Extraordinary People Stand for Something!

Leadership Series #7: 

EXTRAORDINARY PEOPLE STAND FOR SOMETHING AND BECOME CHANGE AGENTS!

One of the greatest human beings to have walked the face of the earth in Mohammed Ali, the Greatest Athlete of all times!

"In 1967, three years after Mohammed Ali had won the World Heavyweight Championship, he publicly refused to be conscripted into the U.S. military, based on his religious beliefs and opposition to the Vietnam War – "I ain't got no quarrel with them Viet Cong... No Vietcong ever called me nigger" – one of the more telling remarks of the era.  Widespread protests against the Vietnam War had not yet begun, but with that one phrase, Ali articulated the reason to oppose the war for a generation of young Americans, and his words served as a touchstone for the racial and anti-war upheavals that would rock the 60's. Ali's example inspired Martin Luther King Jr. – who had been reluctant to alienate the Johnson Administration and its support of the civil rights agenda – to voice his own opposition to the war for the first time. Ali would then be arrested and found guilty on draft evasion charges, stripped of his boxing title, and his boxing license, was suspended. He was not imprisoned, but did not fight again for nearly four years while his appeal worked its way up to the U.S. Supreme Court, where it was eventually successful. Ali would go on-to become the first and only, three-time Lineal World Heavyweight Champion. In 1999, Ali was crowned "Sportsman of the Century" by Sports Illustrated and "Sports Personality of the Century" by the BBC. Ali had brought beauty and grace to the most uncompromising of sports and through the wonderful excesses of skill and character, he had become the most famous athlete in the world".

Bill and Melinda Gates, the richest couple on earth, a few years ago gave themselves to eradicating Polio, Malaria and poverty in Africa. They have invested Billions of dollars to see to the eradication of a disease that affects only Africans. Mo Ibrahim, the richest African, is helping to redefine governance in Africa.

Stand for something, for you can save lives, give hope and bring transformation to generations now and even those yet unborn.

Stand for something, you will inspire a generation!

Bankole Olubamise, August 21, 2012.