There will be tears

Life is good, life is always good. When there is nothing to stress about, life as I said , will be good. There is a name for this situation, it is called the comfort zone. Something subtle happens when you make a commitment, the world will simply be a different place which is perhaps the reason why we fear the big C.Expect a lot when you finally make that decision, I will just mention a few.

There will be questions. People will ask questions as to why you do what you do. If thats not enough, many a times you'll find yourself questioning yourself. Whether it is necessary or not, whether it is worth it or not. Brace yourself , prepare those answers, because the answers to these questions will determine whether you quit or survive.

There will be tears, maybe literally speaking or  perhaps even real tears. The universe will try to test you if you are really serious about whatever it is that you want. You will fail a couple of times and you will feel like giving up. Well, when this happens, remember Thomas Edison had to make 1000 mistakes to make that tiny light bulb. Was this reasonable? Nope not in this fast paced world, was it worth it? Of course it was.

But there will also be rewards. The one that will always seem far fetched is the rewards. Your journey is like hiking. Walking up is not the most luxurious activity you'll want to do, you will get tired along the way, but the the view at the top simply makes you forget all the pain. In short, the future you will thank you for the tiny steps you made along the way.
There is a reason why we fear commitments; because we commit to the road less traveled. We just have a vague idea of the end result but we are never sure of what will happen next. That's a bit scary but you know what? The rewards up there are simply worth the pain. Life will not just be good, it will be amazing. So have a 'tearful' week ahead.

A healthy disregard for the impossible.

Today I wont write about Newton or Einstein or Steve Jobs or any of the other legends who been my inspiration for this blog. Today I'll write about an event that has inspired me even more, the Google Student Ambassador Summit in sub-saharan Africa that took place last week in Accra, Ghana.

There is a word for the atmosphere when 130 young and talented students meet from all over Africa, energy, anything but boring. There is a reason #gsassa has been trending for the past week. Every moment was a picture moment. The training spanned all the way from presentations to the wabble dance, factorial claps, all the way to the final competition where each group had to simulate a campus event. Presentations from Googlers and star GSA alumni were inspiring and informative. 10 factorial claps to +Aída Martínez , +Check Nyah , +Aneke Chimdindu , +Emmanuel A. Gamor , +Ryan Michael , +Freek Vermeer , +Estelle Akofio-Sowah , +Jeminatu Alabi-Isama , +Noha Salem and the other speakers I havent been able to tag, you sent the message across. It was interessting to learn Larry Page's slogan "Have a healthy disregard for the impossible".It is definitely how Google developed from a garage project. Did I mention that we got to watch the movie Guardians of the Galaxy and the whole theatre was booked just for us ? Yes, something only google would do. And finally the cultural night 

I met intersting people , really interesting from the rooms, to the dining room, to the selfie moments. I was  lucky to be the roommate +Sithe Ncube  ,the star of the day who amazed everyone with her video making skills, I got a cultural partner (who actually got me a present) +Temitope I Olorund thanx to +Joshua Josh and +June Tessy  for taking the initiative, +Awa Mbengue 's musical talents just amazed me.
Being Tanzanian myself I easily connected with GSAs from Kenya and Uganda ,  +johnstone vusena , +Jarau Moses , +DENNIS THUNGU , +Jarau Moses , +vivian omondi , +kweli mukeli , +Miss Chelle, +Tushabire Adah , +Kagimu Brian  , +Latifa Mbarak ,, +kweli mukeli , +Victoria Mbabazi  to name a few . Fellow GSA's from SouthAfrica  are loud(at least that's the impression we made),Its really hard to forget people like +Amukelani Hlabano , +Lucretia Ringane , +Alwande Tshabalala , +Avile Maja , +CHRISTELLE ATIBIA EMEBIGWINE , +Tubatsi Moloi , +Alan Kow , +Eduan Cronjé , +Dévan Coetzee , +Stan Sibiya, +Carla Wilby , +Asongtia Guilian A , +diane DIOBE . It really is hard.
The GSA's from Ghana were actually very good hosts, +Abraham Ametepey , +INSAH HAKI, +Quarshie Timothy , +Suhaib Ahmed , +irene sogli +Desmond Nketia Sarpong  , you did a good job.   (I hope I've mentioned everyone).All in all,a 2 minutes conversation with any of the GSA's is enough to prove that Africa has lots of potential.

So I am now the official Google student ambassador for the University of Capetown. Oh yes and I dont have Ebola .:).
Thank you +Jeminatu Alabi-Isama , +Olalekan Samuel , +Aída Martínez , +Noha Salem +Victor(couldn't get his G+ profile).This summit has taught me to build a healthy disregard for the impossible. Together with +Carla Wilby  I hope to do cool things that actually matter at UCT.

Whats a good summit without good food?

Alisa hotels gave us a warm 'Akwaaba' (welcome)

SSA GSA's with our "Google glasses"

Fun times.

Serious things done at the conference

GSA's at UCT

Even the cake had to be Google.

Even the bottle is googly ... :)

South Africa culture at the cultural night.

Google everywhere

I got cool sandals from my cultural partner +Temitope I Olorunda 

With +Sithe Ncube  and +Philip Onyia 

#gsassa, #gsummit2014

What you see is NOT what you get.

     

Have you ever a bad feeling about something,  in the end it turned out to be good? Well, isnt that how we always feel about anything new? In fact most good things started out as bad ideas. Here are proofs that ideas plus a little faith in them produces good results.

All publishers (except Bloomsbury) had a bad feeling about JK Rowling's novels, simply because they were new. "No one would be interested in a wizardry piece of fiction. Well, Rowling's revenue at present proves that the bad idea was not to give it a try.

