Uchechukwu Samson Ogah BUILDING THE NEXT GENERATION LEADERS: A MESSAGE FROM DR. UCHECHUKWU OGAH PRESENTED ON WED.MAY 21ST, 2014 ON A ONE DAY YOUTH ELECTORAL SUMMIT ORGANIZED BY ABIA YOUTH LEAGUE IN COLLABORATION WITH INEC, ABIA STATE. PROTOCOLS I feel highly honoured and delighted to be invited here today to deliver this lecture on the topic, “Building The Next Generation Leader”. It’s not only the main purpose of my book, LEADERSHIP: The 101 Golden Rules, it’s a topic very close to my heart. It’s quite unfortunate that whenever we talk about leadership most people use to think in terms of political leadership but the truth is that from modern day Shawn Fanning who developed MP3 to Victor Green who developed the first world shopping mall in the world; from Christian Barnard who made history by performing the first heart transplant, to Tim Berners Lee who was the first to post a message to a newsgroup a kind of electronic public access bulletin board- announcing the existence of the world wide web (WWW) project; from Johann Gutenberg to Isaac Newton; from Konstantin Tsiokoosky to Guglielimo Marconi, from the Wright Brothers who made air plane possible to Bill Gates the computer guru. An individual without political linkage or interest whose only weapon was their conviction and vision has over the years stepped into leadership through their innovative designs that they radically pursued against all odds. These are individuals who proved through their individual accomplishments, and later registered their names and that of their nations that it is not the mineral resources in a nation that makes that nation great, but human resources. We need to invest more time and resources in education, we need to encourage and fund research, we need to create the platform and the necessary environments that encourage creativity. This is our greatest weapon towards our pursuit for nation building as this will create the enabling environment for the emergency of the next generation leaders. Whatever is the problem today, we need to realize that there’s nothing the nation is passing through today that other great nations did not experienced. United States of America passed through Civil War, few decades ago bombs were landing in the streets of United Kingdom, and same can be said of Spain and Russia. We have to realize that it was not angels from heaven that came down to restore peace in those places but citizens who braved the odds. Their only gift was their mind and there’s nothing in USA, UK, Spain and Russia that is not in abundance in Nigeria in terms of human resources. The upcoming generation ought to know that they should be bold enough to step out with their radical innovative ideas for only this will liberate us and establish them as the true leaders in their different fields of endavour. Initially they might be rejected but I want them to realize that rejection of your ideas or whatever you are doing is not an excuse to give up: as the foremost work ‘Dune’ by Frank Herbert was rejected 13 times. ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’ was rejected 14 times. ‘Auntie Mame’ by Patrick Dennis was rejected 17 times. ‘Jonathan Livingstone Seagull’ by Richard Bach was rejected 18 solid times. ‘Carrie” by Stephen King was rejected 30 good times. ‘A Time to Kill’ by John Grisham was rejected, wait a minute, you cannot believe this … 45 hard times. And wait for this bomber Louis L’Amour, author of over 100 western novels suffered over 300 rejections before publishing his first book. In all you ask yourself what kept this great thinkers going? It is nothing but a six letter word called passion and the kind of passion that is propelled with deep conviction. The next generation leaders ought to know that in life, there will inevitably be obstacles to encounter. But dont ever be afraid that they will seem too great for you to handle, because with your conviction you can. You may doubt yourself at times, but know that if you have faith, you have everything. Faith is the key to being successful. If you know youre capable of anything because of who you are, you will always reach your destination. It may not always be easy, but it will always be worth it. Look ahead of you, never behind. Have faith in yourself. If you do, you will be amazed at what you can accomplish! In all, the most important thing is to hold on to your conviction. Conviction for your vision keeps you awake when others are snoring. Conviction energizes you to go the extra mile, conviction keeps you moving when others are sick; sick of their very goal. It was conviction that made young Alexander the great to in spite of all the odds to march on against every opposition and advanced into Egypt. It was conviction that made him not to stop at Egypt but rather to march eastward on his way to world conquest. All at the age of 33. Conviction makes a way where there is none; put a man with conviction in a prison, he will write a book that will inflame the world. Take him to a desert he will build a great city. Isolate him and it will not take time for his place of isolation to become the central place that gravitates and shapes opinion. Surround him with a mountain and he will drill a hole. In the midst of ocean he builds a bridge. So, my dear equip yourself with conviction as your greatest weapon towards confronting your challenges. Without conviction of your very purpose you cannot be an effective leader the good news is that once you are equipped with conviction you have a technique of immense power. The bad news is that you have to really care, it cannot be faked. People somehow know when your conviction is real. In pursuit of your goals it important you define your objective and focus on it and realize that every other thing is a distraction. There is nothing a determined soul cannot achieve. It doesnt matter how you start, it is the end that matters. When they tell you that you cannot do it tell them God can. Where there is a will there is always a way. When all odds are against you, check if Gods odd is with you. Thats the most important odd. The stories of all great people are the stories of individuals who persevered against all odds as told in their individual bio or autobiography as we listen to them thunder. In all because of their convictions of purpose you will discover that they share one thing in common, they never give up. Dr.uche s ogah( OON,FCA,Phd) we re strongly behind u!!!
Posted on: Fri, 23 May 2014 14:22:51 +0000
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