Aráròmíre: A lesson to be learnt.

I had just returned from a productive project meeting with the iconic Gbemi Akande when I decided to cool off with Aráròmíre, known to many as Figurine; a classic from our own Kunle Afolayan of the Saworo Ide fame. Trust me, Nigeria is blessed to have this dude making movie. We’ll soon dwarf Hollywood. Sure, words cannot explain how much I enjoyed myself, but then, I decided to pick up a few lessons, one of which I will be sharing right away. Sola (Kunle Afolayan) was about heading for his state of deployment for NYSC scheme and decided to check on his Professor who holds the last signature that’ll set him off. Hearing he’s been posted to Aráròmíre, Prof. decided to acquaint him with the folklore of Aráròmíre, a goddess after which the town was named. Sola managed to hear a part that says Aráròmíre bestows 7 years of overwhelming riches on anybody that contacts it, before dashing out of the office. He wished to encounter the goddess, and as fate would have it, Sola stumbled on Aráròmíre during their endurance trek. Your guess is as good as mine! The next 7 years was so splendid for Sola, and even his friend Femi (Ramsey Noah). Perhaps I wrote quite predictably; Sola’s wife, a goddaughter of Sola’s Prof. accessed the conclusion of the folklore. 7 years of utter destruction is to follow the 7 years of overwhelming riches! I guess Kunle Afolayan is going to pay me handsomely for going this far with the movie review. One lesson I quickly picked on in this movie is Impatience! Like the Yòrùbás will say “àifarabalè lolórí àrùn”; more often than not in life, we are always in haste. More worrisome is the fact that the haste is usually over nothing! Sola would have totally escaped the catastrophe that greeted his family in its prime, had he listened to the entire folklore. Even the Bible reads in Proverbs 19 verse 2 “it is not good to have zeal without knowledge, nor to be hasty and miss the way.” While I would not advocate slothfulness, I equally do not think it will do any man any good going about his endeavors without patience. It is a virtue that inoculates us against avoidable setbacks, and failures in life. It reminds me of my experience with a research firm I once worked with; there is always a thorough project evaluation before execution. The firm does not just hastily accept a job from a client because the pay is handsomely fat. They set up a meeting between researchers and clients during which propensity projections will be dealt with before attempting execution. In few cases, we’ve had to advice the clients to review their ambitions.

Exercise a little patience before pursuing that business idea, vision et al. Pause to think twice before making that commitment. Appraise you ambitions, desires, and goals before etching them into your soul. Propensity comes, always, with success and failure; only a patient man spots both and takes precaution. With Love, Alamu Samson.