SmartWork Or HardWork

Let's have a cerebral discussion... We all can learn from each other.

I have always believed that so many factors contribute to what a child will turn out to be in life. Aside God-factor, I know the family a child is born into, The schools they attended, The friends they made, the neighborhood (environment and country inclusive) they grew up goes a long way to mold his future. This is my truth.

I also believe this goes a long way to determine the orientation of a child. Our generation had some training from our parents and that has changed our orientation. Some of us went to school carrying slates and chalks. Some had to cut grass for being late and some even had it rough fetching water from the stream.

This new generation will not understand majority of what we experienced. A slate makes no meaning to my son who got his own tablet at age 2. Washing clothes and fetching water makes no sense to my son because there is a washing machine and taps everywhere in the house that supply water. I deviated. Let’s get back to the discussion.

I started my education from a Public Primary school (Methodist Primary School) and I was told to withdraw because I was not staying in class. At age four, I went back home. For two years, I served my punishment by staying at home. At age six, my father did me a huge favour. He enrolled me in one of the best Private Nursery school in my state to start from Nursery one. You see, that singular favour changed my life. That singular favour molded me to be ME.

I met fantastic people there whose friendship I still have till date. My talents were discovered and I must say I was groomed to be the best. I remember my younger brother had a very rough time at Christ School until my dada changed his school to a private secondary school. That “Change” actually made him a PILOT today.

I however believe that we need to unlearn so many things. Some of us are becoming the parents our parents were. We are interchanging smart upbringing with hard upbringing. When we went to schools, we had it rough and tough. Teachers bullied us to silence. We were seen but not heard. University education was worse. Lecturers slept with a lot of girls and messed up their lives.

The country we lived in contributed to it. There is a culturally roadblock that says an elder is always right. There is culturally hurdle of silence. That empowered a lot of evil to thrive.

However, while we are still basking in the glory of the 18^th century, where a child needs to go to school and walk a long distance before he can get knowledge, some people are already living in the present. They sit at home or in the convenience of their offices and attend classes virtually. Online Virtual class, either real-time or recorded.

It’s however unfortunate that our children will also compete with these children who finds live easy and amusing just like we are competing with the likes of Zuckerberg. It’s hard to try to judge a child who grew up under a constrained environment with no opportunity to succeed with another who had life practically read out like a script.

See, it’s hard enough for us to raise kids in this clime. I have always loved Nigeria. Never has it crossed my mind to relocate but sincerely, I have thought about the future of my two kids in comparison with the same child in Canada or USA. I have told myself repeatedly that it’s a great disservice to expect the same excellent return from my son in comparison to a Jude’s son in Atlanta.

I then realized that it’s completely wrong to judge my son based on the old yardstick my parents used. In our parent’s days, Entrepreneurship wasn’t a thing of joy. Life was written in sequential order. Go to school, get education, earn a degree, graduate and look for a job. It wasn’t about starting your company. It was about looking for a job.

Today, the tide has changed. Digital revolution is taking place. The whole system is completely fizzled. The greatest car hire industry doesn’t have a car of its own. The biggest store doesn’t have a shop. Amazon works virtually yet has no physical store. We now have driver-less cars. You can now earn a degree without entering the class. It’s a crazy revolution.

We cannot afford to drive our kids hard without driving them smart. Unlike the old time of Hardwork, it should be SmartWork now. Hardwork won’t pay all the bills. Smartwork will.
It’s completely wicked to leave our kids at the same analogue mode of thinking and expect them to be better positioned than a child who schooled in Europe and comes back home to pick a lucrative job.

We need to help our kids sieve through the needless criteria and prioritize what is good what them. If we can’t give them the opportunity to see the world through another continent, we should not enmesh them in our old unproductive ways.

If we want a better future for our kids, we should give them a better script.