Author name: Michael

Born And Bred In Tema In The Greater Accra Region, Oheneyere Gifty Anti Is One Of The Successful Broadcasters To Grace The Television Screens In The Country. She is currently the Chief Executive Officer of the GDA Concept and host of Stand Point, a programme which discusses issues affecting women. Ms Anti started her media career at the Ghana News Agency as an intern before moving on to the Ghanaian Times also as an intern. She later moved to the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC), again as an intern, after which she was offered an opportunity to do her national service there. Ms Anti landed her first job as a Floor Manager at GTV and later rose to become a broadcaster there. She is currently married to Nana Ansah Kwao IV, the Chief of Akwamu Adumasa, with whom she has a daughter. Sharing her behind the scenes story on the Springboard, Your Virtual University, she said growing up, she never envisioned her life as a broadcaster. “I grew up with so many dreams but my greatest dream was to make my father proud. I saw my dad made so many sacrifices for me and my ultimate aim was to make him proud, it didn’t matter whatever it is i wanted to do,” she noted. She believed she was able to achieve this dream, stating that “before he died, he looked at me and said thank you and that is what gave me closure and peace.” “I couldn’t buy him a car or do anything great for him but he was pleased that I had made him proud and that gave me fulfilment,” she stated. Changing dreams As a child, she said her dream job kept changing based on what she saw. “My dreams kept changing, I will see a custom officer around those times in Tema and I wanted to be one. I saw clearing agents doing well and wanted to be one. The last one was to be a land economist,” she noted. In all of this, she said the ultimate aim was to do something that would give her enough money to take care of her dad and make him proud. “I saw the sacrifices he made. He gave me so much confidence and believed in me. Everything I do, I still think about my father if it will make him proud and this puts pressure on me as I have to be extremely careful about my actions,” she explained. Work pressure Mrs Anti also noted that her work as a broadcaster came with lots of pressure, hard work, sacrifice and preparation. “Two weeks ago, I had to record five programmes at a go and this was with different groups of people. One of the programmes, I had to do part one and two because I had these young ladies who were first borns and were sharing their experiences. “Ending it after one hour was not going help them so had to do part one and two and it was very tiring,” she noted. She pointed out that getting guest and panellists for her show was sometimes not easy. Childbirth Commenting on childbirth, she said most at times, people didn’t seem to understand that one’s life had changed because of childbirth. “Some of them have children but they are grown. I always tell people that I had a child when some of my mates had grandchildren so the sacrifices I have to make are different from what they have to make. “I always have to think about my daughter but sometimes people make so many demands of you but it doesn’t work like that,” she stated. Top 10 lessons 1.    Inspiration & sacrifice; My main inspiration growing up was to make my father happy. I saw the many sacrifices he made and wanted to give him something in return. 2.   Legacy; I am always conscious of leaving a legacy. I want my daughter to grow up and be proud of what I have done. It puts me under pressure and influences everything I do. 3.    Mentorsip; I benefited from the tough mentoring of people such as Liz Hayfron Asare in my days at the Ghanaian Times. She still reaches out to me even now. 4.    Social media; It can be really challenging when you post something to encourage a vulnerable person and someone else deliberately misrepresents it just to trend. 5.    Emotional pressures; There can be emotional pressures as people try to design your life to suit their needs or expectations. Be true to yourself and stay focused. 6.    Regrets; After a great O’Levels, I lost my way and ended up with a weak A’Levels, largely due to misplaced priorities and wrong relationships. It made me even more resolute. 7.    Youth confusion; Many youth are impatient and confused in trying to reconcile the achievements of their mentors with their own realities.  Youth mentoring must be prioritised in our national development effort. 8.    Profitable labour; I engaged in hawking and carpentry along the line just to raise funds for my education. I try to do everything I do with ‘swag’ so I didn’t find it shameful at all. 9.    Lifelong learning; I continue to learn from every situation even now and, in everything I do, I seek to become a better person. 10.   Cultural awareness; I have had to make a number of lifestyle changes as a wife of a chief. You can call them lessons of ‘Oheneyereship’. Our culture has important lessons for societal preservation. SOURCE: Graphic Online

