[Music]
truth how you define who you are what
you want to be the impact you want to
have on the world and why is it so
important it’s important to understand
your truth because to live a fulfilled
life to maximize your full potential to
make the impact that only you can make
with your singularly designed DNA you
need to know who you are so that the
choices in your life’s journey resonates
with what’s inside so what is my truth
my personal story is filled with many
life defining moments my life has been a
journey of breaking barriers challenging
the status quo succeeded by achieving
excellence in many areas both personally
and professionally I’m a Nigerian girl
bunch of parents foreign educated who
instilled in my two sisters and I a very
strong sense of self and single-minded
independence and aside from running
marathons completing three half Iron
Man’s and finishing one full Ironman and
raising money for charities I’ve also
lived and worked across Nigeria the UK
Northern Ireland the u.s. Malaysia
Singapore Dubai China Thailand Hong Kong
and I have experience doing business in
a few African countries I finished a
master’s in mechanical engineering the
only girl in my class and I fought
through finding out that I was being
paid 25% less than guys I worked with at
some point in my career and aside from
being and
negative in the oil and gas services
industry today I also launched a
nonprofit to get more women into CEO and
c-suite roles in the NGO industry
because there is a gap and we need to
fix that gap and I’m also working on
raising a scholarship for my alma mater
you see from a very young age I had a
very strong sense of who I am and who
I’m called to be I knew I wanted to lead
people and make lives better I I knew I
wanted to lead businesses and an
influential levels that I can contribute
to economic advancement I knew that I
wanted to design and build and create
technology so that I contribute to
moving mankind further I also wanted to
mentor people and invest in ideas so
that I can help other people achieve
their full potential I wanted to support
women in maximizing their talents I also
had my own natural curiosity for for
people for the world for different
cultures for just the way things are
done and I’m aware that not everybody
has this strong sense of self or this
strong sense of calling which is why
we’re having this talk today so I ask
you what is your truth how do you find
it and how do you live it you see I want
to think of us today as being in four
groups first of all those who have found
their truth and are living it well this
message is to reinforce you and those
who have found their truth and feel that
they’re still searching for parts of it
that are missing for this truth this
this message today is to help you with
your search and those of us who feel
that we found the truth but it changes
with the seasons of life well this
message today is to help you understand
that your truth is very different from
your direction and lastly for the
seekers for those too trying to conjure
up a definition of their truth those who
are asking questions that feel they
should be doing something bigger
impacting the walls in a greater way but
just don’t know how
find the road to that journey or how to
live that journey well welcome
I hope this talk helps you find your way
so no matter what group you are
identified with at the end this message
is supposed to leave all of us with some
tools to being able to describe our
truth to find it and to live it and the
tools are the same for all of us whether
you’re about to graduate and you’re
wondering what to do with your career or
you need to make decisions about life
and love and family and relationships or
you’re in a career wondering what should
I do next and those of you who
entrepreneurs and seeking that next step
or those who want to jump into
entrepreneurship and if you’re just
assessing life in general and wondering
what you should be doing with yourself
if you’re truly living a life that is
authentic to you well I can tell you
that finding and living our truth is a
universal constant to all of us so how
do you find your truth I like to kind of
describe it as our truth is found in
collecting all of our life’s little
treasures and putting them together to
one day a picture forms before us where
we can grasp at a definitive description
of who we are but let me say that again
our truth is found by collecting all of
our life’s little treasures and putting
them together so we can come up with a
definitive description of ourselves and
you see this journey starts from
childhood it’s all of your life little
treasures that are moments of your life
experiences the lessons that you take
out of events the things that have
piqued your interest and your curiosity
the imprints of conviction that I’ve
been left on your heart from a young age
which is overlaid on your traits and
your personal temperament and sometimes
our treasures we’ve done of the stories
of our parents and generations before us
let me give you an illustration of what
I mean by that I come from a line of
grandmothers on both sides who wear
self-starters risk-takers and business
owners who
in a time where education was favored
for boys and not girls and I often
wondered what they could have become
what they could have achieved with their
talents and I can tell you that that
little treasure from me imprinted on my
young mind that I was going to cherish
my education and support other people to
do the same that I was going to work
hard to maximize my talents but I will
also help other women achieve their full
potential
now here’s another treasure I can share
with you when I was about eight years
old at the end of the school day I would
go pick up my baby sister from her class
now one day I arrived and she was crying
and I asked her what happened I probably
