Strive For Skill, Not for money

Strive for skill, not for money

Greedy people aren't hard to find in our country. Every person’s mind is filled with greed for money. We honour and praise people who have high bank balances and lead so-called ‘standard’ lifestyles. Accept it or not, we silently envy them. From the very early stage of our lives, we’re taught to have a greedy approach to life. A well-settled life is what we aim for. We want to have a comfortable, yet high paying job. Even today, if a young student talks about his aspiration to join any other sector except Science, Technology or Management, people look at him with eyes full of suspicion. They question his ability.
So it’s high time we stopped striving for money. What really matters is exploring the potentials within us, and using the petrol in our car to take us to places we want to go to.

I feel that our ambition limited to a comfortable life and our greedy mindsets are the major reasons for the underdevelopment of our country. We may feel we aren't greedy, or we may argue that being greedy is purely human, and that it’s totally under our control. But I believe we’re losing out control over this feeling every other day. This vice is occupying more and more space in our minds, and it’s been literally killing our creative ideas, our thinking skills, our will to learn more, and our energy to build a new Nepal. 

In our quest to accumulate as much wealth as possible, we've forgotten to teach ourselves to earn Laxmi(wealth), not just the money. It’s true that we live in a poor country, and that money is essential to live. But money shouldn't be the sole aim of life. There are many talented and brilliant young people in our country, but because we’re taught from early on that success is measured only in terms of their financial status, we don’t actually focus on developing our skills but only concentrate on how much money we’re getting paid. What we don’t understand is that with a little bit of effort, we could earn much, much more.

Also, since we seek too much comfort, we don’t really strive hard. We don’t believe in the power of hard work and dedication. Okay, money can give us many things in life. It can buy us comfort. But it can never buy us happiness and peace of mind. What about our passion? Is it right to give up on our passion just for the sake of money? Is it okay for us to become someone totally different just because it helps us earn money more easily?

In the film ‘The Social Network’ which is based on the creation of the social networking site, Facebook, its founder, Mark Zuckerberg, states, “Money, or the ability to make money, doesn't impress anyone around here.” Compare this with the context of Nepal: Foreign companies are ruling our market. Why? It’s because we’re side-lining our innovative and creative skills for the sake of easy money.

Sometimes I laugh, thinking how in a country like ours, which doesn't have enough national income but has so much greed for money, and how in a country like America, they have understood how limited the role of money is. They have understood the significance of people’s creativity and hard work, and constantly work to bettering themselves.

Don’t get me wrong, though. I'm not underestimating the power of money. I wouldn't have been able to write this piece of opinion if I couldn't afford a computer. Of course, money is important, but it’s only as important as the gas in a car. Suppose your life is a car and money is its petrol. Do we go to one petrol pump, fill in with the required fuel and head to another petrol pump to get another fill of petrol again? Obviously not. But that’s exactly what all of us Nepali's have been doing.

By Prashanna Mali