RICH in experience and money this what we all want to be! But, does our environment which we live in, provide all the means and right experience for us to experience the RICHness of life?
Indians used to say "maatha pithaa guru theivam" or "Mother Father Teacher God"
Which means that we get our experience and education starting from our mother followed by father, teacher and God thus, we need to give respect and have a gratitude for them in the same order. I just leave out God here. In ancient times there wasn't any formal education so, kids get education from their parents and teachers based on class/caste. If your are from agriculture class you will get the hands on experience on agriculture while if you are in the warrior class you will get the skills of defence and martials arts. Things are different and changed during the Industrialized Age (I know we are in IT Age! But I don't want to get there yet, because we need to get out of Industrial Age mentality first before going to IT Age mentality)and our current education system is still based on Industrial Age mentality.
Ok, back to the title from old saying "maatha->pithaa->guru" lets change the sequence in a different order Government -> Teachers -> Parents/society* and see WHY they don't want us to be RICH!
*I added society because sometimes their influence is stronger than our parents influence, especially with the Social Networks like Facebook, Myspace and etc.
First lets look at our GOVERNMENT
Our education system is designed by our government (ever changing Education Ministry and their changing education policy), but the concept of education never changed for past 50 years! It is syllabus-ed for Industrial Age which means we all are a product of Industrial age education and those finishing school now are also will be a product of Industrial Age education. This education is design for mass producing working force for production and service industry specilist like technician, skilled workers, accountant, secretary, nurse, doctor, engineer, lawyers, or computer programmer. 'This are the people who know a lot about a little."
Students begin focusing on their academic strengths and taking courses with an eye towards high paying future careers. They are constantly pushed to be smart, study hard, and get good grades.
By time, everyone started to compete for higher academic qualification and high paying jobs resulted to highly educated left-brained persons. Right brain which is associated with pictures, art, music, and others like creativity & imagination is ignored.
If you ask a highly educated left-brained person for the definition of intelligence, he or she replies,"If you agree with me you are intelligent. if you don't you're an idiot."
We are not train to use our other hand skills in making or creating things, creating new ideas, arts, music and etc. All this is only optional activities or sometimes luxury activities for us and often ignored.
Being rich (financially or experience) means developing both brain in balance. If we talk about money for example, "If I ask you what is the difference between MONEY and CURRENCY?", not many can answers this question.
Even an A student leaves school knowing little. Most of us learn about money from people who also are not financially intelligent. This is why so many people have middle-class aspirations i.e living below your means, saving money, and staying out of debt.
Not everyone is getting financial education/education about money, even if some get financial education like accounting students.......they are thought and trained to work for others!
Next TEACHERs
In school teachers depend on fear to motivate, threaten rather than teach, imitate rather than innovate, punish mistake rather than encourage, play it safe rather than think bigger. I remember teachers saying to me" If you don't get good grades, you won't get good job." Though I got many As it only gave me half of the experience the another half was suppressed!!! Sadly!!!
Mistake and failure are rewarded with punishment! So we all became, play it safe professionals working until retirement.
BUT, in the RICH mans world "one learns from mistakes, not successes" The rich take big risk, take challenges and think big. Why the Japanese are so successful in creating new technology and cutting edge products........they love to make mistakes and failure.the more they make the more they learn and without giving up and stopping at first failure they repeat and repeat until there is a solution.
Finally PARENTs
So, when this poor students are back home.............. what their parents have for them....the same thing " Be smart, study hard, get good grades and get high paying job"
Some even go to the extend to fixed a career for their kids....I want you to became a doctor, engineer, lawyer and etc!!! Success is measure with As :8As, 9As, 10As" wows lots of AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAs
And this ignorant parents doesn't know that " A students work for C students and B student work for the government"
I always ask kids "What you want to be when you grow up?" And the common answer is Doctor, engineer, lawyer or teacher no one will say I want to be a entrepreneur, creating new solution to a old problems or to be successful on doing something or providing a service etc, I want to do this or that. Their mind is already set to work for others. I am not saying doctors are not necessary but this kids need to think beyond doctor and develop other skill together so that even if they became a Dr. they will be RICH in $ and RICH in EXPERIENCE.
Nowadays, I changed my question!
"What kind a businessman or entrepreneur you want to be?"
"What how rich you want to be?"
I see a them freeze....without answers!
Look around, and you will see that most of the business man, successful entrepreneurs are C students. The statistic shows many billionaires/millionaires are either performed poorly in school or drop outs. This doesn't means you should ask your kids to fail but, just take balance to develop both the left and right brains and don't to carried away with As because the government, teacher and parents want you work for others, pay bills, save and be a middle class intentional and unintentionally!
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