Irish-Ghanaian Catholic Missionary, Father Andrew Campbell, recounted his difficult moments of praying for condemned prisoners before facing the firing squad in the 70s. Father Campbell spoke to Rev. Albert Ocran when he took his turn on the ‘Engine Room’ series on the Springboard, Your Virtual University, on Joy FM. The immediate past Parish Priest of Christ the King Catholic Church reiterated how giving hope to prisoners, prostitutes, lepers, and the less privileged in society makes him fulfilled. “As the Chaplain for the Ussher and James forts prisons, I used to have mass, baptism class and served the prisoners with communion.” “The hardest moment was when some of them were brought from Nsawam and other places for the firing squad. They lost hope and often questioned why they were going through those ordeals”, Father Campbell revealed. He narrated how he prepared them spiritually by praying for them and taking them through confessions. “I remember one Easter Sunday morning sitting in the cell alone with one of the prisoners, the sun was coming through the window, and I had to give the man hope and encouragement. It was difficult,” he said. Father Campbell was, however, quick to add that the prisoners were grateful anytime he prayed with them because they received hope and encouragement and were strengthened to face the firing squad. As Founder of the Lepers Aid Committee, Father Campbell also spoke about what prompted his work with lepers, saying, “as a young priest at the Holy Spirit Cathedral at Adabraka in the 70s, I was working out in the garden of the church one morning when a healed leper showed up with a bag of mangoes as a gift for me. “I gave all of them out immediately because I thought I will get leprosy. But I later told myself this is not right, so I went out to Weija, and I was devastated when I saw the condition of the place, so I told myself this is what God has called me to do, and I decided to help them.” Below are the lessons from Father Andrew Campbell’s interview SHARING.My life is inspired by Mother Teresa’s mantra, “Doing something beautiful for God.” My parents were a Godly inspiration. GOD’S PROVISIONWhen my savings for seminary fell short by £10, an anonymous donor sent me exactly £10 by post with a note to be a good priest. PERSISTENCEI sailed on the 13-day journey to Ghana with little knowledge of Africa. My colleague returned after our early challenges, but I stayed on, and it’s now 50 years. LEPER PRIESTThe first cured leper I met brought me mangoes in 1974. I almost ran away. Today, many call me the ‘leper priest’, and I actually live in Weija. But, we can still do better with stigma. BORROWED LIFEI literally ‘died’ of COVID on 11th July 2020, but God raised me and reminded me that I had unfinished work to do. CONTENTMENTI don’t have a salary, car or bank account. I don’t need anything. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Philippians 4:13) RESTORATIONOne Sunday, two prostitutes I had ministered to the night before showed up in church. Showing empathy has gotten some of them off the streets. GIVING HOPEI prayed with condemned prisoners at Usher Fort and James Fort just before being sent to the firing squad. CELIBACYJesus was POOR, OBEDIENT and CELIBATE. He didn’t marry, so I chose to live that way as an eschatological expression. TEMPTATIONI survive temptation by constant prayer. I don’t want to focus on the WORK of the Lord and miss out on the LORD of the work. SOURCE: My Joy Online

Eugene Kwame Marfo, Who Goes By The Stage Name Kuami Eugene, Is A High-Life And Afrobeat Singer-Songwriter, Signed To Lynx Entertainment. He emerged as the New Artist of the year at the 2018 Ghana Music Awards and a year later, he got an impressive seven nominations, going on to win three of them. In that same year, he also won the Most Promising Artist in Africa at the AFRIMA Awards. Kuami Eugene went a step further in 2020, winning the ultimate prize in Ghana music, the Artist of the Year at the Ghana Music Awards. He also won the High-life Artist of the Year. Appearing on the Springboard, Your Virtual University, he told the host, Rev. Albert Ocran, that growing up, he always knew he would do music. “I knew I was definitely going to do music because I had the gift for it and when I sang, people were like wow,” he stated. Early life Kuami Eugene, who also goes by the name “The RockStar,” said he grew up from what he described as one of the most rowdy environments in the country, Fadama. He said growing up at Fadama was very tough, with all the gambling, hardships, crime and rowdiness around. “Growing up was very tough but I was raised by a strong mum who made my business her business and this was what helped me. She always taught me to put God first and man will follow and the second one was to make everything work that is if it can work. “The house that she is living in now, she started investing in the house with GHȼ15 and today she owns it. This really inspired me. If she can start a whole house with GHȼ15, it means if I start something and I believe it is possible, it can be done,” he explained. First encounter with music He said his first encounter with music was at the Presbyterian Church at Fadama. “I am a Presbyterian and we had something among our presbytery where musical groups in the church went to one church and we would all sing and my locals was