We have always had this debate about being book smart or street smart. And this is a continuous.
Smart according to this topic means being knowledgeable or being intelligent.
Being book smart is about being good in academics, it has to do with the ability to read, understand and pass subjects in school when one is being tested. It can also means being a professional in a particular academic related career like being a Doctor , an Engineer or a Professor.
When one is said to be street smart it means he or she has the ability to maneuver his way around a dangerous situation or a difficult situation.
In years past I use to believe that being book smart was the more important than being street smart. But recently I have come to realize that one needs to be street smart also.
I will be sharing an encounter I had that really opened my mind to the fact that one needs to be street smart.
A cousin of mine wanted to buy a television for his house.
We went to a market where the sell only electronics. We came down from our taxi and a young man approached us. He asked if we wanted to get an electronic gadget. We told him we wanted to buy a television. He was like "I have a shop, let me take you people there". My and I was happy because we were not going to spend time walking around the market looking for where to buy a television. We got to the shop and we saw different types of television and we pointed at a particular one which was on display and the showed us the features that came with it.
We paid for the T.V and got our receipt. The guy that took us to the shop said he wanted to bring the T.V from the whare house that he can't give us the one display. Well I thought it was the right thing to do. He came back with a T.V set well package and handed it over to us.
We got home only to discover that the T.V is not working. We went to the shop and got the shocker of our lives. The boys in Shop said they didn't know the guy who sold the T.V for and that the T.V was not from their shop. We started shouting and threatening the boys in the shop. They asked to see our receipt, we brought it and compared it to that of the boys in the shop. To my greatest surprise the receipts were totally different. The boys told us that it's a normal thing that most of the guys in the market don't have a shop, all they do is move about looking for unsuspecting victims to defraud. We left the shop embarrassed. I couldn't wrap my head around what happened.
After some months we went again to buy another T.V after we had be duped previously. We got to the market and a young man came to meet us and asked what we wanted to buy, we told him and he took is to a shop. He showed us all the Television set available and turned on the one on display. We asked for the price and we bargained , after coming to an agreement he said he wanted to go get us a T.V from the whare house. We smiled and asked for the one on display. He said he can't sell it. We proceeded to buy the boys in the shop and they gave us their receipt. We got and tested the T.V and it worked perfectly fine.
After the above incident I learnt one has to be street smart.
I know one needs to be book smart but it is very important to also be street smart. Being street smart will help save one from difficult situations.