had teacher had spanked her know before
you all get carried away you could spank
kids in Nigeria with you know without
having any problems now what happened
was it was nap time and apparently she
was talking with a friend of hers
because she wasn’t sleepy so I remember
going home that evening and thinking oh
this isn’t really fair so I took a long
piece of paper and I wrote my sister’s
teacher a letter and in this letter I
gave her my personal suggestion for how
I thought she should run her nap times
if everybody doesn’t want to sleep then
some kids should be allowed to play or
read quietly so the next morning I took
my sister back to a class and I marched
up I said to the lady good morning and I
gave her my letter now needless to say I
became pretty popular for this letter my
mom host called to school but the best
part about is the teacher actually came
to adore me and my sister but you know
what I will tell you is that Who I am
and who I’ve become lays in the treasure
of that story that I share with you of
the eighth year ago who wrote it a
letter to her baby sister’s teacher and
so in the end how you define your truth
truly comes from collecting your
treasures they’re about your stories
that the things that you like and don’t
like
they’re about your opinions that you
have formed through things that you’ve
been through they’re oftentimes things
that have inspired you in other people
sometimes they’re the challenges that
have been created inside of you that
made you resolve to do a certain thing
and at the same time this can also come
from a yearning of things you didn’t
have or experiences you didn’t have or
something you wish would have been done
a different way and usually this
template is set from a very young age
now the definition of your truth matures
with age so for example eight year of me
would have said I want to change the
world and 15 year old me will say well
I’m gonna go change the world because
when I become an engineer I’m gonna
design things to make the world a better
place and here I stand today telling you
as a much grown woman that I want to
change the world by helping more women
attain senior positions in the industry
now if you notice my truth hasn’t
changed the core of Who I am has
remained the same now my definition has
matured over time and the message has
matured over time so I invite all of you
to spend some time collecting your
treasures trace your stories back and be
brave enough to affirm who you know you
are now let’s talk about how you live
your truth living your truth is about
remaining authentic to yourself living
your truth is the navigational aspect of
life it’s very different from the
definition of your truth and I think
this is where a lot of people get stuck
how many times have we all said I feel
lost I bet you if I did a show of hands
everyone’s hand will go up there you go
how many times have we all said in life
I just don’t know what I’m doing anymore
I really can’t figure this out and I
think part of the challenge there is
that we need to get to a point where we
can separate the definition of our truth
which is our goals and our dreams and
that doesn’t change it matures with time
yes but the journey that we take through
life the paths that we have to take now
life presents us with challenges so we
adapt living our truth is really just
about the decisions and the sacrifices
that we have to make so that we can get
through life so we can conquer the
different phases of our life and
sometimes that journey just doesn’t look
like what we thought
for those of you who are in here who are
locking a life has turned out exactly
how you planned can you meet me at the
end please and share your secret with me
because truly the rest of us are just
trying to live our life and I arrived at
the definition of our goals in our
dreams by taking different paths and
being flexible with life and what I can
tell you is that while living your truth
on these different paths actually lies
your opportunity for you to keep
searching to keep seeking and keep
digging deeper to continue to find more
within yourself and define yourself it’s
the same if you research any famous
person or you pick one of your heroes
and and you think oh wow this person has
it figured out they’ve accomplished so
much they’ve achieved so much if you
ever listen to any of the
autobiographies or you read their books
they always start off by telling stories
from their childhood the reason why they
decided to be a certain way or not be a
certain way what inspired them what
caught their interest and for me that
person is Oprah Winfrey I could tell you
that because every time she talks very
clearly about her childhood she shares
her challenges her opportunities in her
childhood but also growing up through
life she speaks very clearly about how
she decided to become who she is today
when she found out she had a big voice
and she wanted to share that with the
world but what I love most about her is
that she uses that platform to help
other people but she always talks about
living her truth and being authentic to
herself so to be effective at living
your truth is very simple for every step
that you take continue to assess am i
doing what resonates with me am i doing
what resonates with my truth what I feel
comfortable with on the inside and is
what I’m doing the way I’m living is it
gonna help me get to my goals now I know
there are more questions okay so you
find your truth you live it but if you
like any of us we all get a little bit
confused once in a while
and the question is how do we deal with
that what happens when we get scared or
what do we do with that fear and what if
life just doesn’t give you the lucky
lottery what happens if you don’t have
the resources and the tools to live your
truth or you live in a part of the world
where your truth this challenge or a
