Work Was Made For You

You're not a slave to your job. You're not a sacrificial lamb on the altar of corporate profits. Yet here you are, leaving your sick mother at home, missing your son's graduation, all for a promotion that might never come.

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The ancient wisdom in Mark 2:27 states, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath." Replace 'Sabbath' with 'work,' and you'll understand why the current corporate culture has it backwards. Like a farmer who eats his seeds instead of planting them, we've forgotten the true purpose of work.

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Think of the young banker in Lagos who hasn't seen sunlight in weeks, or the tech professional in Nairobi who can't remember the last time she had dinner with her family. They're like the hunter who becomes so obsessed with hunting that he forgets to eat. The irony would be laughable if it weren't so tragic.

Like a well-crafted Ethiopian coffee ceremony, work should nourish your spirit, not drain it. It should be the vessel through which your life finds meaning, like how the mighty Niger River brings life to the lands it touches. Instead, we've turned it into a voracious lion that devours our dreams, time, and essence.

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Your job should be like a baobab tree – providing shelter, sustenance, and support for your growth. But look around your office. How many colleagues are withering like plants in drought, sacrificing their well-being at the altar of quarterly targets?

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Work exists to serve four fundamental purposes. First, it should give your life meaning, like the rhythmic beats of a talking drum that tell a story. Your work should echo the purpose that burns within you. Yet how many of us have silenced our inner drums to play someone else's tune?

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Second, work should meet your needs. Simple. Like a farmer who plants yams to feed his family. But we've created a system where people earn enough to buy food but have no time to eat it.

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They can afford a house but never get to live in it. The absurdity rivals a man dying of thirst while carrying water for others.

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Third, work should create meaningful connections. Our ancestors understood this – they hunted in groups, farmed in communities, and traded in markets filled with conversation and laughter. Today, we sit in silent offices, drowning in emails, our relationships as artificial as the light from our screens.

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Fourth, work should be a platform for growth. Like a young eagle learning to soar, each day should lift you higher. Instead, many professionals are like caged birds, their wings clipped by endless routine tasks and meaningless meetings.

Yet what do we see? People sacrifice these fundamental benefits of work for... more work. It's like trading your land for a photograph of it. We've created a culture where missing your child's first steps for a client meeting is considered dedication.

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Where skipping meals to complete reports is seen as a commitment. Where burning out is a badge of honor.

Some sacrifice their entrepreneurial dreams, burying their innovations under corporate paperwork. Others abandon their artistic pursuits, their creativity suffocating under conformity. The most heartbreaking are those who sacrifice their health – the currency they can never earn back.

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Consider this: You buy handcrafted Moroccan shoes to protect and comfort your feet. Would you then worship these shoes, place them on an altar, and sacrifice your comfort to preserve them?

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Sounds ridiculous, right. Yet this is exactly what we do with work. We've turned the tool into the master, the servant into the Lord.

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Many Africans spend 40 years climbing the corporate ladder, only to reach the top and realize they placed it against the wrong wall. They dedicated their lives to building someone else's dream, like a bird building nests for others while sleeping in the rain.

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Work is meant to be your vehicle, like a well-maintained matatu taking you to your destination. But we've turned it into our destination. We've forgotten that work, like any tool, is meant to serve us, not enslave us.

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When work competes with your dreams, relationships, and wellbeing, remember this: Work was made for you. You weren't made for work. The choice should be obvious, like choosing between saving your smartphone or your child from danger. Yet in boardrooms across Africa, people make the wrong choice daily.

The next time your job demands a sacrifice, ask yourself: Would you worship the hoe instead of using it to cultivate your farm? Would you serve your car instead of letting it serve you? Then why sacrifice your dreams, joy, and life at the altar of work?

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This isn't a call to mediocrity or laziness. It's a reminder that you are the master, not the servant. Work should fit into your life like a hand in a glove, not consume it like a forest fire. Let work serve its true purpose – advancing your dreams, not replacing them.

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Remember, when the sun sets on your career, what matters won't be the extra hours you put in, but the life you built with those hours. Work was made for you. Isn't it time you started acting like it?