Beware of the song we sing to ourselves?

Today as I was coming to the Gallery I was talking to the taxi driver a young man who said he was 29 years old. I asked him if he had completed college and he said no, because his girl friend got pregnant and he had to work to support her and now has three children.

He told me wages were low in the Philippines and he could never earn much.

I said your wages are low but there is executives in this country who earn over 1 million US dollars a year, there is high salaries here, it is just that yours is low. He looked stunned.

I asked him if he would drive taxis for the rest of his life or did he want to do more. He said he needed to start a business but he had no money to start.

I asked what sort of business and he did not know.

I asked if he had any goals for his life and he said yes, I asked if they are written down and he said no. I asked him how much money he would need to start a business and he said PHP30,000 and I said so what is the problem?

He again said I don't have the money, I said “yes you do.”

He looked at me and again said I don't understand because he was a poor taxi driver and did not have the money.

I said again yes do, you just keep spending it.

He said what do I mean, I said money is not the problem, the problem is you spend all you get and do not save any, if you were to save PHP100 every week in a bank account you would eventually get to PHP30,000, of course it will take time but you will accomplish that or you can stay the way you are and in five years from now you will still be singing the same song. You could save more if you stop smoking and put that money in the bank as well.

You have the money the problem is you keep spending it.

I said once you start to save you can never touch that money until you get what you need for your business and the next step is to decide what business you want to do and learn all you can about it and start to write out your goals every day, you have three or four years to educate yourself for your business so when you have the money you will be ready. I said every day you drive around in your taxi listening to rubbish on the radio, get some tapes on personal development and listen to them and change.

The key to changing his life and his future is save to his money, change himself and the song he sings to himself every day and learn new skills.

All of us if we really want to change we can.

Yes it will take time so you will need to be patient.

You will need to make personal changes and change the song you sing to yourself and learn new skills, one small discipline at a time.

When I got out of the taxi he said he would open a bank account and start.

I hope he does otherwise in five years time I will meet him again in a taxi and he will be singing the same song.

What song do you sing to yourself?