The Youth And New Thinking

“If you live long enough, you’ll make mistakes. But if you learn from them, you’ll be a better person. It’s how you handle adversity, not how it affects you. The main thing is never quit, never quit, never quit”. (William J. Clinton).

In Ghana, one cannot talk about Komla Dumor, Dzifa Bampoh and Gifty Anti without thinking about broadcast journalism, neither can you mention of Abede Pelle and Stephen Appiah without thinking about football. Now, what do people think of when they talk about you? We all have talents, and how you utilize your talent defines who you are; they will never know you and celebrate you until you make yourself to be celebrated and known. If you make a valuable use of your talent and focus in doing something you are likely to win an award and be recognized. Every day when you get-up in the morning and listen to radio stations you will hear a lot of young men and women phoning in to discuss successful politician and political issues which they do not drive any benefit from. We the youth use our precious time to discuss issue of persons who are far better than us. It is not the case that we the youth do things we love count as work. As a youth we should utilize our talents, it will not only make us excel in life but also make us a fulfilled persons. There are a lot of young people who spend their entire life doing something they will never get anything good from. As youth we are human resource to our parents, communities and Ghana at large, and we must use them wisely, when we fail to use them life become struggle for us. The people issue we use our precious time to discuss in our daily life could equally be our issues for people to discuss. These are people who are occupying position which we should have occupied, simply because we fail use the talents in us. We involved ourselves in some things which we fail to ask ourselves whether we will really drive some meaningful output from it or not as youth.

Our societies are speckled with people who have great achievers but are not yet take off in life. We have a lot of youth who could have shown their talents but remain unused, some identify their potentials but due to lack of the inventiveness and procrastination they fail to show it. We should start to take a calculated risk and do something with our potentials. The potentials could be the catalyst for releasing the seed that would be totally transforms Ghana. There is good number of youth who have abandoned their own potentials but trying to operate in another area simply because they believe it to be easier, more lucrative and likely to bring them fame and fashionable than their own potentials. There are millions young graduates desperately searching for jobs but refuse to use the potentials in them to start their own invention. Have you ever thought about the fact that most of the hottest jobs and successful business ventures today never exist in some years back!

Every year thousands of students in our tertiary institutions writes their project work in partials fulfillment of their courses on different topics in Ghana, but how many of them use their project work to start as a business enterprise. I remembered Mark Zuckerberg owner and founder of Facebook. Facebook is been embraced globally by all age groups and impacting positively in our lives. I vehemently believe that Mark Zuckerberg was not the only person who thought of social media (facebook), but he has the courage and conviction to innovate it and undoubtedly, there are millions of people on facebook. Today Mark Zuckerberg is one of the successful young achiever and entrepreneur globally. A lot of us lack the courage and conviction to start doing something in our own. Also, Oprah Winfrey a media proprietor and talk show host was once fired from her job as television reporter because she was not fit for TV, but because of her courage and conviction she is now a multiple award winning talk show host. She was the richest African American of the 20^th century and she is now global TV icon. It is never too late; don’t be among those who will die with their talents, because there are lot of ideas and talents in the cemetery, so we should not be among them. Let’s wake-up as youth.

Many young person’s bluntly think that their dream job is very difficult to achieve and very competitive. Yes all of these are true, but it shouldn’t stop you. Determined people will always succeed and in many ways need people to give up and fine it too much like hard work to make way for them. Openly it is very difficult to find employment straight after school, but it is by no means impossible. It might take several years to find job after school but there are jobs there. Always think of what you want to do and never mine of other going in for the same job. Be focused on what you want and how you are going to get it. You need to have a plan in place, even if it’s sketchy one, have short-term and long-term aims. You can achieve your dream job you matter how difficult it is. You must not give up on it. Remember that “Akio Morita” company SONY first product was rice cooker, which was noted for burning rather than cooking rice. But this did not stop his company but rather worked harder to create a multi-billion dollar company, today SONY product are household name. The best job is not supposed to be easy, that makes it challenging. Anthony J. D’Angelo said “develop a passion for learning. If you do, you will never cease to grow”.

We the youth should use creative strategies to reach our goals. Look at options and make informed decisions. Successful planning requires that you know right and responsibilities and strengths and challenges, set goals, work towards these goals and use tools and resources available. Don’t be victim of other people decision a lot of us use our precious time defending successful politicians opinions, and discussion of the media without any consideration. Knowing and valuing yourself, setting goals and planning help build important foundation and your actions are require to make your dream comes to reality. To take control of your life is necessary to choose and take appropriate action.

In this world, if there is one universal truth, it’s that everyone is looking on to get rich. Everybody wants to live a decent life and better person in future. We should know that we can’t become what we need to be by remaining what we are.

Great personalities in Ghana like President J. J. Rawlings, President J. A Kufour and Kofi Anan, these are personalities with excellent reputation, each of these personalities have thousands of followers on facebook, ask why? I guess you know the answer, and are remembered in Ghana and the outside world. What can we learn from these personalities? It does not matter where you come from or into what family you are born, you can also become a great personality, but you must be ready to pay the price to make it come true, then can you go on to become great icon in life and impacts positively on others. There are some virtues and passions that propelled them against many odds to global heights at great costs to themselves for the ideals they stood. They however went on to leave huge footprints in the sands of our times.

As young persons, we must leave a footprint so tomorrow they can celebrate us. Remember, Henri Bergson said, think like a man of action, act like a man of thought. I will think like a man of action and act like a man of thought and I will build on my talents and potentials to become one of the successful young achievers of our time.

Writer: Seidu Samad
E-mail: [email protected]
Tel: 0206653517/0541036700
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