04/10/2024
This man post make a full business wisdom book..
: Study to improve yourself...
__ "Now is the accepted time, not tomorrow". W. E. B. Du Bois
Although I studied as an engineer, I have never been a typical engineer or techie, for the simple reason that I have always loved literature and the social sciences, including economics, history, and politics.
I grew up at a time when we were encouraged that no matter what quality education you had access to [or not], you could always improve yourself. Having studied in Britain for instance, I was acutely aware of the fact that I was not taught Black History at school. That did not bother me at all; I simply went to bookstores and built my own library of black literature and history!
As a young man, you would have been totally amazed about my book collections, which I read ferociously. One of my earliest interests was also reading about African American and Caribbean history. Whenever I met an African, African American, or Caribbean black person, I would ask them to give me a list of books and authors I should read.
Without a doubt, one of my own heroes as a young man was an African American guy called W. E. B. Du Bois. In many ways he shaped a lot of my own Pan-Africanism. This amazing intellectual giant was the first black person to be awarded a PhD at Harvard... back in 1895!
As I write this particular post, I'm at Harvard University where last evening I was honored as one of eight recipients of the W. E. B. Du Bois Medal, Harvard's highest honor in the field of African and African American studies, given to individuals both from across the USA and the world for their "contributions to African and African American culture and the life of the mind."
Here's a little more for you to read about the event, the Hutchins Center, and previous W. E. B. Du Bois medal honorees: https://hutchinscenter.fas.harvard.edu/hutchins-center-honors
I’m truly honored and I appreciate all the kind statements of congratulations since it was announced. Above all, I’m humbled because I truly know how great this man was.
Do yourself one favor... Imitate me in this one passion of my life: Read, read, read!
As Du Bois wrote, "Now is the accepted time, not tomorrow."
Image credit: Melissa Blackall Photography.
Glen H Hutchins, me, James Manyika, and Professor Henry Louis "Skip" Gates, Jr. (Director of Harvard's Hutchins Center for African & African American Research).
My gratitude for the warm kind words from my friends here, and support from the rest of the Harvard team who put together the ceremony. Was wonderful meeting and listening to fellow Medalists; here's a link, if you'd like to watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siinTKYp5VU
