Our own 9/11
Like most years, waking up on September 11th always take your thoughts back to 2001. To this day, people will associate 9/11 with the deaths of thousands of United States citizens when two planes flew into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, one crashed in a field in Pennsylvania, and another hit the Pentagon. The whole world mourned with the U.S. for the losses they have suffered.
This year was different. When I woke up on Sunday, September 11th, 2022, the news broke that the Jagersfontein diamond mine’s tailings dam collapsed. Jagersfontein is a small town in the Southern Free State, South Africa. To me, this is close to home, as I grew up in the neighbouring town, Fauresmith, and spent my primary school years in Jagersfontein. The images displayed on social media were heartbreaking. People and animals were caught off guard when this tragedy happened in the early morning hours, most were still asleep. Farm animals were killed, dogs and cats were caught under the slime with no chance of survival, one person died and over 300 residents lost their houses and personal belongings when the toxic waste and mud flooded through a large part of the town and farms.
Image taken from Facebook: BloemSPCA ,20-09 2022-, https://www.facebook.com/BloemSPCA/photos/5458464030897070
In my position as Relations Manager at Diversit-e Smart Trade College, I daily interact with our clients. Our client base differs from the novice to the more experienced trader. We offer basic beginner-level memberships and more advanced-level options. Our course specialist and coaches strive to ensure that our clients have a memorable experience.
When speaking to one of our 70-year-old clients this week, let’s refer to him only as “Oom Henry”, for compliance with the protection of personal information purposes, his testimonial again made me proud to be associated with an educational company like ours. Oom Henry was visited by us early this year. He did not know how to operate his laptop. Still, he saw the value of investing in the financial markets and the benefits it can add to his life. Our coaching team took “Oom Henry” under their wing and gave him the necessary support he needed. He does not miss any of our weekly online coaching sessions, manages his self-managed trading account, and is a true ambassador for us. My personal experience when working with a client like “Oom Henry” is that you are never too old to invest in yourself, be investment conscious, and learn new things.
What makes Diversit-e Smart Trade College different from any similar entity? We care about our clients and their needs. Taking our clients’ suggestions and feedback into consideration we have proudly developed and launched our new Smart Online Trader Course on the 14th of August 2022. The feedback we received since the launching date, makes all the efforts to ensure that our clients are presented with a quality course (of international standards) with skilled coaches, worth the while. We commit not to stop here. We are continuously updating and adding content to our offerings. Our clients will never need to “shop around”.
We all have different reasons for wanting more in life. Needs differ, be they financially- or emotionally driven. At the end of the day, we all need to make educated decisions when it comes to our finances. When deciding to trade in the financial markets it is important to have a trading strategy in place, know how to manage your risk, decide on the amount you want to trade with, and not to make emotional decisions when trading. These are some of the topics we deal with in our modules as well as in our weekly online coaching sessions.
Tony Robbins said, “Your income right now is a result of your standards, it is not the industry, and it is not the economy.” I wrote a Blog article on the topic, Preparation creates Power, three months later and the situation at Eskom has only worsened. “Preparing for something that might happen is much easier than preparing for something that caught you off guard. Ignorance cannot be used as an excuse.” We cannot act surprised when Eskom announces that the electricity situation might escalate to stage 8. We need to take care and take charge of the things we have control over and own it.
Unfortunately, tragedies like the 9/11 Jagersfontein mine dam burst will happen, and is an investigation being launched. The responsible parties will be held accountable. Still, there are innocent employees, who only performed their daily duties, waiting for the outcome, and will the fate and the operation of the mine be determined in due course.
None of us are indemnified against financial- and emotional losses. We all have our own 9/11 story to tell. Take today and start making the necessary provisions for yourself and your loved ones and when needed, you can also raise a hand and be in a financial position to help those in need.
