I’m sure you agree with me that knowledge is power. I remember I story I once heard about an elderly maid who served her mistress faithfully. She loved her mistress so much that she took care of her even when she was diagnosed of having a terminal ailment. As it is with love and affection, the mistress also replicated this love. Since she did not have any sibling at her point of death, she gave this woman what she would regard as her most precious possession, a small sheet of paper to remember her mistress by. This was enough for the old maid.

This older woman was an illiterate but understood the language of love. As soon as her mistress was diseased, she glazed this sheet of paper and hung it in her own private home. Not long after she was also diagnosed of an ailment, it wasn’t a terminal ailment, neither was in incurable. It caused much pain, and was so expensive to treat. The projected bills were going to be about $30,000, there was no way she’ll ever get this money. She decided to resign to fate, and die. It wasn’t worth it going through such pain at an elderly age. She had suffered for weeks and was at the point where she begged for euthanasia -painless killing.
On the day the doctor came over to her ward with the plan of putting her out of her misery, they decided to have a small chat before the elderly lady bade farewell to this side of life. The lady was excited that her pain would end, and shared with the doctor the high points of her life. In this long discussion, she reached into her bag and showed the doctor one of her most cherished possessions. A glazed sheet of paper she remembers her fondest mistress by. The doctor collected it and took a closer look, his jaw dropped and eyes looked dazed, “what?”. What this woman had glazed was a $1,000,000 cheque. She lived in pain, suffered and was about to end it all, not because she was not rich, not because she could not afford a better life, but because she didn’t know. Knowledge is indeed power.

The good book actually says that a man who is in honour and does not know is like a perishing beast. Knowledge is vital. Information is crucial. Information is a vital ingredient in what you need to move from where you are to where you are going. The definition of power I love the most defines power as the ability to choose. The more options you have, the more powerful you are. Knowledge gives power, the more you know the more options you have. Some of the most thriving businesses today thrive in providing cutting edge information at cutting edge speed. We are in an information driven age… that is not just for our countries and the media, that’s for you and I.

It’s 4:30am right now for example, there is no light, my battery is about to die, but the passion for gathering knowledge and staying informed has robbed me of healthy sleep. I’m not asking you to be extreme ( you will know if you need to be), but look for information, gather knowledge, and learn the skill of transforming it into value. I tell people, jobs are not scarce, skilled and knowledgeable people are. If reading is not a part of your daily routine, you are under utilizing yourself and cheating your future. People don’t happen, they are designed to be. If you look at your routine, you can predict your future. Readers are leaders.

In my quest for knowledge, last week I enrolled for a class in forex trading. Believe me, what I learnt was more than worth it. The Forex Market is the biggest in the world, over 10 times bigger than the biggest stock exchange market (New York). The forex market trades over 2trillion dollars daily. Money is being made, and of course being lost. It was very enlightening to discover that if you know how to read the trends of the market, you can easily make 100% returns on your money within a month – No broker required, just knowledge! I paid good money for the course, I have learnt from the words of Benjamin Franklin, that it is wisdom to empty my pockets to fill my head. While I don’t intend to use anybody’s money for forex trading in the near future, I have decided to learn the ropes with my money for the next 6 months. At least I’ll be knowledgeable enough to instruct whoever trades for me, I’ll have increased my options, and when most of the HYIPs get into their hibernating modes, I’ll be hot cake :).

I believe many young people might be interested in gaining knowledge in this area, so I went ahead to work out an arrangement with my teacher. First I negotiated with him on every interested persons behalf, rather than the going rates for this course that is N100K and above depending on who is organizing, I’ve been able to agree with him on N35k per participant. I am also providing the venue, a projector, and a wi-fi hot spot/link for the practical demonstration session (pls be clear that he will pay me for this service). All participants are required to have an extra N35k to help them fund their e-gold account with so they can start trading ASAP. I’m looking at a weekend in May, and need to know who and who is interested before commencing with the plans. So, are you interested in learning forex trading? I’m also working out something with someone on Stock trading as well, there is a lot of benefit in being able to do it yourself.

Gone are the days when ignorance was bliss. Gone are the days when what you don’t know can’t hurt you. Today, what one doesn’t know digs ones grave, and ignorance is cursed. Specialization is good, but has a big disadvantage, the problems and challenges that life offers are not specialized. Your ability to make sound decisions is not a function of how specialist you are, it’s how broad you are. Don’t get me wrong, I believe we must look for areas to be experts in -know more than the above average, but certainly crave to be knowledgeable in a wide variety of things, above the average. Knowledge is not only power, it empowers!