one. I was performing and it was so nice and people were happy to the extent that the stage collapsed. “It started from there and I got very popular from there and was invited to churches to perform and that helped me leave behind the ghetto life at Fadama,” he stated. MTN Hit maker Kuami Eugene noted that his breakthrough happened when he took part in the MTN Hit Maker competition. He said although he got to know about the competition two years earlier, he wasn’t ready and was too young at the time so he had to wait for two more years before entering. “We saw it on TV and I was 17 years old then so I had to wait two more years to prepare myself very well for the show. I went for the auditions, I was picked and the rest is history. “God being so good, I finally met my label after the competition and they made a lot of investment for me and I am here today,” he narrated. He said he had his first hit song ‘Angela’ under the label at the age of 19 years and that was the turning point in his career. “‘Angela’ was the turning point in my life and it made me who I am. Somebody had to fly me all the way to the UK to come and sing ‘Angela’ for his wife at their wedding and it was an amazing feeling,” he noted. Writing with pain Kuami Eugene also revealed that he wrote his hit song ‘Wish me well’ out of pain. “I sat down and wrote that song because of what I was going through that moment. It was my first confrontation song. After releasing ‘Angela’, people started saying one hit wonder boys, they will come and go right now. I then did ‘Confusion’ and they were like that’s it, he doesn’t have anything else left.” “I heard people say that on radio and TV. I later did ‘Adwenfie’ and others and thought people will stop saying that but it continued so I sat down one day with pain and it was one of the few times I had pain while writing a song,” he disclosed. 10 Lessons and quotes from Kuami Eugene’s story 1.    Growing up; I grew up in a tough neighbourhood dominated by social vices. 2.    Role model; my mother is my biggest role model and the greatest influence on my life; from my faith to my career, character, philosophy, and even my lyrics. She prayed for me, disciplined me and, till today, always encourages me. 3.    MTN Hit Maker; This is what brought me to light. 4.    Turning point; the hit song ‘Angela’ was my turning point. That song made me a household name. 5.    Composition; Music comes naturally. I play several instruments and compose under different circumstances. 6.    Responsibility; I think deeply about my lyrics. Every music I put out there has a message. 7.    Evangelist; music is a more effective means of evangelism than any other channel. I see myself as an evangelist spreading good morals. 8.    Ruthlessness; the music industry is unkind and does not tolerate or forgive your vulnerability. The higher you go the more pressure it puts on you. 9.    Industry evolution; in my early days, I hire big equipment to do anything. But now, I can do everything, including recordings, on my tablet. Easy access to music also means you need incredible talent, solid networks or divine favour to stand out. 10.    Contentment; I feel special and always bless God for making me who I am. My greatest fear is to wake up one day and no longer be Kuami Eugene. Source: Graphic Online

Music Icon Kuami Eugene believes musicians need to keep pace with current trends to remain relevant.” Music is evolving. it is constantly changing”, he detailed The ” Angela” hitmaker was sharing the story of his journey into music with Rev. Albert Ocran as part of the Engine Room series on Springboard, Your Virtual University on Joy FM. The 2020 VGMA Artiste of the Year thinks it has become so easy to produce music, and therefore one must be extremely talented to stand out. Kuami Eugene narrates how musicians now have to be succinct and straight to the point in their compositions because ” listeners just don’t have time to listen to songs that are 10-15 minutes long.” Below are the Top Ten QUOTES from Kuami Eugene in his interview with Rev. Albert Ocran as captured by the Springboard team GROWING UPI grew up in a tough neighbourhood dominated by social vices. My first musical performance was in the Presby church. It was so vigorous that the stage collapsed. However, the numerous invites that followed helped me move out of the ghetto. ROLE MODELMy mother is my biggest role model and the greatest influence on my life, from my faith to my career, character, philosophy, and even lyrics. She prayed for me, disciplined me and, till today, always encourages me. MTN HITMAKERThis is what brought me to light. I first heard about the MTN Hitmaker in my teens but chose to wait for a couple more years till I was more ready and mature before participating. I thank God I did TURNING POINTThe hit song ‘Angela’ was my turning point. That song made me a household name. My first travel to the UK was to perform the song at a couple’s wedding, incidentally named James and Angela. COMPOSITIONMusic comes naturally. I play several instruments and compose under different circumstances. So many dismissed Angela as a one-off. But after Confusion and other tracks did well, and they still didn’t