Monday, April 29, 2013

Now is the future

Which of these two pictures do you prefer?
A middle aged guy, grey double breasted suit, Rolex watch, chauffeur driven in a Maybach

or

scrawny kid in white shirt, bumbling briefcase filled with papers in a hoopty( bang up car/lapaz toyota?)

the first...obviously..but what if I told you they were the same person..just in different times.

For the past 3/4 times I have been invited somewhere focused on youth..entrepreneurship..leadership..i keep running into the same crowd...people 22-35 doing different things but doing the same thing. IT...Fashion..micro-finance..blogging..photography..they couldn't be any more different. It is funny my associations have changed as my focus has also changed. When I worked in a bank i couldn't wait for the day to end at 5 for me to exhaust the 'happy' in happy hour or play video games at a friends place from 6 pm to 6 am on a Friday night. It was just a few years ago..just a few friends ago..but after going for a program with my dad last weekend I realized that now is the future.

While sitting at the table with him a few dignitaries  CEOs..managers etc all came around to say hi and he did the same thing. When we watched the presidential court case on TV last week he spoke about several of the people on a first name basis. It occurred to me that regardless of your line of work, the African proverb ' Monkeys play in sizes' stands true. What we don't see often, what we forget..is that they all start somewhere. ..At the time I was born my dad wasn't at the hospital- he was in between one of his 3 day time jobs ( swimming pool cleaner, mason and chaplin at a hospital)..when he was 28 and got married he was 154 pounds and the ring he bought my mom made her hand green after 3 weeks. His best friend weighed 168 even though he is 4 inches taller than my dad. My dad is now someone 'decent' in society and his friend is the  head of the Ghana Bar Association-aka head lawyer in chief.

CEOs meet CEOs..and janitors meet janitors..that is on the surface...and that is if we apply the laws of extrapolation to our daily lives. However there is one thing that can shatter the concept or set path- ambition. Ambition is the one thing that can propel a janitor to walk up to the CEO of a firm to ask him, ' I want to be like you when I grow up,'

Considering most of us fall within the 'youth' category let us presume that we will all be successful in 30 years. Hard work, dedication..focus,the grace of God and a little help from the malthusian theory ..blah blah should make us successful...but a large part of where we will be ..who we will call..are the people who are on our speedial right NOW..

because NOW is the future.

2 comments:

  1. "CEOs meet CEOs..and janitors meet janitors..that is on the surface...and that is if we apply the laws of extrapolation to our daily lives."

    One the top 5 assets that the next successful Ghanaian young leader must have is the ability to adapt and network across tiers of professional lives to be successful. You may be a janitor of the local church now. But you should be attending and be able to introduce yourself to the CEO of Beige capital at a networking conference at Tulip when your number is called up. Adaptable presentation.

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  2. We are the future Emmanuel. We are

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