The Three Patient Friends

This is a story which shows that patience is needed to progress in life.

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THE THREE PATIENT FRIENDS

Once upon a time, three beautiful ladies gained admission into the same university. They did not know each other prior to entering the University but they took interest in one another. Soon they became friends, eating and reading together. For four years, they maintained this relationship, even until they graduated.
However, during the National youth service, they were posted to different states, though all in the western part of Nigeria. This gave them the opportunity to go Visiting each other. One day, towards the end of their service, one of them saw an advertisement in a national daily, calling for application from job seekers.
Luckily, the job fitted all the three since they all studied the same course. Thus, the one who saw the advertisement decided to inform the rest. Coincidentally, all of them took interest in the job and filed applications.
Few weeks later, they all received their letters of interview. They prepared for it. A day to the interview, the two travelled to Lagos to spend the night with the one living in Lagos since the job was in Lagos.
On the part of the advertisers, they had set the stage and we're ready for the candidates. However, the advertisers had made up their mind that patience was the most crucial pre-requisite for any lady who would eventually be employed. They needed three patient ladies, and the job entailed being patient.
Thus, they tailored the interview to test patience, and their strategy was thus the interview was to be deliberately postponed thrice, to see if any candidate would voluntarily withdraw due to impatience and frustration.
By 9.00am, on the appointed day, all the candidates came, including the three friends. They were numbering twenty in total. They waited until 10.00am. But members of the interview panel did not show up until. 12.00 noon, 1pm, 2pm, yet they did not show up. Four of the candidates got annoyed and left in anger, leaving the other sixteen.
However, at 4pm the panel apologized for the lateness. The interview was rescheduled. On the rescheduled day, only ten candidates came including the three friends. The same thing happened, except that the panel came 12noon instead of 9am, when three four candidates had gone after cursing the panel leaving only six, including the three friends. All of them left in annoyance that. The following morning two bolted away leaving only the three friends. At exactly 9am the panel came online to announce that "owing to unforeseen circumstances, we will not be able to interview you now. Kindly come back at 4pm". Instead of getting angry, the three friends laughed themselves wild, vowing to see the end of it all.
They all went home, cooked and ate, cracked jokes and by 4pm they came back to the company premises, venue of the interview. This time the panel was already seated, waiting for the candidates. At exactly 4pm the Candidates (only the three friends), saw themselves sitting face to face with the panel. However what they expected was not what they saw. Instead of usual questions and answers session, the panel members only took credentials of the three and scrutinized them and served them drinks.
At the end, the panel revealed their game plan to the candidates to their amazement, telling them they had undergone the interview without knowing it, by being patient in the midst of dribbling. They were all congratulated and given appointment letters to begin work the following week. They went home with joy. One of the lucky girls narrated this incident to me. Even as I write there is no doubt that patience is the key to success.