Steve Jobs’ 2005 Stanford Commencement Address
August 29, 2010 | Leave a Comment
“As with all matters of the heart, you will know when you find it” …. Steve Jobs.
“The only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work” …. Steve Jobs.
AUGUST 29, 2010 - Drawing from some of the most pivotal points in his life, Steve Jobs, chief executive officer and co-founder of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, urged graduates to pursue their dreams and see the opportunities in life’s setbacks — including death itself — at the university’s 114th Commencement on June 12, 2005.
Haters - A Poem By Maya Angelou
November 16, 2009 | 3 Comments
“There are three important things in life - hope, love and faith. Of these three things, the most important is love” - Holy Bible.
A hater is someone who is jealous and envious and spends
all their time trying to make you look small so they can look tall.
They are very negative people to say the least. Nothing is ever good enough!
When you make your mark, you will always attract some haters…
That’s why you have to be careful with whom you share
your blessings and your dreams, because some folk can’t
handle seeing you blessed…
It’s dangerous to be like somebody else… If God
wanted you to be like somebody else, He would have given you what He gave them! Right?
You never know what people have gone through to get what they have…
The problem I have with haters is that they see my glory, but they don’t know my story…
If the grass looks greener on the other side of the
fence, you can rest assured that the water bill is higher there too!
We’ve all got some haters among us!
Some people envy you because you can:
a) Have a relationship with God
b) Light up a room when you walk in
c) Start your own business
d) Tell a man / woman to hit the curb (if he / she isn’t about the right thing)
e) Raise your children without both parent being in the home
Haters can’t stand to see you happy.
Haters will never want to see you succeed.
Most of our haters are people who are supposed to be on our side.
How do you handle your undercover haters?
You can handle these haters by:
1. Knowing who you are & who your true friends are (VERY IMPORTANT!!)
2. Having a purpose to your life:
Purpose does not mean having a job. You can have a job and still be unfulfilled.
A purpose is having a clear sense of what God has called you to be.
Your purpose is not defined by what others think about you.
3. By remembering what you have is by divine prerogative and not human manipulation.
Fulfill your dreams! You only have one life to live…when its your time to leave this earth, you ‘want’ to be able to say, ‘I’ve lived my life and fulfilled ‘my’ dreams,… Now I’m ready to go HOME!
When God gives you favor, you can tell your haters,
‘Don’t look at me…Look at Who is in charge of me….’
Cultural challenges and the woman CEO: An interview with Nigeria’s Cecilia Ibru
August 5, 2009 | Leave a Comment
“What is good for the goose, is also good for the gander”
The CEO of Oceanic Bank discusses the challenge of navigating gender norms as a woman leader.
AUGUST 2009 - Women in every country meet obstacles to achieving top leadership roles, but Africa’s developing economies and transforming social architectures present unique challenges. Cecilia Ibru, managing director and CEO of Nigeria’s Oceanic Bank International, speaks candidly about how her own development and success have been shaped by her country’s cultural environment. In this video, she discusses gender norms in Nigeria and the balancing act involved in alternately defying and accepting them in order to achieve success as a woman in business. Her observations and experiences raise interesting questions for women navigating the entrenched business environments of any country. She spoke with McKinsey Quarterly editor Thomas Fleming in April 2009 during a visit to her daughter’s residence near Washington, DC.
This video and interview was culled from McKinsey Quarterly.
7 Principles of an Eagle
May 1, 2009 | 4 Comments
PRINCIPLE 1
Eagles fly alone at a high altitude and not with sparrows or mix with other smaller birds. Birds of a feather flock together. No other bird goes to the height of the eagle. Eagles fly with eagles. Never in a flock. Even when Moses (Old Testament Bible) went to commune with God on the mountain, he left the crowd at the foothills. Stay away from sparrows and ravens. Eagles fly with eagles.
PRINCIPLE 2
Eagles have strong vision, which focuses up to 5 kilometers from the air. When an eagle sites a prey - even a rodent from this distance, he narrows his focus on it and sets out to get it. No matter the obstacle, the eagle will not move his focus from the prey until he grabs it. Have a vision and remain focused no matter what the obstacle and you will succeed.
