The Forgotten Password

Rashid was always the “tech guy” among his family and friends. Whenever someone’s phone froze, or an app wouldn’t open, they called him. Confident in his skills, Rashid never bothered with small things like writing down passwords. “I’ll remember it,” he told himself.

One day, Rashid got an email saying someone had tried to log in to his cloud storage account. Alarmed, he decided to change the password immediately. He chose something “strong,” mixed with numbers, symbols, and uppercase letters. Satisfied, he closed the tab and went back to work.

A week later, Rashid needed an important document stored in that same account to send to a client. When he tried to log in, he froze. He couldn’t remember the new password. He tried every combination he could think of, but nothing worked. Password reset emails required answers to security questions he barely remembered setting up years ago. After many failed attempts, the account got locked for 24 hours.

Frustrated and embarrassed, Rashid spent half the night digging through old emails and documents, hoping he had saved the password somewhere. He hadn’t. The document he needed was due the next morning, and there was no way to get it in time. Rashid had to explain to his client why he couldn’t deliver the file, which cost him not only money but also trust.

Later, sitting at his desk, Rashid did something he should have done long ago: he installed a reputable password manager and wrote down a master password in a safe place. He also updated all his other passwords to be unique and secure, storing them properly.

Lesson:

We often think “it won’t happen to me,” but it can happen to anyone. Being organized and cautious with digital security isn’t a waste of time — it protects your work, reputation, and peace of mind.