TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE SITUATION

Let me share this true life story with everyone, that I tagged “take advantage of the situation”.

In my university days, we had a computer programming course called FORTRAN.  While taking the course, the lecturer decided to give us a mini-project which was to write a simple executable FORTRAN program and run it. We were expected to save the program in a floppy disk and submit to him if it meets the expected requirement.

The lecturer then, went and liaised with a nearby computer business centre to be assisting students in writing and running the FORTRAN program (mini-project) for students at an exorbitant price, in the end, he will be given commission from the computer business centre. Hence leaving the students with no choice but at the mercy of the computer business centre (based on this, any student who goes to him complaining of the difficulty of the project, is referred to the business centre for assistance)

When I realised the situation, and then I use to have a desktop computer, I decided to “take advantage of the situation”. 

I had a roommate whom I shared the situation with. Together we decided to work something out.

Strategy 1: We bought the textbook the teacher was using, studied it relentlessly, and decided to write and run all the programs in the textbook which we eventually saved on my desktop computer.

Strategy 2: We met some students and told them we could run the computer program (mini-project) for them at a very reduced and affordable cost. Initially, some never believed we could, so we took some of the students home did the mini-project for them. They were impressed with the results we gave them and out of their own will decided to advertise use.

The following day, the story got circulated to almost all the student offering the course, “trust students na (who no like awoff)”.

Our apartment was inundated with students upon students upon students. We were not just making the money at that time but we became celebrities in our faculty.

We realised a lot of money that we used in paying for our apartment, school fees as well as feeding.

Of a truth, we were “big boys” that semester, but there were some prices to pay for it.

One of the bad prices was that, the lecturer realised that the students were submitting their projects without patronising the business centre he recommended. He decided to find out where the students were doing it, but unfortunately for him, no student wanted to tell him because he was exploiting them.

Another bad price was that the lecturer decided to set the most difficult exercise in the textbook as a compulsory question which carries a third of the entire exam marks.

But the good part was that since my friend and I had studied his textbook relentlessly, we were able to solve the question (it was a piece of cake) and in the end, we came out with good grades in that course.