So I got into conversation again with the young guys from last week. We talked about the need for them to be serious with their academics and the need to be deliberate and cautious about the influence of friends on their actions and inactions. Then somehow, the “Bill Gates is the richest man in the world and he was a dropout” issue was raised by one of the young guys (a secondary school student). And these are some of the thoughts that sprang up from that.
Most of the everyday people (not all o) I have heard use this Bill Gates story as reference usually say it to excuse poor study habits, mediocrity and perhaps poor grades in school. I have heard them use it as a premise to downplay the importance of education.
Motivational speakers tell us stuff like “I have never had to use my certificates, I don’t even know where they are” (well good enough).
But then, the careless listener only hears “I have never used my certificates”, and downplays the fact that the motivational speaker guy actually has a certificate; even if he hasn’t had to use it.
The careless listener only sees that Bill Gates dropped out of school, he doesn’t see how that Bill Gates studied and was somewhat a bookworm and a National Merit Scholar who scored 1590 out of 1600 in his SAT examinations. He seems not to understand that Bill Gates dropped out of “Harvard University”, not as an excuse, because he was careless with his academics, nor because he was mediocre.
In all the careless listener does not know the whole truth and the balance to it.
He takes an half truth and runs with it and he makes the Bill Gates “success story” an excuse for failure…
Error is taking a truth and pushing it to the extreme.
The real man practices balance.
The real man makes no excuses for failure.
The real man is not a careless listener.
I celebrate you.
Have a most fruitful week.
#AnointingOgieThinks
#iResponsible
#FromMalesToRealMen
Read the last part here
About the Writer: Anointing Ogie is a graduate from the famous Uniben and holds an MSc in Economics from Unilorin. He works as a research associate with a Policy Think Tank Organization in a part of West Africa, Nigeria. He writes only on the basis of the vision he has, and that’s to see young guys transition to being real men
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