IT IS so shocking that a good number of educated people around us are living a life of poverty and lack, yet they are supposed to have learnt from school knowledge and skills to help them create wealth. 

Well, it’s my belief that even if you went to school, if what you learnt cannot help you solve your problems then you are uneducated and should begin seeking true education from relevant people, places, experiences and programs.

There are things I wish I had learnt ten years ago. Ten years ago, I was busy warming up to complete my university education and graduate. Unfortunately no one had prepared me enough for the world of work.

I thought excelling in exams was the only thing that was required of me; the rest would flow in line. I would find a job in one month, buy land and a car in one year and get married in the second year.

One year down the road, I was earning what could hardly cater for my upkeep. In the meantime I was writing songs for friends and articles for newspapers and magazines free of charge. Why hadn’t anyone told me that I could earn from my talent?  Why hadn’t anyone told me of the option of business? By then I thought to start a business you needed to be a ‘mature’ man/woman, having retired from employment, with lots of experience. How wrong I was!

If I had the power to change my past, I would delete the years I wasted struggling to get and keep jobs. It’s unfortunate that I am just learning certain principles of life that I should have learnt many years ago. But it’s more unfortunate that there are people, my parents’ age, who have not yet even started learning these principles.

Part of what I encourage every young person to learn is self-defense and other survival skills. It’s unfortunate that these days young people have more rude-models than role-models, but these are skills that should be learnt from role models. I wish ten years ago  I had someone to teach me that self-defense is not only protecting oneself from wild beasts, robbers or rapists, but that rather it goes as far as defending one’s spirit against the blows of life. 

Self defence is a fight against extinction. It’s a survival mechanism. It means shielding oneself against situations that threaten the existence of the inner man. It’s important that we develop principles that brace us against failure, fear, frustration and loss. On a day when you have no money in your pocket or when a bank loan hanging over your neck, how do you react?

If you are a fun of series, you have watched soldiers get interrogated through torture but they refuse to give up vital information. It doesn’t come naturally; they have been conditioned to survive harsh conditions. During their training they are deliberately exposed to rough and tough situations so as to strengthen their spirit.

If a parent makes his children work throughout the holidays he’s not turning them into slaves. If a school introduces a farming program it’s not mistreating the students; it’s teaching them survival skills. With survival skills you can watch others crumble before the difficulties of life, while inside you are feeling as strong as John Rambo in First Blood. 

It is these same survival skills that will make you afford to live on little money, save the rest and invest it for the future. Trying to achieve financial freedom and a good life without survival skills is as difficult as trying to remember someone you’ve never met.

Bake is the MD WORLD OF INSPIRATION & Founder, AUTHORS’ FORUM (+256-704666851).