David, we are told by the Bible
writers, killed Goliath at a youthful age---a feat the totality of his older
folks with superior combat skills never contemplated. Elon Musk, the South
African born world’s most ambitious entrepreneur taught himself computing at
age 10, and developed a game he sold for $500 at age 12. The English born James
Proud and pioneer member of the Thiel Fellowship started earning hundreds of
Pounds, in cheques, from freelancing web design skills he taught himself before
turning 12. Anthony Levandowski, undoubtedly the world’s best engineering brain
as far as self-driving cars, built a web site with ‘’a complete virtual tour’’
( according to UC Berkeley News) for a high school, at the age of 16.
Jack Andraka, now 20, did the
pancreatic cancer research work which brought him to public glare when he was
still in high school. Sean Parker,
Facebook’s first president shot to limelight as a high school hacker, and was
offered a job by the CIA at 16 Sebastine Thrun, a former Standford University
professor, described variously as the father of AI and once adjudged the
world’s 5th most creative person in business by Fast Company started thinking of reducing carnages (with the help
of computer knowledge) on our roads from a car accident involving a neighbour
before he turned 20. And of course, we all know about Mark Zuckerberg, and the
founders of Google (now Alphabet).For all of these persons we notice two things; one is that they were all young at the time they started on their journey to greatness. The second is that they were neither not formally tutored by anyone nor did they benefit from some agency or governmental largesse. They all knew/believed strongly that they were born ‘’empowered’’ to embark on the journey to greatness. Each of them assumed a towering sense of personal responsibility ( and not ‘taught’’ to be responsible) with respect to identifying and executing their callings It is against this background that I charge the African Youth who is interested in pursuing excellence as a way of life, to literarily knock off the doses of sleep-inducing pills you’ve had over the years, and get going with the ‘’needed work’’. I have, hereunder, identified what in my belief is an appropriate mental frame, and not the content of ’’the needed work’’ to help with this journey;
Make no mistakes here. I am not
coming out with a prescription on how the African youth can become rich. I am,
also, not a believer in the populist sermonization , all over the world, on how
the ‘youth’ can do better in life. While I hold on to the thinking that every
person was created by God, to be able to create and recreate, I do also hold on
to the complemental truth that only
those who deeply understand the former, and run with it most energetically in
the right direction, and doing the
needed ‘rightfuls’ will go very far. My under listed prescription, therefore,
only come to serve the purpose of guiding the African youth who so believe.
1. De-Africanize
your mental frame, and migrate (by hanging out in/with) to the most competitive
community of ideas on the globe. The search? Your responsibility
2. Don’t
wait for government ‘’empowerment’’ programs. Governments, all over the world,
are in worse ‘’shitty’’ situations than yours, plus they are clueless as to
what true empowerment means
3. Worship
God, in spirit and in truth and not your pastor and his wife (stop this
PAPA-MAMA nonsense). You were created in God’s image, perfectly complete and
‘’ready-to-go’’. You do not need another
favour, permission, or pastor’s blessings to so do. What you need is, walking
in God’s righteousness (a consistency of many right decisions and activities
informed by God’s truth)
4. Two
must-haves for you are, creativity, and boldness to execute. The rests are mere
accelerants
5. For
appropriate work ethic, take a tip from the world’s most ambitious entrepreneur,
Elon Musk --- ‘’’work super hard’’, meaning putting in hundred hours of work every
week
6. Flex
your mental muscles over and above your emotional cum butterflyish social
activities
7. Consciously
and committedly de-sex your over-sexed lifestyle
8. Consciously
and committedly flee from ignorance and stupidity --- they both come harmlessly
‘’tushie’’, and ‘’flyish’’’, but with self-destructive potency
9. Make
no mistakes, the world is in need of the next Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Mark
Zuckerberg, Daniel Ek, Sean Parker, Jack Ma, etc. Elon has taken up the
challenge of making life multi-planetary. We sure need better cars, but not
those that national flags will tell us to purchase. Stay away from
mediocre-thinking and performance
10. God
did not create you an ‘’African’’ --- He created you like him, but only got you
born in Africa. Embark on a soulful search for the difference, and then run
with it
11.
Whatever you decide to do, make sure you have the honesty of purpose, purity of
heart, and the authenticity of calling
12.
How you start doing something new? Take this prescription from Elon – ‘’adopt
the physics approach….that of quantum mechanics’’. This translates to taking a
fresh look at whatever you’re doing, with a mind-set of coming with something
of significant improvement on the previous. Literarily get expunged from your
system what is known, in the Nigerian pidgin English, as ‘’Na So’’. The Na So
mentality keeps you from moving forward.
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