change their minds, I wrote, “Wish me well.” RESPONSIBILITYI think deeply about my lyrics. Every music I put out there has a message. There are people from all walks of life who listen to me, young and old. I must impact them. EVANGELISTMusic is a more effective means of evangelism than any other channel. I see myself as an evangelist spreading good morals. RUTHLESSNESSThe music industry is unkind and does not tolerate or forgive your vulnerability. The higher you go, the more pressure it puts on you. INDUSTRY EVOLUTIONIn my early days. I hire big equipment to do anything. But now, I can do everything, including recordings, on my tablet. But, of course, easy access to music also means you need incredible talent, solid networks or divine favour to stand out. CONTENTMENTI feel special and always bless God for making me. However, my greatest fear is to wake up one day and no longer be Kuami Eugene. Source: MyJoyOnline

Ghanaian Music Star Kuami Eugene says he sees himself as an evangelist spreading good morals. This is because music is a more effective means of evangelism than any other channel. In an interview with Rev. Albert Ocran as part of the Engine Room series on Springboard, Your Virtual University on Joy FM, he said this. “I think deeply about my lyrics. Every music I put out there has a message. There are people from all walks of life who listen to me, young and old. So I must impact them positively”, he explained. Kuami Eugene narrated how as a child, he knew he would go into music because he has the gift for it. “Music has always been my life. I play the bass guitar, drums, keyboard, the harmonica, and a bit of flute”. Reminiscing about his past, the 2021 VGMA Highlife Artiste of the Year said his first real insight into how far he could go with his talent was during an inter-church music competition where he wowed the audience who thronged the stage, and the stage collapsed. “If your dream seems to be tarrying, be patient. Never stop working toward it. Start, and keep pushing; God is on your side”, Kuami Eugene advised. Source: MyJoyOnline

Finance Minister, Honorable Ken Ofori-Atta has completed a series of engagements aimed at inspiring young people across the country to venture into entrepreneurship. The tour, known as the Springboard Dialogues, which took him to Tamale in the northern belt, Sunyani in the middle belt and Accra in the southern belt, also afforded him the opportunity to meet young entrepreneurs and final year entrepreneurship students and listen to their concerns. Accompanying the minister in the sessions were officials of various agencies that provide financial, technical and mentoring support to small businesses including the Ghana Enterprises Agency (formerly NBSSI), National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme (NEIP) and the Ghana Cares (Obaatanpa) Programme. Speaking on the final leg in Accra, an obviously impressed Mr. Ofori-Atta commended young people who had set up start-up ventures and who were employing others in the process. “I left the two engagements in Tamale and Sunyani with a renewed sense of hope in our youth.” “It has been a great opportunity for me to reconnect with what I call my first love: mentoring young people and challenging them to live a life of purpose, based on strong ethics and optimism in the midst of challenging circumstances”, Mr Ofori-Atta stated. The minister commended Albert and Comfort Ocran, organizers of the Springboard Road Shows and Youth Dialogues for their consistency in youth development over the past 15 years. He was particularly impressed with the stories shared by previous participants of the Springboard Road Show at the interactions. Notably impressive was the story of Michael Amoah, a Hospitality Management Professional who previously sold yogurt in the streets of Kumasi for 11 years after dropping out of junior high school but who was inspired by Springboard to resume his education all the way to the postgraduate level. Also commendable was the story of Francis Adu who was into rice, pepper and poultry farming in Navrongo in the Upper West Region. The minister interacted with Obed Korang-Manson whose entrepreneurial spirit and vision was awakened during Springboard and took steps to establish a fast growing print business in Sunyani that currently employs 14 people,  Evelyn Affreh who was mentored to pursue a profession in environmental sustainability and finally Belinda Baaba Baidoo Baidoo who ventured into an art and fashion business after being disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. While admitting that entrepreneurship was not an easy journey, he encouraged the young people present and those listening online that it was the only way forward.  “We have a situation where 71% of the Ghanaian population is under 35. According to the World Bank, at least 109,000 students graduate from tertiary institutions in Ghana each year. Each one of these graduates needs jobs that government is not in a position to directly provide.” “The story of my own childhood and my youth which I shared with the youth in these regions is evidence of what God’s grace, destiny, opportunities and a can-do spirit can achieve”, Mr Ofori-Atta concluded.

