WHY YOUR CERTIFICATE CAN MAKE YOU SLAVE THE REST OF YOUR LIFE*

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'Come on, Styles, you're a monkey, man and you know it. Run up and down the whole bloody day! Your life isn't belong to you. You've sold it. For what, Styles? Gold-wrist watch in twenty-five years time when they sign you off because you're too old for anything any more?'
I was right. I took a good look at my life. What did i see? A bloody circus monkey! Selling most of his time on this earth to another man. Out of every twenty-four hours i could only properly call mine the six when i was sleeping. What the hell is the use of that?
Think about it, friend. Wake up in the morning, half-past six, out of the pyjamas and into the bath-tube, put on your shirt with one hand, socks with the other, realized you got your shoes on the wrong bloody feet, and all the time the seconds are passing and if you don't hurry up you'll miss the bus...'Get the lunch, dear, I'm late. My lunch, please, darling!... then the children come in...'Daddy, can i have this? Daddy, i want money for that.' 'Go to your mother, i haven't got time. Look after the children, please, sweetheart.(Adapted from SIZWE BANSI IS DEAD by Athol Fugard)

The phrase above pictured how a man whose livelihood is base on the level of his certificate (especially employee) Will be living his life.

He toiled day and night to serve someone else. The cause this horrible life style is the system of our education. Our education system didn't train us how to survive in real life, our school curriculum only trained us to be a money making tools for someone else. And sadly, most people didn't know this, even the so called 'A' students didn't understand the basic concept of education, they only live base on what they were thought in school.

All our parents want from us is just to go to school, school and school, what they want for their children is to be educated and little do they know that education is not only acquire in school, infact school is just the primary level of where to acquire education, the most crucial part of education is acquired outside the classroom.
African parent can gather all their possessions to send a child to school but rarely will you see any africa parent to sponsor a child's education outside the school.

There are some law that guides the school but work against us in real life. the best people in school are those who make little or no mistake but in real world the best people are those who make a lot of mistakes and learn from them. school will teach you lessons and then give you a test but life teach you lesson through a test. School celebrate those who play by the rule but in real life, people celebrate those who break the rule.

History had shows that the best people in the world are those who learn beyond the shallow walls of classroom. Only those who learn outside the classroom are those who do extra-ordinary things. School is just a place to discover your ignorance and a place to start your learning. The real education is learned outside the school. But it's sadly enough that most people stop learning in classroom.

Let me tell you this cold hard truth, if you are a type who run after grades, degree and credentials you will end up serving those certificates and those who are smart enough to learn outside the wall of classroom.
You may graduate as a first class students that doesn't mean you will do well in real life. Because traditional school train your physical man while there are many education outside there that you need in other to train your inner man-your spirit, emotion and mind.

Those who trained their spirit man are the one who hired those who train their physical man to build their dream. The level of your certificate didn't not determined the level of your success. What determine your success is the level of education you gave your spirit man and how you build your potential.

If the level of certificate determines the level of success, then how many professors do we have on Forbes list? If there's any, it's not as a result of his or her professorship but the level of his or her impart in real world.

If you run after grades, degrees and beautiful credentials, you will end up a slave, you might be an high paid slave, but your time will not be yours, you will end up trade your time for money, you will not be useful for yourself but selling your precious time to someone else. You will become a tool for building someone else dream. Even those who are not smart like you in school will leverage on your knowledge, strength and wisdom. They will use you and later drop you when you are old and good for nothing.

I often heard people saying certificate never expire, but i tell you the truth, the usefulness of certificate has limitation, it become expired once you retired, especially when you die it dies with you. the only thing that cannot expire is your impart in life (what you build with your potential)

A wise man once define a certificate and potential as thus... "A certificate is an ordinary papers issued by an ordinary men to make an ordinary men remain ordinary" while "A potential is a supernatural gift given by a supernatural nature to make and ordinary men become a super man" i don't need to talk much on this, you've seen why you need to invest in your potential more than your certificate.

If you want to be an extraordinary, start traning your mind and spirit today, learn how to discover yourself and engage yourself in extra curriculum, start learning outside the school syllabus. Learn new things and prepare yourself for real world. Start reading books that are not part of School curriculum, attend conferences and seminars, get mentors, move close to positive minded people. School is just a place to discover your ignorance, not the final place for learning, your certificate will never help you in real life if you don't prepare your mind.

By Adejumo Taiwo Stephen