This Jail Called A Job

Many people will be stunned by the title of this article. Some people will be annoyed with me for referring to a job as a jail. But just a few will agree with me. All of these people may be right! Guess what? They are all operating according to their level of awareness; and I accept that in good faith. But if you are actually a job holder like me, you will no doubt come to the stark reality that a job is a jail.

First of all, what is a job? Many learned people including Robert T. Kiyosaki and Les Brown describe a JOB as the Journey (J) of (O) the Broke (B). I believe there wouldn’t be any better definition of a job than this. I do know that many of you will disagree with me just because you are not finding jobs yet. Or better still, you are job holders but you attach emotions to especially the definition. This actually may be hurting, especially if you are hearing this for the first time in your working career.

As a job holder, why would I go out of my way to say a job is a jail? Am I seeking to undermine a job? No! This is far from the truth. If for nothing at all, a job puts food on the table. It pays the kids fees, it provides for our clothing and health. It helps settle the numerous utilities and many other equally important things. So why am I doing this? My purpose is to draw people, especially employees, attention to this serious matters which are taken for granted until one is about to retire. But as to whether a job is a jail or not, I leave it to your judgement as we cruise along.

Dr. Michael Le Boeuf, in his book entitled, “The millionaire in you” tries to explain the 5 people in the Time and Money trap. For the purpose of this discussion, I would talk only about one of the 5- thus the employee. Dr. Le Boeuf describes an employee as follows, “The employee represents most of us. She works regular for a decent living wage that pays the rent and puts food on the table. She trades time for money, and she focuses on earning to spend. Unless that mind-set changes, she will continue to trade time for money for the rest of her working days. Then she will retire and spend her golden years living on a modest pension”.

I totally agree with Dr. Michael Le Boeuf on this matter except to add that in Ghana, we don’t have a living wage, neither do we have a ‘modest’ pension! There are employees whose take home pay is GH₵1,000.00 (of course some are much higher and still others are lower than GH₵1,000.00). This translates to GH₵33.33 per day. He would have to provide housekeeping money, pay for his T&T to and from work, provide for his lunch (whilst at work), give his children school money, and save; all from this GH₵33.33 A DAY pay. Aba! Is he a magician? So what happens at the end of the day is lower salaries leading to unbalanced budget at the end of each month; leading to lower or no saving at all; resulting into no emergency fund; that leads to no peace of mind; making you grow older than your age and making you look like a prisoner, even though you are not one. Indeed, lower salaries also mean lower SSNIT contributions which in turn lead to much smaller pensions (not modest pension).

I know someone who worked for 35 years for a public organization in Ghana here, who went on pension (as a senior staff) and had just GH₵25,000.00 as his lump sum. I need not tell you what his monthly pension will be if the lump sum is GH₵25,000.00. This means that he got paid GH₵1.98 each day of the 35 years! Hmm! Another elderly friend of mine was complaining of how he was going on pension and anticipating less than GH₵10,000.00 as his lump sum.

In April 2017, government workers’ salaries delayed for a day or two in this country. As a result, many workers didn’t get their salary to celebrate May Day. You needed to have heard the frustrations, desperation and vulnerability displayed by workers. The situation becomes worse if an employee’s salary is mistakenly blocked for a month or more. No wonder people say the gap between an employee and poverty is one month salary. It did happen in 2014 when many employees’ salaries were blocked due to this biometric thing. Most of them had to borrow money for T&T to go to the Auditor General’s department to get themselves verified for payment. It is not uncommon to see employees using 50 per cent or more of their salaries to pay debt from the previous month. Now starting the current month with 50 per cent of his salary, you can be sure that he will get to the end of the month with 75 per cent debt. This cycle continuous until he gets salary arrears to clear all the backlog and start all over again.

You would agree with me that a person going through all of these is in a JAIL – an economic jail for that matter.

What is even more interesting is that outsiders see you and envy you and think you are better off. They have forgotten the African proverb that says, “The sheep sweats, but it is its fur that covers the sweat”. When there is an issue in the family that requires contribution, the taxi driver who earns about twice what you earn is looking up to you to fix it. The Wakye seller, who earns your monthly salary as her daily income; still look up to you to either solve the problem entirely or contribute the lion share.

The very weakness of the job is that you cannot leverage the time, money and knowledge of other people. You are a lone ranger, and when you become permanently ill, your source of income is blocked. Yet this is the time that you need more money for treatment and medication.