Young Entrepreneurs must be encouraged Young people who dare to set up businesses and employ others in the process are charting the course for an entrepreneurial future for the country and need to be encouraged and supported, the Minister of Finance, Mr Ken Ofori-Atta has stated. He explained that what we need is a thousand young people starting small and employing ten people each rather than wait for one person to employ ten thousand. Government had therefore rolled out a number of interventions aimed at providing opportunities for the youth to become entrepreneurial in view of the high youth unemployment situation confronting the country. “Listen to me, young people:  your job opportunities will either come from your depending on others to give you a job, or from you awaking the entrepreneur in you by making use of the opportunities that are available in the public and private sector,” he said. Springboard Roadshow The minister was speaking as the Guest Mentor of the Springboard Roadshow virtual convocation held in Accra today. The event is an initiative of the Springboard Road Show Foundation and focuses on entrepreneurship, investment, career and talent development for young people between the ages 18 years and 35 years. Mr Ofori-Atta spoke under the theme: Repositioning: Navigating through COVID-19 and finding career and business opportunities. He commended the conveners, Albert and Comfort Ocran for the initiative. For over 15 years, they have been daring and consistent in this all-important national effort at inspiring young people. I have been a regular resource on Springboard Road Shows right from their inception, and I have always loved the opportunity to travel and interact with young people, he intimated. The Springboard Dialogues started in Tamale last Thursday, June 3 and moved to Sunyani on Monday, June 7 before the Virtual Convocation in Accra. Targeted interventions Making a case for targeted interventions for the youth, he said: “I believe the robust implementation of interventions under the Ghana CARES programme will gradually create a conducive, compelling, and ultimately resilient economic environment fit for enterprise and innovation.” “There are ample opportunities in agribusiness and manufacturing that must be exploited given their high economic multiplier and import substitution effects and, of course, job-creating potential.  Undoubtedly, this will require both the private and public sector to work together towards a common goal of creating jobs and opportunity for all.” Giving context to the unemployment situation in the country, Mr Ofori-Atta said: “We have a situation where 71 per cent of the Ghanaian population is under 35 (compared to a global average of 57%). According to the World Bank, at least 109,000 students graduate from tertiary institutions in Ghana each year. Each one of these graduates needs jobs.  The World Bank estimated Ghana’s unemployment rate among the youth as 12 per cent representing 1.3 million. Alarmingly, about half of the youth population in Ghana who number 5.4 million are regarded as underemployed. Ecosystem  Mr Ofori-Atta explained that in the past 12 months, government had launched the Ghana CARES “Obaatanpa” Programme to transition the country from a commodity-dependent to a self-reliant industrialised nation.  Within the past year, he said government had initiated work on creating an integrated aluminium industry, which should finally free the country from having to import alumina to power the dormant national smelter (VALCO).  “Once the smelter is active, we can nurture an entire bauxite and aluminium ecosystem, creating jobs and opportunities for all.” Self-belief  The Chief Executive Officer of MTN, Mr Selorm Adadevoh, who was also a speaker at the event, encouraged the youth to be positive-minded and believe in their abilities to make change. He said when people believed in themselves, there would not be limits to the successes they could achieved, using his own journey onto the top of the country’s biggest telecommunications company as an example. He said while challenges would come along the way, people needed to be bold and determined and remained focus on their ultimate objectives.  He also advised the youth to build trust in themselves by being consistent in the execution of trusts. Springboard’s new initiative The Executive Director of the Springboard Road Show Foundation, Mrs Comfort Ocran, said after years of inspiring and mentoring many young people to go into entrepreneurship, Springboard took a new initiative this year.  She said the foundation had begun engaging with agencies set up to provide opportunities for the youth in the form of training, job placement, business financing and other critical business needs. “We called the new initiative the Springboard Youth Dialogues. They simply involve connecting you the young people to opportunities and policy interventions to help accelerate your progress, especially in the areas of business. “In designing these interactions, we reached out to the Minister of Finance, himself a veteran Springboard resource person from the very first five editions. Not only did he wholeheartedly embrace the ideas we shared, he personally offered to travel all the way with us, to listen to the concerns and challenges of young entrepreneurs and to provide much-needed answers to young people across the country,” Mrs Ocran said.  She commended Mr Ofori-Atta for the time and the invaluable contributions and expressed the hope that the ideas shared would help inspire the youth into positive action.

