IN THE RING OF LIFE: WHO HASN’T EVER MADE A MISTAKE?

One morning, I was headed out to town. A distance before I arrived at the bus station, a bus conductor signalled me to join their bus - a wine coloured commercial bus known as "trotro" in Ghana. Upon reaching the bus station, I saw another bus (a green one) ahead of the one I had initially been called to join. Compared to the wine bus which was still relatively empty, the green bus was full of passengers and would be in motion faster. By my calculations, I would be better off reaching my destination faster via the green bus; so, I went past the wine bus and settled in the green bus.

As we were en-route on the main road, we encountered the usual buzzing traffic experienced by most commuters in the capital. The driver, therefore, decided to take a detour to avoid the traffic and reconnect later to the main road. No passenger on board really complained about his actions at this point.  Then, unfortunately the new route proved to have a higher traffic experience as compared to the original route. However, there was no room to redirect to the original route.

All the passengers on board as well as the driver looked on helplessly as the traffic gave way for the vehicles plying the main road to speed past including my initial wine bus. (By now, most passengers were upset about the miscalculation and were vilifying the bus driver and conductor mercilessly for making a needless detour). One passenger shouted, "if you hadn't made this bad decision we would have been on our way. Whatever decision comes to you as drivers, you just implement it anyhow". Another one said, "I wish you would be arrested by the police and fined for this recklessness, then you will behave better next time". The bus conductor got upset and retorted, "stop insulting us, who hasn't ever made a mistake in life?" ... The interesting discourse got me reflecting about life!

1. We cannot always get our calculations right in life. I took a chance with the green bus because I had the impression that it would move faster than the wine one. It was ahead anyway and had every reason to reach the destination earlier but, alas, I was disappointed! As we go through life, we cannot always get our calculations right. We make choices based on the information available to us. When it doesn't turn out right, we should not beat ourselves too much.

2. Being at the helm of affairs gives no guarantee of making right choices in every situation. The driver of the green bus, as the controller of the bus made a choice that would affect all passengers on board. Probably, he also made that choice to avoid wasting time in traffic. Thus, it was actually with a good intention. Nonetheless, his singular decision cost a delay to everyone. When we are in leadership positions, we should be mindful of the decisions we make because the effect of our choices on others who count on us can make or break them.

3. Delays are sometimes for a positive cause. Had I been patient enough to wait for the wine bus to get filled with passengers, I probably would not have had to watch it helplessly drive past moments later while the green bus was stuck in a self-inflicted traffic situation. Situations which seem like delays in life may actually turn out positively for our good depending on the lens through which we assess it.

4. Patience is a worthy virtue. If the driver of the green bus had exercised some patience in the traffic, we would have avoided the needless wait. Had I also been patient enough to join the wine bus earlier, I wouldn't have been filled with regret for being delayed unnecessarily. Exercising patience in life situations might seem difficult. However, activities and plans executed in patience have a higher tendency of producing positive results as compared to impulsive and hasty choices.

5. Everyone makes mistakes. The driver of the green bus made a mistake and many people had to suffer the consequences. Unfortunately, he didn't even render an apology or show any remorse for his actions. Perhaps, could it be because he had good intentions which had turned sour and landed him being crucified? Hopefully though, he learnt some lessons and will be guided in future. When we make misguided choices which may be seen as mistakes in life, no one will appreciate the good intentions we had envisaged at the initiation of the decision; rather, they will only crucify us. It is important to acknowledge mistakes and make amends moving forward. We cannot reverse the mistakes we make but we can set remedies in place to avoid further recurrences of same.

Inevitably, we will be vilified by the people who are negatively affected by our misguided choices but we must not remain too broken for it to affect our ability to bounce back.