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I am sure we may have heard such comments like:

"He has done well for himself. He is now the managing director of the company but one of his sons is a drug addict while the other is presently in jail for murder."

"She is a renowned human right activist but
her home is in chaos"

Career is like a rubber plate when dropped from a height is not affected by the impact of the fall. It is recovered still as a plate and can still be used. However, family is like a clay plate that falls from the same height but shatters to pieces. It can no longer be utilized as a plate unless the pieces are crushed and re-moulded. Re-moulding will certainly result in something different from the one that broke and there is the possibility of not being impressed with the outcome. So why would you choose to drop the clay plate instead of the rubber plate? A well moulded beautifully designed clay plate would usually be more attractive than the rubber plate anytime any day!

The sacrifice of the family for career is usually a decision that some people have lived to regret. Many fail to understand that the success of the family is also their success because they were instrumental to it. There will always be time for career but raising a family is a phase. In some years, the children grow up and leave home to start theirs and so career can be picked up and continued. Some have so focused on career that when they decide they have reached the zenith and it is time for family, they realize they have become strangers to their spouses and children. The children would have also been so set in their ways that change is near to impossible.

I have always believed that a healthy family breed a healthy society. If there is increase in crime rate in any society, it shows the increasing rate at which careers have been put first before families. Focus on career means there would be no home training for the children and so they are trained on the streets. At least one parent must give up or slow down career so that children can be raised with the right principles. We all have dreams of how we want our families to be but they would not fall right on our laps. We must work! We must put in time, energy and the right attitude for us to have our dream families. The teachers in school usually have more students than they can cope with for them to be able to give each child the required attention. So the major upbringing lies at home with parents who are available and committed to raise great children who can influence their world for good.

An individual's success is usually traced to his upbringing as can be seen in the case of Obama, the president-elect. If his mother and grandmother were alive, Obama's success would have been more fulfilling than any career they would have pursued.

Giving up family for career is a detriment to the career as the damage on family will be a dent, a comma' or the but' to whatever success may have been attained career wise.

Learn more about this author, Ndidi Ngwuluka.
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