In the previous posts on the prodigal son we’ve looked at the importance of Family Unity and The 6 P’s of Wealth. We continue with Lesson 5 from the prodigal son.
Text: Luke 15:13 (KJV)
I have said frequently that income is a spring, while wealth is a lake.
Lesson 5: The lean cows are not far away
The water body behind me in the picture is the Myponga Dam near Adelaide in South Australia. I was there in January 2015.
The Myponga water reservoir was formed from a stream and only 30 inches of rainfall per year. That’s less than 3 inches a month. By just blocking the stream and regulating the flow, a reservoir was built. Constructions began in 1958 and was completed in 1962.
You must, while you are young, build multiple streams of income, no matter how small they are.
People usually come to think that I am intelligent when I speak; but that’s not true. I have been collecting bits and pieces of knowledge for years, even when I was in a mud house with lanterns in Okere, Warri.
I have been picking and stockpiling experiences from different sources over the years.
Sometimes, I ‘steal’ with my eyes like Hamilton Naki, the Black man that participated in the first heart transplant (which is, sometimes, controversial) with Dr. Christian Bernard without going to medical school. He learnt by observation and stealing with his eyes. The records were hidden during the apartheid era, but in 2003 he was given an honorary medical degree from the University of Cape Town. Although he was born to a poor family in the village of Ngcingane in South Africa, he received a lot of public recognition after his retirement and death.
When you are young, try as much as possible to accumulate knowledge.
I was recently paid per hour for speaking for 8 hours in 8 days. I will not tell you how much it amounted to. When I was buying books while I had just 2 pairs of shoes, my wife probably could not understand
Write as many books as you can write when you are young.
Make as many connections as possible early in life and as you go along in life. They have the potential to form your net worth in future.
There is a period of boom in life represented by fat cows in the dream that Joseph interpreted for Pharaoh. However, the years of lean cows also come.
Today, I could not go to work because I needed to rest. Some years back I could preach in 3 different churches in a day. I could stay awake and write books over several nights. I could do several days of night vigils. Today, I can’t do that.
Several of the churches that I used to preach in no longer invite me. Some of them might not even call you after preaching to check if you arrived home safely, then. So I had learnt to manage my time and resources well.
My wife would tell me then, “Let’s build our base so that later in life we will not need to travel or work unless we need to”. It was a wise suggestion and, today, it has come to pass.
Old age is expensive. You will need to build a house (or several), train children in universities, sponsor your children’s weddings, bury aged parents and pay health bills in some cases. When you see a good looking old man, who is well educated sometimes, doing menial jobs in old age, in some cases, the years of fat cows were not well managed.
Build a reservoir or reserve just in case of a famine or opportunity.
If Nigeria had managed the oil windfall well and built a large foreign reserve and a good industrial, educational, and health sector, the fall in price of oil would not affect us the way it has now.
Many oil company workers, politicians, doctors, engineers, and high-paid professionals don’t usually manage the years of fat cows well and it breeds a disastrous scenario when the lean cows finally show up.
In the next post on the prodigal son, we’ll look at the need to humble yourself before circumstances do it.
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