James Ebo Whyte, popularly referred to as Uncle Ebo Whyte, is acclaimed as Ghana’s most successful playwright and credited with the revival of theatre in the country. As the Director and Lead Writer of Roverman Productions, a company he founded, Uncle Ebo Whyte has written and directed over 45 plays for stage since 2008. Since 2008, Uncle Ebo set himself an ambitious target of releasing a play every quarter, something he had successfully done until 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic struck, forcing the closure of cinemas in the country. His plays include Not My Husband, The Day Dad Came, Unhappy Wives Confused Husbands, Dear God Comma, Rejected, Dora Why, Blackmail and many others. Growing up from a neighbourhood which glorifies immorality, Uncle Ebo Whyte decided to make a U-turn in his life at the age of 15 when he became a Christian and has since not turned back. Speaking on the Springboard, Your Virtual University, a radio programme on Joy FM, he said, “The models I picked for life were at my very formative years because I grew up in a neighbourhood where we glorified immorality. “So when I became a Christian at the age of 15, I realized that none of them were consistent with the faith that I had acquired, so I was led to take my models from the scriptures and I picked three models: Joseph, David and Daniel.” He said there were two things common in all of them – excellence in service and faithfulness. Faithfulness in service Uncle Ebo Whyte noted that based on the models he picked, when he entered the job market, his commitment was to work as if he owned the company. “I developed this philosophy to work so hard that no matter how much a company pays you, there will be a balance for God to make up and that was my focus,” he noted. He said although God indicated to him in 1976 that he had given him theatre, that promise was fulfilled in 2008. “Within that time, I operated on another principle that whatever your hands find to do, do it well and when his time was due, he himself ushered me into this. It was then that I discovered that it had been a training for this,” he explained. Top ten principles 1.    You are not a failure until you blame someone else: This principle changed me from a whining complaining person into someone who takes responsibility for any situation. Don’t blame anything or anyone. It is a sign of weakness. Things may not be working for you but it’s not a sign of weakness; you fail when you relinquish the responsibility for your life to someone. 2.    It is the wise son who finds a juicy bone in an egg: My mother explained this in a story. She said a man gave his children eggs and asked them to decide whether to boil or fry them, but one of them took his eggs back to the chicken coop and added them to the eggs that had not yet been hatched. With time, the hen hatched the eggs that he added. He didn’t consume the eggs that were given to him; he always took them back and had chicks that grew to be hens, and his eggs now had bones. It is not everything that comes into your hands that you should consume. 3.    Resurrection still happens: In my life, I have had to start over from zero before at the age of 43. Sometimes when life throws you like that, it is very easy to roll over and die but resurrection is possible. 4.    Thoughts are things: In Ghana, we waste thoughts and we don’t take responsibility for them, but thoughts are things. You are where you are today because of the thoughts you have had in the past. Your thoughts create your reality, whether good or bad. 5.    Excellence is its own reward: In a lot of contexts, people say they are working hard but the pay is not enough so they don’t bother any more. Excellence is also a reward, so continue delivering excellence. 6.    In life, you are either having dinner or you are the dinner: In life, you are either running things and making things happen or you are running somebody’s agenda or cause, quite often at your expense, and you have to be aware of that. 7.    Life is for the courageous: You need to be strong and courageous in life. Life is not for the timid. 8.    Life is not fair so just get on with it: There are a lot of people who are bitter and they think they have cause to be, but they are only bitter with what reality is. If you don’t get this, you will fill your mind with so much negativity, pain and misery. 9.    Never give up: No matter what life throws at you, never give up. The point at which you give up may be the turning point. 10.    A lot can happen in a very short time: Sometimes, you have to start again but don’t worry because a lot can happen in a short time. The right thing might take a few months.

