YOU ARE WHAT YOU MAKE YOURSELF _By Amb. (Dr.) Yemi Farounbi, PhD, OON

YOU ARE WHAT YOU MAKE YOURSELF
By Amb. (Dr.) Yemi Farounbi, PhD, OON

It does not matter what anyone says about you. It does not matter what anyone wishes for you. It does not matter if someone wants you to be nothing more than a kulikuli seller by the roadside.

What you become depends on you. On the vision you hold for your life. On the competencies you have acquired. On the character that defines you.

Remember Aliko Dangote began by moving beans and rice from the North to the South. Remember the patriarch of the Ibru family started by frying fish on the streets of Lagos. Remember MKO Abiola beat drums on the streets to raise money for school. Remember Chief Obafemi Awolowo sold firewood and cut grass in graveyards to fund his education. Remember Femi Otedola was a dropout, just as the founder of Facebook was.

Your beginning need not define you. And no one will do for you what you refuse to do for yourself. No president can make you. No governor can make you. The person you become is forged by the person within you.

I have not achieved all that I want. But I remember how I got to where I am. I sold firewood on the streets of Usi-Ekiti. I caught fish from the rivers of that great town to sell. I worked as a houseboy. My parents borrowed money from moneylenders to finance my education.

Yet it was the competencies I acquired at Christ’s School, at UNN, and at UNIFE that lifted me. It was the character I built that sustained me. I am not yet where I want to be, so I have not given up on my aspirations. But my father was proud of the man I had become at 34 when he passed on.

Please, do not let anyone frustrate you. Not a critic, not a system, not even the most powerful voice. Let their doubt become your challenge. Let it compel you to optimize your talents and maximize your potential.

Scripture tells us Esau received no blessing. Jacob received them all. But Isaac told Esau that a day would come when, if he became a man of might and strength, he would break the yoke of oppression and servitude. And Esau did.

So do not moan. Do not grumble. Let the greatness in you rise and shine. Then together we will shame those who wrote us off as hewers of wood and drawers of water.

Our fathers and forefathers were like this. Men like Nnamdi Azikiwe boxed their way through poverty. Yet they rose to build nations and empires.

We, the children and grandchildren of those who built empires of old, can and must do better.

Never. Never give up on your dreams.

Amb. (Dr.) Yemi Farounbi, PhD, OON, _is an
Ibadan-based media guru, doyen of African broadcast journalism, writer, author, and former Nigerian Ambassador to the Philippines_