Celebrating the Life of Nelson Mandela Posted on December 19, 2013 December 10, 2013: As the OIC International family reflects on the legacy of Nelson Mandela we are comforted by the fact that positive and transformative change can happen, particular in the lives of the most vulnerable. Nelson Mandela’s life is the perfect testimony of servant leadership. We are reminded of a proverb, “the test of a true leader, is at the end of the day, when the battle is won, the people will say, look what we have done.” Mandela’s life is the best representation of the strength of a people’s struggle for dignity, and ownership of their own destiny. As I reflect on my time in Johannesburg, representing survivors of apartheid before South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, I understood then that my life would be forever focused on the lives of the most vulnerable. President Mandela served as my standard bearer for what was possible and inspires my work today with OIC International. In his own words, President Mandela said, “the ideals we cherish, our fondest dreams and fervent hopes may not be realized in our lifetime. But that is beside the point. The knowledge that in your day you did your duty, and lived up to the expectations of our fellow men is in itself a rewarding experience and magnificent achievement.” Mandela’s decision to maintain his fight despite the great odds created the space for others to act courageously and seek justice and fairness. Our late founder Rev. Leon Sullivan, moved by the struggle for freedom and dignity traveled to South Africa as a member of the board of General Motors, during the height of apartheid and returned to the United States to organize Fortune 500 CEO’s to draft the Global Sullivan Principles of Corporate Social Responsibility. This is just one example of the many the world family continues to share. As we prepare to say goodbye to the physical body of Mandela, we remain empowered by his legacy and his courage and conviction is ever present in the work we do every day. Thank you Madiba, signature Crispian Kirk President and CEO OIC International This entry was posted in Press Room. Bookmark the permalink. ← Mourning the Loss of Mandela Ending Hunger, Promoting Peace: Report from Ghana →

By the time we see that climate change is really bad, your ability to fix it is extremely limited... The carbon gets up there, but the heating effect is delayed. And then the effect of that heat on the species and ecosystem is delayed. That means that even when you turn virtuous, things are actually going to get worse for quite a while. Bill Gates Change, Time, Bad As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others. Bill Gates Others, Next, Leaders In ninth grade, I came up with a new form of rebellion. I hadn't been getting good grades, but I decided to get all A's without taking a book home. I didn't go to math class, because I knew enough and had read ahead, and I placed within the top 10 people in the nation on an aptitude exam. Bill Gates

EMPOWER NIGERIA Your Personal Success Creed... BELIEVE IN YOURSELF,believe in those who work with you .Believe in your employer.Believe in your friends. Believe in your family.Believe in your country and believe in GOD. Be PATIENT and TOLERANT with other people who do not believe in these commitments as you do. One thing I believe is that success is as a result of ORGANIZED intelligent effort and it does not depend upon LUCK,it does not depend upon MIRACLES and it does not depend on my FELLOWMEN. YOU will get out of life exactly what you put into it,therefor work to position yourself in the arears for which you have developed a strong desire ,a kin interest and a burning passion. SUCCESS is always the result of conscientious, consistent,efficient ,valuable, ORGANIZED INTELLIGENT EFFORT

Youth development is a process that prepares a young person to meet the challenges of adolescence and adulthood and achieve his or her full potential. Youth development is promoted through activities and experiences that help youth develop social, ethical, emotional, physical, and cognitive competencies. Youth leadership is part of the youth development process and supports the young person in developing: (a) the ability to analyze his or her own strengths and weaknesses, set personal and vocational goals, and have the self-esteem, confidence, motivation, and abilities to carry them out (including the ability to establish support networks in order to fully participate in community life and effect positive social change); and (b) the ability to guide or direct others on a course of action, influence the opinions and behaviors of others, and serve as a role model (Wehmeyer, Agran, & Hughes, 1998). Conditions that promote healthy youth development are supported through programs and activities in schools and communities. Youth development researchers and practitioners emphasize that effective programs and interventions recognize youths’ strengths and seek to promote positive development rather than addressing risks in isolation. Youth who are constructively involved in learning and doing and who are connected to positive adults and peers are less likely to engage in risky or self-defeating behaviors. Providing the conditions for positive youth development is a responsibility shared by families, schools, and communities. The conditions for healthy youth development reside in families, schools, and communities. Families promote healthy youth development when they:

