Emmanuel Cisco, An African Who Turned his Pain into his Best Strategy – DREAM HUB | GROWTH HACKING AFRICA

I feel honored to be invited again to share some of my thoughts and experiences with you.

I have keenly been following and learning a lot from the various Presentations so far;

from Noah Appiah’s Third Eye Concept powerfully delivered on CJ Benjamin’s birthday to Wilson Samson’s Entrepreneurship Principles to Uncle Demola’s Leadership Principles last night. Thanks to the leadership of this great platform for the opportunity given me to learn from these great minds and to make my little contribution!

PRESENTATION BY EMMANUEL CISCO

Tonight, I’m here again to provoke, challenge, inspire and empower someone to take some steps forward in life. If you had a taste of my first presentation on this platform, I don’t need to introduce myself again. But for the new participants here, I’ll simply say “I’m the young man whom God’s grace picked from one of the worst conditions of a refugee life to graduate as a Best student with BSc Economics 2013 from one of the top institutions of higher learning in Ghana. I currently work as Marketing Manager of an oil company in Ghana while living my dream as an inspirational speaker and author. By the grace of God, we just launched our second inspirational book along with our nationwide youth empowerment called HOPE Campaign with a goal to inspire and empower at least 10,000 young people in Ghana by the end of 2020. Our HOPE Campaign team comprises 30 passionate and talented young people from eight (8) African countries. The *HOPE* stands for ”Helping Other People Excel”.

I strongly believe that the best thing you can ever do for hopeless people in your society is to make sure that you are not one of them. To be honest with you, I’ve experienced pains too deep to ignore, frustrations and disappointments too difficult to even explain. But by God’s grace, I now know how to turn my ”worst tragedy” into my ”best strategy” for success and significance. This is why I can confidently tell people, “If you haven’t been through a ”mess” in life, no one will ever trust your ”message”

So are you really ready for me today?

Recently, I did an interview for a TV program called NEXT GENERATION and CJ Benjamin saw it necessary to have me share part of the conversation with DREAM HUB AFRICA. If you’re ready for me tonight, let me share part of that conversation with you and probably take it just one step beyond that TV studio.

Before I share with you snippets of the interview and what I have for you today, I still want to quickly remind you about what I shared here the last time – about the fact that there’s no single key to success; success is actually CODED! And to have access to The CODE, you need to first ASK for it – which simply means, you need to have the right ATTITUDE, be willing to develop the right SKILLS required and be able to acquire the right KNOWLEDGE for success.

In case you missed it, you can still have it all in full from our latest book here…

Now, to the NEXT GENERATION interview. So, as a victim of political violence I was actually invited to share my thoughts and experiences about the critical issue of Political Violence in Africa to see how best we can preserve the next generation of Ghanaians from being ‘volunteered victims’ of the disease of violence. Since the message can benefit all Africans everywhere, I think sharing it with you here is just appropriate.

THE INTERVIEW:

The HOST: Can you give us an overview of the concept of Political Violence?

EMMANUEL CISCO: Well, in my opinion, Political violence is basically a situation that arises as a result of a conflict between the felt needs of citizens of a country and the real greed of their politicians*… Most people, especially in Africa, always put all their trust in politicians for their survival and success in life; and that can be extremely dangerous. See, if you put all your trust in politicians for your survival and success, you will always be frustrated in life because chances are most politicians, especially in Africa, are only thinking about thenext election, not about the next generation.

As a victim of political violence, let me give you a classic example. Few years ago in my country, when some politicians felt they could not win the next election through the means of the BALLOTS, they decided to destroy the next generation of Liberians with theirBULLETS.

THE HOST: So how did the civil war affect you personally?

Hmmm… The war actually stole so much from me, including my childhood. In fact, the first picture of the world that was introduced to me as a child was a picture of absolute violence and anarchy. While some parents in other parts of the world were helping their children to get through basic school peacefully, somewhere in Liberia in the early 90’s, my mother was helping me to jump over dead bodies and dodge bullets so that I could at least stay alive. So I spent my entire childhood running away from bombs and bullets in a country that cared less about my future. I lost many of my relatives during the war, including my father. I narrowly escaped and found my way to Ghana alone when the civil conflicts were still aborting lives and threatening dreams… That is how dangerous the struggle for political power can be!

THE HOST: So sad! Sooo sorry about that terrible experience…And the painful lesson here for all of us now is…

EMMANUEL CISCO : Part of the painful lessons for all of us alive today is: when those greedy politicians decided to replace the Liberian children’s toy guns with real AK47’s and RPGs, they refused to tell them the truth… they never told those ignorant and innocent kids that the future they desired and deserved could never be created through violence. The truth is: the kind of future we desire can only be created through *Personal Development.

THE HOST: What do you consider as the key factor responsible for youths being engaged in political violence? Can we say it’s because of the high rate of unemployment?

EMMANUEL CISCO : Yea, high unemployment is an important factor but it definitely cannot be the main cause of political violence. The main cause of political violence is the fact that young people don’t really know their YOUTH POWER. And this is one reason why Africa as the youngest continent (with more than 60% of its population being below the age of 35) will continue to be ruled by old people above 60 years. The typical African youth don’t care to know that young people are the largest and most influential group in any society. They don’t even know that no president can ever get elected without the youth; no political violence can ever happen without the involvement of the youth. They don’t seem to care about the fact that young people are actually the *movers and shakers of any society and that’s why virtually every activity of any nature in any country is either directly at the influence of or targeted to influence the youth in one way or the other. This is the power we have as youth and this is the power we’re taking for granted.

