paying your dues

When a baseball player spends a number of years in the minor leagues before making it to the majors it is said that he has been paying his dues.

When a guitar player is in a number of bands for years, playing in smoke filled bars, working a day job, he is paying his dues.

When a cyclist is a domestic in a racing team, getting water during races for the top riders on the team, he is paying his dues.

The thing is that in life you can never really be sure what you are paying your dues for.

You can work with all due diligence, solve problems creatively, show initiative, do everything asked and be loyal to a fault by not complaining when you think something should be done differently only to find out that you have been making deposits in the wrong account.

When you think in the end that you have been swindled you can react with or without grace.

No matter how you react you may find, if you look around a little, that those dues you paid all those years simply went into an account you were not aware of. It is up to you to make something of this account.