Part of the Series — Money: The Arms Turn Wings Way
Disclaimer: This content is provided for educational and informational purposes only and reflects the author’s personal views, research and experience. It is not personalized financial, investment, legal or religious advice, nor a recommendation to buy or sell any investment. Readers should do their own research and, where appropriate, seek advice from qualified professionals or scholars.
Before we talk about investing, we need to talk about something more important.
Earning.
You cannot invest what you do not have. You cannot save what never arrives. Investing is what you do with money after it comes in. Earning is how it comes in at all.
Most people who struggle with money are not struggling because they made a bad investment. They are struggling because not enough money is coming in, or because the money that comes in is not enough to cover what goes out.
So this post is about the first half of the equation. Making money. And doing it well.
The foundation: be good at what you do
Whatever your work is, a job, a business you own, a service you provide, a skill you sell, the first rule is simple: be good at it.
Not average. Good. Then keep getting better.
This sounds obvious. Almost nobody does it.
Most people do the minimum. They show up, do what they are told, and go home. They never ask how to do the job better. They never learn the next skill. They never look for the thing that would make them more valuable to the people paying them.
The person who does ask those questions is rare. And rare is valuable.
Be self-sufficient
Here is the thing that separates people who grow from people who stay stuck: the ability to figure things out on your own.
When you hit a problem you don’t know how to solve, the easy path is to go to your boss and say, “I can’t do this.” The hard path, the one that builds you, is to search for a way first. Look it up. Try something. Fail. Try again. Ask someone smarter than you, but only after you’ve done your own work.
Every time you figure something out by yourself, you get better. Not just at that task, but at problem-solving itself. That skill compounds. It makes you the person who can be handed anything and find a way through.
This is what separates employees who need to be spoon-fed from employees who can be trusted with real responsibility. The first kind needs constant instruction. The second kind solves problems and moves forward without being pushed.
If you can build this habit from a young age, you have something genuinely valuable. It is one of the core qualities of strong managers, directors, supervisors, and yes, CEOs and founders. The strong ones are problem solvers. They don’t wait for someone to tell them what to do. They figure it out.
Always find work to do
If your manager doesn’t give you work, you have to find something to do. Always.
There is always something. Something that needs fixing. Something that could be done better. Something that would help the team. The person who always waits to be told what to do is easier to replace. The person who finds useful work on their own is much harder to replace.
Be honest, efficient, and eager to learn
Be honest. If you say you will do something, do it. If you make a mistake, say so. If you do not know something, admit it.
Be efficient. Do not just finish the task. Finish it well, and finish it in less time than expected.
Be eager to learn, and empty your cup.
This means always keeping an empty cup that is ready to be filled with new information. It means never assuming you already know enough.
Sometimes you can learn from someone much younger than you. Sometimes from someone in a lower position. Sometimes from someone very old who looks like he never achieved anything in his life.
Never prejudge. Never make judgments based on looks or first impressions. Sometimes you might think someone will never buy your product, so you neglect them, and then another salesman puts in the effort and ends up selling them the most, and the most expensive items.
The person who thinks they already know everything has a full cup. Nothing new can get in. The person who keeps their cup empty learns from everyone.
The better you become, the more valuable you are. And value gets paid.
Education: go as far as you can
Go to school. Go to university if you can. Take it seriously.
This is not about the certificate. It is about what the certificate represents: years of learning how to learn, how to focus, how to finish something.
University also makes everything easier later. When you study something hard, a difficult subject, a demanding degree, you train your mind to handle difficulty. Most jobs you do afterward will feel easier than what you studied. That’s not a reason to skip university. It’s a reason to go. The harder the thing you learn, the easier everything else becomes.
When it’s okay not to continue university
Not continuing university has to be for something major.
If you are in a country where you genuinely cannot afford it at all, where the cost is beyond anything your family can manage, that’s a real reason. If you have to work to feed your family and cannot manage both at all, that’s a real reason.
But when you have the opportunity to go, whether it is a free university or a paid one, whether it is close to home or far, go. Do not skip it because it seems hard, or because you want to start earning sooner. Take the opportunity when it is there.
The skills that matter most
Whether you have a degree or not, some skills make everything else easier.
Presentation skills. The ability to stand in front of people and explain an idea clearly. This is rare. Most people are terrified of it. If you learn it, you will stand out immediately.
Languages
Your first language should be Arabic.
