Atiemo's 5-in-1 book

I was once informed about a young lady who said she did not read Ghanaian authors. As a writer and Ghanaian myself, this didn’t go down too well with me. But I am also a pragmatist and that means I face facts. This lady is not that different from any typical Ghanaian. For us anything made in Ghana or by Ghanaian is not good enough. She will choose Paulo Coelho over Albert Ocran any day as perhaps she will choose Stacy Adams over Doris Okraku-- nothing unusual there.

I am not a promoter of affirmative action. If you are at a disadvantage it is an opportunity to surprise everyone. If you can’t bring the element of surprise (the only advantage you have under the circumstances) with you, you are normal and that is simply not good enough. But a person who makes such blanket statements is also saying that she has read most Ghanaian authors and has found them not worthy of her precious reading time. I do not believe this is the case with our lady friend and clearly her wrong judgment has done nothing but deny her the life transforming experience possible when you read an author who understands your setting. Whiles I could mention many young Ghanaian authors my focus in this review is Sam Zeph Atiemo’s Embracing You Inner Courage.

I met Sam Zeph Atiemo recently at the Ghana’s premier university where we were both facilitators of a seminar on Agri-prenuership. Nothing prepared me for the surprises that awaited. He spoke extemporously with a firm grip on what was clearly a passion and a life mission. He had an idea; conscious entrepreneurship.   After his presentation, I could not wait to review his book; Embracing Your Inner Courage.

No book I have read in a long time is this packed. It has 5 parts, 31 chapters and 220 pages. As the author himself put it, “this books is five books in one. It inspires me every time I read it so I know it will inspire others”. With countless anecdotes from the author’s own experience as a successful entrepreneur in three countries and two continents, the book can fairly be described as semi-biographic.

The first part treats Passion, Planning, Massive action, Commitment and fulfillment n that order. The book literally captures the whole spectrum of personal development with its 31 chapters establishing it as a natural route to entrepreneurship. Having established the basis for entrepreneurship as a means to eliminate poverty, something he called an indictment on the continent due to her many natural resources, he makes an outstanding case for the establishment of his own Business Factor Initiative For Africa where he provides consultancy among other services for entrepreneurs.

Passion is a highly efficient fuel for performance regardless of your field and this book starts first by igniting it within the reader. This is a useful technique because with passion one can achieve anything. It achieves this through the many probing questions that seem to pop out of nowhere while reading the book. Answer the questions and you begin to see a new you emerge.

The great thing about the author is that he is a practicing entrepreneur with years of experience and several ventures under his belt. He understands the Ghanaian experience and interprets them with astounding accuracy. 

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The Spousal Influence on existence

A lot has been said about the spousal influence on the possibility of the maximization of existence. This is a natural course of reasoning if one premises that everything we prefix with the “MY” is either an asset or liability—something that either aids or sabotages the cause. If this is the case, then the choice is of great importance as spouses are to be life partners. Perhaps the single most important decision after purpose is that of the partner with which the mission must be accomplished. As we all know, two heads are better than one and two people pushing the same cart in one direction provides an overall better output than one person. But this is only if they are in agreement of course.

From the man’s perspective, the woman is to be a helper (as far as Christian thought goes). But does that imply that the woman must not have aspirations of her own? Why then will God give the woman dreams too? So lets face it; the questions have not all been answered. People are often more attracted to the things of little value considering their own aspirations. Let me clarify that quickly before I send you on a trajectory of confusion. Some people have said that men are attracted to what they see, so they tend to want the most beautiful woman around and they may not be the best choice. Now if this is the case, then we have a problem. Even the most beautiful flower withers at some point. Women in this sense then become useless when they loose their glamour. Luckily beauty has also been said to lie in the eyes of the beholder. Is this really true that what is beautiful to one person may not be beautiful to another? This is also another problem to solve? Are the proponents saying that you and I can’t booth look at a Rolls Royce Phantom and agree on it’s beauty? Or is there a possibility that we can disagree on Joslyn Dumas’ hips as an outstanding work of God?

There are many more questions that need to be resolved in spite of the many we think we already have answers to. A friend told me recently that his idea of a good woman is one who is capable of taking initiatives. He gave 25% for looks, 25% for character and 50% for intellect. I thought that was interesting given my friend is a minister in training and hence very active in the church. But control my big mouth I did. Minutes later he came back with “well she also has to be spiritual” without stating what percentage that was to be. You may start worrying for his wife to be at this point. The truth is that we don’t always know what we want any more than what is good for us. A lot of the things men accuse women of are really human problems more than women problems. As a man I know from experience that my male friends have deserted me when I was down quicker than my female friends. The case is true the other way around. Perhaps instead of looking at the world through gender-filtered eyes we are better of looking at it through moral-filtered eyes. There are good people and not so good people—simple.

So lets admit it, we haven’t got all figured out. Not even us ministers. One thing is for sure, the person you choose to carry out your quest for maximization of your existence with must help your cause or you can forget it. I don’t know what whether it is beauty or intellect you need and I am willing to wager that you don’t either. Whether you are male or female won’t matter much if you threw in the idea of shared aspirations. Partners at home and partners at work? Well…the term is life partner and life encapsulates all aspects of your existence. I believe this is the working model but what do I know, many times I failed to get it right myself. I can tell you one thing for sure, people change.

A lady friend who was desperately looking for marriage at some point, later described herself as a single mom by choice. Many women are resorting to having children for men they have no intention of marrying. Others think, they are safer sharing another woman’s husband. Hopefully, like me these issues confuse you enough to want to hear what mentor and seasoned counsellor C J Buckman and his team has to say at the WHY AM I STILL SINGLE summit on the 6^th and 7^th of November 2015/ The event is supported by Joy FM, Hitz FM and SPiD-UP.COM and you my friend, are invited.

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