Making use of opportunities

Have you ever heard your parents or friends talk about someone who has achieved great success, saying: “She was lucky to get that opportunity.”

Robert Kiyosaki is a world-renowned motivational speaker who has achieved great success in the property market and he uses this phrase: “Luck is when good preparation meets a great opportunity.” That means that you have to prepare (by working hard at your studies) so that you will be able to succeed when the right opportunity finds you.

In preparation for this, you need to take advantage of opportunities along the way, however you should not wait on opportunities, you should actively seek to find ways in which you could shape your talents towards your direction of choice.

Some schools offer career counseling where your motivations, interests and personality are matched and suitable career options are assessed. Most colleges offer this as part of their pre-enrolment programme. Alternatively, professional career counselors are available to assist.

Bear in mind that your parents may not be able to pay for a tertiary education, but other options are available. Many companies offer bursaries to promising students, which is another motivation to give it your best. Usually, companies that offer bursaries employ you at the end of your studies to “pay off” your bursary.

Alternatively, getting an “on the job” qualification is an option. Should you wish to become a hairdresser, you could take a menial job at a salon, such as reception or even passing curlers, to take care of your expenses until you are qualified.

The same applies for many careers and it’s worth a try even if you have to donate your time during school holidays or in the evenings. Do not see it as free labour, but as free training.

It may not be your dream job, but you have to start somewhere, see it as a stepping-stone. Unfortunately we cannot just waltz into a career, we have to work for everything!

No matter how talented you are in a certain professional field, you need to be qualified as a hairdresser; for instance, you need to know about different hair types and what styles suit which face types and a multitude of other things.

What I am trying to say is that instead of giving up because you do not have what you want (money to study) or because it is a bit harder than you anticipated, you should rather embrace the fact that you get to follow your dream despite some difficulties. Initial hardship will ensure you enjoy it so much more once you achieve your goal.

When things are harder than you anticipated, do not turn on the brakes on your studies, instead, work harder to break through hurdles, which are bound to occur. Turning on brakes will simply prolong the whole process.

Money and your future

You may have heard adults talk about the high unemployment rate or you may even know people who are unemployed. We need money to survive, to buy food, pay bills and to buy assets, such as homes and cars, furniture and daily items such as toiletries and to pay for transport.

Being unemployed is not easy. Not only are you too broke to do stuff or buy things that other people do, there is also added stress of not knowing what your future holds and where you will find money in an emergency. Everything tends to go wrong simultaneously when you have not planned sufficiently. There is a saying that goes: If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

Some unemployed people are lucky to have parents to support them, however you can only expect so much support. Even your parents can only support you so long before they start getting angry with you; they supported you for 18 years, it is your turn to be on your own now.

Eventually, when resentment within you has built up for long enough, you may start feeling that they are controlling you, expecting you to do things for them and telling you how to live your life. This situation could become very uncomfortable for all of you, so rather avoid it. Step out and make a life for yourself.

Your parents have worked for many years to be able to pay for your education, living expenses and support you and they still need to sustain themselves during their retirement and pensions usually are just not enough.

There are a variety of theories on how to plan for your retirement; one being that you should start saving money every month from your 20^th birthday. That is a novel idea, provided a) you have any money left after taking care of all your bills and b) you ensure that you save enough to cover the ever-increasing rate of inflation.

Let us look at inflation:

Inflation is the rate at which the cost of living increases over time. In recent years, the inflation rate has been very steep as it is dependent on the price of oil, which affects the rate of fuel, which affects the cost of delivery of goods from the producers to the consumer, you.

I know a number of people in their 60s and 70s who did everything right when they were yours and my age. They worked hard, they saved, took out pensions and retirement annuities (policies which pay out money when you retire), yet now at their old age they still have to work to sustain themselves.

In the old days, people started working when they left school at 18 and retired at 65, enjoying their golden years on their pensions. Since the introduction of automation (computers and machinery) there are fewer jobs available. Companies prefer to employ older people who are more stable, as they find younger generations change jobs much more often. There is a cost attached to training new people repeatedly to fill jobs that people have left.

Therefore, certain private companies choose to employ more mature people to fill jobs, as they are also found to be more experienced and reliable. This leaves a problem for young people who need jobs. You are expected to prove yourself before you can be employed, but how do you gain experience and prove yourself if you cannot find employment?

Perhaps this is a blessing in disguise, as it forces us as young people to become more inventive to keep up with growth-rates which are taking place in first world countries, such as America.

We need to apply ourselves and build on our strengths. There is a hidden entrepreneur in every one of us and everyone has a talent, which we can turn into a business. Whether you want to be an entrepreneur or an employee, your future starts today.

The starting point of your career is not when you send in your CV, but when you are at school. You need to work hard at school, get an education. There is more to school than boring subjects you will never use again. It is about learning discipline and when you fail a subject, to learn to take disappointments on the chin and work a bit harder next time in order to succeed.

Life is all about tests. There are so many tests in life every day that we are to be prepared to be responsible enough to face them head on and press through to pass them. As you move through tests at each stage in your life, you become a stronger person who is able to grow without falling apart at every hurdle.

As a student you have only one priority and that is to work hard and learn as much as you can in preparation for your future. If you make a success of that, you are likely to succeed at life as an adult, providing you stick to your good habits.