No short cut to success — Dei-Tumi
A renowned Ghanaian motivational speaker, Mr Emmanuel Dei -Tumi, has been invited as a guest speaker at the congregation of the Greensboro College in North Carolina in the United States of America on Saturday.
The author of 13 books and entrepreneur is expected to share part of his ‘grass- to-grace’ story with the graduating students while at the same time inspiring them to make impact in society.
He will be sharing the speakers’ podium with Rev Beth Crissman, an American and Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director of PlowPoints, a non-profit charity.
The Dei-Tumi tale is one that inspires—from a village boy through earning his keep as a shoeshine boy to an award-winning motivational speaker, his journey of success has been a rallying point for many young people in Ghana and beyond.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic, Mr Dei-Tumi said the request from the university was humbling.
“It is not really a big achievement, but for somebody with a humble beginning, to get to the point where a university could invite you not as an observer or graduation guest but as a keynote speaker, it is humbling.”
Focus of message
With more than 20 years of experience in the design and implementation of youth development, strategic leadership and business start-up modules under his belt, the motivational speaker said the moment was a challenge to him because “it shows that whatever we are doing in any small corner we find ourselves, we must do it with all diligence and all our might because you never can tell how far your deeds can take you.”
Asked about the focus of his message to the students, he said the central theme for the message would be for the students “to go and make a difference.”
“People go to school, and just pass through the school but the ideals, values and principles of the school do not pass through them. They end up piling up a lot of academic information in their minds but it is not translated into their lives.
Mr Dei-Tumi stated that for the international students, the US was by far one of the greatest countries in the world, in that context, what were the students who went to the US for their education taking back to their respective countries and what difference were they going to make?
“Are they going back with a third world mindset or with a first class education to go and make a difference in their countries?
Mr Dei-Tumi , the founder and CEO of the Future Leaders Group, said “I am not challenging them to go and carry their countries on their shoulder but in their own communities, families and neigbourhood, i just want them to go and make a difference no matter how small,” he said.
Paradoxes of today’s young people’s lives
In a world wheretechnology was redefining lives, he observed that it was important that young people were mindful of paradoxes of life where computer and technology had made life so easy that people wanted to shorten the time it took to be successful.
