It hurts me so much these days, knowing that the teeming population of youth in Nigeria have resorted into Advance Fee Fraud and Gambling. Government hasn’t done much to help though, considering how it handled the economy and piloted the affairs of the nation. We’re plagued with bad policies and incessant corruption. None of the aforementioned should justify why we the youths have derailed morally to embrace FRAUD and GAMBLING. The former and latter are insidious habits that gradually reduces any hope of legitimate success. It forms a pattern for what they would do continually, to sustain and earn a living. Arguing in favour of the latter is mootable considering its economic benefits, how it create jobs for people, enrich a few, while impoverishing the rest in the process. Folks engaged in both feel no remorse whatsoever for what they do nowadays. They even swash and brag about it on the social media. It’s disheartening to learn that kids now want to emulate them, and toe the line of such horrid and odious counterculture. I respect these set of people as human though, because they happen to fall into one or many of the following categories my; friends, families, neighbours and acquaintances.
Money isn’t cash, which is what these people don’t understand, it is value. The real money is actually invisible, it is the output of a productive mind (not the type of Yahoo Yahoo sleepless night), and it only come to us, in exchange for problems solved. Whatever problem you can solve for people around you, that’s your own means of making money. The factors that however determine how much money you make are;
1. How quick you are to locate the problems you can solve?
2. Who you know, that has one problem or the other (A need you can meet)?
3. Where they are (Location)?
4. How best you can solve the problems? (Proficiency and Excellence)
The more problems you can solve, the more money you attract, simply find that thing you are super passionate about, develop your talents, add value to people’s lives, and deliberately use it to create value and enrich yourself. Of recent, I returned to the student environment, where I’ve spent most of my adult life. My career, everything I had done revolved around students in various locations, but ASUU was on strike, and I couldn’t access my greatest market for demand. I felt it, as my earnings over the period was significantly low. I had to source for a new market that requires my services and skillsets. I know the students terrain so well, that I can actually write a guide or a model for students on their “inter-dependent economy” within tertiary Institutions in the country.
On meeting people’s needs, the perfect example was my proprietor in secondary school, I heard the stories of how he started as a lesson teacher, before conceptualizing starting a school. Not just any type of school, but the type that would meet standards. The early days were rough, I learnt people disrespected him, and looked down on him. But he persevered and remained focused on achieving his aims and objectives, which were later improved upon and up-scaled. He understood the concept above. He saw the need for quality education, as the system was deficient, he knew people in Akoko and Ondo state at large needed quality education, so He mapped out a plan, and worked assiduously towards providing the quality educational services the people so much desired. Years along, it is now a success story, as the school has produced excellent students that I’m proud to be part of, on top of that, he became a prominent figure and a household name in Ondo state. The wealth he acquired over the years, is just one of the many perks that came with his passion to serve and help humanity.
I’ve written severally on how I and my friends made cool money legitimately while in school, it was the same for some of my various acquaintances. It made me realize that the right entrepreneurship knowledge generates the same order of results everywhere. You may be a fashion designer, an MC who compere events, or a Disc Jockey, Graphic designer, Portrait artist, Photographer, Content writer, Social Media Manager/Digital strategist, Caterer, Programmer, Logistics Manager, Actor/Actress and Artist. The list goes on and on for all value adding services:
On how best you can solve the looming problems: I would advise that you acquire more knowledge (Not necessarily academic), seek avenues to continually improve your talents, volunteer, attend seminars and developmental trainings then watch yourself become transformed and soar. Opportunities abound everywhere, just for you to position yourself strategically so as to experience the change you desire, don’t wait for one, instead go and work for it.