KNOCKING ON THE WRONG DOOR..

When a door closes another door will definitely open …

Often times we don’t see the other doors open to us because we keep knocking on the one that refuses to open. It takes us stepping back, looking around to see the other open doors.

When rejection, failure, disappoints come knocking on your door, it forces, motives, propels you to leave that particular room and look at other rooms. Sometimes you don’t even have to look far, God Almighty himself will make a way where there seems to be no way. And to illustrate this I will like to tell you a story.

Robert was a very hard worker, it took him 3 years to get a job after graduation, so when he finally got one at the administrative unit of Moudy group of companies, he was willing to do everything it took to keep the job.

He actually started with a job he was overqualified for, a level two administrative officer. With his qualifications, he should have been a level five officer at least, but that wasn’t going to stop him. Robert toiled, worked, volunteered for extra hours without pay, also anything needed doing outside work he was your man, this he did for 4 whole years.

Now you must understand, at this company, promotion appraisals happened every 2 years, so idly, with all his hard work he should at least have risen to a level 4 admin officer. But for some reason, his immediate supervisor didn’t like him at all and so despite his excellent work he didn’t recommend him for promotion.

The supervisor, Mr Thomas was barely older than Robert, he was the company junior staff supervisor, in charge of promotion, welfare, and appraisals. What Robert didn’t know was that Mr. Thomas took credit for everyone else’s ideas and efforts, in fact, that’s what propelled him to his current supervisory status within two years of him joining the company.

One evening after normal working hours, Mr.Thomas called Robert and asked him to sort out someone else’s mess. Another staff had messed up the filing system by displacing their normal alphabetical order, about four hundred of them. Robert knew it would take him four or more hours to sort and this will take him into the night but he just said “okay Sir “.

After making himself a coffee, Robert settled down, the job required him to sort through the mixed-up files one at a time before rearranging them. While he was doing this, his eyes caught a file labeled expansion. A few papers were out and he noticed a particular product the company was trying to expand into. Reading through he saw that there was one critical ingredient the company couldn’t find and was unaware of how to come about it, hence the product suspension. Robert smiled to himself,  put the files in order, by 10 pm he was done and he went home.

That night instead of going to bed, he wrote down a formula. Bright and early the next morning he went straight to Mr. Thomas office and said. “Sir, as I was sorting through the files yesterday, I saw that the company needs Adirus, to make this new product, coincidentally, my father taught me how to make it from local herbs, he used it to treat skin irritations, rashes and burns, once it’s used,  no scar or mark is left on the skin. As soon as Mr. Thomas heard that he sat up and said, “Well done Robert, please enlighten me”. So Robert told him all he asked, which herbs, quantities, etc. Once Robert had narrated the formula, Mr. Thomas promised him he will take it to the head office and Robert will be invited over.

Four weeks later,  when Robert hasn’t seen or heard from Mr. Thomas he goes back to the office, but he was nowhere to be found, instead, a Mr Calvin has replaced him.  Robert inquires about Mr. Thomas, Mr. Calvin informs him, Mr. Thomas is now based in the head office,  “a promotion came for him” he said. This new information surprises Robert and makes him unhappy, he was so wishing he will get the opportunity to meet the product makers and maybe just getting a promotion to a level four or five admin officer. He knew he needed to see Mr. Thomas, to find out if the company will be starting the new product so he can help give them the formula. So a few weeks later he takes an off day and goes to the head office, which is about 20 miles away from his branch office.

On arrival, he fills a visitor’s form and the receptionist disappears behind a large glass door and comes back to Robert to say Mr Thomas is unavailable. Robert is disappointed but not discouraged. I’ll come back, he thinks to himself as he leaves the headquarters that day. Afterward, he takes a day off every month, determined, Robert keeps going back to see if Mr. Thomas is available to meet with him.

After 6 months of not being able to see Mr. Thomas, he arrives at his own office one morning and the new supervisor, Mr Calvin calls him into his office and hands him a letter. Robert opens it and it’s a sack letter for neglecting his duty.  Robert is shocked, he looks from the letter to Mr Calvin, “I have never neglected my duty, Sir, I work so many over hours and don’t get paid, I do every job no one else wants to, why would you fire me?” He says.  Mr. Calvin now looking so sorry, who even though just resumed duty there for a few months, He could tell Robert didn’t deserve this, he looks at Robert and says “Sorry, it not me, the offset came from Mr.Thomas, that I had to let you go”.