The fact that the proportion of youth in Africa is significantly higher than in most developed western countries should even make any serious African government to make the Youth its priority*. Imagine if this significant teeming African youth are well-educated, protected and empowered in various capacities, what would happen to the world economy! But how can you be made a priority when you don’t even know your own *value*? So the problem is not that our governments are not providing us with jobs, the real problem is that we *have failed to recognize our own value (power) in our society*; and that’s why some greedy politicians will just choose to use us tocause chaos (violence) rather than using us to createopportunities (value).

HOST: You’ve already said a lot…What other advices do you have for the youth watching you today?

EMMANUEL CISCO Alright! I have thousands of advices for young people and most of them can be found in my books. But for today, based on our subject of discussion, I wanna share three (3) pieces of advice with every young person watching me right now:

1. Don’t ever choose to be a “volunteered victim” of political violence in your country. Listen. If politicians cannot use you to create VALUE to benefit your society; don’t let them abuse you to create VIOLENCE that will affect the next generation.
2. Be strong and courageous to defend your future. Remember, “your future is not ahead of you; your real future is actually trapped ”on the inside of you“, as Dr. Myles Munroe would say. And the main reason I’m asking you to be strong is because more harm is done by weak people than by wicked people. Most of the problems we face today in our society are caused by the *weakness of our good* than the strength of evil. The truth is, more harm could be done in your country by weak citizens than wicked politicians.
3. Don’t CRY for a better economy, TRY to create a better version of yourself. See, if you allow the RATE of inflation in your country to exceed the RATE of your Personal Development, you will always be frustrated in life. Never depend absolutely on your country’s natural resources, learn to develop your own natural talents and abilities to live your dream.

So let’s move away from the interview and let me leave you with something very important today as I CONCLUDE… Before you can order your copy of our latest book and learn more about applying the BEST STRATEGIES that could get you out of the WORST TRAGEDIES you’d ever face personally and professionally, I wanna provoke you to leave your comfortableBED! Just the same way I encouraged you the last time toASK for The CODE, I’m here again to challenge you to leave the comfort of yourBED. We all know how comfortable a BED can be when we are lying on it, especially if you’re fortunate to own a good one. But the BED I’m referring to here is just a representation of a place of absolute comfort. In other words, I’m asking you to step out of your comfort zone and experience the kind of life you’ve always dreamed about. So when I say leave the comfort of your BED, I’m challenging you to …

Take the “B” in the BED and stop BLAMING other people for your problems and conditions in life. It feels comfortable blaming others; at least it’s someone else’s fault. As a helpless teenager growing up all by myself in a refugee camp, things were so difficult for me to the point that the only thing I found so easy to do was to simply sit to complain and blame everyone for everything. At that point, I hadn’t realized that complaint is a prayer to the devil. I didn’t know that blaming others could block the flow of my blessings. So I blamed my parents for giving birth to me; I blamed my country for fighting a senseless civil war; I blamed the UNHCR for not caring for refugees enough; I blamed the Ghana government for making the economy so tough for people like me. When I had exhausted my blame list, I started blaming God himself for allowing me to go through those pains that had burdened my soul. So you see, I have some good experience in playing the blame game. But the day I decided to step outside my comfort zone of blaming others for my life, my life started changing gradually. From experience, I’ve learned that it’s not what happens that really matters; what matters is what you’re able to do with what happen. So I’m challenging you today to take a step outside of your comfort zone of Blaming others and start taking responsibility for your future and see what will happen to your life…

If you stop playing the Blame Game, you still might not be qualified for success unless you take the

2. “E” in the BED and stop making EXCUSES for not succeeding in life. Excuses can be very comfortable, Yes or yes? 😊. But listen. If you really wanna succeed in life, you will definitely find a way; if not, you will always find an excuse. See, those who fail in life, fail BECAUSE OF obstacles and challenges; and those who succeed in life, succeed IN SPITE OF obstacles and challenges. Few years ago, I could have told everyone that because of the fact that I’m a refugee staying alone without money, I don’t think I can achieve my dream. But, I actually told everyone that *in spite of* the fact that I’m a refugee without money; I can still pursue my dream.

You can’t change the circumstances; you can only change yourself to overcome the circumstances. See, when you learn to turn your excuses to reasons for your success, you’ be qualified for success.

Even though you may be qualified to succeed, but you still won’t succeed unless you take the

3. ” D” in the BED and stop DEPENDING absolutely on others to succeed. It’s time to break the Dependency Syndrome. Can I tell you the truth? Listen.

No one is responsible for your success in life; not even your parents. As a matter of fact, your parents brought you into the world, but in the end you’re responsible for who you become. The day you stop depending absolutely on other people for your survival and success in life, you’ll realize the real meaning of freedom.

The day we stop depending on our greedy politicians for our survival and success, we will be free to achieve our dreams. Why should we even depend on African politicians when these same politicians are also depending on Western countries for aid to even finance their own budgets?

The day African governments will stop depending on the West for aids to pay their civil servants; Africans will start finding ways to create real value in the global market place. There’s an African proverb that says, “A water that is begged for can never quench your thirst.” Think about these things. Now leave your comfortable BED of Blaming, Excuses and Dependency, grab a copy of our latest book and live your dream in absolute freedom!

If you would like us to come to your church, school or community anywhere in Ghana 🇬🇭 or Nigeria , or anywhere else, kindly through DREAM HUB AFRICA.