The story | The lesson | The push
The Story
I was once told of the story of a king in a distant land who wanted to find a man worthy of marrying his one and only beautiful daughter. He put out a call across the land asking any man who wanted a chance to marry his daughter to come forward for a competition.
"Good people of our land," the king announced, "I seek a man of great courage, strength, and character to be worthy of my daughter's hand in marriage. I will hold a competition to test the mettle of any man who believes he is worthy of this honor. Let all those who wish to compete come forward and make themselves known."
Word spread to lands far and near. Many men came from far to take on the challenge. When they arrived, they realised the challenge was to swim across a pool infested with crocodiles and other things that would kill a person without thinking twice. Many of the men saw the challenge and left immediately. They didnât deem the prize worth potentially losing their lives for. After all, there were many pretty women in the land and in other faraway lands whom they could be happy with. Yes, it may not come with the kingâs riches but at least, they would be alive to tell the tale.
The numbers slowly but surely dwindled as they observed the perilous challenge that lay ahead. When it looked like no one was going to step forward, the king got up from his throne and turned his back towards them as he made his way towards the palace gates. It was unfortunate but none of them would marry his daughter today.
As he walked the path to the great entrance, he heard a splash! As he turned around, the crowd gasped. There was heavy flapping in the water. Someone had jumped into the pool! The king hastened back to his throne. He had not imagined he would see this kind of action today. The man in the pool swam deftly, narrowly missing the jaws of one of the crocodiles. He somehow made it to the other side and climbed out of the pool as quick as his exhausted body was able to, for fear that another crocodile might snap at his heels and drag him back in.
He collapsed onto the floor to the sound of applause, hoots of congratulations and cheers of praise emanating from the side of the pool he had just traversed from. He lay there for a few moments breathing heavily, trying to catch his breath. The king came to him and the kingâs cupbearer gestured to the crowd to quieten down.
âBrave man, how were you able to achieve such a feat? How did you manage to outsmart the crocodiles?â the king asked.
Rather than look relieved or happy at the fact that he had accomplished such a great feat, that no other person had dared to attempt, he looked angry.
The first thing he said once he regained his strength was:
âWey di pesin wey push me? Walahi, I go deal wit am today!â
He said this in pidgin - the language his people commonly spoke amongst themselves. This loosely translated to âWhere is the person that pushed me? Heâs done for!â
The Lesson
Sometimes we donât know what we can achieve until we are pushed. Whilst I do not advocate pushing people into dangerous situations, the story does show that sometimes, we may think we may be unqualified, or not the best suited for the situation but, until we try some things, we really may not know what we are capable of. We may not know the reservoirs of strength that lie dormant within us, waiting for the day they would be called upon to do something great.
Some situations that were initially planned to make you fall or fail, may be the very things that make you rise to heights you never realised were possible.Â
Where do you need that push in your life?
The push for me into becoming a voiceover artist was a little more gentle. I listened and still listen to a lot of audiobooks. I listen to both fiction and non-fiction. Once upon a time, I listened to a book with Nigerian characters and set in Nigeria. The story and voiceover were amazing but what was missing in the narration was a connection to the language spoken by the characters. When parts of the dialogue dipped into the YorĂšbĂĄ language, I felt the delivery didnât quite land as it should have and I could have done a better job in that particular aspect. As I said, the overall VoiceOver delivery was amazing - it was just that bit of delivery that irked me somewhat.
This was the catalyst that led me down the rabbit hole of becoming a voiceover artist. I said to myself, âIf you think you could have done a better job, then why donât you?â In the years that ensued I learned the craft, and did a few audiobooks as well as other voiceover genres. Until I had that figurative push into the world of voiceovers, I had not realised what I was capable of. The journey through had its turbulences as I had to learn a lot quickly, dealt with many auditions with no feedback and I had to figure out the business and marketing side of things (I am still figuring this out). However, it has been a wonderful journey so far and I look forward to the rest of it.
To the voiceover artist that inspired me and âpushedâ me to join the trade, thank you! I've unlocked talent I never knew I had.
Credits
Who Pushed Me: the audio drama. Written by Ore Apampa. Narrated by Ore Apampa and Babajide Oyekunle.
With sound design by Babajide Oyekunle. All rights reserved.
About The Author
Hi đ, I'm Ore Apampa. I am an entrepreneur and voiceover artist based in the UK but I do love to travel so I'm not always there. I share stories about my experience being a voiceover artist whilst doing a PhD and being a startup co-founder at Pathfound - a career edtech company. I'm hoping sharing the things I learn on my journey will help other people on their journeys. Subscribe to my newsletter on substack - Ore's Gist or on LinkedIn to be notified when I post something new. I tend to post on substack before LinkedIn so if you subscribe there, you'll get the gist earlier and some insider gist too.