PRINCIPLE 3
Eagles do not eat dead things. He feeds on fresh prey. Vultures eat dead animals but not eagles. Steer clear of outdated and old information. Do your research well always.
PRINCIPLE 4
The Eagle is the only bird that loves the storm. When clouds gather, the eagles get excited. The eagle uses the wings of the storm to rise and is pushed up higher. Once it finds the wing of the storm, the eagle stops flapping and uses the pressure of the raging storm to soar to the top of the clouds and glide. This gives the eagle an opportunity to rest its wings. In the meantime all the other birds hide in the leaves and branches of the trees. We can use the storms of our lives (obstacles, trouble, etc) to rise to greater heights. Achievers relish challenges and use them profitably.
PRINCIPLE 5
The Eagle tests before it trusts. When a female eagle meets a male and they want to mate, she flies down to earth with the male pursing her and she picks a twig. She flies back into the air with the male pursuing her. Once she has reached a height high enough for her, she lets the twig fall to the ground and watches it as it falls. The male chases after the twig. The faster it falls, the faster he chases until he reaches it and has to catch it before it falls to the ground, then bring it back to the female eagle. The female eagle grabs the twig and flies to a much higher altitude pursued by the male until she perceives it high enough, and then drops the twig for the male to chase. This goes on for hours, with the height increasing until the female eagle is assured that the male eagle has mastered the art of picking the twig which shows commitment, then and only then, will she allow him to mate with her! Whether in private life or in business, one should test commitment of people intended for partnership.
PRINCIPLE 6
Eagles prepare for training. When about to lay eggs, the female and male eagle identify a place very high on a cliff where no predators can reach; the male flies to earth and picks thorns and lays them on the crevice of the cliff, then flies to earth again to collect twigs which he lays in the intended nest. He flies back to earth picks thorns and lays them on top of the twigs. He flies back to earth and picks soft grass to cover the thorns, and then flies back to pick rugs to put on the grass. When this first layering is complete the male eagle runs back to earth and picks more thorns, lays them on the nest; runs back to get grass and rugs and lays them on top of the thorns, then plucks his feathers to complete the nest. The thorns on the outside of the nest protect it from possible intruders. Both male and female eagles participate in raising the eagle family. She lays the eggs and protects them; he builds the nest and hunts. During the time of training the young ones to fly, the mother eagle throws the eaglets out of the nest and because they are scared, they jump into the nest again. Next, she throws them out and then takes off the soft layers of the nest, leaving the thorns bare. When the scared eaglets jump into the nest again, they are pricked by thorns. Shrieking and bleeding they jump out again this time wondering why the mother and father who love them so much are torturing them. Next, mother eagle pushes them off the cliff into the air. As they shriek in fear, father eagle flies out and picks them up on his back before they fall, and brings them back to the cliff. This goes on for sometime until they start flapping their wings. They get excited at this newfound knowledge that they can fly and not fall at such a fast rate. The father and mother eagle supports them with their wings. The preparation of the nest teaches us to prepare for changes; The preparation for the family teaches us that active participation of both partners’ leads to success; That being pricked by the thorns tells us that sometimes being too comfortable where we are may result into our not experiencing life, not progressing and not learning at all. The thorns of life come to teach us that we need to grow, get out of the nest and love on. We may not know it but the seemingly comfortable and safe haven may have thorns; The people who love us do not let us languish in sloth but push us hard to grow and prosper. Even in their seemingly bad actions they have good intentions for us.
PRINCIPLE 7
When the Eagle grows old, his feathers become weak and cannot take him as fast as he should. When he feels weak and about to die, he retires to a place far away in the rocks. While there, he plucks out every feather on his body until he is completely bare. He stays in this hiding place until he has grown new feathers, then he can come out. We occasionally need to shed off old habits & items that burden us without adding to our lives…
Black Engineer of the Year Awards 2009
March 14, 2009 | Leave a Comment
(Baltimore, MD) February 19 – 22, 2009 marked the 23rd anniversary of the Black Engineer of the Year Awards (BEYA) Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Global Competitiveness Conference hosted by Lockheed Martin Corporation, US Black Engineer & Information Technology magazine and The Council of Engineering Deans.
