The Displaced African

Part 6 of the 10 things I wish I knew before I left Africa

1) Erwin Mcmanus

2) Kirk Franklin

3) Eric Wainaina

4) Malcolm X and Steve Biko

5) Anthony Robbins

The second last article in yet another series. Yay! 🙂 I want the final one, as always, to be special and so in the meantime I thought I would share with y’all seven other people who have really affected the way I think and why

1. Timothy Ferriss

If there is one clear idea I have gotten from Mr. Ferriss, it is: question conventional wisdom, it’s almost always wrong. Whether he is completely defying the rules of working life and commerce in the 4 hour work week, or defying the rules of biology, physiology and physical education via his numerous experiements or even winning national kickboxing championships, Mr. Ferriss reminds us that when we set our minds to achieving a goal, almost all the limitations that we are taught to exist under don’t really exist.

2) Arundhati Roy

The writer of the Booker Prize winning book ‘God of Small Things’. I like Arundhati because of her writing style: she writes as though she is a grown up child with a simplicity and a playfulness of language that made the foreign land of India captivating to me. Plus, I think she is a pretty beautiful- a.k.a. hot- woman who is not scared to stand up for the oppressed and downtrodden.

3. Noam Chomsky

There was a period in my life where I ate, breathed, slept and consumed nothing but Noam Chomsky and his work. At the very base core level, Mr. Chomsky reminded me, even when I forgot that there was such a thing as logic. He reminded me such simple ideas as:

a) Any institution, a government for example, though set up for the alleged purpose of serving people, must have its own purposes and agendas, if nothing else, its own self-preservation and continuance.

b) A human right is a human right is a human right. A law is a law is a law. Nations cannot blatantly break international laws that they agreed to or created and expect any respect when they demand that other people follow international laws.

c) When you want to gain a firm understanding of what is going on in a particular place, read up on it from a variety of different perspectives: you get a more complete picture.

4. Jay Abraham

The marketing genius himself. He has worked in a wide variety of industries and has experience in more fields than most people have in 7 lifetimes. And the conclusion he came to after doing that and being a marketing consultant for a couple of decades: the only way to succeed in business is by putting other people’s interests above your own and being a benevolent leader and confidante in your industry or area of expertise. I rarely see the nobility in business life: In Jay I see it.

5. Yaro Starak

The man who taught me just what the heck a WordPress blog is. This man is living proof that it is possible to create your ideal lifestyle if you are willing to work at it. Deciding that he never wanted to be a full time employee he has built for himself a blog that makes him a full time income from 2 hours of work daily. He has also created a membership site that has put him in the upper income bracket for most employees. All this without working himself to the ground for someone else. He even admits that he doesn’t like to do things when there is too much pressure. Like Mr. Ferriss, he makes you question what you were taught.

6. African Women

Until I was into my adulthood almost all of my heroes were older African women. In this day and age when so many women are trying harder and harder to be like men (why ladies why?) I just have to say thanks to all the older women who nurtured me, took care of me, listened to me when I rambled for hours and made me feel safe, secure and loved. Lord knows where I would have been without that.

7. African Men

As I entered my adulthood that’s when I actually began to find men I respected. The operative word in that sentence: respect. Men taught me, respect and honour and how to stay true to your word ( I strayed from that one a bit for a while but I am now trying to live up to this ideal). For all the older cats who carried themselves with nothing but true class and restored my hope in the African male, thanks men. You grew me up.

Be blessed, bless others,

Mwas

PS: Dead Prez!!!! My heroes for real. I will let their music speak for itself

 

 For reaching out to us Africans like this, Dead Prez you have my maximum respect: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Dead Prez Can Do No Wrong!!: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Arundhati Roy, Jay Abraham, leadership psycology, Noam Chomsky, Timothy Ferriss, Yaro Starak

This entry was posted on Monday, March 17th, 2008 at 3:37 am and is filed under My Heroes!. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.