Dear Bilal, how can I get in with the cool kids? And by cool I mean rich.
As a student, the more networking you do the better it is for your future so being friends with rich people can be a privilege and beneficial to both your social life and academic life. Although, that doesn’t mean rich people are your one-way ticket to success in life, it just means that if you find rich people then you have a good amount of resources, that on availability, can assist you when the time is right.
What makes rich people different to ordinary people is quite prominent and obvious, due to them having excessive amount of dollars in their bank account, they carry themselves with more pride, they portray themselves as busy, definitely care about what they wear and where they eat, and lastly, they show their high tech gadgets with ease on a daily basis. However, despite rich people having a dollar sign stamped all over them, there are some humble rich people as well, such as Steve Jobs or Bill Gates. Then again, it isn’t easy to find someone as rich and humble as they are during university. On the bright side, you can be a part of that community by tweaking something’s you do in life. As the common catch phrase goes “you gotta fake it till you make it.” This means that you have to pretend to be one of them and show as though you have achieved what you’re after until you reach your goals and ambitions. Let’s have a look and see you can do to become friends with rich people;
- Carry yourself with elegance – Everyone has their own view on elegance, but elegance is not being feminine or not being too arrogant, but it simply means to know when to say something and when not to do something. How you carry yourself shows your surrounding who you are and how you would like to be treated, if you carry yourself in a way that people see you as rich they will treat you like that, on the other hand if you carry yourself in a lazy and a careless way then you will be treated that way. A great example of being elegant is when you visit a friend and you stay for the right amount of time and then continue on doing other things that should have more preference in your life. This example doesn’t mean that you completely ignore your friends but it means that you are giving off the vibe that “Look, you are important to me and that is why I am here but now that we have enjoyed, it is time I get back to other important things as well.” On the other hand, a terrible example would be when you are on a date, with that special person in your life, to a fine-dining restaurant, and you are very confused how to order and what the terms mean. In this case, the vibe you are giving off is that you are not used to that environment and that you don’t have the confidence to be sitting in such a place. Rich people eat at breathtaking restaurants and go to astounding places to hang out, hence they have the confidence to be in such a place and know what is expected of them. So in this case, what you can do is know what the restaurant you are going to specializes in terms of cuisine, and also know the norms of things at any place you go to so that you can fit right in and look your part.
- Wear your best and carry accessories – What you wear does matter, however how you wear something matters even more because you can’t go to certain places in your everyday casual shorts or t-shirt. Some places require specific dressing codes. Rich people wear clothes from designers such as Zara, Gucci, Lacoste and so on. It is not compulsory for you to wear designer clothes to look rich, as stated in the previous section “how you carry yourself shows your surrounding who you are and how you would like to be treated”, which means that even if you wear clothes from an op shop you can still look stylish if you match the clothes properly and feel stylish from the inside. Though what makes rich peoples clothes stand out is the accessories they carry with them, for example a Louis Vuitton business bag or a Prada side bag. This implies for both men and women, as these big designers create products for both sexes. In addition, many people may name these bags feminine on men but then again people say all sorts of things especially when they can not get them, hence to become friends with a rich person you must start to accept their norm and sense of style.
- Tone of language – Talk in a way that everyone in the room stops and listens to what you have to say. Rich people always find their way to be the center of attention, and why do you ask? Because they are so good with the way they talk. They leave some imagination for people to wonder what it is that they can offer, because they sound that damn good. You must be to the point, no this-and-that, and most importantly you absolutely are not supposed to give anyone any sort of justification for your actions. You must at all times be proud of what you do and have the courage to believe what you did was right.
- Be smart and selective – Rich people are hunting for smart people so that they can extract all the knowledge to assist them in the future. Be smart to the point that you are great at studies but also excellent socially and are selective as to where you go and who you meet. Also, being studious only meant “nerd” in high school, whereas in university a studious person is a “cool” person. Having a good amount of knowledge means that you have a potential to be a big hot shot tomorrow, which is why rich people would like to keep you in their selective circle.
These qualities mentioned above are what attract rich people, as they expect these characteristics from other rich people. Overall what you should aim to have in order to be friends with rich people is confidence, courage, proper posture, know your priorities, selective and be smart. Also, these qualities are very useful in your professional life, as it tells your future employer or business partner that you are serious in life and know your priorities, making you the best person for the job.
Dear Bilal, how can I find a good role model? There’s so many amazing people out there!
Everybody has role models but what makes them so unique one may ask? Well every child at some point in their lives wishes they could be like their super hero. Although, what kids don’t understand, or at least are not told, is that there are role models all around us. Fictional characters are not the only kinds of heroes that can save a life, but rather ordinary people can be heroes too. By definition, anyone who does something extraordinary, such as helps save someone’s life and assists in their protection, is known as a hero.
“This focus on famous heroes comes from television and media, enforcing people to understand that there is someone out there who is not currently visible but will be when they need help and or people can be this imaginative person”, said Ismat, a mother of a 5-year-old child. Her son looks up to Superman to save him when he believes he is threatened, but does Superman exist? And does any known person on this planet, at least currently identified, contain any such powers? Obviously not!
Ethically speaking, portraying an image of a saviour is collapsing our thought about the “everyday people are special” concept. For entertainment purposes to imagine, create a story, and to have faith in something is fantastic, but is it reasonable to get entertained on the expense of forgetting that true heroes exist around us?
What makes a regular true existing hero different from the created heroes? It is the truth! By the truth I mean, what a regular true hero can do is something that we all can do. Whereas what a created hero can do is something that no human in their rightful mind is capable of doing. For example, no human can fly, unless on an airplane or with a jetpack, or unless you are as rich as batman is and can obtain ultra technologically advanced suits and gadgets, then yes you can. But realistically speaking, an ordinary person doing extraordinary things, such as saving a life or just being extra friendly and helpful, are pretty heroic things in our current digital age where people are more about technology and self-growth that we sometimes forget that our surrounding community needs our attention.
In my case, my inspirations were not only Lady Diana or Priyanka Chopra, but also the people that were there while I was growing up. My inspirations, or heroes in other words, are my family, especially my mother, and my friends. As cliché as that sounds it is true. All our families and friends are our role models because whether we like it or not we will become like them at a certain stage. This could either be because of genes or maybe just pure observation. As someone growing up, what we see is what we do and we become like the people we are surrounded by. The point to reflect here is that having a particular famous role model is good to the extent that you feel like you have someone to look up to, so that you can become like them, but that does not necessarily mean that you forget your surrounding and ignore the fact that everyone around you has some sort of affect on your behaviour and attitude. This makes them your role models!
