Just As Choices Have Consequences, Consequences Have Choices Too

A friend of mine once narrated to me about an experience he had with his colleague. As soon as they were confirmed into permanent employment, the loan benefits kicked in. My friend chose to buy a car, while his colleague decided to buy a piece of land on which he started building immediately.

These guys were from two different cultures that viewed property acquisition differently. The arguments and near fistfights from the contrasting views were reasons enough for each of them to keep to their respective corners.

One day it rained cats and dogs and the walking colleague pleaded for a lift in my friend's car. He was told to shut up and walk to his house, but almost immediately, he got offered the ride and it proved quite a humiliating experience.

For a long time, the guy who chose to build could not afford a car. And then roles reversed. The colleague bought his first car without hassle for he had no rent to worry about on the back of a higher salary.

My friend now decided to buy a plot to build on. It was not far away from his colleague's place. The land had appreciated a lot in value and this guy struggled to keep up with all the associated costs. So he let go of his car and the consequences now had their choice firmly in their grasp.

One day again, it rained cats and dogs and my friend felt humiliated now that he had to ride home with his colleague under reversed but magnified circumstances.

The question he was asked was: "do you remember back in the day when you told me off for asking you for a ride?" Now things had gone full circle. The consequences surely had their choices cut out. His pockets were surely chosen for he had to contend with parting with more money to get the exact same acreage as his colleague.

In many of life's equations, we have constants and variables. Constants, usually denoted by the letter "K" are a permanent part of the equation whether we like it or not. The variables, just as their adjective suggests, can be varied. In any home, the baby or child is a constant and the house-help is a variable even if they tell on baba watoto to mama watoto, all they ever get is a "thank you".

Please read this example with an open and clean mind. Or at least just try to.

If the house-help is found giving away food to the neighbour or to her significant-other who is categorised as a stranger to the family, her choices will bear consequences that may include summary dismissal. If her discrete choices with baba watoto remain hidden, and if and only if baba watoto doesn't know of this nameless significant-other that gets free food, she may survive the onslaught from mama watoto when baba watoto dismisses the whole episode as deserving of a first warning.

But it will arouse suspicions. As she makes her days count through baba watoto's support, mama watoto numbers her days and starts counting them by finding other faults. The domestic servant has hedged her bets well and has a free house to live in as she works.

This is the classic case of choices having consequences and vice versa. When the three constants, man, wife and child are not reading from the same script, the variable will survive. The equation cancels out for now. The variable has manipulated a constant by exploiting his weaknesses.

Let us analyse how in this case, the consequences had their choices.

First, the woman of the house chose the specific servant. Her choice bore the consequence of getting onboard someone whose presence, presented her with additional choices that exposed her disloyalty both to the woman of the house and her true significant-other.

The same happens in the business world, after all, the house-help is in it for the salary and the good times and in the process, increases her prospects of being a constant by angling to be wife number two.

Sometimes, there is a thin line between privileges and entitlements. Privileges can be withdrawn but entitlements are earned by right. When one chooses to see privileges as entitlements, in the fulness of time, they come with devastating consequences as they often end in tears. In fact, this happened to someone known to many.

A budding executive impressed the bosses so much so that he won himself the position of Personal Assistant to the CEO. The position had many privileges that included free access to company resources. The CEO was a laid back fellow and his PA run the show. So powerful was this guy that he became the CEO in the minds of many people. The trappings of office were now a permanent fixture in his mind.

At work, things got bad and the company let go of many people. The restructuring saw the PA position fall off the organogram. The only position left for the PA to occupy was that of the property manager. This company had office buildings and houses rented out. The job had no clout.

The new property manager tried to lord over everyone as before now that he had plenty of time. He got told off every day and it was made clear to him that it was the position and not his person that was respected.

Poor people skills did him in. He failed to shape up to the new role and everyone prayed for him to be shipped out. The consequences of his behaviour picked him out and then beat him up for the sins carried forward from his past job.

The friends you chose today may just play starring roles in your worst nightmares a decade from now because you lazily allowed them into your inner sanctums on account of having a few meals together and sharing some common interests. You failed to take into consideration how his or her other influencers rank you.

Relationships have many moving parts and you must know which to lubricate, tighten or replace. They are continuous processes and that is why your true friends never outnumber the fingers in your hand. When you have many friends, it is because they want a piece of you when you are well resourced.