This article is dedicated to students who are still in high school, and
undergraduates in the higher institutions learning. For those who are
privileged to have access to formal education, there is this long time
belief that higher education would guarantee one financial security,
fame and success in life. Hence the common advice parents give their
children is “go to school, get good grades and a high paying job is
guaranteed”. The reality is that this belief and strategy of surviving
in the real world is now outdated. Graduates who see the acquisition of a
degree as a means of surviving in the real world only get outside there
to find out that they were not ready for life at all.
To survive in a 21st century world as a Nigerian graduate, you must equip yourself with the following five tools.
(1)
SKILL: One thing you are going to need badly after school and for the
rest of your life is money, that is why you still see men in their 40s,
50s even 60s still riding okada and driving taxi to earn money. The
truth is that immediately you become a graduate your parents or those
who were responsible for your training will stop supporting you
financially. They will assume you now have all it takes to survive, so
the collection of pocket money will stop, and you will have to start
solving your financial problems with your own earning ability. What this
implies is that you will have to look for job with your certificate,
and most often you will likely be underemployed, meaning you will not be
paid what you are worth. The consequence of this is that you will end
up not having enough financial resources to actualize your goals.
Solving your financial problem will become difficult, and definitely the
need for money will rise, because you will start thinking of getting a
place for yourself, so that you can be on your own, getting married,
going for a master’s program and so on. As this happens, psychological
problems such as frustration, depression, self-pity, low self-esteem
will start setting in, and if you are not careful, you may get
demoralized to the point giving up on life.
To survive or avoid
this you need a skill. Skill is the ability to do something very well.
In the real world, people don't pay you for your certificate, they pay
you for what you can do, and that's is the only legal way of getting
money in the society, if you do otherwise, you would be called a
fraudster, a thief or an armed robber. For example if I know how to
repair phones anyone who has any problem with his/her phone will always
come to me , and by the time I help him/her to solve the problem, the
individual will pay me for that service. Now the question is what can
you do? How can you render direct service with your current course of
study?
The point here is you must have a skill. If you have none
yet, enroll in a training center and start learning something. There are
so many things you can learn within three months, and that would earn
you nothing less than 50,000 per month.
Never look down on any
skill, just consider your interest and what you love doing, and then
acquire a skill in that area. When you do this, you can easily become
your own boss after school or even before you graduate. If you are a
graduate already reading this article and don’t have a job yet I
recommend same. With an extra skill, you can increase your income. Never
put your hope on getting a job that is not certain. To be forewarned is
to before armed.
(2) INFORMATION: There is a general believe
that knowledge is power, and that is very true. The 21st century world
is information driven, and you need to consistently update yourself with
the latest information in the areas that are critical to your survival.
Sometimes people suffer because of ignorance.
If you must meet
up with the latest trend, you have to develop the habit if continuous
learning, you must be an ardent reader and an unrelenting information
seeker. Try as much as possible to know everything you need to know that
will help you to maximize your potentials. Always remember that what
you don't know is more powerful than you. Keep yourself informed so that
you will not be deformed.
Besides the acquisition of
information, one other critical thing is the application of the
information you have obtained. Having information without using is
meaningless. Strive as much as possible to know all that you need to
know about moving to your next level and take action at the right time.
(3)
GUT: According to oxford advance learner dictionary, gut is defined as
the courage or ability to do something difficult or unpleasant. The
truth is that life is not fair for anybody, and definitely you are going
to have your own share of life's difficulty in your quest for success.
If you must succeed in the real world, gut is a necessary factor,
because without it you will lack the courage to take action when things
are not favorable, and that will keep you long in the valley of
mediocrity. You may be very intelligent while in school, but after
graduation you will discover that so many of your classmates who were
not as intelligent as you were back in your school days are getting
ahead, the reason is simply because they have the gut to try their ideas
and that's what is getting them going.
To develop this quality,
all you have to do is to cure yourself of every known fear. Experts in
the field of personal development have identified certain fears that
contribute to people's failure in life. Such fears include, the fear of
death, fear of loss love, fear of ill-health, fear of criticism, fear of
physical pain, fear of old age and so on. I assure you that if you can
master these basic fears, you are going to have enough gut to try
anything. Action is what produces result. You will never succeed if you
don't try and to try all you need is gut.
(4) HARD WORK: In all
of human history, hard work has been a critical tool of success, nothing
can replace it. For you to survive and excel in the real world, you
need an unwavering ability to take action, and persevere until you
succeed. Most persons fail in life due to idleness. If you want to be
poor all you need to do is be idle, and before you know it poverty will
overtake you. A wise man once said that “where talent is lazy, hard work
overtakes it”. No matter how knowledgeable, gifted and talented you
are, if you refused to be hard-working, you will definitely be a
failure. Always have it in mind that hard work is the only way. Never
forget to always blend your hard work with strategic planning and
persistence. Hard work combined in this manner will produce success.
(5)
NETWORKING: Networking has to do with your ability to connect with
people that will help you in getting to your next level. Niyi Adesanya, a
personal development expert based in Nigeria once define individual
competitiveness (in my own word, your capacity for success) as ‘’what
you know + how you express it × by who you know and who knows you’’. I
completely agree with his definition. The caliber of people you know and
people who know you has a way of facilitating your success in life. As
the world is today, the people we know to be the best in certain field
are not actually the best. There are so many people who would have
out-shined them if they are brought out of obscurity, but because they
are not known by those who can position them to receive the honour they
are worthy of, they remain irrelevant in their cocoon. If we must fully
maximize our potential and remain relevant, our ability to network and
connect with people who can help us get to our next level is critical.
Source
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