I HAVE visited a number of secondary schools in Georgetown over a period of time, giving motivational talks to the students; and during those visits, I encountered a strange situation which kept repeating itself.What situation am I talking about? All the head teachers at those schools, including some of Guyana’s top schools, are female. Upon inquiring about this anomaly, the female teachers explained that apparently the salary is “too low” for men.
I thought this to be an interesting explanation, until I spotted some male teachers at some of those schools headed by women, and I thought to myself, “How could this be? It doesn’t make sense.”
And here’s why: I can’t imagine the Ministry of Education paying a male teacher more than it pays the female head teacher. Because, if that were true, there would be something seriously wrong within the Education Ministry.
Since that can’t be true, it must mean that those male teachers are earning less than the female head teacher. And if that is true, then it means that the argument that men shun the head teacher job because of low pay is turned flat on its head.
So what other explanation could there be? The only other possible explanation is that it is not the supposed “low pay” that is keeping men from the top job, but it is the “responsibility” that comes with it.
Here’s the thing: most of us don’t like the responsibilities of life; we only want the benefits. However, the truth is that one can never totally escape responsibility, because life and living are a responsibility.
Having money is a responsibility. The reason many people love playing the lottery is because they see it as cash that comes without any responsibility, UNTIL they win the lottery and realize that, man, having all that cash; keeping it safe; thinking about what to do with it, is a responsibility.
And those who continue to deal with it in an irresponsible way sadly find — much to their chagrin — that the money can disappear just as quickly as it arrived.
As Napoleon Hill, author of the bestselling book, ‘Think and Grow Rich’ said: “Big pay and little responsibility are circumstances seldom found together.”
So, stop avoiding responsibility, because, that’s where the money is!

(By Jimmy Roos)