Helping Your Kids Hold Steadfastly to Their Dreams.

Steve Harvey was ten years old when his elementary school teacher asked all the kids in the class to write down their future plans. Steve Harvey’s dream was to be on tv someday. The teacher however thought she could play God. She bluntly stated that the kid could never be on tv. Years later when Harvey finally got on tv, he sent the old teacher a flat-screen tv.

Every child has a dream. And every parent needs to find out very early what the dream is all about. Once this is known, it becomes the responsibility of the parents to offer advices and wise counsel to the kids on what they need to do to achieve their dreams. For instance, if a child wishes to become a lawyer, definitely he or she will have to prepare for college. From that tender stage of life, the parent must find time, every now and then, to discuss with the child about the chosen path. This regular “exercise” will keep the kid focused on the dream. But the moment the discussion stops, there is the tendency for such a kid to start listening to distracting opinions from the wrong set of people. Unlike parents with stakes in the lives of their kids, outsiders such as teachers, friends and even relations will easily gain an in-road into the lives of the kids and proceed to steer them in directions that are absolutely opposite their chosen paths.

The Hunger to Become Somebody.

Many, including some fans of Aerosmith, don’t know the history and the motivation behind the song, “Dream On”. It was written in 1969 by Steve Tyler, long before the formation of Aerosmith. Always dreaming of the day he would make it big in the music industry, Tyler wrote the song as a personal affirmation that success was a matter of time for him.

As he and the Aerosmith’s band mates continued to tour and toil in the early 1970s, Tyler never lost his sheer determination to succeed and (in his own words) “the hunger to become somebody…” The “hunger” ultimately drove the songwriter/lead singer to suggest to his band mates, the re-release of the song, “Dream On” in 1976.  The song rose instantly to number 6 and became the band’s first major single and the biggest hit so far. Steve Tyler has since become “somebody” in the music industry and the rest is now history.

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Harland Sanders and his Kentucky Fried Chickens.

Have you got a dream, natural gift or ambition that you wish to transform into reality and instead of success or breakthrough, all you keep seeing are stumbling blocks? You are definitely not alone. Go ask Steve Harvey, Oprah Winfrey, Bill gates and many other successful or accomplished individuals out there and you’ll get an era-full about the initial frustrations that came their ways. Therefore, the very first thing you’ve got to accept is that if it was so easy to achieve success in any endeavor or enterprise, everyone in this world would have been successful.

This reminds me of the story of Harland Sanders. The man loved to cook and kept dreaming of the day he would to set up a restaurant solely to fry and sell chickens. But not just the typical chickens that others were selling. Sanders had a special recipe close to his heart. It contained some herbs, salt and pepper. His target audience was the many Americans who he expected to have gotten tired of the same old, regular fried chickens.

Alas, tried as much as he did, no one was impressed with or attracted to his brand of fried chickens. Most times, he felt like abandoning the dream to pursue a regular job that would pay his bills. And each time, he rejected the negative, defeatist thought. It would take several years before people started to believe in and love Sanders’ brand of spicy, tasty chickens. And that was how he got the much needed and sought-after recognition in the restaurant business.

In appreciation of his tenacious spirit as an entrepreneur and his contribution to the economy of the state of Kentucky, Harland Sanders was, in 1936, given the title of Kentucky honorary Colonel by Governor Ruby Laffoon. A restaurant that started as a humble enterprise has since become Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), a large corporation with several franchises all over the United States and the world.

The bottom line here is to never give up on yourself in spite of whatever odds fate and naysayers may stack against you as you trudge up the long, thorny path that will lead to the realization of your dream, natural gift or ambition.

An Advice from Michelle Obama to her Younger Self.

“Understand that no one (especially folks who are truly successful) simply coasts from achievement to achievement. The most accomplished people in the world fail and fail big. That’s how they learn so much and grow so quickly and become so interesting and wise. In short, stop trying to be someone who will impress everyone else, and just focus on being and becoming fully, sincerely and passionately yourself.”

– Michelle Obama (Excerpt from People Magazine).

Who Says Something is Impossible in Your Life?

Franklin D. Roosevelt was a child when his father took him along while visiting President Grover Cleveland in the White House. While having a small banter with the kid, the president stared at him and remarked: “I have one wish for you, little man…and the wish is that you will never be the president of the United States.”

The child shrugged his shoulders as any child of that age would likely react under the circumstance.

As fate would have it though, Franklin D. Roosevelt went on to become the President of the United States. And he got re-elected as president three more times.



There is a saying that “man proposes but God disposes.” This adage applies to people in two ways. On the one hand, a person’s yearnings or aspirations may be thwarted by fate through circumstances beyond his or her control. And this twist of fate may turn out to be for the good of the person concerned. This is because sometimes, a disappointment may be a blessing in disguise after all.

On the other hand, a person’s yearnings or aspirations may suffer at the hands of pessimists, naysayers and those who will stop at nothing to discourage or create obstacles on the paths of other people. Yet, with a strong faith in God, determination and persistence, anyone can achieve an objective, no matter how difficult it may seem or be portrayed.

 

 

 

The Scourge of Obesity Among Young People.

Early in the morning last Saturday, I was inside a Shoprite store when I saw a woman jump onto one of the store’s scooters. I thought she was merely sitting on it while waiting for someone. But she soon drove it into an aisle to look at the arrays of items. I then wondered why such a young woman would need a scooter to shop. I however noted that she was grossly obese.

