Money is not the goal, real value comes from education: Jimmy Wales
Knowledge is power, and knowledge is something that can only be attained by education. Education is something that needs to be free of cost but sadly in our niggardly world; schooling has become a type of business.
- The Defective Education System
The creator of Wikipedia i.e. Jimmy Wales was strongly against the defective education system in our world. He firmly believed that knowledge is a necessity that should be cost-less. This is how the idea of Wikipedia started to emerge.
- Jimmy’s Love for Self-Education
Jimmy was the child of a family that had a tremendous love for education. As a child, his mother got him an encyclopedia and he memorized it in a short span of time. In his early years, he was taught in a one-room school that encouraged self-education. This unique way of educating oneself had a huge impact on him.
- Wales dream of becoming a Teacher
As Jimmy grew up, he dreamt of becoming a teacher and he became one and later in taught in several universities also. He himself being a self-educated man was convinced that a person can learn much more efficiently and diligently through self-education. He can learn about the topics that interest him and achieve success in life.
- The Idea of Liberated Education
Wales wanted to create a website where anyone could learn anything without any school. This site did not ask for money in return for tuitions. He named this site Wikipedia. He had to learn, systematize and write about thousands of topics to put up on the website. He worked for numberless days and nights gaining knowledge about new things. Later, his unique site started to gain popularity and many people joined the idea and started contributing. After a few years, Wikipedia became the world’s largest online Mr. Know All or encyclopedia.
- Wikipedia as a Non-Business Site
After a few more years, Jimmy was faced with a very difficult decision of either making his website a business site to gain profits out of it or keeping it free for everybody to learn which was the basic instinct behind the whole website was. This was the time when he in true sense realized that his love for education was far more than his love for money. Jimmy decided to keep the site free of cost forever and made it a non-profit organization.
Today, Wikipedia is the world’s largest information site which is used by 90% of internet users. This site has helped a tremendous amount of people to learn new things in their life. And Jimmy Wales is one of the world’s most noble and influential people. Jimmy Wales’ had an amazing and powerful journey that surely teaches lots of life lessons.
