The skills less learned in school

Recently, I met an entrepreneur who runs his own education centre for more than 10 years. He focuses on educating children and teenagers on living skills that are never taught in schools. True enough, our younger generations nowadays may be smart achievers academically but still lack many skills to survive in the real world.

Effectively, there are four qualities that need to be honed before one can excel in his living progress. The purpose of this education is to equip the youngsters for a better future when they step into the competitive world. However, I reckon they are also very applicable for market traders if they wish to survive and advance in the trading performance.

First of all, Emotional Quotient (EQ) is necessary to ensure one’s path to attain the goal. Many people are easily agitated by environmental changes or frustrated by disharmony among people.

Likewise, to trading and investment, a performer will always stay cool and find solutions in the shortest time for reversing the mistake. Being engulfed by anger and rashness would usually trigger one to execute the wrong reaction which lead to less favoured outcome.

Creativity is an essential quality to enhance your situation. People who are less creative or lack of ideas are normally instruction followers without initiatives. You can start to train yourself by pondering possible outcomes of a situation, which subsequently tally with the results that have been applied with your hypothetical solution. In summary, being creative always spur one to move forward with a better goal instead of stalling down with mere complaints.

Third comes sustainability. Some people will perish when you throw them into the dessert, while tough ones will find ways to survive. Being an entrepreneur or a business operator requires sustainability in order to grow the multiple income streams. Just like an efficient trader, you might want to identify which market is most suitable to you and fit your risk appetite if the previous one fails.

Lastly, we always emphasise on financial skills. Making business profits and reaping trading profits are no other than these two ways: buy low and sell high, or vice versa. In today’s world, there are many hybrid methods of structuring a financial instrument.

We should at least learn to evaluate the material cost of a product (below fair value) versus its selling price (at or above fair value), thus lead to a positive calculation of revenue and net income.

Nowadays, kids are pressured to perform in schools and colleges without being taught how to handle their EQ, practice sustainability, explore creativity and develop financial skills.

In fact, there are many traditional businessmen who excel prominently but have never completed their college degree or schools. However, it is these four qualities that accompany their sailing path to success and emerge as financially-free people.

In summary, it is important to receive a good education. Notwithstanding the literacy, it is more important to selfcultivate and progress with the essential skills to survive and excel in our lives. Just imagine: when we could not fall back on our academic qualification anymore, what else have we got to make a living for ourselves? Think hard.

Dar Wong is a registered Fund Manager in Singapore. The opinions are solely at his own. He can be reached at dar@ pwforex.com.