Heading this year’s list of accomplished engineering and technology inductees is the 2009 Black Engineer of the Year Dr. Wanda Austin, President and CEO of The Aerospace Corporation.
Other award categories recognized individuals who have achieved exceptional career gains in government and industry, in lifetime achievement, and in pioneering feats. Black Engineer of the Year Awards Alumni and the most promising students were also recognized during the four-day event. The major goal of the event is to showcase the remarkable accomplishments of black engineers so that their achievements can serve as motivation for young men and women to pursue their own goals relentlessly. Apart from the award ceremony, the 2009 STEM & Global Competitiveness event featured different seminars and conferences on leadership and career building. Below is a list of 2009 Black Engineer of the Year Honorees.
| Name | Title | Company | Award |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wanda Austin, Ph.D. | President & CEO | The Aerospace Corporation | Black Engineer of the Year |
| Cmdr. Roger Isom | Command Of_cer, USS Wyoming | U.S. Navy | Career Achievement - Government |
| Lloyd Reshard | Chief, Flight Vehicles Integration Branch | U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory | Career Achievement - Government |
| James Wigfall | Vice President, Supplier Management - Shared Services Group | The Boeing Company | Career Achievement - Industry |
| Moses David Wilkins | Vice President, Contracts | The Raytheon Company | Career Achievement - Industry |
| Muluwork Geremew | Process Simulation Scientist I | Corning Incorporated | Most Promising Engineer - Industry |
| Alana Tyler | Senior Mechanical Engineer II | The Raytheon Company | Most Promising Engineer - Industry |
| Shanee Pacley | Materials & Research Engineer | U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory | Most Promising Engineer - Government |
| D'Lorah Small | Civil Engineer | U.S. Army Corps of Engineering | Most Promising Engineer - Government |
| Percy Gilbert, Ph.D. | Vice President, Technology Development | IBM Corporation | Outstanding Technical Contribution |
| Ayn Fuller | Advisory Engineer | Northrop Grumman Corporation | Outstanding Technical Contribution |
| Col. Clarence Dave Turner | Commander, Far East District | U.S. Army Corps of Engineers | Professional Achievement - Government |
| Frank Robinson | Deputy Director, Safety & Mission Assurance Directorate | NASA Glenn Research Center | Professional Achievement - Government |
| Colin Parris, Ph.D. | Vice President, Digital Convergence | IBM Corporation | Professional Achievement - Industry |
| Dennis Copeland | Principal Information Systems Engineer | The MITRE Corporation | Professional Achievement - Industry |
| Kenneth Banks | President & CEO | Banks Construction | Entrepreneur |
| Nikki Boone | Senior Electronics Engineer | Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company | Community Service |
| Reginald Smith, Ph.D. | Chief, Interagency Coordination - Advanced Distributed Learning & Joint Knowledge | Booz Allen Hamilton | Community Service |
| Johnny Graham | Small Arms Team Leader, Soldier, Systems Branch, Material Systems Analysis Activity | U.S. Army | Affirmative Action |
| Reginald Williams, Ph.D. | Technical Lead, Small Business, Innovative Research | Naval Air Systems Command | Affirmative Action - Supplier Diversity. |
| Vallen Emery, Jr., Ph.D. | Outreach Program Manager | U.S. Army Research Laboratory | Deans Award - Government |
| Phillip Campbell | Distribution Sales Manager & Technical Sales Engineer | Freescale Semiconductor | Deans Award - Industry |
| Scott Kelly | Senior Vice President, Service Operations | DPL Inc. | Presidents Award |
| Olabisi Boyle | Director, Product Engineering & Program Management | Chrysler LLC | Presidents Award |
| David Anderson | President & General Manager Hospital Supply | Cardinal Health | Lifetime Achievement |
| Jeannette Mills | Senior Vice President, BGE Customer Relations & Account Services | Baltimore Gas & Electric Company | Pioneer Award |
