THE BRUTAL TRUTH ABOUT LIFE: LESSONS FROM ARSENAL'S LONG WAIT FOR GLORY_ BY BISHOP SAHR ISAAC PETERSON

Share it with friends or relations. Peterson is inspired more on life experience this time round. 

We're in a new month, yes, we are! By extension, the year has been divided into an equal half, so to say. We'd soon come to festive seasons. Meanwhile, what is your next move? Are you still keeping with the wrong persons, wrong places, or wrong courses? Now, read this article, should you want to experience a change of good in your life. 

There is a hard truth about life that most of us avoid until it stares us in the face. It is tied to the people we talk to, move with, and trust daily. Life, as the old saying goes, is a deep sea. It does not give you what you want or what you dream of. It gives you what it demands. From that starting point, we must come to grips with what I often call ‘the brutal truth’.

1. The world celebrates results, not struggles

From the beginning, we all want good grades, good money, and a solid reputation. So we chase the paths that others we admire have walked before. We push ourselves to the top, sometimes by chance, sometimes by merit. That struggle deserves respect. 

Yet here is the reality: nobody wants to hear your story of sleepless nights and silent pain. There are places where no one will celebrate your effort, no matter how hard you try. The world celebrates evidence. It celebrates what can be seen, touched, and measured. Because of this, we are forced to ‘get things ready at all costs’ while hiding the secret wounds inside us. We chase trends, status, and validation, but we are not even sure why we are running, or how long we will last on ‘God’s green earth’.

2. Your helpers can become your hunters

Add to that the painful irony of human relationships. The very people we call for advice or mentorship can turn into obstacles the moment good news about you spreads. They may not show it openly. But secret jealousy, rivalry, plots, and ambushes begin. This is what I call ‘the contrast theory’ of life. The closer someone is to you, the more they feel the weight of your rise.

If, by chance, you are a businessman with a rough past and no visible growth, the world will not invite you to speak on entrepreneurship panels. No matter how much wisdom you have, your ‘bad history’ becomes the headline. People will keep your failures on file just to pin you down. The few who pretend to care are often just gathering details to report later. ‘No man cares’ until you have something to show.

Again, imagine if you are smart and brilliant yet failed a module in a course. That same place where others come to you for help. That same place where people feel like you have it all, yet couldn't do well. What is next? They'd write you off once you keep blowing hard in your dealings. You'd be reduced. 

3. Arsenal: A case study in public rejection

Let us turn to football, because sport mirrors life better than most classrooms. Take Arsenal Football Club. On the day Arsenal faced Paris Saint-Germain, the whole world was watching and betting. But the truth was deeper than the scoreline. Many people who were not PSG fans, and not even Manchester United fans, still did not want Arsenal to win. They had no loyalty to PSG either. All they wanted was for Arsenal to ‘fail flat’.

PSG had won the Champions League trophy in 2025, just a year before. So why did the world still expect another win from them, while doubting Arsenal? Look at Arsenal’s story: years of struggle, millions spent on players, millions of supporters across the globe, especially in Africa. Arsenal arguably has more Black supporters worldwide than PSG. Yet on that day, many of those same African fans openly rooted against the team that had struggled for decades.

I am not writing as a fan of either club. As a literary analyst, critic, and pastor, I do not hold club allegiance. I am only asking you to read this from a neutral angle. The enmity against Arsenal’s potential win was ‘incalculable by observation’. It was not about football. It was about the psychology of life.

4. The lesson: Persevere despite the odds

This Arsenal example teaches us the same lesson life keeps teaching. The people you trust as helpers can plot against you. Your good contributions will be questioned because of scars from your past. Some of us are living this right now. We have felt it, and some of us are still in it.

In Africa, and across the world, a man’s success is defined by outward achievement, power, and status. If you do not have the trophy, the title, or the bank alert, your voice is muted. But if you keep believing, keep repeating, and keep growing, the narrative can change. ‘The world defines a man’s success by the outward achievements or ecstasy or power you command.’ That is the rule of the game.

Arsenal’s story is not finished. Struggle does not mean failure. Rejection does not mean you are worthless. Sometimes it means you are a threat to a system that only rewards those who have already won.

In my last words, I'd say: Keep growing, keep going

So my final revelation is simple: keep believing. Keep repeating if that is the only way forward. Keep growing. Learn from Arsenal. Learn from every person whose effort was ignored until the trophy finally arrived.

Life will give you what it demands, not what you ask for. People will celebrate you only when they can see the evidence. Until then, walk with the brutal truth, but do not let it break you. Let it build you.

‘Break a leg,’ as we say in the arts. 

Yours truly,  

Bishop Sahr Isaac Peterson  

CEO, Coalition of Public Speakers & Modern Writers, CoPsMoW–SL  

Beauty of Africa’s Poetry, BoAP, Africa

+23288309535

Sierra Leone.

[An article that can change your entire mindset and or thinking faculty. 

Inspired by Prof. Joe A.D Alie's repeatedly occurred O'Level sittings(one of Sierra Leone's highly profiled authors). Inspired by Dr. Joe Abass Bangura, Life by Design. Inspired by Mr. Tanu Jalloh (Lect. at Mascom, FBC).]