Now when it comes time for any of us to require the skills of a surgeon, we all want someone qualified, someone who has studied, has experience, has studied their craft to a degree that we are willing to put our very lives in their hands, trust them in ways we would very rarely trust anyone else, because they have the qualifications they have earned their right to be trusted in their area of expertise, their work in their field.

Now why don’t we ask that of anyone else?

Why would you possibly listen to some rich white man, and it’s always some rich white man, tell you how to change education, how to tackle poverty, how to reshape medicine, when they spent their life in none of those fields?

It can take decades of study, of research, of dedicated work and effort to be able to take a human life in your hands, to know how to treat a complicated medical condition, yet when we look at the subjects of education, of poverty, of the economy, of how to manage the wants and needs of hundreds of million, or even billions of human lives, its suddenly so simple?

Just because some white bloke managed to spin some idea or business into something that made them rich only makes them an expert in turning that idea at that time into something that made them rich. It doesn’t immediately confer on them advanced degrees in economics, health care and education. It doesn’t mean you should trust them to cut out that cancerous growth that is on your liver.

Although if you want to let some Billionaire open you up and take out your appendix that is between and whatever god you worship. Odds are you would get to talk to them personally pretty soon after.

Rich people aren’t geniuses. They have money, that gives them power, gives them influence, gives them good press, insulates them from bad press, criticism, anyone thinking poorly of them, well, in most cases. But it doesn’t make them smarter than the rest of us.

If we want to improve things, if we want to have things get better, we need to listen to those who work in those fields, study those things, who have dedicated decades or more of their lives to learning and becoming educated in there are of expertise so that we can take their advice, gain from their work, their achievements, their qualifications.

Of we can listen to the rich white guy, who, like someone who, like a really bad surgeon, gets to bury their mistakes. But with the rich white guy, so very very many of us, will get buried.

Saeed Parker - Speech at Young Leaders Symposium