A lady I consulted for one day owned up to the fact that her friend and her had a habit of dismissing any young woman they see driving a new car. Each time they see such a woman drive by, anger would well up inside them and the two friends would start saying petty things about the fellow woman with a new car. They would say: "It’s her sugar daddy that bought it for her."
"Look at her; what did the man even see in her?"
Another frequent route that poverty consciousness travels is the habit to look perpetually on the negative side of things. Some people are fond of singing to you: "Things are bad. The economy is bad. There’s no money in circulation. Everyone is holding on to his or her money." They even want you to agree to these postulates of theirs. These people feel that pessimism and negative thinking equals wisdom and they work so hard to pass it on to their children and to as many adults as possible.
They complain bitterly about everyone, everything, every situation, and Nigeria. In their own discoloured thinking, Nigeria is the worst place in the whole world and it’s getting worse by the second.
If you give them examples of individuals who are doing what they want to do happily, they’d ignore it and bring up cases of others who have lost their jobs, faced a disaster or died suddenly.
They feel that once they travel out of Nigeria, they end up in paradise. Sadly, they end up confusing a lot of young men and women. They mislead them to spend all their money to obtain foreign visas from those involved in the multi-billionaire racket. When they get out, they find – rather too late – that not all they have been told is true.
A man who is well acquainted with me fell into this trap. He holds a diploma and has been successfully building a career in the area of media and fashion. He was single, drove a fairly-used Mercedes Benz car, and lived in his friend's quarters(areas) in highbrow Ikoyi located in Lagos. An opportunity came some years back for him to travel to Johannesburg to cover an event for the newspaper he worked for. He told me he was not coming back.
When he got to Jo’bourg he melted into the shadows. But that was the beginning of his education. He had some $2500 and the guy squatting him, a Nigerian, stole it. He couldn’t get a job. And to make matters worse, he wanted to enrol in a university.
"Things are tough," he told me. He asked his elder brother living in Nigeria to send him money. The man did once.
Six weeks ago, another young friend of mine told me some people said he should bring money to give him a South African visa. According to them, if he acted fast, he could be travelling in three days’ time.
I told him that the deadline pressure they were mounting on him shows that once he parts with his money he’d be on his own. I told him that if he wanted to go to South Africa, he should be clear what he wants to go and do there, and that the best person to seek advice from about the opportunities and situation was someone living there.
My friend in Jo’bourg told him that if he wanted to immigrate to South Africa, he should first get a firm job offer before venturing out of Nigeria.
People in the grips of poverty consciousness are perpetual complainers and ‘condemners’. They continually bemoan their fate; talk about bad things and disasters that happened to them and others. They constantly criticise themselves, others and everything. Any new idea is a target of their attacks. If you have a pet project, beware to avoid dream killers like them.
Now, let’s dig deeper. One of the most devious ways this evil called poverty consciousness takes is through an attitude of ingratitude. No man or woman who is in this hell called poverty consciousness can ever be grateful for his circumstances. They never sit down to give thanks for what they have and for what they are expecting. You remember from your reading of Wallace Wattles’ The Science of Getting Rich that you’ll soon become dissatisfied with things, as they are when you stop giving thanks for them.
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