Not only the everyday Arabic you speak with family and friends, but strong Arabic that lets you read, write, and express yourself well. Arabic connects you to hundreds of millions of people, to centuries of knowledge, and most importantly to the Quran in the language in which it was revealed.
This can start very young. A child who begins learning the Quran at three or four years old enters school already familiar with formal Arabic words and structures that rarely come up in daily conversation. Memorizing is not the same as understanding, but when memorization is joined with strong Arabic, vocabulary, and explanation, the benefit becomes much greater.
Strong Arabic helps you understand Islam beyond simply reading the Quran. It gives you better access to Hadith, tafsir, fiqh, and the writings of scholars. Many important Islamic sources were written in Arabic, and sometimes a translation cannot carry the full meaning of the original. This matters in everyday life too. Questions about money, business, marriage, inheritance, and contracts often involve Sharia rules. Strong Arabic does not make you a scholar, but it gives you a foundation for understanding what scholars are discussing and for asking better questions.
It also matters for ordinary business. Contracts, deals, and agreements in the Arab world are written in Arabic. If your Arabic is weak, you may sign something you do not fully understand, or you may need to depend on someone else to explain it to you. Strong Arabic lets you read the terms yourself, ask the right questions, and protect your own interests.
And the Quran is not interesting only to Muslims. Jewish and Christian readers will recognize many of the people and stories in it. Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Solomon, Jonah, Mary, and Jesus all appear in the Quran. Knowing Arabic lets you read those stories in the original words instead of depending completely on a translation.
Arabic also connects you to centuries of history. For centuries, major parts of the Muslim world were among the world’s leading centres of learning, trade, and science. People still learn Latin and Ancient Greek to get closer to civilizations that shaped the world. Arabic gives you access to another enormous part of human history, and it is also a living language spoken by hundreds of millions today.
That matters for earning too. The Arab world includes major economies, businesses, and financial centres. Being able to speak to someone in their own language opens doors that a translation cannot.
Your second language should be English. English connects you to much of today’s world. It helps you study, work, travel, use the internet, and do business internationally. Strong English gives you access to knowledge and opportunities far beyond your own country.
A third language is a bonus. Spanish, German, French, Mandarin, each one is a key to a different set of doors. The more people you can talk to, and the more knowledge you can reach for yourself, the more doors you can open.
Skills you can learn without a degree
If you can’t afford university, or you graduated from a major you don’t like or don’t see yourself in, or you can’t find a job in your field, this is not an excuse to stay at home and not work at all. It is better to do some basic job than to stay without work at all. Even a job outside your field can open doors to other opportunities.
And anyway, the internet has changed everything. You can learn almost any skill for free.
Some people learn these skills in their first year of university to start making money from a really young age. Some kids in school learn them during the summer, or just to explore different fields of work to see what they really like.
Here are real skills you can start learning today. None of them require a university degree. Most of them can start bringing in money within a few months if you stay consistent.
Website building (WordPress). Learn how to build websites without writing code. Small businesses everywhere need simple, working websites. You can start by rebuilding a local restaurant’s terrible site.
Digital marketing. Learn how to help businesses get customers online through social media, ads, and search engines. Every business needs this, and most do it badly.
Graphic design (Canva). Learn to design social media posts, menus, brochures, and ads. Canva makes it easy to start, and good design is always in demand.
Video editing. Learn to cut and polish video content. Reels, YouTube videos, business promos. The world is drowning in video, and someone has to edit it.
Programming and web development. Learn to write code and build software. This one takes longer, but the demand is enormous and the pay is high.
Data analysis. Learn to find patterns in numbers using tools like Excel and Power BI. Every industry needs people who can make sense of data.
Bookkeeping. Learn to track money coming in and out of a business. Small businesses always need this, and it is one of the easiest skills to start earning from.
SEO. Learn how to help websites appear higher on Google. Businesses pay well for this because they know it brings customers.
AI automation and no-code tools. Learn to automate repetitive business tasks without writing code. This is one of the fastest-growing areas right now.
Copywriting and content writing. Learn to write words that sell and explain. Websites, blogs, marketing material. Every business needs this.
None of these require you to become an expert first. You need to be good enough to solve a real problem for someone who needs it.
The first income doesn’t require becoming an expert
Imagine an 18-year-old with no university degree. They spend six weeks learning WordPress properly. They don’t need to compete with a senior software engineer. They can approach a restaurant whose website is terrible and say:
“I’ll rebuild your website, make it work properly on phones, add your menu, location and WhatsApp button for $200.”
