Things are usually not the way they appear

On a thunderous rainy day, it is not out of place to look out of the window and notice lightening seconds before the thunder, if you didn’t study elementary science you will never think that both happened right about the same time but we see a different result looking from the window. For those who don’t care about researching and checking out facts, the information that light travels at the speed of 299 792 458 m/s and sound in dry air of about 20 degrees Celsius is 343 m/s will never understand why it appeared the way it did.

How Bright Is your computer screen? One very common problem with printed images is that, compared to the photo on the screen, they look really dark or drab. This is because screens and printed images are fundamentally different things: a screen displays images by directly emitting light while a print reflects the ambient light. It is also not out of place to run a proof for customers before they sign on for the actual job, Olu had printed one off his inkjet printer, in fact he printed two copies, the job was delivered and it was fine, then three months after customer comes for a reprint, customers copy had been discoloured because water poured on it, implication is that it’s looking totally awful and can’t be used, Olu found the copy he left in his car during the running around period and he yet feels it looks faded, possibly from the rays of sun, but not to worry he said and reached for the copy in his proof jacket inside his drawer in the office. We now have five copies – a copy of the job that was delivered, customer proof and Olu’s copies, they all look different. There is definitely reason(s) for this…

Nkem wasn’t so lucky as customer rejected the 7500 screen printed shirts because white ink turned pinkish on the red shirt that was printed on. For a better understanding, it is instructive to note that curing ink requires using heat. The problem is that whatever screen printing ink (plastisol or water based) must be cured at temperature around 320-330 degrees to prevent the ink from washing out when we have to do laundry, which is inevitable, so when polyester fibers especially reach 280 degrees the dye from the fabric can begin to bleed into the ink. You could deliver and prints will look good but dye migration can occur days after printing so it won’t immediately be visible.

In the same light, we can look at a successful press and think they make money because of their beautiful prints while in the real sense the chief innovator is the owner who knows that the secret of the quality print is in the design. Someone can go buy the exact equipment, hire same level of personnel yet perform far below expectations. 

Owners of businesses are human, they all fight internal battles, meanwhile every individuals battle is unique to each individual. Some have discovered themselves while others are still on the journey of self discovery. Looking at two seemingly identical businesses from the outside, they might look similar but the pilots are different. A mind that is open to ideas is on a path of greatness, so if one of this pilots has a trained mind the result will definitely be different. The one who is not pushed around by the fear of the mind with again definitely come out with a different result, in a similar light the one who has allowed people walk through his/her mind with dirty feet would turn out with another different result. The world as you have created it around you is a product of your thinking, which again is a product of your exposure. The mind of every human develops by what it is fed on. 

Remember that famous quote, “A mind is a terrible thing to waste,” was indeed the campaign slogan used by the United Negro College Fund (UNCF) in 1972 to drive home the point of how necessary education is. In 2005, UNCF supported approximately 65,000 students at over 900 colleges and universities with approximately $113 million in grants and scholarships. About 60% of these students were the first in their families to get a formal education. UNCF actually administers well over 450 named scholarships all so that the mind won’t be wasted.

If we are to go Straight to the point, we will safely say “education is the passage to progress”. Or we can call it “a way to our fate” because accomplishments is attainable only when individuals have information, aptitudes, and the right frame of mind. In this way, education resembles a medium through which we can associate with various individuals and offer our ideas or thoughts.

Adding increasingly imaginative thoughts to whatever we have learnt brings traction to the kind of impact that your education has provided 

I honestly can’t remember who said “Education is to pick up the capacity to develop and take care of issues in order to achieve their lawful motives”, and I can’t agree less.

We should not be deceived to however believe that education is acquired only by going through the four walls of a school! Education also means helping people to learn how to do things and encouraging them to think about what they learn, so Non-formal education like adult basic education, adult literacy education or school equivalent preparation has advantages like; almost naturally growing minds that do not wait for formal system, growth in skillfulness which ensures self-learning is appreciated, especially at the pace of the learner, the flexibility in age, curriculum and time. 

Also informal education like mentorship and apprenticeship has proven successful, with many successful entrepreneurs even in the printing industry, and we surely must encourage and develop this further. As the young generation will say, the serious minded apprentice always grow to have street credibility.

If you are counted amongst those considered to have street cred, it means that ordinary young people would approve of you and consider you to be part of their culture, because you share their views. Meanwhile, companies today prefer CEO’s with some form of street credibility… 

Talking about young people of today, those who in my opinion appear to be the most misunderstood generation, lacking proper mentorship, and having those who wish to mentor them NOT on the same page with those them.  Young people are the technology gender gap, even though everyone knows this but this gap is getting wider because things are not appearing as it seems – two generations are still in total disagreement in terms of culture and ideology. While one generation is angry that nothing is working for them, angry that an enabling environment eludes them, another generation is angry that the other generation is not trainable. 

Everywhere we turn, it is obvious that things mostly don’t appear the way they seem, it is therefore important to always remember that;

1. Nothing in life Is Permanent
2. Usually “No pain, no gain”
3. It is important to stay positive in this world full of negatives, for the sake of our mental health 
4. Scars Show Strength, Not Weakness
5. Even When I Am Struggling I Am Moving Forward
6. Nothing changes by being fearful 
7. Most importantly, is for us to build more people who will like to leave the stage better than they met it.

Things will never always appear as they seem but we must always aim to impact more and more people that will help make sense out of all the plenty nonsenses in the world over. Please go ahead and say a short prayer for someone who is struggling that “God will make things easy for them”. Amen