HOW THEY SET YOU UP FOR MEDIOCRITY

If by now, you are bitter about the way things have been for you either as a graduate, working class or undergraduate, I have proved to you in my previous post that it isn’t your fault.

I first proved that everyone was born a genius, everyone had a talent during childhood.

We were creative, we had dreams, we were not afraid to fail, we knew how to figure things out, we were curious, innovative.

I spoke about Gillian the young girl who did poorly in academics and her school thought she had a disorder that her mom should take her to the school of the deformed.

How that her mom took her to a psychologist and they eventually discovered that the reason she was always in motion in class, always disrupting and moving was because she was a born dancer and that she had no health issues.

She later went to a dance school and became one of the best dancers in the world.

I couldn't speak of the likes of McCartney who is one of the greatest musicians too who was playful during his university days and loved music naturally but hated the curriculum called music in school because of time.

Then yesterday, I spoke about WHO ACTUALLY KILLED OUR DREAMS.

How that the present school system was not created in the first place for learning or enhancing creativity. Rather it was created to make people obedient factory workers.

How that a society is supposed to thrive on the diverse natures of humans.

We have people born comedians, painters, artists, musicians, writers etc.* *The society is supposed to grow and develop as we each contribute our passions and dreams but we have been boxed up in a school system which does not recognize the diverse nature of humans.

How that we all have been made to love mathematics even though only a few are naturally good at it, we've been told a lie that ONLY THOSE WHO GET A DEGREE WOULD GET JOBS.

The promise of "Go to school, don't figure things out, don't be creative, just be obedient to what you're being taught and we'd give you a job" worked in the industrial age when machines needed to be operated by humans and how it no longer works because machines can now think and work by themselves.

All these and lots more were discussed in the last two classes and I specifically told you that my battle for now isn't against school.

MY FIGHT IS AGAINST THE MENTALITY SCHOOL HAD FED YOU WITH WHICH IS NOW CONTROLLING YOUR LIFE.

MY MANIFESTO ISN'T FOR YOU TO QUIT SCHOOL BUT THAT YOU SHOULD KNOW WHAT IS GOING ON AND HOW ITS AFFECTING YOU

If you're just joining you've missed a lot but do not worry, I'd compile it all for you to read and I have 22 topics here daily which would help you break free and become the best in the world.

I'm giving this information out for free because I know the impact it would have in the society if we all know this.

Do not take this for granted, I could have placed a fee on this but it's a gift and it has helped me as a young man myself and gifts are meant to be shared.

So, do well to share this group link to people to join.

Today, I'd be discussing on "HOW THEY SET YOU UP FOR MEDIOCRITY.

Everyone here should know what mediocrity means and if you don't, please check a dictionary.

Hector has it rough. Rougher than most. Every morning, he stands on a street corner in Queens, next to the hardware store and across the street from the Thai restaurant. Hector stands next to his six biggest competitors, waiting for work.

Slowly, a pickup truck pulls up. The contractor behind the wheel is looking for workers, day laborers. He knows that every morning, they'll be on this corner, waiting for him. He rolls down the window and offers minimum wage. Which is a lot for this kind of work.

All the workers seem the same. They're bundled up against the cold, and they're willing to work cheap.

So he picks three and drives away.

Hector is left on the corner, in the cold. Maybe someone else will come by today. Maybe not.

He's one of many, a fungible product, a nonchoice. The contractor didn't expend any time or effort on his choice because it didn't really matter. He needed cheap physical labor and he got it.

He needed obedient workers able to follow simple instructions, and here they were. And Hector got nothing. Hector went home, as he often does, with nothing.

How do you feel about this story?

I bet you, I am the only thinking differently among us on this story. I may be wrong anyways.

But I'm sure most of you would have felt that Hector wasn't lucky enough, you must have wished him luck one way or the other and you must have felt pity for him.

I didn't wish he had luck, neither did I feel pity for him.

I only wished he was part of this whatsap group.

Lolzzzzzz

I only wished he knew what I know and I'm trying to pass across to you.

Most of you here or some are like Hector waiting to be picked up, waiting for opportunities, wishing you had luck, pitying your state and complaining.

I used to do that until I realized how I was set up to behave in such a way, so had to learn how to free myself.

That is why tonight's discussion is very important, you have to know what they're put in place to set you up.

I'm still very young and I still have problems but I have some problems I have overcome which others are still entangled in, which others are like Hector.:

It's "MEDIOCRITY"

Why have you turned to someone who is always afraid of having big goals or big ideas, why are you scared of developing that big dream, why are you scared of connecting with influential people, why are you comfortable with little.

You are afraid to speak up because you feel it would be ridiculed or laughed at.

Here's how they set you up and we'll have to go back to the school system that killed our dreams and passions and see what they put in place.

1. The School System has amplified fear.

Studies show us that things learned in frightening circumstances are sticky. We remember what we learn on the battlefield, or when we burn a finger on a hot tea kettle.

We remember what we learn in situations where successful action avoids a threat. Schools have figured this out. They need shortcuts in order to successfully process millions of students a year, and they've discovered that fear is a great shortcut on the way to teaching compliance.

Classrooms become fear-based, test-based battlefields, when they could so easily be organized to encourage the heretical thought we so badly need.

