Without clear direction, youth vulnerable to life’s distractions
In the words of Malcolm X, “If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.”
This quote often comes to mind when I’m asked about our organisation’s success in achieving high completion rates in its entrepreneurship programmes.
At Global Leading Light Initiatives (GLLI), our mission is to empower small businesses and unemployed youths through technology and entrepreneurship. When we select participants for our programmes, our focus goes beyond identifying “highly disadvantaged women and youth” in need of assistance.
Instead, we actively seek out potential leaders who have the capacity to catalyse change and transformation within their communities through entrepreneurship.
We seek young men and women with a high level of selfawareness and a clear understanding of their values and motivations.
This emphasis on clarity serves as the bedrock of GLLI’s success and forms a fundamental cornerstone of our organisational philosophy.
Throughout history, great leaders like Nelson Mandela and Steve Biko have demonstrated how knowing what one stands for can lead to extraordinary outcomes.
Mandela’s unwavering commitment to equality, justice, and reconciliation served as a guiding star during his 27-year imprisonment and, ultimately, led SA out of the darkness of apartheid.
Steve Biko’s advocacy for black consciousness and selfreliance ignited a movement that encouraged many black people to embrace their cultural heritage and resist oppression.
In SA today, there’ sa growing urgency to create jobs and alleviate poverty, with small businesses being touted as the engines of job creation.
While the government has rolled out many initiatives to support small business development, sustainable progress hinges on the emergence of a new generation with clarity of vision, values, and purpose.
Elon Musk, the visionary entrepreneur behind companies like Tesla and SpaceX, embodies this clarity, with values deeply rooted in sustainability and humanity’s future.
Unemployed and underemployed youths and women often find themselves at a crossroads, vulnerable to the challenges life throws at them.
Without a clear sense of direction, they can indeed be at risk of falling for anything that might come their way, potentially derailing their lives.
However, the journey towards clarity doesn’t begin when they become unemployed.
This is where parents, teachers, schools and communities enter the picture.
These environments play pivotal roles in shaping values and purpose, instilling foundational beliefs that guide individuals through life.
Teachers, as mentors, can guide pupils towards selfdiscovery, encouraging critical thinking and open dialogue.
Schools can create nurturing environments that emphasise values like empathy, integrity, and resilience, enabling students to put their beliefs into practice.
When teachers and schools actively engage in nurturing clarity of values and purpose, they contribute to the development of well-rounded individuals.
These individuals aren’t just academically proficient; they are ethically grounded.
This empowerment equips them with the resilience to navigate life’s challenges, make informed choices, and stand for something meaningful.
When teachers and schools actively engage in nurturing clarity of values and purpose, they contribute to the development of well-rounded individuals.
These individuals aren’t just academically proficient; they are ethically grounded.
This empowerment equips them with the resilience to navigate life’s challenges, make informed choices, and stand for something meaningful.
Ultimately, a society with individuals, families, and institutions grounded in these principles fosters a climate where people are less likely to fall for anything that comes their way. Instead, they become advocates for positive change, embodying the wisdom of Malcolm X’s timeless words, "If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.”
— Dieudonne Allo is the director of NPO Global Leading Light Initiatives. Based at Stenden SA, GLLI works within disadvantaged communities to create opportunities to end poverty by promoting an inclusive tech economy. Allo is the author of ‘Breeze of Liberation, ’ which focuses on wellness and authentic empowerment. This column used to be called Stem Sense.