**__CHILDREN'S FROM POOR BACKGROUND , LET'S DREAM BIG AND MAKE IT TO THE TOP*__
"Education is not a name of any degree or certificate that can be shown to others as a proof. Education is the name of our attitudes, Actions and Language"-
Barack Obama
The class system in Ghana is so real and the realities that come with it are so harsh. No Ghanaian can deny the fact that there is an existing class system, where there are the rich and the poor. Of course, this is a global phenomenon, but I will discuss the realities in Ghana because I am a Ghanaian and these are the things I have noticed.
People at each end of the divide have several assumptions about each other. A poor person often think that children of the rich only have their parents’ wealth to rely on and are not as competent as their parents’ money portray them to be. The poor assume that the connection of the rich is what paves way for them, and not because they are excellent.
The poor have the mindset that they have to be very excellent before they can get their seat at the table of the rich (what I call being crazily excellent). For many poor people, excellence is their best bet of becoming rich and even breaking into the circle of the rich. For the rich, they just want the money to stay within their circle and probably assume that money will always make a way for them.
These assumptions could be true in some instances, but the dynamics are fast changing in the way they play out. The assumption that the children of the rich are not excellent is fast becoming untrue.
Actually, the rich are investing heavily in their children and seeing to it that they outshine their achievements. Some rich people were once poor and had to work their way up the ladder. They know what it means to be without some privilege, and they are actively putting the resources they have gathered together to give their children leverage and the privileges they never had. It is becoming such that the children of the rich now have the means and are taking examples from the circle of their parents and the quality of exposure that their status affords them.
For instance, Emmanuel Dei- Tumi in his book recounts how he had a father that did not bear much responsibility over him, and how he grew out of nothing. But he is giving his children the best education, the best training and the best form of exposure that they can have. At the end of the book he submitted that his job is done as a father because his children can make wise decisions without necessarily consulting him.
The game has changed in today's technological world . Where every child irrespective of where you are born offer you an opportunity to think and make the best out of it .
The point is this that gone are the days to assume that the children of the rich are mentally weak. These days, there is a change. They are taking over systems and excellence is holding them in such circles. They have the motivation around them and they are putting it to good use.
If you are of poor parents, your best bet is to be extraordinary. Go the extra mile, and do the unthinkable. You have to be crazily excellent; and that is your best bet. The resources and tides are against you. You are competing with those who already have resources and are excellent. You cannot afford to sleep. If others are working 12 hours, you should work 20 hours.
Let him who is poor not sleep! Many poor people cannot stand in the game of excellence. You have to do more that an average person. You need to create your own motivation and hold yourself by it.
This is not to say that poor people are doomed to their circle. The gate of wealth is widely opened but it takes a crazy level of excellence and solid plans to get there.
If you engage many people from poor backgrounds, they have fantasies of becoming rich and they have plans. But if you look through their plans, you will know that those plans will most likely not play out as they have imagined. Sometimes, those plans are lacking in excellence and feasibility.
Nothing comes on a platter of gold anymore. You have to work and be crazily excellent. So, it is true that the best bet is excellence; but you need to be crazily excellent.
The grounds are not leveled, so you need to create your own leverage. When you eventually make it big, you will drill your children with a level of excellence that will keep them in a circle that makes them forever rich.
No one chose the circumstances of their birth, neither did anyone have the luxury of choosing their parents.
However, we are here already and we need to move beyond the situations that got us here.
_By:
GOODLUCK JONATHAN TAMPUOR
The Writer is a Registered Nurse, Motivational speaker and Writer ,Youth Activist and Blogger
_
Photo credit: lyne image.
Barack Obama
The class system in Ghana is so real and the realities that come with it are so harsh. No Ghanaian can deny the fact that there is an existing class system, where there are the rich and the poor. Of course, this is a global phenomenon, but I will discuss the realities in Ghana because I am a Ghanaian and these are the things I have noticed.
People at each end of the divide have several assumptions about each other. A poor person often think that children of the rich only have their parents’ wealth to rely on and are not as competent as their parents’ money portray them to be. The poor assume that the connection of the rich is what paves way for them, and not because they are excellent.
The poor have the mindset that they have to be very excellent before they can get their seat at the table of the rich (what I call being crazily excellent). For many poor people, excellence is their best bet of becoming rich and even breaking into the circle of the rich. For the rich, they just want the money to stay within their circle and probably assume that money will always make a way for them.
These assumptions could be true in some instances, but the dynamics are fast changing in the way they play out. The assumption that the children of the rich are not excellent is fast becoming untrue.
Actually, the rich are investing heavily in their children and seeing to it that they outshine their achievements. Some rich people were once poor and had to work their way up the ladder. They know what it means to be without some privilege, and they are actively putting the resources they have gathered together to give their children leverage and the privileges they never had. It is becoming such that the children of the rich now have the means and are taking examples from the circle of their parents and the quality of exposure that their status affords them.
For instance, Emmanuel Dei- Tumi in his book recounts how he had a father that did not bear much responsibility over him, and how he grew out of nothing. But he is giving his children the best education, the best training and the best form of exposure that they can have. At the end of the book he submitted that his job is done as a father because his children can make wise decisions without necessarily consulting him.
The game has changed in today's technological world . Where every child irrespective of where you are born offer you an opportunity to think and make the best out of it .
The point is this that gone are the days to assume that the children of the rich are mentally weak. These days, there is a change. They are taking over systems and excellence is holding them in such circles. They have the motivation around them and they are putting it to good use.
If you are of poor parents, your best bet is to be extraordinary. Go the extra mile, and do the unthinkable. You have to be crazily excellent; and that is your best bet. The resources and tides are against you. You are competing with those who already have resources and are excellent. You cannot afford to sleep. If others are working 12 hours, you should work 20 hours.
Let him who is poor not sleep! Many poor people cannot stand in the game of excellence. You have to do more that an average person. You need to create your own motivation and hold yourself by it.
This is not to say that poor people are doomed to their circle. The gate of wealth is widely opened but it takes a crazy level of excellence and solid plans to get there.
If you engage many people from poor backgrounds, they have fantasies of becoming rich and they have plans. But if you look through their plans, you will know that those plans will most likely not play out as they have imagined. Sometimes, those plans are lacking in excellence and feasibility.
Nothing comes on a platter of gold anymore. You have to work and be crazily excellent. So, it is true that the best bet is excellence; but you need to be crazily excellent.
The grounds are not leveled, so you need to create your own leverage. When you eventually make it big, you will drill your children with a level of excellence that will keep them in a circle that makes them forever rich.
No one chose the circumstances of their birth, neither did anyone have the luxury of choosing their parents.
However, we are here already and we need to move beyond the situations that got us here.
_By:
GOODLUCK JONATHAN TAMPUOR
The Writer is a Registered Nurse, Motivational speaker and Writer ,Youth Activist and Blogger
_
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