Episode 5- The ignorance of being wealthy
I wish I knew better
My father taught me all my life to invest myself in my academics, which will earn me riches in life. To my father, getting wealthy or being someone important in life meant being at the top of your class.
I was restricted from a lot of things as a child, such as parties, hangout with friends, toys, television, even trips because I had no other business than bringing an ‘A’ report sheet.
The system is pretty screwed up, simply because we have ignorant people running it. In my second year in the university, my Entrepreneurship lecturer went on and on about how important it is to be a businessman/ woman. He taught us about ventures of raising capital and how to manage a business.
The irony there was my lecturer was not an entrepreneur, he was a salary earner working a 9–5. He knew nothing about business or how it actually worked because he had no business of his own. Jokes on him
He was only teaching us a scripted syllabus which has been existing since my great-grandfather and probably modified based on trends.
Not to mention our parents. They keep telling us to study hard and we will make it big.
That’s a lie and I hate that it has taken me 16years of jumping from school to school to realize this. My father has written more than 1000 papers, with over 500 of them published, he has 4 certificates (BTECH., MBA, MSC, PhD) yet he doesn’t have half the wealth of Davido. (Not that he is wealth oriented, but you get my point)
This clearly proves that no matter how hardworking you are or how many certificates you pack; you will never be rich.
You tell me, how many rich guys, I mean well-to-do rich men that have made it with just a bag load of certificates. While you scan your empty memory (because you don’t know, but I do) let me give you a run-down of those I know.
My father and his group of friends.
I admire my father, he is probably the most hardworking man in this life and very much educated. Yet he's nothing but a Professor in a university and he will never be anything more than that because age is not on his side anymore. His youthful days were spent running after lecturers to earn an ‘A’ and pursuing certificates (good thing, but a complete waste of time).
In this 21st century, people respect persons who are practical, people who are knowledgeable and make things happen. With the 4 glorious certificates my father has on his shelve, none of them has given him financial rest.
If he stops working today, he is done for. That means, no income and no income means poverty. I know I’m being harsh and perhaps tactless, but this is the hard pill people of this generation need to hear.
No one makes money off certificate, no company/ institution will ever pay you more than themselves, no matter the certificate you possess. You can have all the qualifications in the world, yet you will have to work with what your employer has to offer and they will obviously not pay you above themselves (cause you’re just the employee). So, tell me how you will make wealth, I mean long term-wealth when you’re constantly being restricted to a caged salary.
Sigh, I wish my father knew better because he would have taught me better. I wouldn’t have joined the bandwagon of certificates chasing puppet. All the wealthy people I know are business owners or investing their money in a wise venture, they’re not just employees.
Being an employee alone will never make you wealthy, just like home Jollof will never taste like party Jollof. This is a fact.
You may live a comfortable life working with your bag load of certificates, eat good food, drive nice cars, maybe travel to exotic places…but bear in mind, to be wealthy (financial rest), you will need to throw your certificate and your 9–5 attitude in the bin (not literally, cause if you do, that’s on you o) because you won’t be needing it on the next journey I’m going to be exposing you to.
To the people, you may not know who made wealth without climbing the horrifying ladder of certificates. This is what I call smart work, hard work isn’t paying off any more. You can work all your organs out and still not make it big. It’s like tilling the soil with a cutlass when there is a tractor, hard work right, but let’s face it, isn’t that dumb work.
Smart work is strategic and easy, my father will call it being lazy, I call it a cosy day on the beach.
However, bear in mind three things
- Business is not for everyone. The 9–5 might perfectly be for you and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. I would mind having one at the moment, but such is life.
- Also very importantly, if you are thinking. “Omo na true thing Tobi dey talk. I go start my business” Let it be known, starting isn't as easy as it sounds, it is hard work. If you’re not built for it, don’t even bother.
- It is smart to gather experiences from different places before setting up a business. This will place you on a very solid foundation.
Next-week I will tell you a story about a friend of mine who worked in a psychiatric clinic and eventually became mad himself