Love is expressed as an action and experienced as a feeling. Yet, love has an essence that resists defining in any single way — it encompasses compassion, determination, tolerance, endurance, support, faith, and much more. If you're in the dark about how to love, this article should give you some food for thought, and perhaps teach you a little bit about how to love yourself, love the world, and love other people just a little bit more. Part 1 of 5: Finding Romantic Love 1 Decide what you want from a loving relationship. What do you want out of a relationship, romantic or otherwise? What do you look for in a person that you love? What do you love in a person? While you don't want to narrow your focus too much, a properly-aligned list of priorities is helpful in knowing what to look for and how to find it. If it works for you, rather than making up a list of wants, make up a list of "deal-breakers." If you absolutely can't abide a drinker, a hyper-religious person, or a daredevil, put it on your deal breaker list and avoid getting tangled in their complicated web. Be judicious. If you’re putting a nice butt before a stable personality, you’re going to have a really tough time in relationships. Same goes for things like valuing friends who get you into the best clubs over friends who’ll hold your hair back while you puke. Put substance above superficials, every time. Real people don’t fit in boxes. Keep in mind qualities that you want a prospective lover to have, but don’t require someone to meet all of them and make sure you’ve got your priorities in order.[1] 2 Have something to offer others. When you go to start a relationship, be it romantic or platonic, you’ll want to be sure that you bring something to that relationship. Having nothing to offer will give you and probably the other person the sense that you are a leech. Work on giving as much as you take, in all your relationships, and you’ll be set for success. A life partner or a lover can help you cope with the problems in your life and will work with you to solve them, but no one is going to make those problems just go away but you. You have to rescue yourself. Be your own knight-in-shining-armor. Expecting someone else to do that for you will only result in putting way too much pressure on them and disappointing yourself in the long run.[2] If you're experimenting with online dating, or other digital forms of communication, you've got to put some work into it. Messaging a hottie with "Hey" isn't bringing anything to the table. Ask questions, put your dazzling sense of humor on display, be naturally curious. Be yourself. 3 Meet lots of people. Unlike in the serendipitous plots of most romantic comedies, we usually don't run into long-term lovers and friends by accident. With the noise and bustle of 21st century life, meeting people takes work. Treat every night out, or every new class, or every new encounter as a possibility and bring your A-game. Be friendly when you meet people, and try to see the best in them. Even if you're at a party you'd rather not be at, make a little goal that you'll make one new friend by the end of the night. Turn your dull party into a fresh opportunity. Make plans with people you're interested in. Rather than exchanging numbers and putting someone in your phone as "Red Shirt Blonde," try to make specific plans before the end of the night. Find common ground with someone and decide that you'll meet up for coffee, or an event sometime later in the week. Make it concrete, rather than vague. 4 Let yourself be vulnerable with others. Unfortunately, loving someone means that they can hurt you. This is normal and okay (and almost inevitable). But if you want to have real love, you need to allow yourself to open with that person. Don’t keep secrets from them, don’t pretend to be someone you aren’t, but instead give them the opportunity to know the real you. Don't put on an act with people you're interested in, or with friends that you're building a relationship with. If you're pretending to be one way, it's not fair to the person who meets you halfway. Be yourself all the time, and you'll be confident that the people you meet are worthy of loving you, because it'll be the real you. 5 Give it time. Don’t force love and don’t try to speed it up. This will only create false feelings which drain you emotionally and leave you feeling empty and unsatisfied. You can’t rush love. But believe that it will come because it most certainly will. You just have to find the right person. Part 2 of 5: Making Relationships Last 1 Commit. If you're in love, prove it by putting effort into the relationship and working hard to make it work. Communicate openly with your partner about your goals for the relationship and where you see it going. If you're only interested in a short-term fling, be honest. If you've got an eye toward serious long-term love, be honest. There's nothing wrong with either kind of love, but you need to make sure that your partner is equally committed to the same version of love that you are. Commit to the person and to the relationship. It’s easy when two people have been together for awhile and you’ve become very trusting to just get very comfortable with each other. Maybe you don’t go out on dates anymore or maybe you don’t dress up nice for each other sometimes. But you should at least do these things occasionally, or eventually someone will feel like they’re no longer worth the effort. 2 Learn lessons and apply them to your relationships. Yes, bad things will happen in your relationships. You’ll say the wrong thing, or they’ll hurt your feelings. It happens. The important part, when anything goes wrong (even if it’s just problems in your life), is to learn your lessons and just keep moving forward. Try to make the most of any negative situation, turning it into something positive by gaining and growing from the experience. [3] If you're in the wrong, apologize and own up to your mistake. Good relationships air out the grievances and clear the air. Bad relationships hide the negativity and let it fester into serious problems. If you're in love, talk about your problems. 