Life is all about risks taking. Whether we do it consciously or unconsciously, everyday of our lives, we take risks even though some may deny it. Did you not know that leaving your house every morning and stepping out to work is a risk? What’s the guarantee of returning safely if not God. People board flights everyday hoping to get to their destinations and that’s also a risk, just like the tragic flight story we heard on June 12.
Sleeping is risky cos what’s the guarantee of waking up. Even eating and drinking water is risky, there could be danger of choking but we still do all these things. One day I was eating and an anonymous fish bone decided to go and lodge itself in a corner of my throat, food was suspended for a while as I battled with the discomfort in my throat. It was there for some days before it finally decided to come out after making my life so uncomfortable.
As little as these things seem but it’s all true, so we take risks everyday, some big some small but there’s no living without risk. One of the biggest risks I have had in my life that taught me the lesson of my life was a risky investment that I dabbled into. Till tomorrow, I don't really know what gave me the morale to make such a costly mistake. Till tomorrow, I have not recovered from the mistake of that risk.
It all started with waking up one year morning and feeling like it’s my year of millions. I was telling myself that that year was the year that I was mapped out to be a millionaire. From my head, it was all written down and well calculated and I know just the right things to do. All that was left would be the money for the investment and I know just the right person to meet for that and all I would have to do would be to convince him to give me the money and I would pay back in three months cos all things being equal, I had it all figured out.
Ceteris paribus! Just that most times all things are never equal. Sometimes there are some times beyond your power or some not very well, carefully throughout processes that would always interfere with the of the event. Finally, J was able to borrow. Read my lips borrow 500k with confidence and I was even supposed to pay back with interest. Like I said, I don’t know what gave me that morale seriously. I had a hundred thousand Naira of my own given to me by my aunty to also invest in something that would be paying me so that I will see front small.
I took all my life savings and money plus the five hundred thousand and invested in a so called forex trading platform that pays daily ROI. They say they trade for people and then pay you daily the returns of the trading for those who cannot trade by themselves. I made all my inquiries and they said it was legitimate and that they have been there for years. I was skeptical but my friends had joined for months and was cashing out and now its my turn.
I even invited a friend who put in 250,000, church money that was given to him to hold. My dears, Wahala no dey finish. That was how not up to two weeks I joined with my friend, stories that are moving like train started coming up. Ahhh! I almost died. I don’t know how I survived that period. The entire money was gone. It first started with withdrawals button issues but they were still running promo and even gave discounts and that was how many people joined at the last lap.
The next thing they said was that they are having maintenance issues and the site wasn’t opening and that was how these strange scammers disappeared with my money and the borrowed money. What a risk? I learnt the hard way and since then I had never taken such kind of risks again. No more Ponzi schemes. It was a lesson of a lifetime.