The Springboard, Your Virtual University, a radio programme of Joy FM, has commenced a new series which it has titled, ‘My Top Ten’. The new series seek to find out the most important principles or lessons that undergird the lives of accomplished people and even more importantly, the experiences that led them to those lessons. This is to help guide the youth who may wish to walk in the path of these accomplished entrepreneurs and business leaders. Taking his turn on the maiden edition of the series, the Group Chief Executive Officer of the Margins Group, Mr Moses K. Baiden, said he started his first business at the age of 23 with just US$100 dollars from his father’s garage. He said since then, he had been in business for the past 30 years, which proved that no obstacle should be in the way of one’s purpose. “Whenever there is a will there is a way, so let’s not despise small beginnings, no matter where you are starting from,” he stated. Mr Baiden pointed out that there were several principles that had helped shaped his life, but he selected the ones that had been the most important to him, whether in business or normal life. 1. Purpose: He noted that there must be a purpose in each and everyone’s life. “There must be a purpose in everything you do. There will be several purposes during your lifetime but you cannot do everything at the same time so you have to settle on some and pursue them.” 2. Passion: “You must pursue your purpose with passion. Discipline, from the home of the school, is a selling regime that makes life easy by routinising certain actions that make you operate in this world. But beyond that, what really will keep you up is love. This is what will push you and make you have competitive edge in business. “Sometimes pursuing what you love doesn’t come with financial gains but it makes you happy. So if you balance that with some kind of financial freedom, then it will bring you fulfilment. Passion flows from the soul and it teaches you a certain regime that will only keep you focused over time, whether it gives you lots of money or not.” 3. Values: “You must have a clear set of values to govern your life. Values determine which range of passion and purposes you will pursue. It is your values that will tell you not to do anything that will result in crime or anything that does not have integrity. 4. Humanity: “You must be humane. It’s not always about money, you just recognise you are a human being and have to be humane in everything that you do. You must impact humanity and leave some footprints. 5. Knowledge: “Pursue knowledge, ask tough and good questions when you meet more accomplished people and do not forget the answers they give you. In one lifetime, it is not possible to learn everything that there is in life, so one has to recognise that to get relevant knowledge, you should read, take short courses and find people who have done it before and learn from them. 6. Embrace change: “You must embrace change because it is constant. People are afraid of change, so when they get to a comfort zone, they want to stay there but life is full of seasons. Everybody has opportunities if he/she is concentrating. You must look for a change in the pattern in order to take advantage of it. When preparing, you are looking for a set of circumstances to come together to cause a change that will make the preparations you have been making come to bear. 7. Know your customers: “Know your customers and their needs because that is the first step to problem-solving and products creation. The products come after the needs because customer needs are constant, but the products, solutions and services change.” 8. Inner peace: “Ensure you have a peaceful home. Without inner peace and the right environment, you or your vision can die prematurely. Even in choosing a partner for marriage, if you really want to be an effective leader and perform at a certain level, you need peace at home. You need the family framework and support.” 9. Understand the principle of money: “No matter how hungry you are, never eat the hen that lays the golden eggs. Don’t spend what you haven’t earned and don’t borrow for consumption. When you learn this principle, you will learn to cut your coat according to your size.” 10. Strive for excellence: “You must always strive for excellence. If you want to play in a league, you must aim for the Champions League and not the Colts League.”