Too Brilliant to be Intelligent!
Perhaps the most useful ‘liability’ you can spend your money on is your education – not just school, but the kind of skills they don’t teach in school. Whenever I was asked the question, “what do you want to be when you grow up?” I often heard opinions and recommendations such as “Go to School, Study a Good Course, Get a Good Grade, and then find a safe and secure job.”
I have discovered that people who follow this public opinion find themselves achieving victories that are empty. While in school, we study, struggle with grades and end up being programmed into the mind of ‘go look for job’ but we end up seeing the fact that the ‘world’ we expected while studying in school does no longer exist – it has pass along with time and our expectations are cut short. And now, we are left behind with an old mindset that does not tally with the new world.
It is incredibly easy to get caught up in an activity, trap in the ‘busy-ness’ of life, to work harder and harder at climbing the ladder of success only to discover its leaning against the wrong wall.
John Updike said:
“The founding fathers in their wisdom decided that children were an unnatural strain on their parents. So they provided jails called school, equipped with tortures called education.”
H.L Mencken said:
“School days, I believe, are the unhappiest in the whole span of human existence. They are full of dull, unintelligible tasks, new and unpleasant ordinances, and brutal violations of common sense and common decency.”
Galileo said:
“You cannot teach a person anything; you can only help him find it within himself.”
Mark Twain said:
“I never let schooling interfere with my education.”
Now, the question is: “why do people go to school?” in trying to answer this question, you will observe that 99% of humanity go to school in other to have a high-steady pay check, benefits and job security when they come out. This is why statistics says “99% of humanity will not achieved financial freedom” the reason is because school has already ‘cooked’ and programmed her student into a financial quadrant that is a wrong road map to financial freedom.
Another question I want to ask: “Why are the dropout, with the quality of finding their passion and keeping their dreams alive, end up becoming financially free?” then it dawn on me that success is ‘who you are’ and not what you have. You may or may not have good education, but that is not important, the only important thing is building ‘who you are.’
Life is sweet when you have a clear understanding of your destination; I prefer to say just like my mentor: “The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step in the right direction.” Else there is no need taking a wrong step. Seemingly, life is beautiful when you choose the ‘first and the right’ setting of Goal towards your finances.
That Goal is not job security, not $100,000,000; it’s not a high pay check but it is choosing ‘Financial freedom.’ This Goal is very important, it is the right map. “Our plans miscarry because they have no aim, when a man does not know what harbour he is making for, no wind is the right wind”-Seneca.
Sadly, money becomes an illusion, and like a carrot before the donkey without financial intelligence, this is why people spend their entire life working for money. More importantly, you can be intelligent but lack financial intelligence. Being a Doctor, Lawyer, Engineer and Professors in our respective field of study does not grant us a direct access to financial wisdom, this very type of education was not taught in school.
At this point, I will let you ruminate over what you have read so far. If you can read it all over again please do so that it can sink into you. And also, you should act positively on it. After that, you can read the next part of this effective post.
Too Brilliant to be Intelligent! Part 2
Originally posted 2012-06-07 08:00:37.
