Acquiring lifetime skills

Every so often we bump into the turbulent weather of minimum wage as though it is something we can afford in the midst of revenue generation decline.

In simplest form, minimum wage is a bench mark figure or a starting salary for those without skills. People hired at this level are new workers who must be trained and placed on probationary period for on-the-training.

It should be obvious by now that unless you partake in the “You Equation” to acquire or learn lifetime skills, you’d have to sing the “Minimum Wage Blues” for quite awhile. If you will, the learning process is a never ending phenomenon. And only those who take personal initiatives are given the reward they rightly deserve.

I recall in the early seventies a young man who worked as a Bell Boy in one of the old hotels here. He was bright, lively, hardworking and goes straight home right after work. Today, he is a doctor! So what’s the point? He took the job as a high school student. But he’d set his goal and went after it vowing to be what he aspired to be–a doctor.

I am sure the young Bell Boy then had to make ends meet and had to take the job to pay for basic and incidental needs. I am equally sure too that he’s seen his future before him. Definitely, he had no plans to be a lifetime Bell Boy. He graduated on top of his class. He went on to college and into medical school. Again, (risking redundancy here), he became a doctor!

Definitely, this local doctor never even bothered to ask for the minimum wage. At a minimum, he’s making anywhere between $90,000 to $150,000 a year. Nor have I heard that he’s clamoring to be paid $3.05 an hour. I am sure too that he’s also saying to his own people with good prospects to be anything they wanted to be that the answer is: education!

It takes the “You Equation” to acquire and learn lifetime skills. The place to learn lifetime skills is at school. It takes staying in school to complete at least your high school education. It takes personal initiative to move on beyond high school. And you know what? The only person who can make this possible is, well, YOU!

In years past, I have come across bright young people who wanted salaries beyond the statutory minimum wage. But they simply don’t have the skills for anything beyond the minimum wage. Strangely, too, they harbor the view that we owe them something better than $3.05 an hour. No sir! You owe yourself the opportunity to acquire lifetime skills and until such time that you proactively work at it, it’ll be “minimum wage blues” for many moons to come.

If you need help returning to school so you can learn lifetime skills, I will be more than happy to assist you return to class, the venue where preparation can be obtained so that you can market your skills in the near future. I know you can do it with just a little effort to pull yourself out of that usual mañana syndrome. Do it today. You owe it to no one else but yourself! Si Yuus Maase`!

Strictly a personal view. John S. DelRosario Jr. is publisher of Saipan Tribune.