I remember a few years ago when I was fighting my friend for working with the federal government and not giving links to jobs and contract. He eventually called me up one day that they're having a small office project. He told me to come around and see if I could pull it

Well I went and was thrilled. What was on the notice board was quite simple. It's something I could easily pull with my small tech knowledge. So I went home, did all my research and made a robust proposal and took it to the office 72hrs later.

The secretary took my proposal, looked at it and gave a funny laugh. She asked if I was sure that proposal was for the project and I replied with an excited smile "yes ma". She collected it and told me to go I'll be contacted if need be.

I went back severally within the next two weeks and there was no response. She actually made me buy her 2k recharge card before she agreed to give me her number to call her first before coming around. One lovely afternoon, I called her and she told me to come over to the office.

I got there excited and she led me to an office where I met four men seated. They offered me a seat and asked if I was the one who submitted the proposal in front of them, I had to take a peek before saying yes sir with a light of excitement and positivity.

They said my budget was 5.3m so how much would they get if I got the contract? Mehn, I was super excited so I told them "I'll give 100k to each of you". The kind of laughter that followed from all four of them is one I've never seen or heard before. It continued for 6minutes.

They started speaking again and asked if I know what their salaries was and their daily take homes. They told me not to dare say that and insult them. The one that seemed like the head told me "it's like you're new to this, don't worry we'll work on t and send you a copy".

I was told to return three days time which I did. Fam, my proposal that had a budget of 5.3m had jumped to 78m. The interesting part was the way they were able to reorganize the budget and made everything fall into place seamlessly.

I was still trying to comprehend what I was seeing when the head walked in and told me to follow him to his office. He told me I can take my 5.3m and execute a perfect contract and send the remaining 72.7m to them as soon as I get credited to start.

I didn't know what to say, but I was grateful I got the contract; or so I thought. I waited for two weeks and didn't get any call so I went to the office to see the secretary and ask questions. She directed me to the guy I've been speaking to who seemed unhappy seeing me.

We exchanged pleasantries and I found the boldness to ask what's up. He smiled and said, "well, the perm sec saw your proposal but he chose another one. So, I'm sorry there was nothing we could do to change his decision

In my way out with the obvious disappointment on my face, the secretary called me and told me to cheer up but next one I was coming, I should ask questions because that's not how things are done.

In anger I called my guy who told me about the project. He laughed at me for a while and said if he had told me that's how things were done I wouldn't have believed him. Anyways, it was the perm sec who rejected my proposal after using it as guide to create for his nephew.

He said they worked on my again and shot budget to 135m while the perm SEC's brother's own was 130m. So they gave it to his brother.

That was the day I concluded that "this life no balance at all"