The Sunday Mail
Milton Kwamwendo Hunt for Greatness
Life is not so much what you get but what you are able to do for others and touch them. It is impossible to touch people and remain where you are. To be great see beyond things, see people. Value what lasts forever and lives in people’s hearts forever.
When you die who will cry? When you are gone will you be missed?
In most places the life expectancy is generally about 70 years. A few people are blessed to live into the 100-year mark. Long life must never be taken for granted, nor wasted. It is a blessing and a worthy gift to be invested in creating a life that matters.
What really does 70 years represent? It represents 25 520 days or 3 650 weeks. Life denominated in days or weeks looks so short, and regrettably it is. The key to greatness is realising that life is short, every moment unique and everyday is precious. Wasting time is wasting life and abusing opportunity.
Living as though one will be here forever is a careless way of passing life.
Will this matter?
Sometimes precious moments of time are wasted in arguments, grudges, hurts, venom, animosity, abuses, squabbles, hate and countless pains recited endlessly and sung like a drunken song. Precious relationships are ruined by little things that do not matter much.
Precious resources are ill-spent in scoring points that do not count towards any achievement that posterity will value.
Every day spent is borrowed from unborn generations to be lived in a worthy, prudent and providential manner.
One way to test how you spend your time, what you spend it on and what your worry about is to ask: “Will this matter five, ten or twenty years from now?” Sometimes precious time and golden moments of destiny are wasted on things that will not matter much after we are gone.
Things and resources that matter most must never be wasted in useless gripes, baseless fights and unwarranted abuses.
Sometimes it helps to ask if an argument will matter when you are on your death bed. It is sad to change what you value when it is too late.
Live a life that matters and do what matters. You have to see beyond yourself and have a vision bigger than your own comforts and conceits. When you are alive, you think that many things cannot do without you; when you die you realise that the world marches on without you and no one is that indispensable.
What will not be forgotten
Some people live great lives and yet the great lessons they learn could be distill ed into a few immortal sentences. Such was the life of Dr Maya Angelou, born on 4 April 1928 and passed on 28 May 2014. Her spirit, voice and words ring on beyond her times. Dr Angelou was a celebrated poet, memoirist, novelist, educator, dramatist, producer, actress, historian, filmmaker, and civil rights activist. She started her life in the negative but never remained there. She fought to free her spirit, pen and her voice.
Growing up in Arkansas, Dr Angelou experienced the brutality of racial discrimination, but she also absorbed the unshakable faith and values of traditional African-American family, community, and culture. Her life was not an easy nor straight road to greatness.
The journey of greatness is paved with delays, distractions, adversities and pains. Whatever you face, it is never testimony enough to discount your claim on greatness.
As a teenager, she won a scholarship to study dance and drama at San Francisco’s Labour School.
At 14, she dropped out to become San Francisco’s first African-American female cable car conductor.
She later finished high school, giving birth to her son, Guy, a few weeks after graduation. As a young single mother, she supported her son by working as a waitress and cook, but she never lost a first love, the performing arts. Never let the vicissitudes of life tempt you to dump your dream and quit your call.
There is more to life than what you have seen, heard or experienced.
After several tours performing drama, music, dance and poetry in the 1950s, in 1960 Dr Angelou moved to Cairo, Egypt, where she served as editor of the English language weekly The Arab Observer.
The following year, she moved to Ghana where she taught at the University of Ghana’s School of Music and Drama.
She also worked as features editor for The African Review and wrote for The Ghanaian Times.
In life you pass through seasons. Use each season well, but never park in any.
Ever diligent, during her years away from her birth nation, Dr Angelou read voraciously and studied diligently. She mastered French, Fanti, Spanish, Italian and Arabic.
In keeping with the African spirit of the times while in Ghana, she met with Malcolm X. In 1964 she returned to America to help him build his new Organisation of African American Unity. Regrettably, shortly after her return to the US, Malcolm X was assassinated. Soon after that she worked with Dr Martin Luther King Jnr as Northern Co-ordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
Unfortunately, King’s life was to meet the fate of Malcolm X. King’s assassination, falling on her birthday in 1968, left her devastated.
Adversity comes, but your spirit is always stronger than any challenge your face.
With the guidance of her friend, the novelist James Baldwin, she began work on her much acclaimed book that was published in 1970: “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.” She went on to publish various works in several genres accounting for more than 30 bestselling titles.
This was a writer whose earlier efforts to write were rejected as untypical.
She also won amazing success in film and television as an actor, producer and director. In 2008, she composed poetry for and narrated the award-winning documentary The Black Candle, directed by M. K. Asante.
She was requested by President Clinton to compose a poem to read at his inauguration in 1993. Dr Angelou’s reading of her poem “On the Pulse of the Morning” was broadcast live around the world.
She also had the privilege to compose and recite a poem at Nelson Mandela’s funeral. When you free your voice, it is a sound the world has been waiting to hear. When the urge to write pulsates through your soul, write.
Great work will always attract attention and recognition. Dr Angelou received over 50 honorary degrees and was Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University.
Her official website, mayaangelou.com, sums up her life’s contribution by saying: “Dr Angelou’s words and actions continue to stir our souls, energise our bodies, liberate our minds, and heal our hearts.”
Perhaps the most touching eternal words are embodied in the poem that she shared as a memoir of her life’s experience. She said:
“I’ve learned that no matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow.
I’ve learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights.
I’ve learned that regardless of your relationship with your parents, you’ll miss them when they’re gone from your life.
I’ve learned that making a “living” is not the same thing as making a “life.”
I’ve learned that life sometimes gives you a second chance.
I’ve learned that you shouldn’t go through life with a catcher’s mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw something back.
I’ve learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision.
I’ve learned that even when I have pains, I don’t have to be one.
I’ve learned that every day you should reach out and touch someone. People love a warm hug, or just a friendly pat on the back.
I’ve learned that I still have a lot to learn.
I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
That last line from such a great achiever is worth re-reading. People will forget everything you did, gave, said or achieved, bar one. They will never forget how you made them feel. In this brief moment which is your life’s journey, touch someone and make a difference in someone’s life.
What else matters more in this life?
Committed to your greatness.
Milton Kamwendo is a cutting-edge international transformational and inspirational speaker, author and coach. He is a strategy and innovation consultant and leadership coach. His life purpose is to inspire people to release the greatness trapped in them. He can be reached at: [email protected] and his Twitter handle is: @MiltonKamwendo.
