There used to be a false narrative that for
anyone to be successful or take off in life, they should and must have a decent
paying office job, something that has been debunked over and over again, the
most successful people in the world didn’t attend college and /or had office
gainful employment, they started their hustles and believed in them. It is true that
getting a college degree gives a comparative advantage but what matters the
most is translating the degree into a real life solution.
Having
a shiny college degree and [or] so many of them isn’t a big deal, the real
degree is, what can you do with it? I have a job today but do you know what
else I do with my life? I dig. I go to the gardens, with garden tools and do very
great work there ; those you who have seen my gardens can attest to this, they are
impressive. Do not let degrees blind you to the realities of life; there is
more to life than academic credentials.
For the Love of it
After school, you can choose to do something
that ends up changing your life, for the Love of it, often called amateurs. As
a fresh graduate, three years on the street without a gainful employment, I
decided it was time to take on writing as my second reputation, a writer. For
so many times, I have dressed, paid my rent, bought the basics for myself
through the years, without gainful employment, as an “amateur writer”.
I made writing my new job and started earning
from my legit hustle, outside what I thought I would translate into after
school, a procurement officer. The hustle life can sometimes be draining and
excruciating, especially as you build your brand, but in the end, it can pay
off. The beauty about sit-home jobs is that you can commit two hours off your
schedule and earn money to take you through a week, once the you broken the
market. This is something that requires patience and constant self- education,
because you are competing with “professionals” who have a cutting-edge
experience.
Start as a wannabe
Six years ago, I was a “wannabe writer”,
today, considering I have earned from my pain, got recognition even on an
international level, trust me I have the bragging rights. Born and raised in a
very humble background, little did I know that a self-made village boy would
run a campaign for and on behalf of the former first lady and secretary of
state of the United States, Hillary Clinton. I founded a team Clinton in 2016,
after many years of writing out of passion on President Obama, Dr. Besigye and
doing speech writing for so many powerful people in our land. It has taken me places and yes, today my
reputation precedes me. When J. K Rowling
said that we do not need magic to change the world because we carry all the power
we need in our hands already to imagine better, she was right, “we have the
power to imagine better.”
“Amateurs” rise
At the most basic levels, professionals in
any field are simply people who earn a living in that field, while amateurs are
people who don’t. But the terms amateur and professional often imply something
else- something about quality and expertise. People often think of amateurs as
second rate, as those who perform well below professional levels. Amateurs are
the ones who gesticulate too wildly in the local theatre production, who score
over a hundred on the golf course, or who write cute stories. When we call
something amateurish, we use the word as a pejorative. We are suggesting that
the thing that the thing upon which we are commenting is nowhere near
professional, that the effort is something of an embarrassment.
Sometimes it is reasonable to draw sharp
distinctions between professionals and amateurs. There can, after all, be
enormous differences of accomplishment between them. If say, I had to do a
vasectomy, I would prefer to put it in the hands of someone who did that sort
of thing for a living than someone who occasionally dabbled in it. But often the
differences between professionals and amateurs have less to do with quality
than with choice.
More education - back to school and upgrade,
they say. What about lack of Mobility? What about competing in the global economy?
Education really isn’t the answer to making a dime to your name. How can the
answer not be education? Yes, of course should be the answer but education will
only be the answer when it becomes a democratic education for a democratic
workplace.
Yes, then it will be the answer but it is not
the answer yet, and, in the meantime, might only reinforce the top-down
authoritarian corporate structure that is preventing education from being the
answer. Getting educated is the drumbeat for all; you might probably not
compete with someone with a master’s degree at any workplace if your recent
academic qualification is an undergraduate degree/diploma. Sad, isn’t it?
Doesn’t it reinstate more education?
There is no foothold left in big cities, or
any place else where the global winners live, for high graduates to exercise
even a tiny bit of power.
At the 2020 HBCU virtual commencement address, president Barack. H. Obama
has hit it straight outta the park, he said to the graduates: “You’ve got
more road maps, more role models, and more resources than the civil rights
generation did. You’ve got more tools, technology, and talents than my
generation did. No generation has been better positioned to be warriors for
justice and remake the world,” couldn’t agree more. If we use what we
have, meet the right people, we can be what we have always wanted to: go where
we have always dreamed of. Onward Together!
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