“Is there an expert in the house??”

I’m an expert, aren’t you? I mean…. Anybody can be an expert …. at just about anything!

Just take the Joel Santana debacle with SAFA. Joel Santana “left on mutual terms” back to Brazil to eat the R1.4-million a month fruits of his labour. He came to coach us with no previous experience of coaching a national team … and you should just hear the comments people are making in the streets.

EVERYBODY is an expert. People will tell you EXACTLY what is wrong with the team. EXACTLY what is wrong with SAFA. Exactly what is wrong with everything but their own flawed existences. If we could all put as much passion, courage and insight into putting our own lives in order, as we do with other external issues we have no control over, our lives would be much more organized.

This emergence of everyone as an expert can also be a good thing … in principle. Essentially it is implied that as a person you can apply your mind to any and everything and be able to make a success of it. For instance, more and more nowadays, companies are hiring engineers to do finance jobs, because of the way engineers think. That’s just an example of how open-minded the world is becoming. You find people with commerce or engineering degrees being musicians, actors and actresses, whatever they please to be. I mean, heck, Cindy Crawford is a chemical engineer, believe it or not!

The cool thing is: we are living in what is called an information age. We have search engines, online dictionaries, encyclopedias, even full textbooks. All these things are just a click away. So I with an engineering degree can become knowledgeable in investment banking or even music if I wish. And this is what we need to teach our kids more and more. It is not about going to university, getting your degree and working in the industry your degree dictates.

We should tell them that first and foremost they should get educated, yes. But after they get their qualifications, get involved in something that is their passion, something that they would be willing to die for (figuratively), something they can wake up at 5am and do, without anybody telling them to do it. That is the career of the future, following a passion, reading up on it and finding information on the net to make sure you become an expert at it. Believe me, this is expert advice I’m giving you!

Mo Bloke