He Who Laughs Last, Laughs Best
Sometimes it's best to just sit back, relax and wait till they come to you.
A lot of you (if not all of you) will be confuse by the first paragraph of today's blog but don't worry, I will explain in a minute. You see, about a while back, something terrible that hasn't happened for a long time occurred in my hostel, our electricity was disconnected because we had some outstanding debt to pay.
Myself and two other people had taken it upon ourselves to go to the office of the guys who supplies the electricity to find a way we could work together to get our power back on. Of course we knew the only way was to clear our debt, but we the occupants of the hostel are not the ones who are suppose to pay for electricity, all of that were included in our rents but due to a tragic event that happened to the owner of the hostel, we all decided it was best to handle this ourselves.
So after we got back from the office with the total amount of our outstanding debt in mind, we came to a decision to collect the sum of one thousand naira each from every occupant at the hostel just so we could gather enough money to pay to get the electricity back on. Mind you, whatever money we knew we were going to gather wasn't going to be enough because the debt was huge, yet we decided to at least have an amount in hand, and then when we do go back to the office, we could beg them to collect that one for the time being.
Now this whole thing happened when the school just concluded it's holiday, so not everyone was back in school yet and in other to cover for those people that were not around, some of us volunteered to pay more than we were asked to pay.
So we started collecting the money and people were turning up and paying, even those we didn't have much tried to at least pay the one thousand naira. But all of a sudden, a lady got up and started to shout at the top of her voice, saying that she wasn't going to pay because we weren't the ones who were suppose to pay for electricity in the first place. She was right, but she went about the whole thing the wrong way.
Her voice was so loud that it began to discourage even those who had forced themselves to pay, so one by one, they all started to take their money back. You see I've never been a fan of loud people and one could tell that I wasn't a fan of this lady either, as I watched her continue to shout at the top of her voice.
I ended up giving everyone their money back, even those who genuinely didn't want to take it back because they wanted the light fixed, I gave them their money before going upstairs to my room. I remember being so upset with the whole thing that the only reason why I walked away and didn't say or do anything to her was because she was a lady. What made me more upset was the fact that her uncle is the one who owns the hostel and she herself doesn't even pay rent but stays here for free, so if there's anyone who should shut up and quickly pay that money, it should be her.
Anyways, seeing how her behaviour encouraged other people to take back their money back, I decided that maybe because I happen to be the one coming to meet them, they all think they're doing me a favour when in reality, if there's anyone who is be done a favour here, it's them because I happen to have two generators and most of them don't even have one.
So I decided to sit back and relax. If there's one thing anyone hates, it's seeing that their neighbour have electricity and they don't. So that day, I had decided to use the money I was going to donate to go get petrol for my generator and locked my door. I wasn't going to open it for anyone to help them charge their gadgets because the plan was for them to feel the pain of not having electricity one hundred percent.
A week went by and one morning I heard a knock on my door, it was about four of my neighbours and they were there because of the same electricity issue and the donation. According to them, the lady who started the whole problem the last time was the first person to pay for the donation that morning and I couldn't help but laugh. It turned out that she now regretted her actions and wanted the light fixed as soon as possible.
That whole incident just made me realize that sometimes, it's best to just sit back and relax and wait till they come to you because the moment they do, you can do whatever you want to them and they won't be able to complain because they know they deserve it.
Hahaha, I like how it all played out. It's so annoying when people don't want to do something and they also end up discouraging others in the process. I love the fact that you didn't waste your time on her, she was obviously not worth it.
The "discouraging others" part was what annoyed me.. But like you said, I'm happy I handled it well.
That's right
You sure showed them.
They needed to learn even if it was the hard way, it turned out beautifully.
It's sad they realized their mistake a week later- A week without electricity? jeez! They must really be hard.😅
I had hope it would be more than a week, maybe a month.. That would have served as a better and longer punishment for them.
😅 you were out for them.
Lol
The lady is funny and she needs to realize that it is not the landlord who will enjoy the light but she. It is painful that the money has been included in the rent but at this point, you all did the right thing
Exactly my point. She knew there was no way the landlord would be fixing the light soon and that the only alternative was us doing it ourselves and yet she still decided to act the way she did.. It was annoying.