journalism profession more than a decade ago.

In a similar vein, and for motivational purposes, it is expedient to make reference to a post made available on the website of the United Church of God (UCG) dated July 30, 2012, and titled “Life Lessons: The Rewards of Hard Work”.

The short but inspiring story authored by Gary Petty goes thus: “One Friday a young man named Herb, who was attending Stanford University, applied for employment at a company and was told that the only job available was that of a secretary. The young man enthusiastically accepted the position, but informed the employer that he couldn’t start until Wednesday.

“When he showed up Wednesday morning the employer asked Herb why he waited until Wednesday to start. Herbert Hoover, a future president of the United States replied, “I had to find a typewriter and learn how to use it.” (Yes, this happened before the age of computers.)

“Herbert Hoover once said, “No difficult or simple job ever gets done until someone decides right now to do what it takes to get the job done. Unfortunately, too many people stand by ready to carry the stool when there is a piano to be moved.”

“The book of Proverbs is filled with instructions that tell us that working hard and doing a job well will lead to rewards while laziness reaps sorrow and poverty. Translators used two words: “sloth” and “sluggard” in creating the English Bible. Both words mean slow-moving and lazy”.

Given the foregoing, it is salutary to point out in this context that hard work produces wealth while laziness leads to poverty. After all, in the Christendom, Proverbs 10:4-5 says “He who deals with a slack hand becomes poor, but the hand of the diligent makes one rich. He who gathers in summer is a wise son, but he who sleeps in harvest is a son who causes shame.”

In the same book of Proverbs, chapter12 verse 27 says, “The slothful man does not roast what he took in hunting, But diligence is man’s precious possession”, while Proverbs 13:4 says, “The soul of a sluggard desires, and has nothing, But the soul of the diligent shall be made rich.”

Still from the same book of Proverbs, chapter 24 from verse 30 to 34 says, “I went by the field of the slothful, And by the vineyard of the man void of understanding; and there it was, all overgrown with thorns; its surface was covered with nettles; its stone wall was broken down. When I saw it I considered it well, I looked on it and received instruction: A little sleep, a little slumber, A little folding of the hands to rest; So your poverty will come like a prowler, And your want like an armed man.”

At this juncture, permit me to opine that no one should allow traducers, slanderers and gossipers to distract them in the course of pursuing their dreams. The reason for the foregoing advice cannot be farfetched as it is one thing to have goals, and it is yet another thing to pursue them, and refusing to be distracted. Of more pertinent in this context is that success has eluded many people in life not because they lacked laudable goals, but because they could not stay focused on their goals and ignore whatever traducers and slanderers are saying about their capabilities and characters, and on the basis of that avoid such distractions. Their thoughts and attention were drawn away from their goals, as they continue to listen to traducers and mockers, and thereby went off course from their dreams.

In fact, if you’re going to achieve anything significant in life, you will expectedly face distractors, traducers and gossipers. Nevertheless, you must not succumb to them. Everybody faces distractions, but not everybody yields to them.