| Monorama Talaiver | Director | Institute for Teaching through Technology & Innovative Practices | Promotion of Elementary Education |
| Veronica Nelson | Manager, Career Pathways Program, Electronic Systems Section | Northrop Grumman Corporation | Promotion of Higher Education |
| Will Minter | Division Director | Oak Ridge National | Promotion of Higher Education |
| Midshipman Jordan Blake | Midshipman First Class - Ocean Engineering | U.S. Naval Academy | Student Leadership |
| Ryan Clark | Student | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign | Student Leadership |
| Jabbar Miller, Ph.D. | Electrical Engineer - Electronic Systems Sector | Northrop Grumman | GEM Student Leadership |
| Oscar Barton, Jr., Ph.D. | Professor of Mechanical Engineering | U.S. Naval Academy | Educational Leadership |
| Glenn Arnold | Director CDO Program Management & Operations | EMC Corporation | Special Recognition |
| Felix Bartholomew | Principal Associate & Senior Technical Specialist | Parsons Brinckerhoff, Americas | Special Recognition |
| Louis Brothers, Ph.D. | Engineering Technical Director | BAE Systems | Special Recognition |
| Patrick Gerdes | Senior Principal, Healthcare Division | Noblis, Inc. | Special Recognition |
| William Glass | Senior Engineer for Crashworthy Systems Branch Naval Air Warfare Center | U.S. Navy | Special Recognition |
| Charles Henry | Vice President, Verizon Telecom IT Revenue Assurance | Verizon | Special Recognition |
| Henry Jeffress, III | Senior Microelectronic Design Engineer, Electronic Systems Sector | Northrop Grumman Corporation | Special Recognition |
| Krandall Jones | Vice President of Quality Assurance | Turner Broadcasting, Inc. | Special Recognition |
| Joachim Kupe, Ph.D. | Chief Engineer, Delphi Powertrain Advanced Engineering | Delphi | Special Recognition |
| Trena Lilly | Project Manager | The Johns Hopkins University, Applied Physics Laboratory | Special Recognition |
| Jenae Moore | Co-op & Intern | General Motors Corporation | Special Recognition |
| Paul Spraggs, Jr. | Senior Network Specialist | Science Applications International, Corporation | Special Recognition |
| Ellisa Taylor | Vice President & Associate General Counsel | Cardinal Health | Special Recognition |
| Leo Brooks, Jr. | Vice President, Business Development | The Boeing Company | Stars & Stripes |
Mohammed Al Amoudi is the richest black man in the world in 2009.
March 12, 2009 | 13 Comments
WASHINGTON DC, MARCH 2009 - If the recently released Forbes Magazine list of richest people in 2009 is anything to go by, then Mohammed Al Amoudi (Ethiopian & Saudi Arabian) - is the richest black man in the world with a networth of $9B - though sometimes considered an Arab, as far as race is concerned, he is a black man see picture above (Yemeni father and Ethiopian mother). Oprah Winfrey, 55, American television icon is the richest black woman (2nd richest black person) with a networth of $2.7B. Aliko Dangote, 51 (Nigerian) is the third richest black man with a networth of $2.5B. The fourth richest man is Mo Ibrahim (Sudanese-born, now UK Citizen) with a networth of $2B. The fifth richest black person is Patrice Motsepe, 47, (South African) with a networth of $1.3B slightly ahead of Femi Otedola, 42 (Nigerian) with a networth of $1.2B. To read more about these billionaires, click on their names for a direct link to Forbes Magazine.
Africa’s Best and Worst Persons of the Week
February 8, 2009 | 7 Comments
Starting this week, the editors of Black Herald will be featuring the best and worst persons in Africa every week. Africa and Africans, both those who live on the continent and those in the Diaspora, are an exciting people: with a mix of heroes and villains, saviors and murderers, radicals and rascals, well-meaning folks with exemplary conduct and mean-spirited dirty rotten scoundrels. And yes, smart people who engage in unbelievably dumb stuff and dumb people who do extraordinarily smart things.
