MY PRESS DAY SPEECH 2011-10-04
TOPIC: BEING YOUR OWN BOSS AND THE INTERNET FACTOR
Good day Special Guest, Special Friends and Great Elites!
Nigeria just celebrated her Fifty-first Independence day from her Colonial masters (Great Britain). The question is; are we truly independent?
The Advance Oxford Dictionary defines independence as 1not depending on authority or control 2 self governing 3 not depending on another person for one’s opinions or livelihood. So having heard this, do you still think we are truly independent? Let me leave politics for now and get into my main topic “BEING YOUR OWN BOSS AND THE INTERNET FACTOR”.
It’s a pity that many undergraduates still believe that the only way to be successful in live is to work for an Organisation or the Government, after graduation, some even believe that, it is only after graduation that they would start thinking of what to do in life. That’s the reason we have millions of graduates trooping the street looking for job, God forbid I toil that line! This brings me to this story, how many of us here know the story of Mark Zuckerberg? Mark Zuckerberg was a student at Harvard University but he dropped out and he is also that Computer Programmer that turned down a job offer from Microsoft when he was still in High school. But now he is the richest youth in the world. He is the creator of Facebook.
He created Facebook with his friend Eduardo in his hostel room, for fun, then it was called facematch, how did he do it? He started something he loved and turned it to a billion dollar empire. And how was this possible he used the greatest market in the world called the internet. If I asked how many of us own an E-mail address or are in any social network here to raise up there hands. You might still see some hands down, which should not be so in this twenty-first century. Social network site as Twitter, Facebook, Skype, 2go and thousand and one others help us to share information and network with each other. And we can use it to create awareness for our goods and services.
The truth is, we all need to change our mindset; we should stop accepting the obsolete, antiquated believe that says we can’t be what we want to be or do what we want to do because we are still in school, or because we believe we are still very young to be thinking about being successful. Some still believe that it is only when you are a graduate only then should one be thinking of being successful. Where is it written that we can’t be millionaires even in school, start our own businesses , build our own houses or buy our own cars? That’s the kind of mindset that our educational system has been feeding us with since elementary school. And we need to change that mindset.
If we want to be rich, great and famous we need to see the need to study with the global curriculum not only our countrys own, that's where the Internet comes in. This topic is timely because some of us here would soon be going for their one year industrial training and others would be graduating from school soon, we can start something, anything be it product or service that you know the people are willing to pay for.
If you go and work for a company or organization, the highest amount you can be paid is 85,000 naira that’s if you are even lucky, but I assure you that starting your own business gives you an experience and the opportunity to create wealth. You would be making sure that your business grows everyday; because it brings joy to see what you start grow, thou is not easy at-all, because you would be facing challenges on a daily basis. Overcoming them makes you stronger and mature to face life.
Tell me how would you like to live your life contented or in abundance? The choice is yours to make.
Together we can start this revolution! Who is in?
ELITE ALEXANDER NWOKE JNR.
