money
As we are not living in an isolated islands and don’t live in caves anymore, I think I have to admit that I must become a billionaire.
Whoever said that money is not important is lying to oneself. We all need money and we all have to work to get money, this age is not the barter age any more, and we cannot receive our products or services by mere transfer of other products or services,  although I wish that its that way still. We need it to pay bills, rent, mortgages, car mortgage, buy food, buy fuel, pay insurance, pay the dentist, the gardener, the doctor, the plumber, the carpenter, the schools, the universities, go to the movies, buy books, Internet, new phones, new laptops, new cloths, and a spectrum of products and services that we need on a daily, monthly and annual basis. I didn’t mention the holidays yet nor did I mention the gifts and other entertainments.
Our lives have become so complicated to the extent that we have to work double the time to cover our expenses and gone are the days when we used to save money. These days if we have any money left in the account at the end of the month it’s because we neglected to pay for something and not because we have a bit of excess that we can use for a rainy day.
So the plan is to think of how to make money to be able to do all the things one wants to do and have a bit left at the end of each month. I heard a story that goes like this, an Egyptian guy who lives in Saudi has a person that comes every week to iron his cloths for a 100 dirhams. As it transpired later, this guy is a doctor who made a plan to work in Saudi for three years only, and within the three years he will save to buy a house and keep some so he returns home. He worked as a doctor, ironed people’s cloths, waited in restaurant and did a lot of other chores in the weekend to reach his goal. And he did. So our friend the Egyptian guy started to evaluate his own life and found that if he did the same he would have been able to also save and would have been able to pull himself out of the vicious circle that he and many of us are in.
So is doing more than one job a way to close the books at the end of the month? Or should we be thinking of having our own businesses? What kind of businesses? The Indian guy was his own master and worked for others for a fee and we all can do that. Owning a business doesn’t necessarily mean that we have to have a space and staff! It could be extra tuition, doing crafts or art, making chairs and tables, sewing cloths etcetera.
Entrepreneurship doesn’t have to be a fancy thing as it could be as easy as going to people’s houses and cooking their meals or being a personal shopper. Even the women who drive children to their schools are entrepreneurs.

Let’s work on seeing someone extra money in our bank account at the end of the month.

Suad Alhalwachi
Director, Education Zone