From Nic Haralambous:
If you could redesign the schooling system, what would you include that you were never taught?
I'll go first:
I wish I was taught about money:
How to save it,
how to spend it,
how to grow it,
how it works in the world,
where it comes from and where it goes.
I would want to teach kids the practicality of money in the real world, accounting for real life, budgeting for a household.
Comment below with yours!
#leadershipfirst #entrepreneur #mindset
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LinkedIn’s got a character limit and because of this, I was forced to split my reply into three, which obviously left it hard to piece together and therefore difficult to read.
Nic suggested I delete and re-write (in fewer characters), but in this case, if the shoe doesn’t fit, don’t wear it - I don’t do short-form…anything, so now we’re here 😊
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My reply:
13 years ago I finished school, and 13 years ago I wished I could see "A day in the life of" for every occupation that existed at the time. This would have given me a glimpse into the reality that is the workplace environment that people don't know until they know! (I feel like that's where mid-life crises come from)
13 years ago I created a platform called My Start in Life, that would aim to Inspire | Motivate | Educate high schoolers on what life after school was like.
Inspiration:
Success stories from people that had "made it" in their respective field (plumber, botanist, the pool guy - his an entrepreneur but no-one highlights that);
...
Motivation:
Give them something to look forward too, something to push themselves for.
Insight into a day in the life of {allCareers} after taking them through simple tests that gauge their interests, strengths and weaknesses (these change of course, but think: starting point) and then guide them through a personalised journey of discovery;
Why, what, where and if to study (in that order);
...
Education:
"A base layer"
Teach them all about financial education in ways that would interest them, like "How to save for that pair of sneakers you want to buy";
How and why to set goals;
How to stay mentally and physically fit;
Mentorship programmes and where to find them;
...
I was so passionate about this platform I had envisioned and tried to put together many many times, but I found the task a tedious one - too big for one young guy (or two at times)!
For the next few years, I’d be riddled with sleepless nights (seriously, for long periods of time), lots of learning by trial and error, lots of exposing myself to people that were decades my senior, in the hopes someone would latch on and just take this burden from me.
Long story short:
Had hundreds of conversations about this platform/attitude/way of life;
Convinced many people;
Nearly got funded twice;
Learned all the skills I have now, that were needed to get me going then;
Became a Product of my platform;
Can it be replicated? Maybe
I still feel it's super relevant, and I’d love to do something about it.
I told my friends 3 years out of school, that if I was still talking about this in the next 3 years that they should stop being friends with me - they stuck around, but its been many years on…still talking about it 🙃
Nic Haralambous when I saw your post about the young dude that created a co-working environment with simple materials so his peers could have access to the internet I was very excited!
One of the biggest threats to my platform back then, was that it was not only for schools or kids that had access to the internet, but it would be for everyone (in hindsight, that's probably too large of a segment) and not everyone had access to the internet, especially in impoverished areas.
I believed though, that I needn’t solve all of my problems alone, but that once kids were Inspired, Motivated, Educated - I could leave it up to them to realise their entrepreneurial brilliance and someone, somewhere would eventually do what that young man has just done - they’d do the thing!
To conclude:
I wish I was told that I could do and be ANYTHING, and then shown what ANYTHING looked like.
😊
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Thanks for reading
Be kind. Be helpful. Be useful