As I held my Ipad and Iphone, I can not but remember again the man whose imagination, creativity, idea, self confidence, relentlessness and determination made this exceptional devices possible. This man did not only made me more productive bycreating these devices, but his life and strategy for success have an enormous effect on my life journey as an innovator and strategist… As I listened to one of his most remarkable speeches, delivered at Stanford University Commencement address in 2005 for the umpteenth time, I thought I should share some of the strongest words in that speech. the video had more than 6million hits on you tube. You can listen to it here

…We can not connect the dots looking forward, we can only connect them looking backwards. You have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in the future. You have to trust something, your gut, destiny, life, karma or whatever. Because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well worn path and that will make all the difference.

Sometimes life is going to hit you in the head with a brick, don’t loose faith, The only thing that kept me going was that I loved was I did, you’ve got to find what you love…..and that is true for work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work and the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking and don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you will know when you find it. And like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years goes on. So keep looking, don’t settle.

Don’t be trapped by dogma, which is living with the result of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinion drown out your own inner voice, and most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

Stay hungary, stay foolish!

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reposted from my facebook notes 22nd July, 2010

Ich bin Olalekan Oshunkoya…Ich Komme aus Nigerien.

It all started about three months ago when I got an email from Verena telling me that after a very competitive application process that I have been awarded a DAAD scholarship to participate in the summer school “Democratic Governance and Civic Engagement” As expected, I was excited and started making plans to make the summer a very worthwhile one.

And in about three weeks ago, I landed in Osnabruck, with a lot of expectations and excitement. I sincerely had no idea what to expect, but I came with an open mind and resolved I will make every moment of my time here count. I had to sacrifice a lot to be here, there are some other activities that required my attention but I chose to be here and I was very determined to make it worthwhile.

From the very moment we introduced ourselves on the welcome day, I knew this would be an interesting summer. We are truly diverse group of young people, 11 nationalities and 22 participants… We come from different parts of the world, from big countries like USA, through small Island of Comoros. From Africa (South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Zimbabwe) Asia (Korea) to the Americas (Costa Rica, Uruguay, Brazil, Peru, Argentina), We had participant from Russia/Sweden, so our host continent was not left out too, …awesome isn’t it?

We study all kinds of subject mostly in the social sciences and Law at different levels; Bachelor and Masters. We grew, live and study under difference circumstances but yet something brought us together, the passion and zeal for knowledge. We brought rich cultural and academic perspectives to issues discussed at different sessions and had fun all the way. We were young, enthusiastic and passionate about knowledge. We worked together as a group, formed alliances and built new friendships. We did everything together, played together, and ate together, party together, travelled together; we did almost everything together within the past weeks. We helped each other and supported one another. Maybe we had to fight in certain instances. But amidst all, we enjoyed being together and learning from each other.

The German cultural visits and language class was exciting and learning a new language was exciting and fun for everybody. The history and culture of the Germans was fun to learn. I improved in knowledge

Reflecting on these times, I stand tall to say, it worth every bit of time spent! And as we go back to our respective countries and studies. I will like to remind us all that, we are the hope of the future. We must stand firm and live our dreams. Every success we record secures a future. We must be resolute in our quest to make the world a better place. We have the talent, strength and the resources to make real change happen. We have a future…we must live our dreams and never give up. And most importantly to my African colleagues, we know we have work to do. We have seen it, we have heard it, we even smell that Africa needs a rebirth and we are the instruments for that change. We are the pioneers of change we need. It’s our responsibility to champion this change and we must not relent until we achieve our goal. We must stay hungry for change and ultimately we will achieve it.

And to all who made this summer school a reality, to those who work hard day and night to make sure we had a great time in Osnabruck, I say Thank You! Most especially, Verena and Manja. You can be sure your labour is not in vain. You have sown a seed into the world; you will be surprise at the potential of the harvest. Also, to our professors and lecturers, from whom we had learnt from, I say, Danke! I did not forget our student tutors who sacrificed their time to be with us when its necessary, Tatiana, George, Chris and Sarah..you guys are the best! and to DAAD, who provided the financial support for my participation.

We must keep in touch!… See you at the top!

Ich bin Olalekan Oshunkoya…Ich Komme aus Nigerien.

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