Another weakness is that a job is not scalable. It is good if you are earning GH¢500.00 per month, but it is even better if you can earn 10 times, 50 times or even 100 times that. Whilst this is possible elsewhere, it is not possible on a job. Come to think of it. If you are an employee, you only earn an income 12 times out of the 365 days in a year. How can you grow with this? Some people try to acquire higher qualifications, so they can get upgraded or promoted to earn higher incomes. As a result, they take loans with higher interest rates to pay their fees and cater for other expenses. When they complete, however, they don’t get the upgrading or promotion they envisaged, thus worsening their plight!

Having discussed the frustrations, it is now time to determine how we can break the jail. The first thing in this regard is to accept or at least realize that you are in a jail; if you are a job holder. The saying goes that you cannot escape in prison if you don’t know you are in one. You need to have an open mind. Having an open mind simply means willingness to throw away some of your most cherished beliefs when a better one comes your way. Embrace Ideas and work at improving yourself and your income each day. Always be on the lookout for the opportunity that will provide financial freedom for you and your family. This is very important.

Next is to take responsibility for your own life. If you didn’t know, you have to realize that nobody is responsible for your welfare, except you. Your success in life is your own responsibility. The government cannot be blamed for your lack of money. You can do so, but it doesn’t change anything. Your father, mother or any of your relations is not responsible for any of your woes. You have to admit that you are responsible so you can chart a new course and expect new results. Otherwise, if you keep complaining and blaming others for your current state of affairs, you will be worse off in the near future than you are today. It makes a lot of difference to accept responsibility.

Benjamin Franklin said, “Empty the coins in your purse into your mind, and your mind will fill your purse with gold”. You should be a reader. I cannot emphasize enough, the importance of this point. Not subject or course related reading per se, but personal development and finances. All successful people are readers. If you can read and you are not reading, you are doing a great disservice not only to yourself, but to the community at large. All the solutions to your current problems are coded in books. If you are poor, there are books on how to be wealthy. If you are sad, there are books on how to be happy.

If you are sick, there are books on how to live a healthy life and so on. Ben Carson, one of the finest neurosurgeons in the world, used to be at the bottom of his class when he was in elementary school. It wasn’t until his mother instructed him and his brother to read at least 2 books per week that he became tops of his class. Malcolm X lost his sight in prison through reading, but gained his vision. Warren Buffet at one time read all the books in his community library! He still reads books, newspapers and reports each day; even at his age now. There seem to be a secret in reading that only readers know. So become a reader so you too can find out. But remember that the person you will be in 5 years is based on the books you read and the people you hang around with.

The third and final way to change is to become a seller. Selling is one of the most important skills anybody can learn. It is also one of the most paying professions in the world. But for some strange reasons, many people especially employees don’t want to hear the word “Sell”. They fail to realize that all successful people are sellers. Mention any rich person and I will tell you what he sells.

Dangote sells cement; Ibrahim Mahama sells engineering services; Papa Kwesi Ndoum sells hospitality and banking services; Nasona sells fuel and so on. What do you sell? Do you now see why you are where you are? Did you know that if you could sell something at a profit of 10 pesewas to each of the 27 million Ghanaians (or the combined effect of that), you would be GH₵2,700,000.00 richer? What if the profit margin is GH₵1.00, GH₵10.00 or GH₵20.00? I leave that to your own imagination!

I would like to conclude this piece with a quote from Doug Wead. He says “Focus on the princess not the problem. You cannot marry the princess without killing the dragon. So anytime you see the dragon on one side, always remember there is a princess on the other side.” I know you will be wondering what a dragon and princess got to do with breaking this jail. As you read through this article, two sets of thoughts run through your mind. One set was drawing your attention to the fears, doubts, alibis and all the reasons you cannot break this jail. These are your dragons.

The other set drew your attention to all the money you could make, the time freedom you will enjoy, the lives you could affect and all the good things that come with breaking the jail. These are your princesses. But there is only one problem: “Your feeling and love for the princess must exceed your fear for the dragon, otherwise forget it.”

Thank you very much for spending your precious time to read this piece. Iddrisu Abdulai is my name. I am a Chartered Accountant and a Network Marketing practitioner. For more information on this article you can contact me on [email protected] or 0268363341. Bye!