Exploring Life's Lessons: From Casual Connections to Personal and Financial Growth

Exploring Life's Lessons: From Casual Connections to Personal and Financial Growth

Casual Sex: The iPhone Analogy

Imagine buying an iPhone 16, a device that costs a significant amount of money, but only using it for charging. You ignore the advanced Apple intelligence, the improved camera, software updates, and the entire experience the phone offers. Instead, you just buy it to show off on social media and charge it—that’s it.

This is what casual sex is like. You engage in one aspect without exploring or valuing the deeper connection and experiences that come with it.

In contrast, a real relationship would involve everything you’d do in casual sex, plus more—like getting to know your phone fully, using all the updates, and caring for it. It's about embracing the whole experience, not just one small part.

Hardness: Not Just for Diamonds

Diamonds are said to be the hardest substance in the world. But since every non-living thing has a living aspect, I’d argue that some people are made of steel, metaphorically speaking.

Hard circumstances exist, as do hard jobs and tasks. Yet, there are people who brave these odds and accomplish these challenging tasks. It's not just about physical toughness but mental and emotional strength, too.

Remote Working and People Development

Remote work has been around before COVID, but the pandemic certainly gave it more weight. No one dives into remote work without some level of knowledge. I remember when I tried out a remote writing gig and got paid. I realized then that I needed to develop my writing skills further to progress, but even earning something in the first place took a certain level of skill.

While remote work is profitable for those who can acquire marketable skills through self-learning or collaboration, I don’t think someone earning $500 a month (~₦800,000) will necessarily outperform someone earning the same amount in an organization, simply because of the "people factor."

Working remotely with 20 people is a different experience from working in an organization alongside 200 people. Both have their merits and drawbacks, but personal growth and development often come from being around more people and learning from them.

Big Bets and Wealth Creation : A Game of Risks

It often takes one big bet to break through financially and set someone up for life. But why are the rich rich in the first place?

Aside from inheritance, many of the wealthy got there by making calculated bets. However, these bets aren’t calculated with a simple calculator—they are huge risks. Sometimes there’s some certainty to these bets, but since life is unpredictable, there’s always a chance that things could go either way.

If the bet pays off, the risk-taker becomes rich, and wealth distribution shifts in their favor. The riskier the bet, the bigger the potential payoff, but also the bigger the risk. When things go wrong, the consequences can be terrifying, which is why get-rich-quick schemes are so risky. Yet, they exist at different levels of society, affecting how wealth is distributed.

Education and Providing Real Value

The more you have within, the less you need from the outside to sustain you. The more intelligent you are, the less you need formal education to make something out of life. The more powerful you are, the less effort it takes to achieve your goals. And the more creative you are, the less you depend on tools created by others.

Education is good and profitable. Since anything good is something humans can relate to, schooling is certainly not a bad idea. However, as one grows in life and finds their own way, the dependence on external education decreases. 

Making Money vs. Being Rich

Making money requires no long-term outlook, no vision, and little intelligence. That's a fact. That's why making money is usually hard and tough—because jobs and vocations that provide the avenue to make money demand time, physical and mental effort, and a whole lot more.

Also, making money doesn't account for many principles that govern wealth creation. For example, if you make ₦100,000 a month and want to earn ₦1 billion, you must consider what you do in a month to earn the ₦100,000. Then, you think about what you'd have to do and how long it would take to earn ₦1 billion—and you see how daunting the task is. That's the logical approach to making money, and it’s exhausting.

Meanwhile, the rich have a creative mind, talent to transform their creations into reality, and an entrepreneurial mindset to profit from it—or they hire someone who knows how to make money from their creations. They also have the willingness to go long periods without immediate rewards, which is part of their mindset. When payday eventually comes, it pours. The entrepreneur doesn't necessarily know when that payday will come, so he just keeps working and creating solutions until it does. Since wealth is created in the mind and he is confident of that reality, he knows he will earn when the time is right. The compounding effort usually results in compounding rewards. So, an entrepreneur might earn ₦1 on day one when the income starts trickling in, ₦1 million on day 30, and ₦100 million by day 400, and it just keeps growing from there.

The rich are rich on the inside; that knowledge is their natural motivation. There is no sustainable, natural motivation for just making money.