Robert’s heart sank, what was going on, he thought Mr. Thomas was trying to help him, why the sack letter, what was he going to do now? Instantly, So many thoughts and expressions went through his mind. His heart was beating fast, sweat formed on his brow and he felt faint. He staggered a little, walked towards the door and stuttering, he said: “thank you to Mr. Calvin” and left. He had tears in his eyes as he left the building, this was a place he had worked at for more than 4 years.  What was he going to do now?. He had no idea.

Robert went home and locked himself in his room and cried for weeks, barely eating, switched his phone off and started to contemplate killing himself. He felt there was no hope, God wasn’t listening to him and to worsen the situation just as he was about to get a promotion, he gets fired.

He woke up one morning and decided today he was going to end it all, there was no more hope for him, he really couldn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. So he took the little amount of money he had left,  went to the chemist to get a powerful sedative that could knock out a horse in minutes. Unfortunately, because he didn’t have a lot of money he went to an unlicensed chemist,

Now the sales clerk at the chemist knew nothing about drugs. He sold the sedatives to Robert who went home and took them all. What he didn’t know was that the inexperienced clerk had sold him multivitamins instead of sedatives because the tablets had the same colour and shape. Neither of them was the wiser. After downing all the 6 tablets he bought, Robert laid on his bed an expected death, one hour, two hours, three hours went by and death still had not arrived, could death be stuck in traffic? he wondered. This was Lagos anything could happen. So he decided to give death a few more hours to arrive while waiting, he fell asleep.

Morning came and to Robert’s surprise he was still alive, death didn’t visit. He was confused. Why didn’t I die, he pondered on that for a while, then suddenly it struck him,  God had kept him alive for a reason. It wasn’t his time to die, he took it has a sign that God still needed him on earth and was not done with him yet.

So, He knelt, prayed and asked for forgiveness and then decided to try his luck with getting another job.  Switching on his phone after 3 weeks of leaving it off, he noticed he had more than 20 missed calls from an unknown phone number. He dialed the no and a female voice picked it up and said his presence was required immediately, she asked where he was, said a car would be sent to pick him. She dropped the phone before he could ask what was going on.

In less than an hour, a chauffeur-driven Mercedes-Benz turned up. Robert didn’t know what was going on but got into the car anyway and was driven to a large estate with a huge building like a castle. The doorman opened the door for him and was he led into a conference room with 8 people already sitting at the table, Robert didn’t recognize any of them. The man at the head of the table asked him to please sit down, which he did.

Then the same man cleared his throat and smiled at Robert, then said “Welcome Mr. Robert am sure you are wondering who we are, I will explain. I am chief Lawrence Moudy the chairman Moudy group of companies and this is my board of directors and legal advisor. You were staff at one of our companies into production?” He paused to see if Robert was following him. Robert just kept staring at chief with his mouth agape, so chief continued, “Our company has struggled for years, invested millions into a product, but couldn’t bring it to completion because of a missing ingredient that kept it unstable and unusable, Until Mr. Thomas gave us the solution.

At first, we tried it and it worked magic, instantly Mr. Thomas was made an associate director with share options, given a new mansion, two cars, and a huge paycheck. The product went into the market and everything was going well until the complaints started coming in, the product had some side effects. We had to recall a lot and paid out compensation to those who claimed.

We decided to go back to the drawing board and called Mr Thomas to brainstorm, that’s when we realized he didn’t have the knowledge nor ability to break down the contents of the formula he gave us. With a threat to fire him and send him to jail for the fraud, he confessed that it was your idea and creation, but he fired you a few weeks ago so there was no way of contacting you. Since then we have looked for you”.

“Now here we are, Mr. Thomas has been fired. As for you, we are offering you 20% stock, a director,  a huge mansion, two cars and a large office to work from. You will head the team that produces the product and we will love to hear any other great idea you might have “ chief ended his speech and looked towards Robert. He was missing from his chair, everyone was focusing on the chief and he on them, no one noticed Robert faint and slide out of his chair onto the floor in shock.

A couple of weeks later, Now a director, in a new house and in an amazing office, Robert knelt and said to God.” Thank you Lord for giving me the grace and opening another door for me, even when all I could see was the door that was locked against me.”

Never keep hitting a door that won’t open, step back, look around and you will see others already open. Remember, every disappointment is a blessing in disguise, to propel you to where God wants you to be. Wake up every morning. Committing your day into his hands, don’t lean on your own understanding, acknowledge him in everything you do and he will direct your path.

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