Everything I've read about Kwame Nkrumah indicates that he was an extremely lonely man.

Why do I say this? Well, clearly, the people around Nkrumah did not see his vision as clearly as he did himself. Now, this was either because Nkrumah was not very good at communicating his thoughts, or the people around him were not very smart - either way, his vision was not entirely shared.

He wanted to build not just one dam, but a series of five dams which would flow into each other, forming an endless loop of power. The people around him thought that even one dam was a waste of money.

He wanted Ghana to export power to the rest of the continent. The people around him felt he ought to "dzi ne fie as3m".

He wanted each African country to specialize in the production and export of specific resources, so that Africa would trade with each other and not rely on the East or the West. The people around him thought he was getting too big for his shoes and overstepping his boundaries.

He ordered the building of massive silos to store grain and other crops, so that Ghana could control its supply to the world, thereby controlling its price. The people around him thought it was the height of stupidity for a cash-strapped nation to spend its limited money building storage facilities for crops it hadn't yet grown.

In the end, just to get his way in the midst of people who didn't share his vision, Nkrumah threw his own colleagues in jail, and gave himself infinite powers - just so he could implement the plans he had without having to deal with the obstacles being put in his way by those who simply couldn't see or understand his vision. Of course, once he started that it was a slippery slope, and there was no turning back.

Many accused him of tyranny and oppression. Many accused him of being power-hungry and a megalomaniac. Many accused him of a God complex - acting as if he was the only one who could lead this nation (interestingly, nobody ever accused him of being corrupt, but that's another story for another day). Many accused him, and in the end, the people around him removed him from power before he could actualise any of these visions.

On Monday, we celebrated Dr Nkrumah's birthday. Today, after the nation he toiled to free from the shackles of colonialism had rejected and exiled him and left him to die far away from his "beloved country", we all sit around and marvel at his "vision". Today, we all get it.

Much as we may seek to blame those who engineered his overthrow, we must also save some of the blame for Osagyefo himself, because he failed at one thing: he failed to convince the people around him to buy into his vision. He lacked either the ability or the patience - or both - to explain his vision to those politicians around him who all felt Nkrumah was no more special than they were, and were eagerly awaiting their turn to be the Big Man in the Big Seat. So in the end, he never got to fulfil his dreams.

My friends, who is standing in the way of your dreams? Is it your friends? Your colleagues? Your spouse, your parents. Who is telling you to give up and find something more realistic to do? Often, the ones who kill your dreams are the ones closest to you - the ones whose support you need in order to succeed. Convincing them to follow your crazy schemes and projects can be hard.

It's not always their fault though. They apply their own limitations to you: your father became a doctor, and so must you. Nobody in your family got a degree, and so neither can you. That girl comes from a rich family, so she'll never fall for you. They see nothing special about you that will make you achieve the things you are bent on achieving.

Let's learn from Nkrumah's mistakes and sell our vision as hard as we can to those around us. They serve better as allies than enemies. Show them your progress, show them examples of others who achieved your goal. Show them what is special in you that makes you dream and achieve far beyond what they think is possible. Take them along in your vision. And if they still can't see it, surround yourself with new people, who can.

My name is Kojo Yankson, and my vision is big enough to accommodate all who can see it, so who is with me?

GOOD MORNING, GHANAFO!