These are our judgments, but you may know someone who is more heroic than our hero this week, or viler than our villain. If so, send us your comments at st_james2000@yahoo.com or saint.james@blackherald.com.
Best Person in Africa This Week: Paul Kagame
The Rwandan President is Black Herald’s Best African of the Week, for arresting and taking Laurent Nkuda, one of the nastier war lords in eastern Congo, out of the picture. The ascetic Mr. Kagame has been instrumental in putting Rwanda back together again, after the genocidal horrors of 1994, when upwards of 1 million Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered. He has been making concerted efforts at making both victims and perpetrators come to terms with what happened, and most importantly, has been attracting foreign investment to transform Rwanda into “Africa’s Switzerland”.
But we pick Kagame this week for moving against Nkuda and arresting him. The Congo’s many wars are a long tortured and complicated affair, but here is a short take on why Kagame’s action deserves praise: A Congolese Tutsi, Laurent Nkuda fought and helped restore the Tutsis to power in Rwanda, and has always claimed to be protecting Congolese Tutsis from Hutu genocidaires. But in doing this, the UN and many human rights organizations have detailed nasty atrocities of his National Congress for the Defence of the People (known by its French initials as CNDP), including, as always, looting and rape. And Nkuda and the CNDP have complicated efforts to achieve peace in Congo.
The arrest of Nkuda may yet be seen by some as a cynical move by Kagame. And the devil may yet be in the details. Ordinary Congolese are wary of the benefits of taking Nkuda out of the picture: Nkuda’s minions may splinter into smaller hordes of marauders doing what they know how to do best: kill men, rape women and terrorize children. And that is to say nothing of Joseph Kabila, the younger. And Kagame may not be without blame: he is deservedly accused of meddling in Congo’s affairs and complicating peace efforts in the Congo, one of the messiest, largest failed states in the world. As a matter of fact, Kagame has plainly supported Nkuda up until last week.
But Kagame, whatever else you think of him, has built what is so far one of the most promising states in Africa. Under his watch, Rwanda may yet become a hugely successful post-genocidal state; in fact, the Israel of Africa.
For all he has done and for moving against his erstwhile maniac friend, Paul Kagame is the best person in Africa this week.
Best Persons Runner-Up: Second Circuit US Court of Appeals in New York
Ok, technically these ones are not Africans, but this week, the justices of the Second Circuit US Court of Appeals in New York may well be Africans. They ruled that Nigerian families can sue the drugs giant, Pfizer, in the US over its alleged role in the deaths of children. In 1996, Pfizer allegedly tested an oral antibiotic called Trovan on some 200 ill children in hospital in northern Nigeria, without proper authorization, killing 11 children and injuring 181 with blindness, deformities and brain damage.
A lower courts had earlier dismissed a case brought by the victims’ families as lacking merit under the Alien Tort Statute, an old law allowing foreigners to sue in US courts. The decision by the Second Circuit US Court of Appeals in New York overturns the earlier dismissal, and instead ruled that the Nigerian families can, in fact sue under the statute. With luck, even giant drug companies would be put on notice that Africans are not guinea pigs for testing out drugs..
Worst Persons
Worst Persons Runner-Up: George Obama
Barrack Obama’s half brother in Nairobi, who was arrested on suspicion of possession of marijuana is our runner up as worst person in Africa this week. Thanks, George for giving conservative hacks fodder for peddling nasty talking points.
But the Worst Person’s title this week goes to Militant Groups in Port Harcourt, Nigeria for the brutal murder of Odunayo Awonusi, an 11 year-old girl on her way to school, and kidnapping her younger brother. Little Odunayo was trying to prevent the militants from kidnapping her little brother. They shot her in cold blood, and they took her brother anyway.
