I wasn’t born into a rich home. That’s not my fault and none of my business. My sweet mum was a gari and beans (yor k3 gari) seller and my hard working dad was a farmer.

They still ply their noble trades. My childhood was that of a village boy with a lot of hardship and I didn’t get to experience the joy of being a child, as most city children did in my time. I went to class one straight because there was no pre-school at the Armah/Kwamoano D/C School.

 I never sat in a cemented classroom from class one till I completed JSS; don’t even think of a tiled one because no one knew of what tiles were. Our classrooms were all dusty. I was lucky I didn’t have to trek a long distance to school but eighty percent of the time, I walked to school barefooted.

My big brother (now late) had to give me his cherished ‘opanka’ sandals to wear when it got to writing BECE because I had none. By the grace of God, I had the best grades in my time and it became a record that took 10 years to be broken

There was no cartoons, electronic games or extra classes on Saturdays, in fact there was only one black and white President-brand TV in the village at the time.

This TV was being powered by a car battery because there was no electricity. All my Saturdays were spent in the farm weeding. As if weeding all day and drinking ‘infested-water’ wasn’t enough, one had to carry on his head a big basket full of foodstuffs or a bunch of firewood from the farm for several kilometers back home.

By the time I completed JSS at age 16, I had made a promise to myself that my children would never go through what I had gone through as a child. That promise has stayed with me till this day and will continue to.

By the grace of God my kids attend one of the best private schools in Tema today and from all indications, they are enjoying being kids, unlike me.

Friends, it doesn’t matter where or into which family you were born, you have the power to change the story for your descendants.

 Many of the great people you see and have heard about had similar or worst beginnings but they didn’t sit and blame it on their parents or the government. They made a conscious effort to win and with that wining mind, they indeed won.

Study how successful people have become successful and follow those principles. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes because they will give you lessons that are not taught in classrooms and those lessons will make you win, and most importantly learn from the mistakes of others. Roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty.

Exercise your brains and have big dreams and as long as you work hard with the right principles and believe in God, those dreams will become a reality.

Stop complaining; stop being dogmatic and stop thinking that because no one in your family has made it you would end up same. Fill you mind daily with thoughts of what you want to be for as Buddha said, the mind is everything and whatever you think you become. Go out there today with vim to make the world a better place for the next generation.

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Steve is a Mechanical Engineer and currently works as the Maintenance Planning & Systems Superintendent at Perseus Mining Ghana Limited. He's passionate about shaping the minds of the next generation to make our country and the world better than we met it. He's a speaker and loves to write.