If someone walked up to you today and asked,
“How many steps can you comfortably walk in a day?”
You’d probably say somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 steps. If you’re anything like me, even hitting 10,000 feels like an achievement.
Now imagine they smile and say,
“I’ll give you ₦2 million if you can walk 40,000 steps today.”
Suddenly, 40,000 steps don’t sound impossible anymore.
You’d start calculating. You’d take shorter breaks. You’d pace around your house if you had to. You’d keep checking your step counter because now there’s a reason to keep going.
The interesting part isn’t the money.
It’s what the money revealed.
It might sound insane at first but with the right amount you will give in.
The first time I heard someone say, “Everybody has a price,” I dismissed it immediately.
It was in a Hollywood movie when they were about to make a one-time retired Marine return for a mission.
“No,” I thought.
Some people are too principled.
Too loyal.
Too kind.
Too honest.
The next thing you know his family is gone and he becomes a whole different person who would do anything to get them back or most of the time, avenge their death.
That was the price for him, his family.
Then I realized something.
The statement was never really about money.
Money is just the cheapest version of the price.
Your price could be fear.
It could be love.
It could be loneliness.
It could be the desperate need to belong.
It could be protecting your child.
It could be revenge.
It could be a chance to feel important finally.
Everybody has something that can make them cross a line they once swore they’d never cross.
The amazing part is that most of them never believed they were capable of it.
Now, back to the steps
Your body was probably capable of far more than you believed. What changed wasn’t your legs it was your motivation. The reward uncovered a level of effort that had been there all along, waiting for something valuable enough to bring it out.
So it is fair to believe people always act based on what they’re capable of. More often, they act based on what they believe is worth the effort.
When the reward becomes meaningful enough, people stretch their limits, endure discomfort, and accomplish things they would have confidently said were impossible just a few moments earlier.
That’s why you can see someone who struggles to do a 10-hour shift on a normal day can now do a 24-hour extra shift if the price is right.
What was that they said about motivation and money again?🤔
The truth is this is starting to get longer than I expected it to be, bear with me, the movie gets better.
History is full of ordinary people who became extraordinary villains.
And by history I mean that of Hollywood, Bollywood, Nollywood, and any other kind of wood out there.
Not because they woke up evil.
Because someone discovered their price.
Some betrayed lifelong friends because they were promised power.
Some abandoned their morals because they feared losing everything.
Some lied under pressure.
Some stole because desperation screamed louder than integrity.
Some cheated because attention felt like oxygen.
Some remained silent while innocent people suffered because speaking up would’ve cost them their comfort.
Different people.
Different prices.
Same result.
We like to imagine ourselves as the exception.
“I would never.”
“I could never.”
“I’m not that kind of person.”
But psychology has spent decades proving something uncomfortable.
Under the right conditions…
Almost anyone can become someone they don’t recognize.
Not overnight.
One compromise.
Then another.
Then another.
Nobody wakes up deciding to destroy their values.
They negotiate with themselves.
“It’s just this once.”
“No one will know.”
“I don’t really have a choice.”
“I’m doing this for my family.”
“I deserve this.”
Every terrible decision usually begins as a z reasonable explanation.
Here’s the question that unsettles me.
Do you actually know your price?
Not the version of yourself sitting comfortably on your couch.
The real version.
The exhausted one.
Terrified.
Heartbroken.
Bankrupt.
Hopeless.
Alone.
How much pressure would it take before your principles became negotiable?
How much money?
How much pain?
How much love?
How much fear?
Most people don’t know.
Because they’ve never been tested.
So yes…
I now believe everybody has a price.
Not because everyone can be bought.
But because every human being has a pressure point.
The difference between people isn’t whether a price exists.
It’s whether they’ve discovered it.
And whether, when the moment finally comes…
…they’re willing to pay it themselves instead of letting the world pay it for them.
I think it’s the Netflix talking, I have been doing a whole lot of watching that is messing with my head.
Can you believe I started watching Smallville from the beginning? I just made it to season 3 and season 2 alone had 23 episodes and this movie has a total of 10 seasons.
