There have been several events that have marked many turning points in my life at various levels and at various times; I intend to highlight a few of them, starting with 5 foundational ones. And before I do, I need to acknowledge the underlying seed of them all: the zing seed my parents (my foremost mentors) sowed into my life.

Every normal child is naturally wired or preprogrammed by birth to imitate what he / she consistently gets exposed to; especially what he / she sees. In that sense, I grew up as a perfectly normal child; imitating what I was seeing, including the following…

1. Doing matured Fine Art; my dad has been into art and was the art master at a secondary school. 
2. Making miniature vehicles (made out empty tin cans); a lot of the young guys in my area were all doing it; it was a craze!
3. Sewing clothes; my big sisters were into fashion design and had been sewing at home.
4. Typing; my mum was a stenographer secretary, and the first person I ever saw typing at incredible speeds without looking on the typewriter keys; yeah, computers were not around then. 🙂
5. Etc.

These gave me a very practical orientation to life; that humans make things with hands and tools!

I happened to be a very obedient child so all that enhanced my learning ability; just observing / listening keenly and doing as I saw, and as I was told, especially by my parents.

Mum and dad showed me (and my siblings too) unconditional love; in so many ways. Most especially they guided us in practical life matters and more. My mum would constantly say in our local dialect to the effect that: “Let your speech be seasoned as with salt.” Anytime I was leaving for school, they (especially my dad) would advice: “Make sure you’re the best or among the best, and find time to sleep!” (Even in recent past, Dad was still advising me to find time to sleep.)

Along the line, and mostly through the effort of my dad, I chanced upon books that gave practical guidance to some of the things; typical ones being: ‘The Complete Guide to Sewing‘ which guided me on how to sew professionally, ‘UNESCO Resource for Science Teaching‘ which guided me to make electric bells, buzzers, microphones, etc., and a ‘Typing Tutor‘ which showed me the principles for typing professionally at high speeds; without looking on the keys (something I so much admired about my mum). Others included: ‘How to Study,’ ‘Passing Examinations,’ ‘Effective Studying Skills,’ and ‘Faster Reading; a First Course.’ Those were especially helpful in my academic pursuits.

All that got me very much interested in text books; even though they were big in sizes, for me they were the real deal as I was having fun with the practical skills stemming from the theory and practical guidance they provided. I got to learn and to appreciate that ‘theory, in the most part, is just documented practice,’ and that books are for action, and not for exams per se. Well, I was still obedient enough to excel at school, and actually was either the best or among the best in every class / school I ever enrolled.

Though all the above were turning points in my life in every respect, there are some other major ones I like to highlight as earlier intimated; they are wrapped in themes as follows…

• Why I respect ‘titles’ but do not fall for them
• Why I value my ideas as though by Albert Einstein, Nicola Tesla, or Elon Musk
• Why I first tackle self-image in my training sessions
• Why I encourage young people to venture into business
• Why I search the scriptures for myself and cross-check every sermon / teaching

I begin with the first time I saw a very huge conflict between myself and a very popular physics tutor, and the conflict was resolved in my favour. You may click here to see the first one: Why I respect ‘titles’ but do not fall for them. Or you may click here to see the most significant turning point in my life, and how that should be your story too!