“Change is the effort of committed citizens who hitch their wagons to something bigger than themselves and fight for it every single day.”
President Barack Obama delivered the commencement address to the 2016 graduating class of Howard University. He challenged the graduates to serve as “seeds of change” for social and political justice in America.
I KEEP six honest serving-men
(They taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Why and When
And How and Where and Who.
I send them over land and sea,
I send them east and west;
But after they have worked for me,
I give them all a rest.
In What to Say When You Talk to Your Self, psychologist Dr. Shad Helmstetter writes about the power of self-talk: what to say to ourselves every day, the power of affirmations, reprogramming our self-limiting beliefs and how to use self-talk for personal transformation.
‘Failure is a feeling long before it becomes an actual result’
Barrack and Michelle Obama are one of my favourite living people and couples alive. I love them both for their confidence, journey, inspiration and consistency. I committed to reading their memoirs back to back: A Promise Land (Barrack) and Becoming (Michelle). Reading the former POTUS and FLOTUS biographies made me humanize them, and connect more to their story, struggles, trials and tribulations. Their stories epitomize what it means to dream bigger than their society.
Award-winning author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie delivered the Commencement Address at Wellesley College’s 137th Commencement on Friday, May 29, 2015.
The Immortality poem is often attributed to Kansas native Clare Harner (1909–1977), who wrote the poem shortly after the sudden death of her brother. The poem first appeared in the December 1934 issue of The Gypsy poetry magazine.
In The 5 AM Club: Own Your Morning. Elevate Your Life, Canadian elite performance and leadership writer Robin Sharma describes the morning routine of high achievers – he calls the regimen: The 5 AM Club. In the book, he shared lots of thought-provoking quotes and insights from high achievers and elite performers.
The hero does not become great during periods of comfort. The illustrious and noble souls of our world became strong, brave and moral whilst standing resolutely in the storms of adversity, difficulty and doubt. It is in the moment that you face your deepest weakness that you receive the chance to forge your greatest strengths. Real power, then, comes not from a life of ease but one of intense effort, devoted discipline and demanding action in the direction of what your supreme self knows to be right. To continue at a time when you ache to stop. To advance when you long to quit. To persist in the instant when you feel like giving up is to claim your membership among the great warriors and honorable characters who led humanity to a better place through their earned invincibility.
Bestselling author. Electrifying performer. The youngest inaugural poet in U.S. history. Amanda Gorman has revitalized poetry as a unifying form of expression and catalyst for social justice.
The 2022 Toronto Waterfront 10K was held on Saturday, June 18, 2022. I participated and finished with an official time of 50:02 (sub-one hour time). It was a great warmup for the upcoming full marathon in a couple of weeks’ time. The 2022 Toronto Waterfront 10KM Marathon had 3974 Participants in total with 1949 women and 2015 men participants.
2022 Toronto Waterfront 10K Result
In Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making, former Apple employee and co-creator of the iPhone and iPod Tony Fadell shares lessons learned, mistakes made and advice for navigating the roller coaster of creativity. He writes about starting out in business, Joining Phillips as CTO at age 25, failing with General Magic, Joining Apple as a consultant, co-creating the iPhone and iPod, Starting Nest Labs and his life in building life-changing products. Fadell calls the book “An advice encyclopedia. A mentor in a box.”
“I was incredibly lucky to lead the team that made the first eighteen generations of the iPod. Then we got another incredible opportunity—the iPhone. My team created the hardware—the metal and glass that you held in your hand—and the foundational software to run and manufacture the phone. We wrote the software for the touchscreen, the cellular modem, the cell phone, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, etc. Then we did it again for the second-generation iPhone. And then again for the third.”
American engineer, designer and entrepreneur Tony Fadell is often referred to as the father of the iPod. He joined Apple in 2001 and served as the Senior Vice President of the iPod and iPhone division. His team was in charge of building the hardware and foundational software for the iPhone and iPod. He left Apple in 2010 to start Nest Labs with Matt Rogers in a garage in Palo Alto.
Nest Lab was acquired by Google in 2014 for $3.5 Billion. Fadell has over 300 patents to his name and was named as one of Time’s “100 Most Influential People in the World” in 2014.
Career Highlights: Lead software & Hardware Engineer at General Magic, CTO of Phillips at 25, Joined Apple in 2001 as a consultant, his team built the hardware and foundational software for the iPod and iPhone, Started Nest Labs in 2014 with Matt Rogers, Google acquired Nest for 3.2 Billion dollars.
American actor and Howard University alumnus Chadwick Boseman delivered an inspiring speech to the 2018 graduating students at Howard University’s 150th Commencement Ceremony on Saturday, May 12 in Washington, D.C.
We wear the mask that grins and lies,
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,—
This debt we pay to human guile;
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
And mouth with myriad subtleties.
Why should the world be over-wise,
In counting all our tears and sighs?
Nay, let them only see us, while
We wear the mask.
In Take the Stairs: 7 Steps to Achieving True Success, self-discipline strategist Rory Vaden writes about the psychology of overcoming procrastination, taking action and developing the self-discipline it takes to become a person of character and a person of success.
“Self-discipline is a habit, a practice, a philosophy, and a way of living. Taking the stairs is a mind-set; but it’s not even about the stairs. You might not physically be able to take the silly stairs—but anyone can start making more disciplined choices.”
Take the Stairs is about self-discipline—the ability to take action regardless of your emotional state, financial state, or physical state. It isn’t about doing things the hardest way possible, but it is about doing the hardest things as soon as possible so that you can get whatever you want in life—as soon as possible.
At its core, creative confidence is about believing in your ability to create change in the world around you. It is the conviction that you can achieve what you set out to do.
In Creative Confidence: Unleashing the Creative Potential Within Us All, IDEO founder and Stanford d.school creator David Kelley and his brother Tom Kelley, IDEO partner, provide a framework for unleashing the creativity inherent within each and every one of us. They share stories, insights and lessons learned from working with the most successful businesses and creative teams in their work at IDEO. They expand on concepts such as Creative Confidence, Design Thinking, creative heuristics and strategies for becoming more creative.
One recent IBM survey of more than 1,500 CEOs reports that creativity is the single most important leadership competency for enterprises facing the complexity of global commerce today.