A Degree is Not Everything

DEAR GRADUATES, THE graduation regalia will not do anything for you if you are not street-smart.

For the sake of experience, you will take on internships that will pay you N$3 500, while street-smart interns land an N$8 000 stipend in the same field as yours.

And some without degrees move straight from varsity to permanent jobs, which pay them N$15 000 with the same lack of work experience like you.

You will not question this. You will take your N$3 500 and shine.

After a year of being a ‘good intern’, they will give you a permanent

Job, for which you will earn N$10 000.

After one year, they will give you a 10% increase, and your salary will sit at N$11 000.

With that N$11000, you have to pay rent, transport money, food and

Black tax.

You will get another job, and they will give you N$16 000 if you have more than three years of experience.

Three months into the new job you will buy a car. You will wake up at 05h00 or 06h00 and get home after 18h00 or 19h00 every day. You will see nothing wrong with this, because that’s how ‘educated people’ do it.

Your street-smart friends, who have flexible careers, will visit you at work, because if it’s not 17h00 you are not allowed to leave – even when there’s no work.

You will be focused on your career, and you won’t want to hear anything about starting a side hustle.

At this time, you are struggling financially. Debit orders are busy with your salary. You won’t see a side hustle as a way out, you will see another job as a way out.

Companies underpay you, because you are not street-smart.

You will go back to school and study endlessly, chasing promotions at work.

You will buy a house in your 30s, just after paying off your car, and commit yourself to a 20-year debt.

You will feel the punch of rates and taxes, and buy groceries, petrol and data with your credit card.

After paying off this house, you will be in your 50s.

Eventually you will retire.

The first thing you will do with your retirement money is clear your debts.

Then travel a little, since you never had money to travel in your working days.

With your remaining retirement money you will want to start a business after spending 30 years in the corporate world.

Street-smart people will never spend 30 years in the corporate world.

When your retirement business fails, it’s game over for you.

But if you are street-smart and start a business in your 20s or 30s, you will have time to fail as many times as necessary until you get it right.

Street-smart people will make more money than you and progress faster in life, because they do not have the ‘I’m educated’ pride.

They are open to selling stuff from the boots of their cars and they are open to any job or business – no matter how undignified.

Graduates, don’t let your qualifications imprison you.

There’s more than one way to make it in life.

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