I was at an event sometimes back where an organisation’s Head of Corporate Communications made a highly applauded visual presentation on their supports for sports development among kids in different schools across the nation. I am very sure such event must have been organised in your own school in the last couple of months. To corroborate the presentation, David Oludele is an SSS 2 student in a Lagos state public school. He came in late Saturday afternoon a few weeks after I attended the event, in his sportswear and with a basketball in his hands. According to him, he was just coming from a training event for kids in basket-balling. The training was organised by a Lagos based conglomerate.
To my mind, catching the young ones early in sporting and social activities is a worthwhile effort by any standard but there remains a question yearning for firm and committed response in my mind. Is sports development and social activities in schools all there are to catching the young ones’ early? While I was still battling with these thoughts, a relief came as Obayomi-Abayomi Obabolujo came home with an assignment, where they were asked to write names of three quoted companies on the Stock Exchange and their current prices. I was so elated that I sent a copy of stockswatch newspaper to all the pupils in the class and the teachers because in it, I know that the pupils will have access to not just three but all quoted stocks on the Stock Exchange. In other words, I did not write out the names of the required quoted companies but gave the boy a document, this time around, Stockswatch newspaper and showed him where to get the answer on the pages of the newspaper.
It is true that sporting activities among kids develop their leadership, competitive, strong spirit and even body but then, total focus on these and leaving out other integral part of living among which money management skill is prominent leaves the kids with an incomplete outlook to life.
Dear kids, please note this simple fact. As you grow in your enthusiasm for sports and social activities as I often see with kids on a typical match day in the European championship and English premier leagues, in addition to your primary academic responsibilities, the need for you to be empowered for financial management cannot be overemphasised as it is the key that holds your future prosperity. I will tell you why.
The Supremacy of Money Management Skill
Making money is an art. C Ronaldo and Messy are sure at the height of such as sportsmen but guess what? The skills for growing and preservation of money are better learnt earlier too in addition to any other skills. Why? Every penny generated by sportsmen without money management skills will eventually be plundered and the sportsmen become poor at the stage and age when they will no longer be active enough for sporting activities. As adults, sportsmen and entertainers do end up as celebrities who live flamboyant lifestyles hence, the money they do make often disappear no sooner than it is made. If only they were taught the art of money preservation as kids, most sportsmen and entertainer would have become far better than they are as adults in prosperity.
This is the gospel truth, except there are enough money managers and entrepreneurs, sportsmen and women and entertainers are nothing in themselves. Do I tell you why I said so? Owners of most football clubs in Europe don’t know how to hit the round leather to score a goal but they sure make more money than the sports people and when the sports people are tired and are retired, the money managers and the entrepreneurs who own the clubs still continue to make more money from new signings and emerging sports people that they engage in their club sides. So it is in entertainment where Marketers make more money than the Actors and Actresses. Have you heard about an American by name Don King? He is a famous boxing promoter who had made a fortune matching people to fight for money but guess what? In every boxing match, Don King makes more money than the boxers. Don King newer knew how to box but sure how to make money out of boxers.
In weeks ahead, I will flip through websites and show you how sports people had lived. Please note. I am not in any way against sports development in kids. I am against the total neglect of the development of the money management and entrepreneurial skills in the kids. Good luck.