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;
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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