07/05/2019
The Tentmaker: "Skilling - Up".(Part 2).
When I left university, I had an honours degree in electrical and electronic engineering, but I was acutely aware that I was not yet an engineer. I now had to use that qualification to acquire some skills for which I would be paid a lot of money. One of the first things I did was to enrol myself for basic craft skills training, like house wiring, fixing radios and TVs. I could use a lathe (a mechanical tool). These were skills that university trained engineers, shunned or looked down on, as beneath them. I did this whilst some of my colleagues were registering for Masters degrees.
Even as a young man my mother would always scold me if I looked down on any job, that a person does. Once I needed money, whilst I was at university, and she suggested that I look for a job, "even as a garden boy or a waiter"; and she was very serious! I got a job, that summer working as a farm labourer, picking fruit on a farm.
When I finally got my first job, I was extremely popular with artisans, and technicians, because they knew I understood their job. I could always command their respect.
Some of you will recall, from some of the posts, about how I started in business. I was doing very basic things like repairing people's house gates, electrical wiring, fixing cupboards. Those early customers, were not interested in the fact that I had an honours degree, in electrical and electronic engineering, from a top British university. I never told them, either; I knew who I was, and it had nothing to do with the job, I did. The future billionaires are currently waiting on tables, and fixing plumbing...even in Silicon Valley.
If you cannot raise money for the "big" project in your vision; start small, at SOMETHING, using what little you have, even if it means selling tomatoes, at the local market: Learn to be "faithful with little"; its a biblical principle.
In my opening post, I said that although Paul, was highly educated, he still had a craft skill or trade: he was a Tentmaker.
What is the equivalent of a Tentmaker, in our modern world? Yes, you have a High School diploma, or college certificate, a degree or even a masters... that is good: congratulations; but what skills are you trading with?
-A top executive of a leading luxury car manufacturer, in Europe, once boasted to me, that they make a lot of money sending a technician to an African country, to "charge the battery"!
-An Italian company executive told me they make millions every year, fitting floor tiles in Africa. He could not believe that some "young chaps, there in Africa, have not figured this out, otherwise we would be out of business!"
- 75%, of the eggs and chickens eaten in some African countries, come from India, and Brazil!
Now don't write me long emails complaining about government policies in your country, rather seize (katalambano), the opportunity, it creates for you, and your friends; because that is what it is; an "opportunity" for you... That is how a Tentmaker responds!
In part 3, I will show you the seven most important skills, you should acquire immediately!
To be continued...