Killing an 11 year old girl, kidnapping little boys and harmless priests and doctors has absolutely nothing to do with fighting for autonomy. It has nothing to do with fighting for mineral rights for the impoverished peoples of the Niger Delta. It has nothing to do with justice. It has everything to do with senseless greed and criminality. The bloodthirsty gangs of the Niger Delta have lost their way (if they ever had one), and it is time to stop the madness.
For killing an innocent little girl in cold blood, the murderous wild dogs of Port Harcourt are the Worst Persons in Africa this week.
Inaugurating Hope and Pausing for Nightmares
January 22, 2009 | 2 Comments
As a human being, it is hard not to feel excited about the events of this week. As a black person, it is impossible not to feel giddy and light-headed with a thousand iconic images streaming out of Washington, DC. Beginning with an improbable journey on the steps of the Old Capitol in Springfield, Illinois in January 2007, Barack Hussein Obama, the son of a forbidden relationship between a pitch black man from the continental heart of darkness in Kenya and a lily white woman from the prairie heartland of America in Kansas, started an improbable journey that culminated this week in his inauguration as 
America’s president. These are moments that people would savor all over the world for a long time; the sort of moments where a 13-year old girl from Florida told CNN that she would tell her grand-children (not her children) what she felt when she came to DC for the Inauguration; the sort of moments that you remember for a lifetime what you were doing when Obama took the oath of office.
This is a moment that is hard to think about coherently, much less put down in words that make any sense. The hyperboles fly all around: the rock concert that took place on the Sunday before the inauguration was so star-studded it is impossible to head-line with any particular artist; super stars who ordinarily would be coaxed to go on paid concerts begged inaugural organizers to sing alongside Beyonce, Bono, Bruce Springsteen and Stevie Wonder. Two million people from all over the world braced frigid weather and massive security operations to witness the first African-American president take the oath of office on the bible that Abe Lincoln used. Conversations this week often start and end with, what would Martin Luther King say? What would Lincoln do? How would Franklin Delano Roosevelt respond? It is as if this black man is the ultimate embodiment of the hopes, deeds and dreams of George Washington, Lincoln, FDR, JFK and MLK rolled into one.
But if as a black person, the inauguration of Barrack Obama is a dream that you do not want to wake up from, there are continuing nightmares of the collective trans-Atlantic black experience that you cannot shake off. Admittedly, it may seem mean-spirited to speak of nightmares during a week that we are celebrating the triumph of hope over fear and bigotry. Even so, it is hard not to pause and consider what it was like for the four-year old daughter of Oscar Grant, the 22-year old black man who was shot in cold blood while lying face down by a white police officer in Oakland, California on January 1, 2009. It is a cold reminder that a black man may soon be the most powerful man in the world, but blacks are still at the rung of the political, social and economic ladder even in America. We may be hanging on to the words of one black man in the White House, but there are still too many anguished voices of black people all over America and the rest of the world.
And that world includes, first and foremost, Africa, where powerful Big Men lord it over the rest of the squalid populace. Nowhere else is this more evident than in Zimbabwe, where one of Africa’s nastier Big Men, Robert Mugabe has presided over the unraveling of what was once Africa’s bread basket and turning Zimbabwe into a vast wasteland and the continent’s most atrophied open sore. Zimbabwe’s best and brightest have fled the country, often to their bigger southern neighbor, South Africa. Instead of a little empathy however (the sort the Zimbabweans and other Africans gave anti-apartheid activists not long ago), what the desolate and fleeing Zimbabweans meet are gangs of out of control marauders who hack them to death in South Africa’s shanty towns. America may be burying the ghosts of the past, but in Africa proper, the devils are alive and wreaking havoc, from Congo to Darfur and just about any corner of the continent.
