By Strive Masiyiwa
"Not all readers are leaders...
__But all leaders are readers!"*
By now most of you will have seen the streaming videos from the inaugural two-day summit on African business that was held last month in New York. If you weren't able to tune in to the Global Africa Business Initiative discussions Live, I'll share the link below.
It was a real honor for me to have been the co-Chair alongside Africa’s most senior global diplomat, Ms Amina Mohammed, the Deputy SG of the UN.
One of the key events was a fireside chat in which I interviewed Mr Robert Smith, the wealthiest African-American with a net worth in excess of $5bn according to Forbes. Mr Smith is an engineer who went into telecoms [like me] but he later went into banking before setting up his own multi-billion dollar private equity investment company known as Vista Equity Partners.
Back in 2019, I am sure some of you will remember a top African American businessman announced as part of his commencement address to Morehouse College that he’d pay off the student loan debts of the whole 2019 graduating class [of almost 400 students]! That was Mr Robert Smith.
As the two of us discussed before coming on stage in New York last month, he told me that he reads a lot of books... but not quite like his former school teacher mother who used to read 15 books a week but has now reduced that to 8 a week since she is now 87 years old!
These days I comfortably read up to 4 books per week. It is really not that difficult to do because you are simply “training a muscle”— You can train yourself to do 50 push ups a day, if you like, so why not book reading!
I read religion, business, politics, science and technology, social issues, economics. I even read fiction.
__Reading is the key to almost anything you want to achieve. I have often said that reading is the most important and certainly most profitable skill I possess!
Which brings me to a recommendation for you to read:
My friend Sarah Ladipo Manyika is about to publish her latest book, which is called "Between Starshine and Clay, Conversations from the African Diaspora". [Sarah is the wife of Dr James Manyika; both of them went to the South Pole last year; she is Nigerian and he is Zimbabwean].
In her new book she talks with some of the most well-known and respected Black leaders of our time including writers, activists, civic leaders, publishers, thinkers, artists, historians, and filmmakers… great visionaries and talents from across the African diaspora. Her oldest interviewee is her friend Mrs Willard Harris who is 102 years of age!
I encourage you to put it on your reading list by pre-ordering your own personal copy online. She has other books that I have already read. This newest one will be released early next year.
I am so excited about it, I'm telling you about it now. I'll put the link below or you can find it on Amazon.
#GreatLeadersAreReaders!
#UnstoppableAfrica
Image caption: "To learn to read is to light a fire: every syllable that is spelled out is a spark". Victor Hugo
I've said this before but will again and again: Make sure your children have access to books of all kinds. But don't just hand them a book and hope for the best. Read with your children and TO them... And let them watch you be a reading role model. [I'm sure all the amazing people interviewed for Sarah's book started their reading journeys very young]...
*Title quote is by Harry S Truman
If you missed watching our Global Africa Business Initiative [GABI] last month, I have great news... Here's a link for you to find nearly all the sessions we held over two days: check here
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