Life is not fair, Get used to it. Begin with an End in Mind.
Bill gates once said “Life is not fair, get used to it”
In its opening remarks, the zeitgeist addendum movie delves into institutions that have governed our lives for millennia namely religious and monetary institutions. It adds that "none of the institutions/ systems is least understood as the monetary system". While the Bible, 1 Timothy 6:10 says, "the love of money is a root cause of all evil", I am personally convinced that, “Failure to understand the mechanics of money, is a recipe for an unexpected financial end”.
Reflecting on the modern money mechanics publication by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, the narrator avers, “Money is made in the bank, and returned to the bank with an interest”. This therefore means that every penny in your pocket is owed to someone, who also owes it to somebody...I will add to the statement that, "kindly put that money to good use".
Bob Marley in his redemption song, perhaps inspired by some of Marcus Garvey’s writings, coins a phrase, “emancipate yourselves from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds…” This statement speaks to a deeper truth that our mind is the single-most important rudder of our lives. However, a daunting question remains, where and how do we exercise our minds?
Most young people spend their time largely on TV, hopping from Party-After-Party and clearly consumed by the entertainment industry and their icons, leaving less or no time for building themselves up. They are certainly misguided by a misconception that they have all the time in the world and will catch up with life’s important decisions to an unspecified date in the future. They exude unfounded entitlement for things they’re less willing to toil for, as though the universe is indebted to them, and have an insatiable desire for instant success as though life is some sort of lottery. By the time they wake up to the humbling truth, it is rather late. As Robert Kiyosaki shares in his book, "Think and Grow Rich", times have changed and education must be viewed for what it is, and not merely as a gateway for money-making.
Our mindset about money, work and investment has a strong bearing on our lives. Jewish Rabbi Daniel Lapin says, “If you think that making money is evil and that it is something that God doesn’t smile at, then you will be poor the rest of your life”. Bill gates in his other quote says, "If you are born poor, it is your not your mistake, but if you die poor its your mistake". Peter Ruhukya Asiimwe, in one of his lectures about retirement, made a very profound statement, “begin thinking about retirement the day your start to work”. This statement perhaps takes from Stephen Covey’s Second habit “begin with an end in mind”, discussed at length in his book titled, “7 habits of highly effective people”. Talking to a graduating class at Uganda Christian University Mukono, Vision Group CEO Robert Kabushenga said - paraphrased, "No one owes you a living after graduation, start something of your own"
A Daily monitor June 04, 2019 pg. 19, article titled, “Why savers live sadly after getting retirement money” caught my attention. In the article, Fifty-three percent (53%) savers said that their savings from NSSF (National Social Security Fund) only sustain them for less than a year. Yet still, by the end of the year, 98% percent had no cash left, having spent it in most cases on non-cash return projects.
One wonders and asks a daunting question indeed, as a certain tweeter user put it, “people have the patience to be employed for 25+ years yet lack the patience of starting a business and watching it grow over 4 years”. Could it be the mental slavery that Bob Marley reflected upon or could it be what Bob Dylan sung about in one of his lines in the blowin’ in the wind song, “how many times must a man look up before, before he can see the sky?”. Is it a case for inadequate planning and management lessons as Jim Rohn - American entrepreneur, author and motivational speaker, put in one of his seminars that, “If you don’t plan for your life, someone else will; and guess what, it is not much they have planned for you?”.
The education system largely trains people for employment, irrespective of astronomical unemployment levels especially in LMICs. Perhaps the most disturbing phenomenon is the conflation between work and employment, as the Late Dr. Myles Munroe put it vividly in his lecture “Keys To Personal Success & Prosperity”. Most people don't realize that a job is meant to nurture your work, and that there is life after employment.
Why in the world, have African countries largely remained recipients of donor aid and failed to outlive it as compared to some other countries? Could it be that we are not thinking that far ahead? Or perhaps we have become entitled to Donor Aid itself? In his book, “The White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much ill and So Little Good”, William Easterly reveals that the “planners” approach to solving problems using Donor aid, has performed miserably. He proposes that the “searchers” can do better, citing compelling examples of commendable accomplishments. I wonder, whether the education system in most LMICs, has taken on the planners approach and failed to listen to searchers, an approach that has proved detrimental to its products, who graduate through it feeling more entitled than ever before, with a near inflexible mindset and attitude towards work.
