If we have knowledge, we cannot be ruled by jobs; do not burn your certificates [video]

Young People, pains dropped on my eyes as I watched this young’s pains. It is really painful and I sympathize with all the young people in Nigeria. There is no debate: things were absolutely better in my time. There were jobs!

Yet, even in the desert with no oasis, and you are unable to find a job, please do not burn your certificates. The biggest mistake in life is the way people position the value of education. Right from the beginning, people see going to university to be synonymous with a job.

But if you understand the value of education, education does not mean or equate to jobs. Education is designed to be a system to liberate the minds, and not a system to get jobs. Jobs are just one of the benefits or features associated with education.

This young man might have gotten it all wrong because for him, certificates = jobs, and if those papers do not deliver jobs, destroy them. That is not correct. The real value of education is the liberation of the mind, and what it does is clear: it makes you stand over jobs, because education puts you in a position to become bigger than jobs. Knowledge is power and it is bigger than jobs. A good education brings knowledge, which is liberation.

If we have knowledge, we cannot be ruled by jobs. We cannot fear jobs because we will have the capacity to own our future. An Igbo proverb says that “ndu ka ihe eji azu ya” [life is bigger than whatever is required to sustain it], we need to seek knowledge over the fixation of jobs. If we get the knowledge, the jobs will come. I challenge us to develop skills and capabilities, and jobs, in different forms, will emerge. Find mentors and connect with people with visions, and stop a mindless act which adds no value!

Have a Mindset Shift

I have scanned responses on my last post on the young man who destroyed his certificates because he has been unable to get a job with them. As I noted, going to school or being educated is not just to get a job. The most important outcome of education is the liberation of the mind. I knew the day I left the village of Ovim, got to FUTO, and began my undergraduate engineering education. When I was done, I knew the transformation.

With that transformation and associated mindset liberation, I became BIGGER than any job in the world, by focusing on my CAREER, and not jobs. Yes, a career is not a job.  This is where I blame the university system; we spend years being prepared to run, manage and operate in organizations and governments with nothing for our Personal Economy (yes, how we can run our own lives). Had the school provided directions on those, many young people will not just trust their futures on firms and governments, because with a mindset shift, we can strategize better.

If there is a non-profit which is open to run an open webinar on this, I am available to be a speaker. Young People, it is important to understand that the best time to prepare or audition for a job is when there is none. In other words, it is not just sending CVs and cover letters. Companies hire you for the value you bring to them, and not the certificates the university printed for you. I write this with respect to young people looking for jobs!

If you develop your skills, the jobs will come. Over the last few weeks, I have focused on Personal Economy in Tekedia Mini-MBA, teaching on Webinality (web + personality), Career, Mentoring and Coaching. My goal has been how young people can have that mindset shift.

Comment on Feed

Comment 1: Education is the liberation of the mind.

A nation cannot rise beyond its educational system. For nations to rise, they must invest to build mines of knowledge.

And for young men and women, they must work to channel the acquired knowledge to liberate themselves, and their society.

Comment 2: Well said. Very inspiring. I got a sage advise to be come best at a subject (after graduation) and strive to be a master. The job goes to the competent with time and not certificates.

Young People, pains dropped on my eyes as I watched this young’s pains. It is really painful and I sympathize with all the young people in Nigeria. There is no debate: things were absolutely better in my time. There were jobs!

Yet, even in the desert with no oasis, and you are… pic.twitter.com/voSj9xQir4

— Ndubuisi Ekekwe (@ndekekwe) November 14, 2023

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