So, is it any surprise that people have learned to fit in, do the standardized test, keep heads down, obey instructions? Decades of school have drilled that into us--fear, fear, and more fear.

Fear of getting a D-minus.

Fear of not getting a job right out of school.

Fear of not fitting in.

2. REWARD FOR THE OBEDIENT :

The school system also promised a reward for those obedient to the fear they instill in them, they sold them all a big lie.

They brainwashed you yet you were thinking they were paying you, rather they were exploiting you and trying to keep you from your dreams so that the society would have richer and poorer.

Look at this

Here's what we're teaching kids to do (with various levels of success):

Fit in

Follow instructions

Use #2 pencils

Take good notes

Show up every day

Cram for tests and don't miss deadlines

*Have good handwriting*

Punctuate

Buy the things the other kids are buying

Don't ask questions

Don't challenge authority

Do the minimum amount required so you'll have time to work on another subject

Get into college

Have a good resume

Don't fail

Don't say anything that might embarrass you

Be passably good at sports, or perhaps extremely good at being a quarterback

Participate in a large number of extracurricular activities

Be a generalist

Try not to have the other kids talk about you

Once you learn a topic, move on

All the instructions here cannot produce or develop a genius, they promised to reward you after taking your genius but they left you on your own when you have totally obeyed all the instructions.

3. Failing means you're not good.

This is another lie they sold to you that has been controlling quite a lot of people. You don't want to start that great idea because you feel you'll fail and you've been told that failures are losers.

Well, how true is that lie?

Are failures really losers, what about Thomas Edison who failed a thousand times before he invented the light bulb.

In the real sense, failing means you're trying something out (though sometimes it could mean you're stupid).

They don't want you to keep trying something hard so from childhood, the school system discriminated failing because they knew something was inside of you that would keep trying and trying again if you failed.

Now, can you see the reason why you're always comfortable with little?

Because you've been lied to that failures are losers.

I'm happy whenever I fail, in fact, I seek to fail so that I would know how not to try it.

This is why I've been on an idea for seven months and I'm still trying, I have failed countless times but I know that failing means I'm working.

4. The Brave One Are Rebels:

Have you ever stood up in class to question your teacher over a wrong equation?

Have you ever told your principal that he picked the wrong person and that he was wrong for accusing such person?

What were you seen or labelled as?

A rebel right

If you don't know, the fact that we face problems and nobody wants to speak up is a mentality we have been indoctrinated with from childhood.

There is no reward for bravery, there's only punishment.

We have subconsciously adopted that and it has permeated every form of our lives. We are afraid to speak up, to take brave steps, to fight for our rights, to protest, to correct.

There are no punishments for bravery, rather there are rewards (there are only punishment for foolishness and foolishness isn't bravery).

Foolishness is you trying to save your friend in the midst of flying bullets by enemies.

Bravery is you looking for the enemies and taking them out.

Bravery doesn't mean looking for dangerous ways to escape, Bravery means confronting the fear and winning.

There are just a very few exceptions

This blame is not only on the school system, it is on our culture as well but the school system plays a very huge role.

By now, you should begin to see what has been happening to you and know that this are things which you've always believed.

Reading is cheap, learning is expensive.

Learning should be cheap, while reading made a necessity.

The school system has fooled you to think reading is learning and you thought learning was cheap because they told you learning was reading.

This is what I mean, most of you have developed the habit to read only when there are exams or tests. That is not learning.

Let's go back to childhood, learning was part of you, you wanted to know how the bread seller baked her breads, you wanted to know how that carpenter made your dad those fine stools so you set out to their shops and ask questions, observing, paying attention.

Now, in school they do not need you to learn because learning would cost them, learning would break you free so they set exams and tests and quiz and promised grades if you read.

They were not trying to put a learning culture in you, they were snuffing it out.

They want you to only respond to learning during deadlines, during exams which is through reading.

So if there are no exams or tests or rewards, you don't learn.

This is one of the reasons why most of you don't see the need to learn something new in the business you're doing, you feel it's a big work to begin to learn what's in line with your passion. You feel it's going to be stressful. It's because you've always believed learning was expensive.

Learning is not expensive, learning has always been part of us. Learning has always been our responses to new things.

Learning and reading are two different things, you can learn without reading, learning comes with observations, paying attention.

Learning comes from inquiry, you make researches, it's not compulsory you read.

You can learn carpentry without reading a book, you can learn swimming without reading a book.

You have lost the ability to learn which is one characteristics of a mediocre.

How many of you can sit comfortably in front of your computer for hours to learn about a new course in the world or a new way of fashion designing.

There are many more things which was put in place to set us up for mediocrity.

We thought it was the norm but it is what has defined our average lives.

The rich do the exact opposite of all this, they know the truth.

I have broken free from mediocrity, now that you've known what happened, I'll teach you how to break free.

MY FIGHT IS NOT TO THE SCHOOL SYSTEM, RATHER TO THE LIES WE'VE ALL BELIEVED.

Most people wonder why I'm always brave, always ready to take on challenges, it because I know the real truth behind the system.

That's why I invented Think N Act so you'll all be able to Think, then Act.

We still have a long way to go on this topics and I hope you're all learning from it.

Ajayi Joel