10 Life Lessons I Learnt From Growing Up Poor -Njescor

On my recent leadership training- which I graduated from by the way☺ - we were asked to do a TED Talk. It got me really nervous because I've never done such a thing before. But part of being a leader is about that- trying out new things. I named my TED Talk '10 Things I've Learnt From Growing Up Poor.' and I am going to share a few with you.

My aim was to empower my fellow leaders with my story. This is how it goes:

I grew up in a family of 6 which was lead by my grandmother. This is the reason why I became a feminist. I truly believe that women can do anything.



We survived from R1200 per month, which was the child support grand the 5 of us received from the government. Us being me; my younger brother; and my 3 cousins.

We lived in deep rural areas, so we spent 6 years without a proper house, we had no electricity or running water, and we used pit toilets. And that was no trouble for me and my siblings, who were all so full of imagination. Our living condition was adventurous because we always felt like we are camping.

Reflecting on that part, us taking the condition as camping, meant that we always had hope. Which brings us to my first lesson:

1. Faith; hope; and charity- I learnt to always have faith, regardless of the situation. To have faith in your abilities, even if you feel like you wont go that far because you are poor. I was taught to cherish every moment. A bit of clarity on that- my paternal family was VERY rich. So at times when we had nothing to eat, my grandmother would tell me to go live with them because they were better than us. The reason why I couldn't is because I had promised my half brother that we would always look out for each other and me leaving him behind would break our promise.
2. Being strong inside and outside. You see the thing about being black and poor is the ability of strength. Your skin becomes literally hard and your emotions evolve too. You learn how not to cry and to be emotionally stable.
3. You learn to look within you for motivation. I lived with an old woman who was not educated, at times finishing school seems pointless. But knowing that we are at camp and that you have to work hard to get the family out of there, meant that you have to look within you for motivation. (see my other post to know how)
4. Fear wont get you anywhere. When talking about fear, you also should talk about self-confidence because it is a major catalyst to it. But do you know what is more powerful than fear? Willpower. Where there is will, there is a way.
5. Remember that I mentioned surviving on R1200 a month. This meant that before spending, we had to have a budget. Imagine a bunch of kids being taught to budget. And it worked out pretty well by the way. So reflecting back, this not only taught us to treat R1200 as if it were R12000. Our granny was also trying to teach us to always have a life plan, and that is very essential in the modern world for survival and for your goals.
6. Goals are important no matter who you are, you just have to have goals. You goals should also not be limited by your background, colour, or geography- DREAM BIG.
7. What's most important for every dreamer or person with goals is to stick to your life plan. The problem with us, people, is that we give up on ourselves too easily. We spend too much time moving with trends that we forget what our aim in life is.

"As young, black South Africans, we suffer not from the inability to succeed but the misdirection of our energy."

It rounds off to hard work. I know you have heard more or less the exact same words as the ones on this post. The only thing most people wont tell you is that, being poor really does impact you negatively in your life. You just have to get up and act!

Being innovative doesn't mean inventing things, you can be innovative through ideas.

People may look down on you because you are young and poor. Don't you let them do that.

I am proud to say that we have worked as a family to get us out of that dump. The situation is better and we are still working as hard to reach our goals. You can do that too.✌✌