The last week of September 2012 will remain with me for a very long time. In the space of three days I had the privilege to speak to two sets of young people. On Thursday 27th of September, I delivered a presentation at an event titled ‘An Evening with Onyi Anyado’ and on the 30th of September I facilitated a workshop for young boys titled Boyz Excel.
An Evening with Onyi Anyado was my first assignment and was held in Tottenham, North London. This was the area where last year’s riots started and I knew that many of the questions the community were asking had still not been answered. On entering the venue I had to wait for the set up of my presentation so the host put on a YouTube video of Marcus Garvey the Jamaican born leader who had a vision for black empowerment in Africa. It was fascinating to hear the story of Marcus Garvey’s vision but what was more interesting was every young person in the venue were engrossed with the information on the video.
The evening was an awesome night and part of my presentation which was titled ‘Can you see your vision of excellence’? ™ involved me speaking to the audience about my previous life as a young man growing up in London. I told them the pain, mistakes, danger and regrets from living the ‘street life’ which involved six of my friends getting shot dead and me nearly being murdered as well. The atmosphere was fantastic and the ‘realness’ of my talk kept the young people’s attention. I also spoke and taught about the importance of writing and achieving goals, excellence and having a long term vision. Unfortunately, many of our young people in the United Kingdom will never be taught about personal development and life skills by the education system so I have no choice but to empower and equip young people here in the UK. The night ended with me giving the attendees a personal ‘one to one’ life coaching session which involved them writing down their specific goals and receiving teaching about branding, business and breaking free from mediocrity. Afterwards we hugged, shook hands and realised the night was more than An Evening with Onyi Anyado, it was actually a date with destiny.
My second assignment was on the 30th of September in South East London and this time it involved me facilitating a young people’s workshop. The topic was about ‘Self-Esteem’ and it was very refreshing to be surrounded by the next generation of leaders who were not afraid to learn and at the same time were ready to speak about some of the issues they faced and were facing.
One of the issues which came up was when people gossip and the effect it has on the recipient. I told the group if the gossip’s are behind you it means you are in front of them and being in front means you cannot afford to look back but rather keep pressing forward. Using Usain Bolt running the 100 meters was a great example for them and I thought to myself, as an eagle of excellence I can never bother myself about the pigeons of mediocrity.
Once again the evening was ‘capped’ off with handshakes and I left knowing the teaching about vision, excellence and being focused which had been sown into their lives will continually inspire, instruct and impact them as they become a reference point and blessing to their generation.
On my to another engagement a thought crossed my mind, the Olympic 2012 ‘corporation’ said they will “inspire a generation” and I thought to myself how, in 9.63 seconds?
Our children are the future which is now, so let us tell them about today’s hope rather than yesterday’s despair. © O Anyado 2012.
Please go to www.onyianyadomediahouse.com for more information about services and products I offer.
