Number 2 of The Code states, ‘I will develop myself mentally by reading, writing, drawing, building, creating, and engaging in other activities that sharpen and expand my mind.’
I never was worried about my level of education. Homeschooled from the very first, moving throughout my childhood, losing my high school certificate along the way, and then being a missionary on the African continent was sure to cause some dissatisfaction.
Along the way, I picked up what I considered to be random bits of information and practical knowledge, enough to manage a mission work, balance books, write proposals and letters of sponsorship for various projects, not to mention childcare and teaching, home economics, basic computer/IT skills, etc, etc, etc.
I was channel surfing the other day and I came across a program called Dragons’ Den. According to Wikipedia, “Dragons’ Den is a series of reality television programmes featuring entrepreneurs pitching their business ideas in order to secure investment finance from a panel of venture capitalists.”
Watching some of the entrepreneurs present their business plans as well as answer questions was interesting to see some of the perspectives that the venture capitalists bring up, but I was very surprised that a few ‘obvious’ points were lacking in their presentation and it bothered me enough to watch a few more presentations.
Finally, it became clear. The ‘dragons’ were tearing apart this one team’s business proposal and their excuse that they didn’t have a viable business plan was because they were engineers, not accountants or business managers.
AHA!!! There it was!! Out in the ‘real world,’ people are not so interested in the letters of the alphabet after your name (although that helps). If you can show them that you have real life experience and can get results, those are the only things that matter to most people.
Yes, I may have had a patchy education. Yes, I may want to further my education and specialize in the future, when time and money permit. But for now, especially here in Nigeria, those things don’t matter. ‘Results’ is the name of the game!
My focus is excelling in being a good wife, mother, missionary, and friend. There are many areas for me to improve, of course. But having real life experiences (for me) beats having a piece of paper with my name on it. Then again, who knows what the future holds…? For now, I’ll keep listening to the podcasts, taking notes, and doing.
