“The men that achieved greatness today didn't achieve it at a sudden flight… while my friends are in the parties with woman of loose virtues, I'm in the house burning the midnight oil looking for a solution to my country. Why won't I boast of a superior knowledge”?.
By Obafemi Awolowo.
We are living in the knowledge era, peter J. Drucker, the great management guru prophesied it many years ago. He said, and I quote, “the time is coming when men won't need a formal education to solve their problems, all they'll do is to get their problems solved informally by seeking informal education”. I'm glad to tell you that this is the time. It's called the era of the “knowledge worker”. Knowledge is light and ignorance is darkness, it beat me hollow when men try to succeed with and in darkness. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance, and men who seek to govern their lives must seek the power which knowledge gives. The ancients succeeded by books, and founding fathers leaned on the information they gained from books. They burned the midnight oil rubbing their mind with information that made them immoral. They are dead yet we still quote them. They have turned to dust in their graves yet the solution they proffered is what we are still using to solve our problems. To quote some of them, I start with Obafemi Awolowo, Awolowo said, “the men that achieve greatness today didn't achieve it at a sudden flight, while my mates and friends are in the parties with women of loose virtues I'm in the house burning the midnight oil, looking for a solution to Nigeria, why won't I boast of a superior knowledge”, Awo as he was called then built the fragile economy of the western Nigeria into a formidable force to be reckoned with all over the world. He built liberty stadium, which is still in use till today. He built Cocoa House, the first sky scrapper in West Africa; it's still in use till date. He started the first T.V station in West Africa, that TV station is still alive till date. He started the tribune Newspaper, its' still being read and circulated till date. He was a man of achievement, yet he was a man of books that burned the midnight oil. Permit me to mention the late F.R.A Williams, one of the brightest minds in the legal profession Nigeria have ever produced. This was a man that judges feared and even the brightest judges hated to preside over any case that involved him. Before he died, he called one of his sons to take him into the library, sat down, looked at the books, smiled and gave up the ghost. His last respect as it where were to the books that made him what he became.
Now that we are living in the 21st century, the story has not changed. We can't build with ignorance. We can't move forward with empty brains and to try to do that will be suicidal. Alvin Toffler, the futurist that wrote the book the third wave said,” the illiterate of the 21st century is not the men that cannot read and write, but the illiterate of the 21st century is the man who refuses to learn, unlearn and relearn”. Please my friends, I beg you with all the mercies of God, don't try to succeed without books. Don't go the journey of life on your hand, a notepad and a pen, your day is made. We have 21st century examples to learn from, I'll start from Oprah Winfrey.
Oprah was taught to read by her grandmother at the age of two and half. However she was raped at the age of thirteen ran away from home at the age of fifteen, she gave birth to the child but the child died. She was destined to doom until her father came to her rescue. At sixteen her father made her read at least a book, she was to write a report on the book, she was also to memorize the new words each day. Books and information stretched her minds beyond the bounds of gender and racial discrimination. Today she is the wealthiest black woman on earth and the woman on TV.
Let's look at Dr. Ben Carson, the most celebrated pediatric neurosurgeon in the world. The first neurosurgeon to successfully separate a Siamese twin without side effects. He is also the first black neurosurgeon to successfully carry out a hemispherectomy without side effects. However, he didn't start out like that, he was the dumbest boy in the class until his mother mandated him to read at least two books a week and to write a report on it, and she stopped him from watching TV and to memorize the time tables. That decision was what brought the turning point in his life. He became the youngest director of pediatric neurosurgeon at the John Hopkins university hospital Baltimore.
These are living examples we can feel and touch, friends lets wrap up and go for books. We can't and won't go far without them. Books have made mere mortals immortal, the power of the printed word have given finite man the power of infinity. It has turned losers into winners, failures into success and they are here to move us forward if we will just embrace them. Some have argued that the cost of getting knowledge is high-arguably true, but how cheap is ignorance? The burden of ignorance far out weighs that of knowledge. Please do not be deceived. Jim Hohn the foremost 21st century business philosopher said; we must not be afraid of empting our pockets into our brains”. Mike Murdock said, “The reason some people's stomach is more obvious than their brains simply depends on what they invest on”. Knowledge will defiantly cost you something, but the reward definitely outweighs the cost. Don't be scared of buying books the same way you go for shopping, step into a bookshop and shop for your mind. Never forget this: we are where we are based on our current knowledge and ignorance. Everything we do not have was lost simply because of our ignorance, stay with me.
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