If You Want to be Rich and Happy, Don’t Go to School Summary - Chapter 18

Chapter 18: The Wapakununk Factor

1.      “Wapakununk” in American Indian language means “to be able to do everything to exist in this world”. To achieve “Wapakununk”, the elders in native American tribes take turns educating the children so they are able to fish, ride horses, comprehend medicine, grow food, be spiritual, hunt, tan hides, make pottery, arbitrate disputes and be responsible for the well-bring of the whole tribe.

2.      In the modern world, “Wapakununk” might be interpreted as “becoming competent, confident and comfortable with life and its constant changes”.

3.      Our educational system, however, by requiring people to be memorizers instead of creative thinkers, to become highly specialized before becoming generalized, and to be employees rather than entrepreneurs who fully comprehend money and business, is educating people to be inflexible rather than to be able to change with the times. Too many young people are coming out of the school being anything but “Wapakununk”.

4.      Not only are most people unprepared to make decisions concerning their retirement but vast numbers of people limp through life, crippled by a lack of competence, confidence and comfort. These are only minor reflections of our failing educational system.

5.      Money will not end poverty. Handouts only increase it. If you give a person a fish, you feed him or her only for a day. But if you teach that same person to fish, you feed them for lifetime. It is time our educational system began teaching everyone to survive financially. These are the “fishing skills” we must pass along in today’s world. 

Chapter 19: How to Become Wealthy On a Small Budget