Opinions of Monday, 7 June 2021

Columnist: Kobina Ansah

The rich eat fruits and the poor seeds!

According to the writer, we must see money as seed According to the writer, we must see money as seed

The future of every farm lies in one resource ― the seeds. The potential of a farm is hidden in the seeds of the farmer. As long as that farmer keeps planting quality seeds, they are promised quality yield every harvest season.

Farmers don’t mind spending the world to get quality seeds because they are not ignorant of their power. The most important resource of any farmer is not their tools or equipment. It is their seeds. Without those seeds, there is no farm in the first place.

Seeds grow after they have been planted. Interestingly, a planted seed does not only yield fruits. It yields even more seeds.

Farmers who eat their seeds, thus, are not ready for another harvest because sowing precedes and follows every harvest. As far as the cycle of harvest and sowing is repeated, the farmer will always be in business.

Money is a seed. It only increases after it has been planted. Like a seed, money when invested produces more money; some to be spent and the rest to be reinvested. Until money is invested, it only risks being wasted.

The basic difference between the rich and poor is what they do with their seeds; the former plants them and the latter eats theirs. When we see people who have genuinely accrued assets over the years, it is a harvest of the little seeds they had some years ago. If they considered the size and weight of those seeds, they would not have planted them.

A seed may be small in size but when planted, it yields a great harvest. Some seeds may go bad but come what may, some of them will do well. That is why we ought to plant anyway.

There are so many excuses not to plant a seed. The complaint may be about its size. The excuse may be about the weather or even the kind of soil. The length of time it may take to yield a harvest may deter many from sowing. Some of these excuses, fortunately or unfortunately, separate the rich from the poor.

Many want to be the Despites among their peers despite how they waste their money. They wish they could walk in the shoes of Bill Gates, however, they are not ready to sacrifice their seeds. Being wealthy is not a fantasy. It is a product of consistently sowing the seeds life throws at us.

Until we see money as a seed, we will never enjoy its fruits. Seeds are ploughed into the soil to yield returns in future. If we keep spending our monies on material things which have no propensity of bringing us any returns, we are only wasting those seeds.

When I see young men and women spending money they don’t have to impress people they don’t know, I ask myself, “Which farmer wastes their seed?” Seeds are meant to be planted so observing people spend their lifetime savings on classy weddings and funerals makes me shake my head in awe. Indeed, I am left in a state of stupor when I see adults spending so much on drugs and alcohol.

If you continue spending on what you don’t need, you will soon be in need. Your fat season will not be forever so if your life becomes a cycle of wasting what you earn, you will soon be reduced to abject nothingness.

We all should come to the realization that the rich people we so much admire and desire to be like did not fall from the heavens. Who they are today is a product of the seeds they sowed yesterday. They may even have had the same opportunities we are having today.

Poverty is the only destination of people who keep squandering their seeds. Those who have no plan for their money obviously have no plan for their future. Harvest is a product of sowing, thus, where there are no more seeds, it ceases. Saving and investing are alien to the poverty-minded because they perceive every cedi as a spending opportunity.
Truth is, poverty is, first of all, a mindset and then it becomes a habit…. and then it becomes a culture. When you hear people screaming from the pit of poverty, you should know they are the only ones who can give others the permission to rescue them. A rescue mission of poverty can only be successful if the victims change their mindset.

You can give people all the money there could be in this world. If they don’t perceive that money as a seed to be sown, they will only waste it. Until the poor understand the power of the seed called money, they are not ready to exit the door of poverty.

Everybody will have a seed before death comes knocking at their door. Of a truth, some will be blessed with more seeds than others. Like the parable of the talents, some will have only a seed in their lifetime while others will have as many as ten within that same period.

It is what people do with their seed that will determine what their future will look like. As to whether we will be wealthier or poorer tomorrow, what we do with the seeds life blesses us with today will tell. Some will use their seed on expensive gadgets just to show them off while others will spend theirs on a skill to build apps for those gadgets.

It doesn’t matter how much you earn monthly. What matters is what you do with what you earn. Some will earn thousands of Ghana cedis in their lifetime but will end up renting facilities of people who earned only a tithe of what they did. Always consider every cedi as a seed!

We are all farmers in this world. We decide what to do with our seeds. If possible, be like that farmer who only eats the fruits of their seeds. Wealth will definitely come to those who perceive money as a seed.

To the rich you admire, money is a seed. To the poor you shun, it is a fruit.

Henceforth, choose what money will be to you ― a seed or fruit. Money that has not yet been invested is not ready to be spent.