I was also at the Christiana Mall (Delaware) the other week and observed the many young men and women, all in their early twenties, as they practically struggled to walk. In my opinion, these young people are human “time-bombs” who pose serious health dangers to themselves. If anything at all, they risk sudden heart failures on daily basis.



The nagging question on my mind at that point was why there were (and still are) so many fat young people all over the place? The answers, though, could not be far-fetched. It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out the sources of the problems and the possible solutions to the issue of obesity among the young folks.

On the one hand are the too many young people who are ignoring the importance of a healthy lifestyle. They eat like gluttons with reckless abandon. And their choices of “favorite” foods are usually the junks. For folks eating and drinking so recklessly, aren’t they supposed to do some daily work-outs? The answer is no! Many of them actually hate any form of physical exercise like the plague.



On the other hand, there are those among them who restrict themselves to some expensive so-called organic foods, bottled water and all kinds of cute, exotic stuff BUT after consuming all those expensive foods and drinks, what do they do?

• They drive cars with automatic transmissions without breaking a sweat.

• They use remote devices to control their televisions in a bid to avoid getting up once-in-awhile.

• They go to stores and, instead of walking along the aisles to do some physical exercise they lazily get on motor scooters to ride around in pleasure.

• At work or when visiting public places, they go everywhere by elevators.

• And back home, they sit opposite televisions for hours, turning themselves into “couch potatoes”.

And so, these young people pile up fats. Their stomachs protrude as if they are six-month pregnant, they pants and grunts while trying to do the most minimal chores and turning their fat bodies into “comfortable homes” for diabetes, heart diseases and numerous other ailments. And, of course, they end up getting sick most of the time until, one day, when their body time-bombs will explode!

 

 

America and the So-called African Writers.

Why is it that the only authors and books of African origin that are acknowledged and celebrated in the American media are those with negative stories? 

They are the books on civil wars, social vices, prostitutes and human trafficking. The more gory and pathetic the story-line, the greater media coverage the book gets.

For instance, two particular books that enjoy continuous accolades are; one that gives a portrayal of the African man as a savage who will act first and think later and the other book paints the African man as a philanderer who drinks his life away.

Even when Oprah Winfrey finally selected a book by an African author during the glorious days of Oprah Book Club, it was a book that was entirely devoted to stories about some prostitutes in Africa. This was in spite of the abundance of several great books by accomplished authors among which were those that document the political emancipation and self-determination of the African people.

It’s no wonder therefore that a whole lot of writers with African origin have since resorted to the sad habit of playing to the gallery for financial gains. There are two losers here; first are the authentic and positive African stories that never attract the interest of publishers. And second is the gullible American reading audience that is fed the false impression that the African society has a monopoly of social ills.

So far, only authors of African origin are branded as “African writers”. No where do we hear or read of “American writers” or “European writers”.

What a shame!

From Homeless to Harvard

http://news.yahoo.com/video/clevelandwews-20910953/from-homeless-to-harvard-29523027.html

This is quite impressive!

This young man had every excuse to get into one of the many criminal enterprises that were all around him---such as selling drugs by some street corners. But he was determined to positively develop himself.

The jails are filled with many young men of David Boone's age bracket whose usual excuses range from "homelessness to poverty, lack of a father-figure, blah...blah...blah!"

Nothing beats education and self-determination as tools of emancipation from poverty and the rest of life's travails.

Where are the Real Men?

Gone are those days when most men saw the acquisition of education, the subsequent culture of hard work and a strong self-determination as the path to success. With this value-based foundation, laudable careers, solid enterprises and other great accomplishments were solidly established. They did take years to take shape in the societal consciousness. But the invested time and efforts paid off as manifested today in form of colleges, financial institutions, media houses and other establishments built by the baby-boomers and those before them.

Young men of nowadays however, are “a different ball game”. All around me—in neighborhoods, cities and States are too many young men turning their backs on education. In their bids to get rich quick, these young fellows are “putting the carts before their horses”. They drop out of schools with impunity. And by schools, we are talking about mere 7th or 8th grade. Forget a high school diploma…and don’t even think of a college education. But where have all the values gone?

Ask about individual ambitions and all you’ll hear is the desire of these youngsters to sing, act in movies or be sports personalities. While these are not bad aspirations, the problem however lies in the terrible impression among these young men that a foundation in education is not a necessity. They don’t know that for every sports or show-biz personality, there are millions who merely dream or aspire to be one. And there is this salient question; if everyone had chosen to be in show-biz or sports arena, who then would be accountants, medical doctors, lawyers, engineers and teachers?

Ironically, while more and more young men are dropping out of schools, a large number of young women are graduating, not only from high schools but also from colleges. And as these women embark on various enviable careers, the men are either loitering at home or lurking around street corners on a wild goose chase.

Unfortunately, it’s from a pool of men, consisting largely of barely literate, lazy hustlers that highly educated, professional women are expected to date and even marry. This therefore explains the rationale behind the decisions of many women to remain single instead of getting stuck in mismatched relationships. They would more likely do this than having to contend with men of poor intellect, emotional imbalance and inferiority complex.

But under this circumstance, what fate awaits the future generations? What sort of a role model does a man expects to play in the lives of his kids when he can barely spell, read or hold his own in certain environments that call for intellectually-stimulating conversations?