Managing Someone's Fortune

You're just a manager. You don't own the orange. 

Internet riches has led to the debate about college. Is the four years worth it, if you cannot get a job after making your parents proud, on graduation day?

Sometimes graduation certificates nurture unrealistic expectations. We want to dive into the deep end of the pool and become managers. What we should be doing is to check out the board of directors of companies we like, while we are still in college. Unfortunately, the salary, dental and health benefits, the car, housing allowance etc. are the reasons why we gravitate towards certain companies.

The board of directors (BOD) will tell us what we will be ‘managing.’ Managers manage someone’s property, invention, vision and the future. Thanks to the internet, BOD information is easily available. It was important in ancient times when fathers wanted to ‘marry off’ daughters to the right families, or wanted sons-in-matrimony that would safeguard daughters’ inheritance. Arranged marriages are alive and well, in this century.

The BOD information is still important in 2024. What are you managing? Some Tik Tok and YouTube managers manage their content, promote it and will do everything legally possible, to stay at the top of their online game. They join alliances based on their invention, vision and the future. They are their own Board of Directors. Managing someone’s property might lead to suicide. “Our dad worked hard for that company, and how did they thank him?” Restructuring.

Yes, the BOD is there to safeguard the family business and its alliances. Sometimes it is done to correct misconceptions, like managers that become too big for their boots, and think they belong. That suicide is sad but it is a wake-up call, that we are managers of what doesn’t belong to us.

Nonqaba waka Msimang

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