This article is dedicated to students who are still in high
school, and undergraduates in the higher institutions of 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real world is now outdated.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.
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