The_Kingpin @tatenda_maponga - Twitter Profile

4 months ago

Had a tough but fascinating talk with form 1 to 4 students at a 🇿🇼 high school in today. The topic was money. My core message was simple: Money is earned through value exchange. You do not “get” money. You earn it by offering goods or services valuable enough for other people to exchange money for. Just like you don’t “get” a degree; you earn it. I can tell a lot about a person about how they speak about money: Let get that paper (not manufacturing it) Getting that bread (not baking it) Making Cheddar? (That’s valuable) I tried to challenge how we speak about money. Instead of saying: “Let’s go get money”. We should ask: “How do I become more valuable?” “How do I create more value for others?” Because if you can consistently provide value, you will never truly have “no money.” Value can be: Good food Convenience Security Education Entertainment Skills Technology Solving difficult problems A plumber earns because plumbing is valuable to people who cannot plumb. A developer earns because software can solve problems. A musician earns because joy and entertainment are valuable. Then I asked the students what they wanted to become. A large number said: IRL streamers YouTubers TikTok influencers A few said app developers. Nobody said accountant. Nobody said scientist. What struck me was this: Many of them admire wealth outcomes without understanding value creation. One student said he wants to be like Elon Musk. I explained: Elon Musk became wealthy because he created massive value at scale, through payments, electric vehicles, internet infrastructure, rockets, communications platforms, and engineering companies. Another said he wants to be like Mark Zuckerberg. But the important question is not: “How do I become Zuckerberg?” The real question is: “What value did Zuckerberg create for billions of people?” Then someone said they wanted to be like Wicknell Chivayo. Everyone laughed… 🤣 But... Whether you like him or not, whether you agree with the value he’s creating benefit to society or not, he’s creating value to someone or something. Could be at the detriment or others, who knows. But someone finds it valuable. You don’t get that rick without creating VALUE! Pablo Escobar and Michael Jordan both have created value … for better or worse. A lot of young Zimbabweans today can clearly see money… but cannot clearly see the value system behind it. With people like Strive Masiyiwa, it’s easier: We understand the value created through Econet and telecommunications. The danger is when young people only see the money at the end, without understanding the years of value creation underneath it. Behind the slay queen with the orange iPhone, is a satisfied overweight married businessman. Zimbabwe desperately needs a generation obsessed not with “looking rich” , but with becoming genuinely useful to humanity by creating value!! Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk