Steem4nigeria Accelerator Contest Week 61: Is formal education the only path to financial freedom?

Why do parents make their children believe that it is only after they are done with school and have a job they can start money?

They discourage their children from learning a skill, saying they should focus on completing their education, which would earn them white collar jobs.

Their children grow up with this mindset and sometimes regret not having something to do before or during school. They regret the time wasted.

Haven't you heard of a first-class graduate of engineering teaching in a private school or working as a housekeeper? Some people lack the knowledge that seeing a well-paying job now relative to your field sometimes is dependent on connections, especially as citizens of Nigeria. Some parents say their children are too young to start making money and that they should focus on completing their education till they are done.

These scenarios aren't condemning school or formal education. It's condemning the mindset that you can only start making your money when you are done with school and have a job. This mindset is crude, and this is one of the reasons we aren't born into families that are financially independent. They depended on jobs before they started earning fortunes for themselves. Check out the experience below as I provide answers to these questions.

I'll start by narrating a real-life story. Two brothers were placed on a decision by their parents. They were asked what they wanted to do with their lives after second school. Brother A said he wants to further his education and study engineering at the university, while Brother B says he wants to learn a physical and digital skill.

Both were given the sum of 1 million naira each to start their journey, which would be later supported. 4 years passed, and Brother A was still in school while Brother B became the world-famous realtor, hotel manager, and crypto trader. He earns nothing less than 2 million naira every day from his investments.

By the time Brother A was done with school and got his degree, he started looking for a job, for which his brother B employed him without needing the degree. From this self-explanatory real-life experience, one can become successful in life with and without the degree. So it's not a must you have the degree before you have a well-paying job or you start making money.

Even when chasing the degree, it's not bad or out of place to learn a skill that would make you dependent when you're done instead of wandering your life with your degree looking for jobs to apply. Some have ended up as gatemen with first class degrees. Others ended up in the classroom to show that a degree is not everything, especially in the country where I reside, where job opportunities are rare or are gotten with connections as technology has integrated the world.

To me, I feel wherever degree a person is chasing, he must attach a skill to it because the essence of life is better working independently for others than working under others dependently.

If I were to wait till I get a degree before I start earning money at a tender age, you probably wouldn't have heard of me today because it's the money from my skill acquisitions online and offline that keeps me going financially in school and life as a whole. All thanks to that person who introduced content writing as a digital skill on Steemit to me. With Steemit, I've secured a future already for myself even without the degree, and it's with the money acquired here that I use to support myself in school in terms of fees, transportation, and other inclusions.

This contest is not trying to condemn education. It's trying to stress the fact that the ancient mindset of schooling, getting a degree, and having a job as the only way to make money is archaic and should be changed. Building your life on this mindset of having a job when you're done schooling can make you regret life as a whole and the time wasted

If you want to go to school, you're free to go and chase the degree based on your interests, but you must always have something you can do yourself that can be an added source of funds to you. This can be in the form of a skill. It can be a digital skill like content writing, trading, and marketing. Or it can be offline in terms of sewing, baking, etc.

Your degree can be complemented with this; if not, you'll forever be a laughing stock in life. A close friend of mine studied biochemistry at the university and obtained her degree, but that degree is not the one feeding her family. It's the skill she learnt while in school that's feeding her family and solving both needs and wants.

Go to school and acquire a degree, as opportunities may abound that may cause you to work abroad, but don't place your mindset on getting a job after school. While schooling, learn a skill so you can support yourself in the future. This is always what I'll tell the young ones in my street. You're not too young to build your future now instead of waiting till you think you are of age. People say I'm too small to make money, but I don't limit myself to such views. I see it as a discipline and a way of building my future.

The mistake my parents made was to rely solely on getting white collar jobs to cater for us. I won't say what they did was bad, but if they had a transformed mindset, they would have been resting in their old age instead of working. Our eyes are open now, and we won't want to wait until we grow up before laying foundations for our children.

I think I have already summarised this in question 2. It's very dangerous to have such views, and that's the reason most people are still in a devastating state today. They fail to acknowledge that there are other ways to become financially independent other than looking for jobs that make you rely solely on salary earning with your degree.

If I'm to mention, @eveetim, @okere-blessing, and @udyliciouz are all teachers, but their salary is not enough in this biting economy where critical times had to deal with. If I'm to also interview them as to how having other skills of which Steemit is inclusive has helped them a lot in their family, the response would be very positive. Where's that degree they struggled for? Some of them even earn more on Steemit than their physical work to show it's not just about the degree.

Right from when I started my life in this content creation space, I never knew it could be very beneficial to me. I took it as a digital skill where I can improve my writing skills and express my feelings and thoughts in words as an introvert.

Financially, Steemit has helped me cater for most of my needs. The phones I used today are products of Steemit. I don't think my parents would have actually purchased the type of phone I'm using today to create contents. Not that they are not capable, but they are trying to be managerial.

One of the benefits of steemit	My second mobile device from steemit

Sometimes I usually sit down and wonder how my life would have been without Steemit. I start looking at the lives of those who basically depend on their parents as a means of survival while waiting to have a degree and job in the future. My life would have been miserably internal, and I wouldn't have known what it means to have a transformed mindset. I'm not saying my parents wouldn't have been capable of shouldering their responsibilities, but Steemit has made me lift that responsibility from them.

I'm now a responsible man who caters for myself without placing pressure on my parents. There's this saying... Make your mama proud. If you are to wait till you're done with school and have a job before you make your parents proud, they may die before you could even do so. The earlier the better, but that shouldn't make you a spoilt brath, as most experiences I've heard of people who make money at an early age are always negative.

That's why our parents frown at such. Some children refuse to go to school again. They are controlled by the influence of money and the like. Sometimes their advice to us is beneficial for us, but the mindset that you must have a degree before you start earning money for yourself and your future should be changed.

Financial freedom is that lifestyle where you can satisfy your wants and needs independently without working under anyone. Though some today have financial freedom working under people, this is not guaranteed, as one day you may be sacked as it's someone's work and business. The main freedom is when you acquire a skill and develop it yourself. You become your own boss, capable of raising a family and laying foundations for them.

**_To all graduates, parents, teenagers, adults, and youths out there, remember that formal education makes you intellectually set to be able to express yourself in public and be knowledgeable on certain concepts that are all applicable in life. Also remember that what you want to become in life can be achievable through formal education, but placing your hopes in one basket can be your greatest mistake in life.

If you have made the mistake already, it's never too late to change and have a plan B life. Learning a skill to become independent while chasing your degree can be that plan B. There are skills that can earn you financial independence on your phones, and you actualise them into investments, added with the knowledge you have from school.

A combination of both can be your special life recipe, and you will end up being satisfied in case of uncertainties. I draw the curtains here. I invite @max-pro, @o1eh and @victorlives