All the Wrong Things I've Been Told

Most of us began life on a boat of superstitions, and have only been switching one boat for another throughout our lives.

Superstition is simply a notion maintained despite evidence to the contrary. 

There's enough evidence showing that the Moon revolves round the Earth, not a person. My sister spent the better part of her childhood believing the Moon was following her every night they were both out. It's a clear example of superstition.

And there are common ones: having a lucky number, being asked for money on a Monday morning (my dad's favourite, I was better off being punished at school for not bringing the money for Home Studies practical than asking my dad for it on a Monday morning), being handed a thing with a left hand, killing a duckling, and so on. 

But in today's post I'll be sharing the wrong things I have been told (and almost made to believe):

1. There's someone holding my dream job; I just have to find and connect to that person. Actually, it's true. Connections matter a lot in life. People are our doors to greatness: we'll have to pass through them. The only wrong thing about it is the way I was told -- with too much emphasis on meeting the "person". It made me less willing to make my own way. I kept trying to find the "person" rather than being the "person" for myself. I have stopped thinking that way. Now I tell myself: The best helping hands I will ever get are the ones at the end of my arms.
2. Start charging for all these stuffs you do for people for free. They are right, except that they meant I should charge for everything I could charge for. Microsoft Encarta is dead today and Wikipedia has taken it's place because of that. You can't hoard knowledge. Someone will find it out some other way someday. And you and your knowledge will become useless. Sharing is the only way to become valuable. Charge for only one thing and give every other thing away, freely. Like Google, they give you almost everything for free and charge for very few things.
3. Marry now, when you are poor, so you won't risk marrying the wrong person when you are rich. It's only right because I don't know if and when I'll become rich, and so might end up over delaying marriage. It's wrong because it is simply marrying for the sake of money, or lack of it.
4. You have to stand up for yourself or people will always cheat you. It was a very good advice and I'm happy I followed it. But it was incorrect too. Standing up for myself, screaming back at people and going further to stand up for others only made me feel extremely good. It didn't make people not cheat me. The only thing that has saved me from fraudsters was ignoring them. To avoid being cheated, ignore people a lot.
5. Think about what people will say. It's the one statement that makes me stop thinking. Every time my dad says it (funny, my mum hardly says it), I change the topic. Who are the people? No names; no faces. I don't care about faceless people.
6. What do you think about John and the new chic he's dating? What do you think about Jonathan and Obasanjo? What do you think about North Korea's nuclear threat? Phew! I've got enough troubles of my own to start thinking about things I have no influence on. Poking one's nose in other people's affair is wrong

And those are the ones I can remember for now. Enjoy your weekend!