The proverbial
saying that, success is not attained on a silver has once again have been proven right by Chief Godfred Medicine,
the founder and leader of the united shepherd group of companies (U.S Group of
Companies). Chief Medicine, is a Ghanaian by birth and hails from the Volta
Region of Ghana. Like the biblical Joseph, he was sold into slavery, but this
unfortunate situation in no way hampered his resolve to becoming the
inspiration for the oppressed, food for the hungry, hope to the hopeless, and
employment to the unemployed. The name medicine, which he said simply stood for
the image of God, was given to him by one Dutch missionary who ferried across
the Volta lake immunising the natives against various water borne diseases.
In taking me through the journey of how he has
been able to make it to where he is so far, The Chief Executive Officer (CEO)
of the fast emerging U.S group of Companies, a Ghanaian based amalgam of
various subsidiary step-ups, who equally is an author, entrepreneur and a
motivational speaker, took me through his childhood ordeal of being sold into
slavery at a tender age of six by his biological mother, the reason(s), he
described as purely monetary.
At age 16, he
had the opportunity to escape from his slave masters and made it back home to enrol
in basic school. He, out of determination and persistence honoured the various
classes he had to go through as every student was required to, though he was
fast advanced in age, he sat for the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE)
came out with aggregate nine, a situation which obviously qualifies him for any
Secondary school of his choice. But unfortunately for him, he couldn’t raise the
needed money for admissions, so had to give up any dream of proceeding to
Secondary that material moment.
With the zeal of
hard work like blood running through his veins, though young, he resorted to
farming and fishing with aim the of raising enough money to send him back to
school, fortunately for him, he was on the river fishing one day, when he heard
about one Secondary School which he mentioned as Tsiame Secondary School,
inviting students to be admitted to pursue various course of interest. He made
the attempt and was eventually admitted to continue with his secondary education.
After admissions, he mentioned as a major struggle, the difficulty he had to go
through as a student to raise money for his up-keep. For this particular
reason, he skipped classes on Fridays, in addition to Saturdays and Sundays which
he virtually devoted to fishing and farming in order to raise enough money for
his up-keep throughout the week.
On the issue of
what really motivated him to shoulder all these struggles, he opined “I was
made a matured person before I begin thinking for myself…I think beyond my age…because
I was brought up by an elderly woman(grandmother), such was the thinking
pattern…I am not limited to one particular thing… Christ was my role model”
With regards to
what was the foundation that led to the beginning of his company, he started
that after school he had the opportunity to work for a man who afterwards
brought him to Accra for his sheer demonstration of “spirit of hard work.
In Accra, has
was taught how to bake bread, went a[D1] bit into bread baking. And for his peculiar attitude
of doing a lot of things at a go, he revealed that in addition to his baking activities,
he at a point played the role of a nanny for various nursing mothers,
thereafter, he was identified by a lady who subsequently advised him to go into
teaching, as a result, he took an appointment to work in a day care Center, coupled with this, in the evenings, he worked as a cleaner/ security
personnel for Village Inn restaurant at Abelenkpe,
a suburb of Accra.
Prior to his
venturing into the corporate world, he again revealed to at a point in time
Ventured into tilapia and charcoal (firewood) trading business.
By way of
advice, the Self established entrepreneur, who attributes his success to no
other individual than God, vehemently bemoaned what he described as the
Ghanaian attitude of always believing to be shareholders one way or the other in
the success of others’. A situation he blamed persists due to bad leadership,
but argued for the situation where the Ghanaian will begin to see themselves as
masters of their own destiny. He debunked the assertion that our educational
system is not the best, but basically called for an individual assessment of
ourselves to see whether as individuals all was right with us. He equally
advised against the believe that life is rosy outside the shores of Africa,
where individuals, “even masters holders” day without end queue for visas to
fly-out of the nation.
AKAHO FELIX
JUNIOR
GHANA INSTITUTE OF JOURNALISM
felixscorner.blogspot.com
GHANA INSTITUTE OF JOURNALISM
felixscorner.blogspot.com
It is a wonderful joy to stand for other people.Its of no use if you have it all but couldn't affect anybody's life positively.
ReplyDeleteGrab the opportunity and transform this generation.
On point brother, that's the essence of human existence.
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