You have to salute the ingenuity of America to re-invent itself, and to once again, give the world exemplary hope, despite the original sin of slavery, Jim Crow and continuing vestiges of discriminatory practices. As Obama himself has continually said on the campaign trail, in no other country in the world is his story even possible. Certainly not in Japan, where there are virtually no paths to citizenship for minorities, despite a shrinking population increasingly relying on robots (makes you feel that the Japs would prefer robots to other humans). Certainly not in Latin America, where despite the much-talked about racial democracy in Brazil, there are 99 ways of describing a man’s color, and the blackest continue to languish in dreadful favelas. Certainly not in Europe where, despite the smugness of Europeans about social equality, minorities but especially blacks are treated as less than full human beings in Germany, France, Italy and just about every other European country. And most certainly not even in Africa where whole peoples are slaughtered just because they speak differently, look differently or worship differently; actually, during Kenya’s post-election violence between the Kikuyus and Luos early last year, the joke was that America would have a Luo president before Kenya does (Obama’s father was Luo).
So, yes let us celebrate Obama and our achievements this week. But when we get a bit sober next week, let us renew our commitment to the task of building our black communities from the cocaine-laced corridors of Brooklyn’s housing projects to the cholera-infested gutters of Bulawayo in Zimbabwe.
This article was written by our contributing editor Saint-James.
Barack Obama Elected President
November 8, 2008 | 1 Comment
“And where we are met with cynicism and doubts and those who tell us that we can’t, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes, we can!” - Barack Obama.
WASHINGTON DC - November 4, 2008 - Barack Obama was elected the first black president of the United States of America in an historic election today. This event marks a milestone in the history of the United States and creates opportunities for more open discourse on racial issues. While only the most ungracious of us would claim that this is not a watershed moment in American history, it is hasty to quickly conclude that racial divide would cease to exist in the country.
More than anything though, the historic moment shows that in America with hard work, dedication, a spirit of indefatigable optimism, determination and persistence “most” dreams are possible. We hope, indeed we believe that Barack Obama would be the president of all Americans and not just black people. The son of an African and a white mother, Barack spent most of his childhood in Hawai with his grandparents and later went to school in Columbia University and Harvard Law school. While at Harvard, he contested for and was elected the first black President of the school’s law journal.
An erudite speaker (he can move a crowd into a frenzy seamlessly), he spent a considerable part of his youth in intellectual flourishes and studied the stories of many successful political figures (both living and dead). After he graduated from Columbia University, but before enrolling in Harvard, he worked as a community organizer in the most under-privileged part of south side Chicago. He later became a senator in Illinois state and won elections to the federal senate before announcing his intention to run for the presidency of the United States about 21 months ago. He is a shining example of what is possible when we dream. There is no doubt that this feat would have profound psychological impact on people of color to reach within and aim for the highest heights in their fields of endeavor.
We wish the president elect success in his tenure. YES WE CAN!!!
“Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen” - Hebrews 11:1
Failing Successfully
July 14, 2008 | Leave a Comment
This is your day of divine favor. It will be your day of unusual testimonies. Our topic is “FAILING SUCCESSFULLY.” This may sound like a contradiction. However, our knowledge of success cannot be complete without knowledge on how to handle failure. Unsuccessful people are usually those who are so afraid of failure and rejection that they spend their lives avoiding the risks that could result in failure. They do not realize that those who avoid failure inevitably avoid success.
Successful people are failures who refuse to quit trying. And failures are potentially successful people who give up easily. You see, failure can be a blessing or a curse depending on our attitude. We must see failure as a stepping-stone and not as a stumbling block. With the right attitude, failure will not be fatal, and it will not be final. Successful people refer to their failure as “learning experiences” or “temporary setbacks.” They see their set back as a set-up for them to come up. They know that it is their attitude, not their aptitude that determines their altitude.
Dear friend, have you experienced failures in your marriage, or exams or in your business or in your spiritual life ? That failure is not an end; it is only a bend. Beyond the clouds, the sun is still shining.
I declare by the spirit of God, that failure will give birth to the most powerful testimony of your life. And if you have an interview or exam today, or if you are traveling, please, let’s believe that all will be well.
You will Succeed!
Culled from Success Power Transcripts written by Rev Sam Adeyemi. Sam Adeyemi is the founder of DayStar Christian Centre and Success Power International (a success motivational outfit) in Nigeria.
