A baby camel went up to its mother and said, “Mummy, why do we have humps on our backs?”

Mother Camel smiled and said, “Well, my son, our humps are there to store water, so we can survive long journeys through the desert”.

“I see”, remarked the little camel. “And why do we have such long legs and rounded hooves?”

“Our long legs and rounded hooves are designed to help us stand and walk in the shifting sand. That’s why we can move through the desert better than any other animal”, his mother explained.

But the little camel still had questions. “What about our eyelashes? Why are they so long?” Again, with the infinite patience of a loving mother, she replied, “Well, they are to protect our eyes from the swirling sands during desert storms”.

The little camel stood quietly for a moment, chewing on the awesome knowledge his mother had just dropped. Then he said, “So the humps are for storing water in the dessert, the legs are for walking in the desert, and the eyelashes are to protect our eyes in the desert”.

“That’s right, Son”, said his mother with pride.

“Then what in God’s name are we doing in the zoo?”

You know, I often think of people like Seth Yeboah Ocran, who went from being a trotro mate to the CEO of the most prestigious car rental and tourism enterprise in Ghana; people like Mark Zuckerberg, who created a multi-billion dollar empire with just a laptop; people like 20-year-old Adowarim Lugu-Zuri, who bought one pack of pure water and turned it into a thriving agro-entrepreneurship organisation providing employment for hundreds of people through its many acres of coconut plantations. I think about these people and it becomes clear to me that all of them started out with just a brain and not much else. Just like you and I.

So why are we not all millionaires and billionaires like them? Well it’s because some of us are wasting our desert skills in the zoo.

God gave us all a brain. The single most sophisticated asset, tool and weapon all rolled into one. The only thing any human ever needs to thrive and succeed in this life. Your brain holds the power to change your destiny and that of all those around you, but you’ve got to put it to work.

Becoming a success is not easy. You have to survive the difficulties of the desert in order to enjoy the pleasures of the promise land. But God has given you exactly what you need to survive in the desert – your brain. The brain is what Adowarim applied to that sachet of water, Zuckerberg to his laptop and Seth to his hardship.  The formula is simple:

Your Desert + Your Brain = Your Success

Ok, we’ve established that the only way to your success is through the desert. We’ve also established that you have all you’ll ever need to survive in the desert, which is your brain. So, just like the camel asked his mother, why in God’s name are you still sitting in the zoo?

My friends, we know where we want to be, and we know what we must do to get there. Why are we not making the journey? Why are we still marking time every day, no closer to our destinies than we were the day before? When was the last time you did even one thing in pursuance of your dream? Why have we taken all the endless God-given potential and sat in the zoo with it for all these years?

Today, let’s start the journey, Let’s pack our brain and venture out into the sand. It will be hard. We will suffer and get lost on the way, but we have our brains, so we‘ll make it.

My name is Kojo Yankson, and I was designed for the desert, so no zoo can hold me.

GOOD MORNING, GHANAFO!