3 Work constantly to make yourself and those you love better. A good, loving relationship is one where you constantly challenge each other to be better people. Help the other person to achieve their dreams and goals because you believe they deserve it. Improve yourself and work for your dreams so that you can be the person you feel they deserve. We should be better people because of the relationships that we have, and this is the way to do it. 4 Eliminate jealousy. This is one of the unhealthiest things to have in a relationship, as it can break down trust and respect, and create barriers. For some people, this can be the most challenging part of relationships. Jealousy is a tough thing to break, but you can do it. The most important thing to understand is that jealousy issues almost always come from within, from the jealous person’s own issues, so those need to be worked through first. This is a place where those communication skills come in handy. This is, of course, assuming one person in the relationship is running around blatantly cheating on the other. In which case, they don’t really love the person they’re hurting, now do they? 5 Try to see issues from all sides. We hate to be wrong. Everyone does. But the thing about everyone thinking they’re right is that someone HAS to be wrong. If we disagree on an issue, we’re bound to be wrong on at least part of the issue. You’ll have much stronger relationships if you learn to talk things out with the other person, see their point of view, and find somewhere in the middle where you can meet and agree. 6 Be partners in life. The whole point of going through life with people you love is so that you can tackle life’s challenges together. Work together to find solutions, solve problems, and comfort each other when times get tough. We can’t solve everything on our own, we can’t know everything there is to know...but a whole bunch of people getting together out of love can solve just about any problem. Part 3 of 5: Avoiding Common Relationship Problems 1 Never, ever manipulate someone. Popular culture often tells us, subtly, that we should manipulate our significant other. You’ll find magazine upon magazine about how to get your girlfriend to do this or how to make your husband more that. But the thing is that expecting someone to change, and emotionally or mentally manipulating them into doing it, is one of the worst things you can do for your relationship. By manipulating them, you are creating distrust and resentment, a terrible thing to do to someone you love. 2 Don’t expect perfection. Don’t expect perfection in the person you love or in yourself. This sets incredibly unrealistic expectations. Neither of you will be able to live up to these standards and you both will end up hurt and disappointed. Even if you feel that you only expect perfection for yourself, this will give you the mindset that people can be perfect and you will subconsciously expect the same from the person you’re with. 3 Don’t bring outside problems into your relationships. Life gets stressful sometimes. We have problems and they make us upset, hurt, or angry. There are many, many people who take out these negative emotions on the people they love, often because they feel like they have no other outlet. But you should never do this. Find good ways to deal with your stress, like exercising or doing art. This will keep you from unreasonable outbursts directed at the person you love. 4 Don’t let things stagnate. Much like not putting in effort, you shouldn’t get to a point where your relationships are routine. Getting the same gift (or type of gift) for every holiday and birthday, going to the same place for dinners out, doing the same thing for your anniversary, etc. Your love deserves better and so do you! Keep things interesting by always trying new things and pursuing new experiences together. You can be wild and crazy and try things like rock climbing or you can be more subdued and try learning a new skill together, like playing the piano. 5 Focus on the important things. One major pitfall of relationships is that we tend to get super focused on little things that drive us crazy, rather than seeing the bigger picture, which is often wonderful. Keep your focus on the things that actually matter, and constantly analyze why those things matter to you. You’ll have a much happier relationship if you do. 6 Remember that everyone is equal. It is important to understand, for developing relationships, that no one is better than you and you are not better than anyone else. We are all equal, with equally worthwhile problems, ideas, and beliefs. If anyone ever tries to convince you differently, no matter where they pray and no matter how much you admire them, they aren’t worthy of your love. Part 4 of 5: Loving Your Friends and Family 1 Be a good friend. Whether you’re trying to create and grow love in a platonic or romantic relationship, you need to be a good friend to the person you love. Love is about more than kissing and hugging: it’s about being there when someone needs you and helping them unselfishly. Work to be as good a friend to them as you can be, and let them do the same. Work hard at your relationships. Show up for your friends. If your buddy's having an art opening, or playing a concert, buy a ticket and show up in the front row, even if you're not crazy about the music. Listen when your friend has a problem, and make yourself available emotionally. Try and learn to recognize when it's ok to be friends, and not possible to be more. Many people complain about being stuck in the "friend zone," which is really just a way of saying that you're attracted to someone who isn't attracted to you. Every healthy person needs a variety of healthy relationships, not all of them romantic. Embrace each interpersonal relationship for the unique brand of love it provides. 2 Respect everyone and earn the respect of others. Respect your friends, your family, and your lovers by validating their opinions and experiences. Try to understand them deeply, on a personal level. Ask them questions, have long discussions, and open your heart. Understand that the other person has their own wishes and desires, and rights to privacy and dignity. If you can’t allow this for another person, then you can’t love them. 3 Love people for who they are. Everyone is different. This doesn’t make anyone better or worse than anyone else. If you want to love someone, you need to take them for everything that they are, good and bad. Realize that none of those traits may be permanent and that if you want them to change, you have to help them want that change for themselves. Give them the tools they need to make the change. They aren’t yours to mold into your personal statue of perfection. 