Pro 12:27 The
slothful man roasteth not that which he
took in hunting: but the substance of a diligent man is precious.
(paraphrased: The foolish man does not roast what he took in hunting:
but a wise man adds value to his substance)
Let me ask you a question! Common
sense tells us that Hard work is equal to more riches right? Wrong! If this
were true, then Africans or the so called developing world are supposed to be
the richest people on the face of the earth because they are really hard
working people. Look at the carriage they carry on their backs, heads, and the
carts full of goods they push manually. But why are they still very poor and
could barely live below a dollar a day. The answer lies in the way they work
and do things.
Let’s
pick one illustration of a story in the Christian Bible that provides the
picture we can use. Those of you who are not Christians bear with me because I
am trying to bring out an economic truth that is embedded in the biblical story
am about to use. The Bible tells a story
of Isaac the son of Abraham who had two sons Jacob and Esau; Gen
25:27 And the boys grew: and Esau
was a cunning hunter, a man of the field; and Jacob was
a plain man, dwelling in tents. Gen 25:28 And Isaac loved Esau, because he did eat of his venison: but Rebekah loved Jacob.
There
came a time when Isaac realized that he had grown too old and as per tradition
it was time to give out his blessing to the first born son before he died. The scriptures
actually says he called his son Esau, the first born and told him that the time
for his blessing had come but Esau needed to cook the meat stew that the father loved so much
for him to receive the blessing. However, Esau being a hunter did not have an
animal in hand to prepare the meal and so he needed to go out into the forest
to chase for one lucky catch. And as you might guess Esau must have spent days
before he had a break. However, Jacob his brother, being a farmer and was
raising his animals in the back yard had an animal in hand. In summary the
scriptures says Jacob with the help of his mother prepared the stew in time for
his starving father and ultimately got the blessing. The question is How and Why?
The two
sons of Isaac had each an occupation. One was a hunter and the other one was a
farmer and breeder of animals. When you look at the characteristics of each of
these so called skills you realize the differences; A hunter of those days used
a spear or the bow and arrow set. The hunter then under these conditions can
only kill one animal at a time. However, the animals were also not dumb enough
to wait for the hunter but the hunter needed to chase or run after the animals.
Whatever animal the weapon of the hunter hit, died. This means anything the
hunter caught died. It is also probable to say that the hunter usually if not
always only came with one dead animal. We could even guess that the hunter was
always dead tired from the chase exposé (you could call it hard work). Esau had
a diminishing resource
On the
other hand the farmer does not kill what they hunt but they grow whatever is in
their hands. Whatever, animals that Jacob had, he made sure they multiplied. He
developed a skill to multiply the resource that he had. This is also evidenced
in how Jacob was able later on in life use the same skill to his advantage to
multiply his father in law’s animals (Laban the father of Jacob’s two wives).
Therefore,
Isaac and Jacob represent two different economic paradigms; the Isaac and Jacob
economic systems. An Esau economic system represents countries that focus only on
one main product (or call it animal) and kill the product by selling it in raw
material form. Take my country Zambia for example which has for many years
relied on copper and exporting it in bulk cheaply at factory price (but now the
economy is being diversified and things are changing). When the price of that
raw material goes far below economic levels all the macroeconomic parameters
are thrown out of control and not forgetting the evil animal called foreign
exchange rate. However, the Jacob system multiplies what it has and does not
kill what it has but adds value to it. In Jacob systems people work smart.
Jacob allowed animals to multiply; hence, his resource was never diminishing.
Jacob kept his resource in his backyard hence, did not have to run 20 Km or
more to find his resource. I am sure most of you are now familiar with Internet
millionaires (smart business people if you ask me)
Consider
your life; what are you? An Esau or Jacob! If your livelihood depends solely on
your salary, I am afraid you are an Esau and you are chasing one animal for a
whole month. It’s time to diversify your economy into value addition. If you
think there is nothing you can venture into, why not begin with your regular
salary. Even your voice might just be a resource you have not considered to add
value to it and become probably a public speaker or a comedian. Haven’t you
noticed that comedians keep perfecting their jokes which even earns them even
more income. Look up into the air, do you see anything? The fact that you can’t
see anything does not mean that there is nothing there!
Remember that Absence of Evidence is not
Evidence of Absence. Haven’t you
noticed that the mobile service providers are selling us our own conversations;
this is evidence enough that knowledge products are the niche that has a higher
return. So look and keep looking there is something that we are not seeing.
Anything that has and will ever be has always been there. Nobody created the
Internet, they just discovered it. This means there is more to discover!
The
Internet platform is one of the untapped Gold mines that the developing world
has not taken advantage of. They keep looking at the Internet as monster where
fraudsters live. Only when you visit countries like Japan can you realize the
wealth of things you can do with the Internet and its benefits to the national
economy
Some
of the richest countries don’t even have any minerals at all yet they have more
wealth than the mineral rich African countries. What type of products do they
own? And that’s key!
CHANGE
YOUR THINKING AND BEGIN TO SEE
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