You know what else was a bad idea? Or at least wasn't a good idea at first? Electricity, Science, the Macintosh, you name it. Lots of inventions we have today started out as impossible's. With a little faith and risk taking there were turned into realities.

Point is, many things in life will seem like bad  ideas. Waking up at 6 perhaps, quitting your job, starting a project in the middle of the year or even  taking a break. It may appear as though doing such won't make anything better. Well, it won't, until you do it. Truth is, the future is completely blank and it is made by grabbing opportunities which are sometimes disguised as failures and risks.So the next time you are stuck on whether you should do it or not, just do it. The future you will thank you for it.

Life is not fair,.. (is it?)

Do you sometimes feel like the world's biggest problems are being dumped at you, all the time? The world doesn't seem, to care about what happens to you, no matter how much you try, you will always be back to square one. Well, the good news you are not alone.

At 21 Stephen Hawking was diagnosed with the motor neurone disease. Doctors gave him 2 years to live.Not only were his limbs getting weaker, but also his speech, In short, his life would never be the same again.  Not every 21 year olds would make such a transition gracefully, but up to this day Hawking is living proof nothing is too hard to conquer.

Often our first reaction to negative change is complains. What happened to the good life you had before? Life is not fair, why me? It is comforting to have that culprit to blame, and to know that it isn't our fault. But that's not enough. Life is amazing, but it isn't fair, at least not by the standards with which we measure its fairness. We are all different, we have different capabilities, personalities and tenacities. It would be unfair if we all had the same level of challenges. Stronger people of course get more challenges.

"Tough times fade, but strong people last." This saying never gets old. The next time you face a challenge, a problem, remember you are strong enough for it. It may seem frustrating at first but believe somewhere in your mind, lies the answers. Have an amazing week!

People don't know what they want

What if they don't like this idea? What if no one finds good use to it? What if it won't work? What if it isn't what they want it to be? What if the Wright brothers asked themselves these questions? The answer is simple, nothing would happen. There would be no aero plane, no computers, no train, no invention basically. You can already guess why.

People don't know what they want, literally speaking. An ordinary person in the 1900's  had probably dreamed of a flying machine but never had a full picture of what it should look like, for no other reason but the fact that it seemed too impossible to materialize. The Wright brothers already had a vision and plan, it would be insane if they considered opinions of ordinary men. 


Everyone has an opinion, whether they have the knowledge or not. These opinions are mainly influenced by experiences. No two humans have the exact same experiences so don't expect everyone to agree with you. As a matter of fact, many more will be neutral or disagree, that is until you surprise them. Stop talking and start doing. I once wrote the article reasons why you should listen, but the topic never gets old, so this is me saying the same thing in a new tone.


"People don't know what they want, until you show it to them."  Original words by the infamous Steve Jobs. A principle he applied throughout all his designs and probably the reason why Apple is so reputable. The only way to impress people is to surprise them. Point is, if you have an idea, you don't need anyone's stamp to approve it,  just go for it. Life is too amazing to wait.

When the time is right.

Tomorrow, next week, next month, next year and perhaps next decade. What do they all have in common? Of course they are all in the future, and that they are always the perfect time, The perfect time to take that challenge, to accomplish that task, to try something new. We always have reasons for not doing it today and make assumptions why tomorrow is the best time. Maybe its 

There is the normal routine where one goes to college, gets a degree, graduates ,gets a job, and then perhaps a few years later is the right time to start a company. Not necessarily, a theory Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Mark Zucherberg and a lot other change makers share in common. They all quit college to start something, tomorrow wasn't an option for them. Now, am not advocating quitting college, I actually really love school, point is if you can do it then why wait?

Speaking of which, I was going to write this post tomorrow, then it just struck that this is what we constantly do. We assume that tomorrow we'll have more time, more money, less obstacles; what we don't factor in is the fact that tomorrow is just like today and it has problems just like today, probably more.


Pablo Picasso once wrote, "Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone". Couldn't agree more, life is too short to leave stones unturned.If you truly believe in what you want ,there is never a right time.Don't wait for tomorrow to do what you can do today, life is amazing now,so live it like its your last day.

Speaking of plans...

           

 What do you want to be when you grow up? Remember that time when grownups asked you that question and you got all excited to reply? You didn't analyze your talents or compare yourself with anyone else, you just mentioned the career that fascinated you the most. I vividly remember those moments and my reply varied each year, from doctor to politician to teacher to nun, none of which am currently pursuing.

            We look around and everyone seems to have it figured out. What they want to be, how they’ll get there, how they are working to achieving it. Steve Jobs showed a knack for computers and entrepreneurship way before elementary school and got really bored at school.  Isaac Newton invented calculus in his university vacation. Albert Einstein showed passion for physics way before he got his first Physics teacher. This trend makes you think that great people are born not made, right?

            Not necessarily.  Leonardo da Vinci started out life as a painter; he ended being a mathematician, engineer, anatomist, geologist and all the occupations you can think of. Elon Musk’s first degree was in Economics, amazing how that turned him to an engineer/entrepreneur. These legends and a lot others keep showing us great people are actually made. Life is too dynamic to stick with a childhood plan.

             In a world that is always after definitive answers, we can’t always afford to be non-affirmative. But sometimes we just don’t need to be affirmative. What you can make of yourself is a combination of your talents, skills, beliefs and most importantly your experiences. In mathematical language I would say it is an integral of constants and time considering experiences are a function of time.  Maybe we can plan for a year ahead or two years, but it is okay to leave a 10 years plan blank, as the wise say, “Time will tell”.

            I don't know; that’s my answer. My answer to what I want to be in the future. It’s not because I'm too lazy to sort out and plan my life now, but because life is too amazing to live it as a written script. I think a goal is enough to get you through life. As Allen Saunders once put, Life is what happens to you while you are busy making other plans.