“Then he said, “Go, borrow vessels from everywhere, from all your NEIGHBOURS – empty vessels; do not gather just a few.” ― 2 Kings 4:3 [NKJV]
One topic I always loved to teach in my days as a Biology tutor was symbiosis. It was about relationships; relationships between animals or plants and their environment. From those lessons, it was obvious no organism could survive alone. They had to depend on others or others had to depend on them. Like these plants and animals, no one can ever survive alone!
Have you ever imagined a life on earth all alone? Even if you had all the luxury there could be, the world wound have been one boring place to be. Where would you have driven all the cars to? What else could you have done after eating all the best delicacies in the world? Indeed, relationships make this world go round. They make life worth living. We need people as much as people need us.
The book of Isaiah records an interesting story of a widow whose deceased husband (a prophet) had left the family with huge debt. When this widow run to Prophet Elisha for help, he asked her to go borrow empty jars from her NEIGHBOURS. The caution was for her to not borrow a few. In other words, the more neighbours she had, the more empty jars she could have access to. These empty jars turned her life and that of her family around!
Everybody in this life needs neighbours. Our neighbours are those in our social network. They are those we can afford to call friends, mentees or mentors. Our neighbours are people who can suggest solutions to some problems we may have. We all need people we can fall on in times of need. Everybody needs a network of neighbours.
The prophet couldn’t have done much for this poor widow if she had no neighbours. She would have perished in poverty if she had no one to lend her their empty jar. Sometimes, what we really need in this life is the right community of neighbours. All we sometimes need is the right network of people.
Our world today has become so selfish that we tend to think we can climb life’s ladder all by ourselves. We soon want to be our own bosses. We soon want to live alone. We soon want to own a life of loneliness presented to us in the form of gadgets. Life without people is death. We have to know that the dead are not the only lonely people. If one assumes that they don’t need anybody in this life, they are even worse than the dead.
When we know people, we are able to cut down how much work we need to do to get to our desired destination. The size of our network cuts down the size of our hard work. The invalid who sat at the pool of Bethesda for several years told Jesus that there was NO ONE to help him get to the pool anytime it was disturbed by angels. We all need someone!
LinkedIn refers to the friends we make there as our connections. This means our network of friends are not mere people we meet on the street of life. They actually connect us to something greater than us.
We need to be choosy about the friends we make because they form our network. Friends connect us to opportunities. They mention us to potential investors. They give us great counsel in our times of need.
Don’t underestimate the power of your network. How far you will go largely depends on those you have surrounded yourself with. If your network is a bunch of friends who are always bringing you trouble, then indeed you have a load of work!
In just a matter of seconds, Joseph was connected to Pharaoh because someone in his network mentioned him to the king. There are people who have what you need. It will take someone in your network to mention you to them.
Never underestimate the power of people in your life. Even if God will bless you Himself, He will use people. People are channel through whom He blesses people. In other words, if God will answer your prayers, He will give those answers to another person to bring to you.
Most of our breakthroughs will come through the help of PEOPLE. Some may look wretched on the outside but never despise what they have on the inside. Great men don’t wear tags.
Many are struggling today because they mistreated their answers when they came their way. Many are still hopeless because they are expecting God to physically come hand down to them the solutions to their challenges when those solutions are sitting right next to them. Respect people. In the pockets of some are the KEYS to your headaches!
Our neighbours are assets. When we have a product or service, they will be our first clients. When we are building a business, they’d be the first to promote us to others. When we fall in trouble, they will be the first to likely rescue us.
The difference between the rich and poor is not only money. More importantly, it is network. The people we know is our true net worth. There are some opportunities we don’t need money to buy. All we need is a recommendation from someone in our network.
The thing about knowing people is that it makes us jump life’s queues. Queues are not for everybody, especially those who are connected. Have you ever had the experience of jumping a long waakye queue just because a friend up that queue helped you out? That feeling is relieving! When we have neighbours up life’s queue, life becomes less stressful!
When we have a great network, we may not necessarily have to queue for opportunities. A great network of friends is an advantage to us. It places us ahead of others who don’t have such. It helps us jump life’s queues.
You may have an excuse for not having enough money. That’s fine. However, there’s never an excuse for not having enough neighbours. A poor man is not one without money. It is he who has no friends. If you have a poor network, you can’t call anyone in times of need!
Be intentional about building a great network. Be intentional about having neighbours. Be intentional about surrounding yourself with people who can help you jump life’s queues. No man is an island. There’s a solution to every problem we have. We need to find that neighbour with OUR solution!
By Kobina Ansah
The writer is a Ghanaian playwright and Chief Scribe of Scribe Communications (www.scribecommltd.com), an Accra-based writing firm.