When we were young, for those of us whose parents were middle class in terms of finance, we always fancied being friends with kids whose parents were rich. Those who had all the toys, football or even had extra money to buy sweets at school. Our pride erupts when we finally become friends with them and begin to enjoy the benefits they had to offer. This notion changes as one grows. During development process we begin to desire persons of influence, those who can show us where to get the sweet we longed for at early days. That is what psychologist and experts of development say.
The fact is, to be a friend to a ‘daddy bee’, as they are often called is beneficial even at the tertiary institution. In my early first year days at the university, I befriended a lady, a ‘daddy bee’. The friendship was a commensal type where I offer her extra tutorial of a presumed difficult course we were offering. She in turn took care of our stomach demands and acquires needed materials that would help us in the course. One day, by virtue of her influence we visited one of the Deans of the University, (something that will have taken me years to do).
Whiles my ‘daddy bee’ friend was happily chatting with the man of intellect in the office, I saw a portrait on his notice board. Gracefully I took my camera out and took a shot without asking his permission (Hmmm the media in me). The dean was about to complain when my friend swiftly defended my action and that was all. I came out with a picture of the dean and his wife. How could I have done this if not for my, ‘daddy bee,’ friend. That is why you need to get one at school. Many call them, ‘daddy bee’; I prefer to call them friends of influence.
These persons of influence have connections. They can lift you a step higher in your quest to get closer to your dream. Their contributions to your life’s aspirations can be significant and pleasing. Every moment with them you will realize that the path of your future is vivid before you.
So where do you get these friends of influence? Are they the ones in flashy cars? Use expensive gadgets? Or in a fashionable dress?. If your answer to this is, ‘yes,’ then buddy you are wrong. Yes, you are wrong. The Chinese say, ‘whosoever fancy fried grain over the sushi is dead already’. An adage that advocates that, it is not all that pleases the eye that is healthy. Besides have it in mind that not all ‘daddy bees’ are involved in heavy spending. You really don’t meet these influential persons by their outward appearance, their clarity of speech neither are they always in cars nor the opposite of your gender.
You meet them everywhere, at class, the hall, your room, pathways, at the buses etc. The next time you intrinsically wish that you were basking in the sun with the rich and the celebrities then consider your roommate on top of you, the person you sat in the bus with, the person you met in the pavement, at the JCR just keep listing all you have met and realize that they are the ones you wish for. That is why it is necessary to try and establish contact with everyone that you meet, leave an impact in their lives and a smile on their faces. Each and every one that you meet at any point in the campus community is influential. Even if the person is not, he or she may know someone of influence that you can connect to.
When you ask many people who are in the working field, you will be surprise that many of them are working and some in the position that they are because of someone they knew. The connection they had with them gave them the opportunity that they are currently enjoying.
Perhaps the greatest mistake you may do now is to pompously hold on to the conviction that you are influential yourself and do not need anyone. This is because to maintain your influential status, you need other influential beings so that at a point where there is a lid to your influence, someone whose own start at that point can push you on.
With increasing pattern of globalization and technology it will be a potential suicide if you don’t connect to enough people of diverse disciplines who can contribute to your aspiration and materialize it. Remember the person next to you is the influential one, CONNECT.
