Inspire Series- Mr Leslie Nelson

During my graduation ceremony last year November, we were privileged to have Mr Leslie Nelson,General manager of General Electrics power business across Africa the as the guest speaker. Mr Nelsons  speech was the best commencement speech  i have heard and i have been to a lot of graduation ceremonies!.

With his words, he inspired me to get up and make a change and not only that, but to also believe in myself even if no one else does. I learnt so much from him that day and i was just awed by how intelligent he was.Eight months after graduation, i still remember his "Nelson Eight rules of wisdom" and the lessons i learnt from it.I have read the speech so many times that i am sure i can recite it like a poem now. I would like to share with you the parts of the speech which resonated deeply within me and hopefully, it would inspire someone to do something great with his life.Read on and be inspired

• Be who you want to be. Define your own future broaden your horizons take on tough assignments. Dont always do the easy stuff, travel. Explore challenge yourself and be ready to seize the opportunities when they reveal themselves 10 years ago when i wrote the essay to apply to business school i mentioned that in 10 years i wanted to be the MD for a multinational company in Africa. As fate would have it i made it in 9 years. The lesson here is if you seize the chances when they emerge you can direct your own future. Think big. Stay focused and always keep your eye on your dreams 

• Remain humble. Stay grounded. Treat people with respect don’t be too proud to ask for help if you need it. It happens to us all someday embrace your weaknesses and never let success go to your head don’t believe the hype about yourself and be careful not to look down your nose at others. Ironically, many people define themselves by how sophisticated they think they are or how sophisticated they become as almost a perverse a metric of success they define sophistication as how many places they travel to, maybe where they grew up or even what their parents did for a living….i don’t see it that way to me, sophistication is defined by how you treat and relate to people. It’s about your ability to communicate and one’s ability to show empathy. The ability to communnicate and relate to people up and down the socail ladder from the chairman in the boardroom to the layman on the street and do so seamlessly and effortlessly. Do so with sincerity and conviction. This is the definition of sophistication as defined by the nelson rule #5 

•  I like to keep this one simple. When no one believes in you, believe in yourself believe in magic. Believe in the impossible and make it possible and one day if you try and fail and fall down. Get up, dust yourself off and keep on moving when i think about amazing things. I think about the bumblebee. Yes, the insect you see the bumblebee is not much to look at you see, it’s round and not aerodynamic its wings are too small for its body size and its body to mass ratio do not lend for doing the things it does. It should crawl and not be able to do the impossible yet when you least expect it the bumblebee does what it does. It slowly elevates and decides to fly anyway. Against all odds it does the impossible 

Life is what you make it. You need to believe in yourself and take your chances. I hope i have been able to inspire someone today.
If you want to read the full text of the speech, you can find it here .




Text culled from www.ug.edu.gh