4 ways of Making Money which is never talked about in any Education System.
Go to School, Study Well, Get good grades, get a safe secure Job and settle down well in Life. This seems to be a familiar advise most of us receive from parents.
This is well-intended on their part because our forefathers have seen the Agricultural era change to an industrial economy, in which 9-to-5 jobs became the best possible option.
Today the world has changed, Industrial age is over, Yet we continue to pass the same old parental advise and expect our children to go through the Education system to find Success!
I too continue to give the same advice to my 14-year-old son (while sparing my 9-year-old daughter as she is yet to reach the high school).
It may be too much of a risk to change this good old idea, isn’t it?
Talk to any new parent especially when it comes to their child’s first school experience. They are so excited(as well as anxious), There is so much research that goes in(and confusion) as to which school is the best, which system should we choose? should it be CBSE, ICSE, IGCSE, IB curriculum etc…
Some of the parents even secretly wished their town had the world-famous Finland school system(No standardized tests, no Home Works, no stress).
On the other hand, there are some parents who would debate that Asian Education System is the best value for money. In this system, the children can have a head start and learn to cram smart. This apparently makes them more competitive, than those educated in the Western System.
Finnish, IB or Asian Education? Which one of them is the best is always debatable. Each of them has its own share of merits and demerits. There are success stories of those who reached the pinnacle of success having studied in their remote village school, and there are also those who came out of Top school, only to lead a mediocre life.
All said and done, I have come to realize that, ‘it is the Journey which is more important than the destination’. The chosen school system is perhaps not what matters as much, rather the overall process that we go through to complete school life is what shapes our primary foundation.
The College/University Level may need some serious changes to keep up with today’s times. There is a large supply of student population churning out of the institutions year on year, the pity is that most of them are not equipped with the skills needed to match the available Job opportunities.
Furthermore, we all know there are not as many jobs today as what we had in the past decade. AI and Automation have further dented the regular job market. We are moving away from Job-based economy to a Skill-based economy. The Job market may be limited to highly skilled roles, and the gig jobs may become the norm of the future( We are already seeing this with Online food deliveries,on-demand Taxi services, Fiverr and Upwork gigs etc)
Expecting the Education system to change and come in par with the Job market may be easier said than done. The best they can perhaps do is to introduce the courses which are currently the need of the market. However, The technologies are emerging at such lightning speed that the course in demand at the start of the College may become more or less obsolete by the time 4-year degree course is complete. Thus the employees would be under constant pressure to remain skilled, proficient and relevant in the Workplace.
It would then become the responsibility of individuals to equip themselves and remain aware of the path they need to choose. Not everything will be taught by schools and universities. There are many lessons only Life can teach, we have to go through the struggles of Life
(School of Hard knocks as some would call it). Hence, It is always best to seek out a Mentor who has walked the path to shorten the learning curve.
Some of the best Lessons and inspirations can come from Books and Blogs. I caught the reading bug a bit too late in life. It was only after my engineering degree did I come to know the world of self-improvement/self-help books. One of the very first books that fascinated me was Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad Poor Dad, wherein he talks about the 4 ways of Earning Money and Making a Living.
The ESBI Quadrant he talked about intrigued me. It is just a simple visual, but it had so much of an impact on me and many of the like-minded entrepreneurs that I work together today. If you haven’t already seen it before, here is the little visual which can perhaps be your light bulb moment.
At the time of my first reading during 1998, it mentioned 90% of the world’s population is on the Left, while 10% is on the Right. People on the Left work hard for money, they are stressed, depressed but well dressed, whilst Money works Harder for those on the Right even while they are sleeping, travelling or vacationing.
As of today in 2020, the gap is getting even wider, It is somewhere around 97% vs 3%.
No wonder the Rich is getting Richer and Poor is getting Poorer. In fact, it is the middle class who is shrinking in most of the developed economies, and this fact alone should be enough of an eye-opener to re-look at the changes to take control of our future.
This lesson was life-changing to me, It opened my mind to the possibilities, I got so immersed into Kiyosakis Book, which further hooked me to another of his Book- “Retire Young Retire Rich”, in which he talks about the concept of Retiring by age 40. This concept had a profound impact on me, from there on I have set on a path to explore the world of Business and Investing which eventually got me to become Job Free on my 40th Birthday.
These lessons, unfortunately, are not taught in our education system. We have to constantly seek knowledge, self-learning is the way to go. There are so many impactful lessons out there, it becomes all the more interesting when they are in the form of simple visuals — i.e. diagrams, graphs, vectors and illustrations. I intend to dive into these topics in the upcoming series. Watch out for my upcoming Blogs for more insights.
Today we are in challenging yet interesting times. As of this writing, COVID-19 Pandemic is taking a toll on the global economy. These are testing times and This too shall pass.
This is not the first pandemic world has seen, hopefully, we will recover and bounce back. However, the question is how prepared are you as an Individual?
We cannot depend on the Governments or Corporations alone to come out strong,
It is equally important for each of us to open our minds, explore the opportunities and prepare to become self-sufficient and immune to any future adversities- and if we do keep our eyes and ears open, Future Work-Life Integration could be brighter than ever before!
Connect with the Author on www.nsquareco.com to explore the Limitless possibilities.