If the restaurant agrees, they’ve made money from a skill they learned online.
The same person could learn video editing and charge a local business to turn its existing videos into Instagram or TikTok clips. Or learn digital advertising and eventually manage campaigns for businesses.
You do not need to be the best. You need to be good enough to solve a real problem for someone who needs it.
Consistency is the whole difference
A person who studies one hour a day for six months will beat a person who studies ten hours a day for a week and then stops. Every time.
The person who keeps going gains experience. Experience makes them faster. Faster makes them more valuable. More value means more income.
That compounding, small effort repeated, is what separates people who build careers from people who stay stuck.
What network marketing actually gives you
You may have heard bad things about network marketing. Some of them are true. But there is something real inside it that most people miss.
Network marketing builds skills you cannot get in a classroom:
- Accepting rejection. You will hear “no” hundreds of times. Learning to hear it and keep going is a superpower.
- Talking to strangers. Most people cannot do this. If you learn it, you can go anywhere.
- Overcoming shyness. The person who can speak to anyone is never stuck.
- Convincing people. Not manipulating them, persuading them. There is a difference, and it matters.
- Selling a product. You learn what makes people say yes.
- Selling a business idea. This is harder than selling a product. You learn to paint a picture of the future.
- Presentation and public speaking. You will stand up in front of rooms and speak. You will get better.
Even if you make no money in it, even if you leave after three to five years, you come out a different person. More confident. More capable. Harder to rattle.
Robert Kiyosaki, in Rich Dad Poor Dad, specifically recommends network marketing for exactly this reason. He writes that he recommends joining a network-marketing company to people who want to learn sales skills, and notes that some of these companies have “excellent training programs that help people get over their fear of failure and rejection, which are the main reasons people are unsuccessful. Education is more valuable than money, in the long run.” He has continued to recommend it in recent years, saying it offers training in sales, public speaking, and leadership that AI cannot replace .
Note what Kiyosaki is saying. He is not saying network marketing is a guaranteed path to wealth. He is saying it is valuable for the education it provides, specifically the sales skills and the ability to overcome fear of rejection. That is the real return.
Network marketing can be done during university years as a side activity while studying. But time management is very important. You need to balance it with your studies, and you need to be disciplined about it.
One thing network marketing teaches well is planning. Most good network marketing systems train you to:
- Write your goals down.
- Make a weekly plan.
- Make a monthly plan.
- Make a yearly plan.
- Create a dream list, short-term and long-term.
- Work on your self-development: read, learn, improve your skills, and build the habits that make you better every year.
That habit of writing goals and planning is valuable in every area of life, no matter what you end up doing.
A note for younger readers
If you are still at school, this post is for you too.
You may not have a job yet. But you are already building the person who will have one.
What you learn now compounds. The language you practice, the books you read, the skills you pick up, none of it is wasted. It all adds up.
Start something small. Learn one skill from the list above. Just one. Give it one hour a day. In six months, you will know something most adults do not.
Practice figuring things out yourself. When you don’t know how to do something, don’t immediately ask. Try first. Look it up. Experiment. The habit of solving your own problems starts young and lasts a lifetime.
Practice talking to people. Ask a question in class. Speak to a shopkeeper. Say hello to someone new. Every time you do it, it gets easier.
Read. Get books from libraries, from friends, from your parents, or online. Buy them when you can and build your own small library. Reading builds your mind the way exercise builds your body.
A book to start with:
Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson. It takes less than an hour to read, but it teaches one of the most important lessons for work and life: change happens, and the people who adapt are the ones who succeed. Written for all ages.
Play a sport. Sports like tennis don’t just make you fit. They build confidence, resilience, and the ability to handle pressure. Research shows that playing sports helps children develop better ways to cope with the highs and lows of life. It teaches them to overcome disappointment, control their emotions, and become more resilient . A kid who plays tennis learns to make split-second decisions, manage emotions, and adapt when things don’t go their way. These are qualities that stay with you for life.
You do not have to wait until you are grown up to start. You can start today.
Tools to start with
Free courses in almost every skill:
digitaldefynd.com
Learn a language:
duolingo.com
Where this goes next
This post is about earning. The next posts will be about what you do with the money once it comes in, how you hold it, how you protect it, how you put it to work.
But none of that matters without this first part.
Earn well. Earn honestly. Keep learning. Keep getting better.
Everything else builds on that.
Clean money doesn’t need cleaning. But first, you need money. And the best way to get it is to become someone worth paying.
