We Don’t Know How Lucky We Are

Yesterday I stumbled across a post that a friend of mine posted on Facebook, every now and again you read a facebook post that moves you, this is certainly one of those, Nathan is a pretty humble fella, so I asked him if I could republish his story on my blog websites.

I’ve got to know Nathan via Toastmasters and he is a very inspirational guy with one hell of a life history, recently he just build his parents a dream house, after reading the below, you can begin to imagine what it would have meant to Nathan to be able to return his appreciation in a material way for the hard work his father did to get the family to New Zealand.

What came to mind for me is Fred Daggs saying “We Don’t Know How Lucky We Are” read and comment!

Nathan Najib Facebook Post

Last night on the way from Sydney I had a lovely man, reasonably well dressed possibly in his mid to late 30s siting next to me we started talking, he told me his life story and how tough it is at the moment etc. Obviously the man had been able to save enough money to go to Sydney for a holiday, spend a week there, stay in a reasonable hotel and maybe do a little shopping. It’s great coming from a third world country myself I know how lucky and blessed we are every second of the day, going back 21 years ago a little kid at age 7 when we escaped Kabul, Afghanistan with nothing but a very hard working father who put his life on the line to feed the whole family with the little that he brought home until the age of 13 when we came to New Zealand to everything I have today.

I thought I would share my story with him and the struggle that we went through. After listening to my story the young man got up, gave me a big hug and says “Nathan thank you for sharing your story with me, man I have a GREAT life.”

I had never before shared my story in this much detail with anybody, it inspired the man on the plane why not share it with everybody smile emoticon

Nobody was put on this planet to eat average food on an average day every single day. You too can have it all. Don’t ever let anybody tell you what can you be, do or have, the answer to having it all is work with keeping your integrity intact at all times, work harder than anybody else, be nice and treat everybody you come across exactly like you would like to be treat…

Question: Do you really realize what you have versus the poorest of the poor in the Third World?

Suppose you had to do these things:

1. Remove the furniture in your home, leave a few old blankets, a kitchen table, a wooden chair, and remember – you’ve never had a bed.
2. Throw out your clothes. Each family member may keep the oldest suit, dress, a shirt or blouse.
3. No kitchen appliances allowed. Keep a box of matches, a small bag of flour, some sugar and salt, a few onions, a dish of dried beans. Rescue the moldy potatoes from the garbage can. That’s tonight’s meal.
4. Dismantle the bathroom, shut off the running water, take out the wiring and the lights and everything that’s run by electricity.
5. Take away the house and move the family into the tool shed.
6. Note there are no other houses in the neighborhood, just tents – for the fortunate ones.
7. Cancel the newspaper and magazines and throw out the books. You won’t miss them since you are illiterate. No radio or tv, either.
8. No more mail carrier, fire fighters, government services. The school is twenty kilometers away and tents are used as classrooms.
9. No hospital, no doctor. Closest clinic is twenty kilometers away with a midwife in charge. No emergency services, get there by bus or bike, if you have one.
10. Throw out your bank books, benefit plans, insurance policies. Your net worth is five dollars.
11. If you one of the fortunate ones get out and start cultivating your three acres. Try hard to raise $300 in cash crops, of which your landlord gets one-third and your money-lender 15%.
12. Find a way for your children to bring in a little money, so you have something to eat most days. However, it won’t be enough to keep you healthy, so cut off 25-30 years of your life.

Attitude of gratitude, remember that gratitude is the antidote to misery.