The Authenticity Project - celebrating the audacity of authenticity
The near fatal death of Mo Issa’s nephew and the near bankruptcy of his company triggered an existential crisis, the darkest period of his life.
Advertisement
Requiring anti-depressants to cope with panic attacks and an emptiness which enveloped him, he began to question the world around him, his role in it and the purpose of life.
This process involved ferocious reading (he read 200 books in one year), attending seminars and introspection. He began to question the treadmill his parents and his forefathers had put him on – “to work hard, have a good family, make money and enjoy the money.” Instead, he sought to focus on “experiencing life from his heart, discovering his passions” and using his passion to serve others.
That, he tells me, led him to a place of authenticity. Issa defines authenticity as “the process of finding out who you truly are as a person, discovering the gifts you have and expressing those gifts in a way that enables you to serve the world around you”. For him, that led to journalling, public speaking, writing (including writing for the Daily Graphic) and setting up a foundation for the education and training in football of children at Laband.
It also made him a transformational leader and led him to a place of deep inner peace.
The Authenticity Project
Looking back, his greatest regret is that he did not find his path sooner. And so last year, he set up The Authenticity Project (TAP) to inspire other Ghanaians to get to this path sooner and to live more authentic lives as well as to celebrate people already living authentic lives.
At the launch of TAP last year, Mo showcased and celebrated TAP’s pioneering examples of people living authentic lives. The inspiring list includes Selassie Atadika who left a high profile role at the United Nations to become a ‘cook’; Nana Kofi Acquah who after becoming a multiple-award winning creative director of a leading advertising agency decided to become a ‘papa foto’; Nana Amoako-Anim who traded the power suits of New York district attorney for the Lululemon pants of a yoga instructor and M.anifest who after bagging a degree in economics from a prestigious US college become a rapper.
At the launch of the TAP project last year, Issa explained that the pioneering examples of authenticity shared the following: Courage to follow their own path, compassion and willingness to serve the community, value for their freedom and a refusal to follow the herd or fit in a box. More importantly, they “had the strength to listen to their inner voice and ignored all the outside noise that wanted to distract them from their true authentic path.”
After a period of celebrating the pioneering examples in social media, TAP opened up a process for people to nominate others or themselves who were living authentic lives.
Past winners
The inaugural prize of GH¢10,000 went to Yasmin Kumi, a 28-year-old half Ghanaian/half German professional who is exceptionally passionate about her Ghanaian roots. She left her job as senior consultant for McKinsey & Company and moved to Ghana to set up Africa Foresight Group with the aim of building local companies into global champions by offering world-class strategic advisory and market research services that meet global standards.
Upon receiving the award, Kumi stated: “I am so humbled by the trust and support I received from Mo Issa and the jury of TAP, and I am thankful for being welcomed to this wonderful community of authentic business leaders.”
The runners-up were Yvonne Ntiamoah and Priscilla Akoto-Bamfo. Ntiamoah, the head of the Fashion Department of Radford University, is credited for the success of Radford’s fashion design programme and the annual fashion show which has become a major hit on the Ghanaian fashion circuit. Akoto-Bamfo is the founder of Little Beginnings Trust Foundation, which runs an innovative programme to impart key values and morals to children in early childhood through various reading and storytelling events.
In addition to the prize money, the winner benefits from a one-year mentorship programme where she or he is mentored by Issa and a cross-section of business leaders.
Issa must be commended firstly for being so open about his own challenges with mental health and for sharing with the world the authentic self he discovered; secondly for publicly celebrating and acknowledging others and finally for setting up a structure and giving money and time to encourage many more of us not only to live authentic lives but tell stories of and celebrate others living authentic lives.
Entrepreneurship is ultimately an expression of authenticity and an alignment of the entrepreneur’s authentic self and values with a market opportunity. It is this that consumes entrepreneurs to be obsessive about their company missions.
Those who succeed are those who in the words of Steve Jobs refuse to let the noise of other’s opinions drown out their own inner voice.
What Issa and TAP are doing is encouraging more of us to listen to our inner voices to become the truly unique human being that God intended us to be. Ghana will be a better place if this project succeeds.
For more information on The Authenticity Project, visit www.tap.mo-issa.com