This article was inspired by a contest run by @steemiteducation where the topic of each entry needs to fall in line with “As a student, how do you think you can use Steemit to further your education?” This got me thinking – how can Steemit help you with your education? And then I thought of my husband, who has never completed his High School career, never mind tertiary studies.

Despite my husband’s lack of a formal education, he is the smartest guy I know. He is “Street Smart” and very wise. In fact, he is now a successful business owner of Software Development company called Epicdev, which has been growing substantially over the past 8 years. He started as a freelance web designer and now he has a team of 9 employees working under him and a client base not only in our home country of South Africa, but around the world!  

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When we first became a couple, we were young (early twenties) and we started off our little lives together with nothing, everything we own we have earned through hard work. Living in a third world economy we knew that we couldn’t rely on a low paying 8-5 job to provide us with a comfortable living, we needed more! I was studying towards my degree in Psychology at the time and au pairing on the side. My husband worked at a signage company and in the evenings, he taught himself how to design websites. He is naturally creative, so the design concepts came easily, but the coding, this he learnt out of his own initiative by: borrowing books from the library! Yup, he would borrow books that taught him not only how to code a website but also how to start and run a successful business. At this stage, we didn’t even have our own internet connection yet. 

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Once he felt capable enough to build a website he found himself a client, just like that! It was only once he secured his first client that we broke the bank a bit and organised an internet connection for our home – since he couldn’t build a website without having access to the web! This is where things got interesting, and exciting! Now the world was his oyster and he didn’t need to solely rely on library books to inform him – he had the world (the internet) at his fingertips. 

By browsing websites and blogs, just like Steemit, he took his self-gained education one step further – he became Street Smart. You see, while books, schools and universities teach you the fundamentals (which are always important) – by researching the internet and reading the true stories, experiences and opinions of others (found abundantly on Steemit), you are given the opportunity to learn on a whole new level – you get to learn from the world! Learning is one thing, being a student is one thing – putting what you have learnt into practice and building on to your foundation by seeing the world through other’s eyes is what makes you a smart, wise and a fully-fledged adult! 

My husband and I doing business together when we were younger:

How can you use Steemit to further your education? Here’s how:

1. Follow people who are from different countries, their culture and way of life will enlighten you.

2. Read posts submitted by people who are both younger and older than you, their viewpoints will help dissuade you from being naïve.

3. Use Steemit to enter into healthy debates by commenting on posts– all involved will learn something new and you can work on your social skills at the same time.

4. Absorb educational posts that are written by others, but approach them cautiously, do your own research and become proactive before simply accepting information that is fed to you.

5. Put your education into practise. Write articles on what you have learnt and share them with others, you will be surprised about how much you know! 

6. Last, but not least, use Steemit to stay updated! The world is evolving by the minute and what you learnt a few years ago might not be applicable today.

Following portals like Steemit lets you stay up to date with the current trends of the world as well as what the people of the world have been up to. While achieving an education is a step in the right direction, putting it into practise in your community and an ever-changing world is what matters. 

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Much love - @sweetpea

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