“Many youths of today do not have fiscal discipline. Expenditure is hand-to-stomach, even when there is extra income. You buy a 60-inch plasma screen in a 70-inch studio apartment – the Principle Focus of the curved screen is behind the wall of your tiny wee apartment.

Then the disease of oniomania, also known as compulsive buying disorder (CBD). Then the disease of showing off and wanting to impress peers.

There is no clear substitute to saving in an economy that is as uncertain as ours. Saving should be a must when you have a windfall. The amount of money needed to break free from lurking poverty is not small.

You cannot borrow 100 percent of the funds needed to start a business – you need to kick-start the freaking enterprise and borrowing should be for expansion.”

This “Lesson for success #09: Financial Intelligence” is republished with permission from the original author:

“I have been working with relatively young people (below 40 years of age) and in my interactions with them, I have found 10 skills that prevent many of them from becoming a beacon of professionalism. Skills not formally taught in school yet so vital. Skills that would transform a young professional into a ‘hot cake’ for inclusion in successful enterprises.”

Dr. William Roy Mayega, a Lecturer in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, a the School of Public Health Makerere University Kampala

Links to Dr. Mayega’s other nine lessons:

• #01: Pay Attention to Detail
• #02: Systems Thinking
• #03: Reliability & Consistency
• #04: Communication and Presentation
• #05: Creativity
• #06: Emotional Intelligence and Maturity
• #07: Focused Drive
• #08: Patience and Resilience
• #10: Reverence and Decency

“Building healthy communities” is the overall objective of CPAR Uganda. Our mission is “to engage in educational and scientific activities to stimulate the development, dissemination and widespread application of technologies suitable and adaptable to the social, cultural and economic conditions of developing countries.”