It's a great day! It's my birhday! And today amidst the calls, messages and gifts from friends and loved ones and organizations, I am actually 28 years healthier and wealthier today. Today is the best day to share with you , my ice breaker - an introductory Toastmaster speech I delivered on the 11th December,2014.
Please enjoy it, comments and feed backs are welcome!
IT BEGAN IN IBADAN!
ICE BREAKER : IT BEGAN IN IBADAN by TM Emmanuel Ayeni, Speech project presented at TM Merit,Ikeja.
IBADAN is the larget city in Nigeria, West Africa. Earl Nightingale was right when he said “Everything begins with an idea” but I must say for me everything began in the great city of Ibadan on the 29th of December more than 2 Decades ago. For amidst much anticipation and expectation, that Monday morning at Oluyoro Catholic Hospital, a young woman who had undergone over 18 hours of prolonged labour faced the possibility of a Caesarian section. However, thanks to prayers of friends and family members and God’s timely intervention-just at the nick of time, she put to bed a healthy, handsome bouncing baby boy and the joyful cries of anew born child filled the entire ward. So on that beautiful day, a great light shone over the city of Ibadan as I Emmanuel Oluwadunsin Ayeni was born into the large and lovely Ayeni Family at Yemetu Ibadan.
I AM the second born in a family of Six. And for me growing up was fun and lots of learning. After the creation of states in 1991,I left my Grandparents in Ibadan and joined my parents in Osogbo to continue my primary school education. So I lived and schooled in Osogbo with my parents and siblings before my University education. Many people have different opinions about life; some say life is a marketplace, some say life is a battle field while others think it’s a game, what do you think? I believe life is a precious gift from God, a great privilege and much more an exciting journey.This is the reason I have decided to live it to the fullest. My love for life and adventure is wrapped up in 4 keywords ; Books, Travel, People and most importantly God. I love Travel. St. Augustine said life is a bookhe who has not travelled has read but a page. “I have travelled far and wide” this reminds me of a speaker who once boasted before his audience “I have travelled to india, Italy, Oklahoma, Philadelphia, in fact, I have travelled far and wide!, so a young student stood up and said “Sir, You must really know Geography” “Yes!” the man answered “You see, Geography is a very beautiful country”. So having been to over 10 of the 36 states in Nigeria, including the FCT, and several other places on pages of magazines, books and internet, I can jokingly say I have travelled far and wide, and I hope to do more travels in the future. There are many reasons why I like travelling, Some are; the sense of adventure, the opportunity to meet people of varying cultures and try new dishes-I love good food. Travelling has been said to make people natural story tellers and since I like to write,a sage once said Travelling is an aphrodisiac of writing. In order to see more of the world, I am making plans with friends to travel more in the coming year by God's grace.
My love for books and and writing began when my Mum taught me to read. First I learnt to read the brown, old Yoruba Bible in our room and then to devouring a couple of English story books I could find around. My interest in writing led me into the art of diary keeping , which has today grown into my many daily inspirational articles on my blog, with over 10 published in the Saturday Punch Newspaper couple of years ago. I kept diaries at different parts of my life, Keeping a journal helps me reflect and at times relive some other wonderful memories. I believe it helps us engage the 4 human endowments according to Stephen Covey; Self Awareness, Conscience, Independent Will and Creative Imagination. This art of keeping a diary has helped my writing skills and has been instrumental to my journey as an inspirational blogger and hopefully, very soon a best-selling author and renown speaker. Many of the diaries I kept got lost, some I kept and a few got me into trouble. I remember an instance when my diary brought me into trouble. I always wanted to learn swimming especially after a wonderful time with cousins at Lagos country club swimming pool during an holiday. It was a nice experience, so I got back to osogbo as a secondary school student and developed an habit of going with some friends to the Osun River to swim after school hours. On one of these occasions I met a boy called Shina who advised me to go to a deeper extension of the river – Elewure river, He recounted how many students have drowned there but that it was a perfect place to learn. I got back home and recorded my experience in my little diary , planning when I was going to go to the new stream to swim. Unknown to me my parents had been warned strongly in church by a strong spiritual warning- a prophecy about a kid in the house undertaking some risky ventures, we all wondered who that could be, until my diary was found and my escapades read by my mum, It’s needless to say what happened next, but that was the last time I went to the river, Today I I know there are many beautiful pools I continue to practice in.
My love for people is reflected in my desire to always meet new people and to help people solve their problems. I believe in our society today Engineers are great problem solvers and solution providers, So my study of Electrical and elwctron Engineering has set me on the right paths to help my world continue to develop and implement better ways of getting things done and achieving desired results. Overtime I have come to discover that Business is about filling people’s needs , So I have decided to continue to be in business,Hence, my desire to build my own business organization. I believe life is a journey and we continuoslylive and evolve through life. My life’s goal and mission is to inspire lives and organizations to greatness .I want to help create a world of solutions by expressing God’s glory in me and I want to equally help others do the same. In my life time id esire to be an accomplished Electrical Engineer, a responsible family man, a transformational leader and a best selling Author of well over 70 books. I desire to build and develop Emmandus Networks by God’s grace into a global profitable Corporation. Many decades from now when I am off this planet, after I am old and gone, I want my condolence register to reflect vital values I hold dear like Greatness, Integrity, Faith and Interdepence. I hope that some day at my funeral, my wife, children, grand children, old colleagues, employees,friends and acquaitnaceswill say comments like ; "My Father was a great man; Grandpa was a great treasure in Godliness and Diligence.Emmanuel helped us connect between our hopes,ideas ,dreams and our desired results.You inspired and touched lives around the world, you built businesses, and raised leaders. Emmanuel Oluwadunsin AYENI has lived life to the fullest. He was God’s ambassador on earth.
THANK YOU!