4 Find the true beauty in others. Maybe your girlfriend looks like Jennifer Lawrence, but this shouldn’t be the reason you want to be with her. She may be pretty now but she probably won’t be 50 years from now. You won’t be either. When you love someone, you need to find their inner beauty, the thing that makes them unique and wonderful to you. This will make your love and relationship stronger. Relying or basing your love on their great skin or gorgeous hair is probably just going to end in disappointment for everyone. 5 Focus on the positives and embrace the negatives. When you love someone, you should always keep focus on their positive traits. Find the things that you love about them and then give them the tools they need to amplify those traits. Focusing on nitpicky things you dislike about them will only make both of you unhappy in the end. If they’re a good singer, for example, help them to record a song and get it out to people. If you love how tidy they are, try to help them out by taking some of the pressure off and let them know how much you appreciate it when they do clean. There are inevitably things that annoy or frustrate us about the people we have relationships with. You need to learn to love someone not despite these traits but, as much as possible, because of them. Try to loosen up and find the humor in the things they do. This will stress you out less and make your relationships much stronger and stable. 6 Communicate clearly and often. If you want real love to build and grow, you need to keep constant communication. This doesn’t just mean talking about the weather every day; you need to talk about real things that are affecting your lives and your actions. Most importantly, you need to talk about the problems you encounter with each other. Don’t just be the person starting the conversations and handing out criticism, though. You need to create an environment where the other person feels comfortable coming to you with their problems too. 7 Talk through your problems. You will inevitably encounter problems in your relationship. Maybe there was a breach of trust or someone was hurt by something that got said. Whatever the reason for the hurt feelings, whether intentional or not, you need to talk between the two of you and get everything sorted out. Come to understand each other and patch the holes in the relationship before they become too big.[4] Make sure that everybody gets a turn to talk, don’t interrupt, and respect the other person. Just because their opinion is different doesn’t make it wrong. Part 5 of 5: Loving Yourself 1 Love yourself. Before loving anyone else, you have to love yourself. This will help you show that you can experience love, sending a message that you are secure, confident, and worth loving in return. Loving yourself will make you a better lover because you will not be hindered by self-doubt and crises of confidence. If you have problems loving yourself, then work hard to build yourself up. Work on your self confidence by accepting your past and moving forward. You may feel that things you did in the past will make you unlovable, or that you have too many problems to be lovable. Untrue. Accept the things that happened to you, forgive yourself, and move on. 2 Count your blessings. When things get tough, money runs out or someone loses a job, the way to get through these tough times is to focus on the things in your life that are good. Don’t worry about all the things you don’t have, because you will always not have a lot of things. That’s out of your control. But you can enjoy and find love in the things that you do have right now, while you have them. Appreciate this moment. 3 Be selfish sometimes. If you constantly give in your relationships and don’t focus on your own needs every now and again, you will find that you become burnt out. In order to make yourself a better lover, be selfish on occasion and make sure you’re getting what you need to be happy too. 4 Make your own happily ever after. Like the myth of the knight in shining armor, you also need to understand that there are no automatic happy endings. You may find blissful love, but you’ll always come up against challenges together, as you and your lives change. If you want to have your happy ending, you have to work to make it happy every day by supporting each other, working together, and doing the things in life that make you happy. 5 Turn off the rom-coms. Modern movies and romantic stories have us believing that we have to find it: The One. That somehow, despite the chaos of the universe, there is one person who completes us and is perfect for us. The truth of it? There is no "one." No one is perfect. In all relationships there will be sacrifice and annoyance and problems. So really, as long as you aren’t expecting anyone to be perfect, there are lots of The One’s out there for you! 6 Break out of pre-defined roles. Our culture does a pretty good job of convincing us that men and women have to act a certain way or do certain things in a relationship. However, this doesn’t really work out that way in practice. Some men are just naturally good housekeepers and some women are just naturally good at fixing things. Everyone has different strengths and weaknesses and those don’t conform to gender stereotypes. If you want to have healthy relationships, don’t feel constrained to those boxes: just do what you do best and work together to build a happy life!

Leadership lessons from Obama... Be comfortable in your own skin Develop your communication skills View slide Spend quality time crafting your speeches View slide PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE Deliver with passion Connect with your audience Stick to the message You will get far with a great team You learn more by listening...... It’s all about connecting Stable strategy + Flexible tactics = Victory Yesterday’s competitor is today’s collaborator A leader is a dealer in hope Napoleon. Be your own story teller Leadership is influence Technology is an ally Use it to reach your supporters Leadership is all about empowering others and releasing them to make impact The ability to stay calm under pressure is a great quality Don’t be afraid to experiment