part of your challenge is that your
truth really is in conflict with other
parts of yourself now I could tell you
that on my way to this talk I’m actually
going through a big life decision I was
thinking to myself gosh I really wish I
was in the audience and someone was
giving me this talk but since I’m up
here I said hey how would I actually
deal with these challenges well my
guidance to you is simply this the first
thing I’ve done at every point when I
face the challenges I’ve overcome I
assess I think to myself how can i
balance and compromise and then I seek
advice there is power in asking guys but
when you ask remember to enter into an
offering of asking and giving because
there are people who have come before us
who’ve lived this journey who may have
answers or things that we haven’t
considered and then I act and when I act
I do with courage and without cynicism I
jump because I believe life will catch
me and you know if it doesn’t really
work out or I find out that I was wrong
I am really willing to say hey I did it
wrong I’m not shy to change direction
and try something else we also got to be
willing to take risks in trying
something else sometimes you gotta seek
new opportunities and just really push
your boundaries but most of all
personally I could tell you that all
those countries I named and all the
things I shared with you that I’ve done
truly just came out of the fact that I
genuinely trust life and I have blind
faith but I believe that somehow the
universe is aligned to help all of us
achieve who we are called to be and to
achieve our goals and I think you should
believe that too well at the start I
promise to leave all of us with
a set of tools for how to really figure
this thing out so here we go
here are my three points first remember
to collect your truths put them together
and define yourself secondly don’t
forget the power of asking for help for
support for advice and even listening
and lastly be an angel but be open to
accepting the Angels in your life
because I can tell you that oftentimes
on this journey of asking and receiving
help it’s when we actually discover the
answers that we’re looking for and
lastly what has come up is something
that I wrote specially for today which I
truly feel and Compass’s everything that
we’ve talked about and it’s something
that I want to share with all of you
remember to listening to the whispering
voice inside that calls out to you to
achieve greatness enjoy your journey
through life have fun doing life be open
to life without any cynicism in your
heart accept new opportunities and
experiences with an immeasurable
innocence be naive enough to be creative
and do what no one else will contribute
to move in mankind further have the
wisdom to remain prudent be courageous
enough to remain humble accepting and
forgiving but most of all have the
audacity to be daring to be authentic
and leave a positive impact on the world
because only you can leave your mark on
humanity and therein lies your truth
thank you very much
[Applause]
[Music]
you
truth how you define who you are what
you want to be the impact you want to
have on the world and why is it so
important it’s important to understand
your truth because to live a fulfilled
life to maximize your full potential to
make the impact that only you can make
with your singularly designed DNA you
need to know who you are so that the
choices in your life’s journey resonates
with what’s inside so what is my truth
my personal story is filled with many
life defining moments my life has been a
journey of breaking barriers challenging
the status quo succeeded by achieving
excellence in many areas both personally
and professionally I’m a Nigerian girl
bunch of parents foreign educated who
instilled in my two sisters and I a very
strong sense of self and single-minded
independence and aside from running
marathons completing three half Iron
Man’s and finishing one full Ironman and
raising money for charities I’ve also
lived and worked across Nigeria the UK
Northern Ireland the u.s. Malaysia
Singapore Dubai China Thailand Hong Kong
and I have experience doing business in
a few African countries I finished a
master’s in mechanical engineering the
only girl in my class and I fought
through finding out that I was being
paid 25% less than guys I worked with at
some point in my career and aside from
being and
negative in the oil and gas services
industry today I also launched a
nonprofit to get more women into CEO and
c-suite roles in the NGO industry
because there is a gap and we need to
fix that gap and I’m also working on
raising a scholarship for my alma mater
you see from a very young age I had a
very strong sense of who I am and who
I’m called to be I knew I wanted to lead
people and make lives better I I knew I
wanted to lead businesses and an
influential levels that I can contribute
to economic advancement I knew that I
wanted to design and build and create
technology so that I contribute to
moving mankind further I also wanted to
mentor people and invest in ideas so
that I can help other people achieve
their full potential I wanted to support
women in maximizing their talents I also
had my own natural curiosity for for
people for the world for different
cultures for just the way things are
done and I’m aware that not everybody
has this strong sense of self or this
strong sense of calling which is why
we’re having this talk today so I ask
you what is your truth how do you find
it and how do you live it you see I want
to think of us today as being in four
groups first of all those who have found
their truth and are living it well this
message is to reinforce you and those
who have found their truth and feel that
they’re still searching for parts of it
that are missing for this truth this
this message today is to help you with
your search and those of us who feel
that we found the truth but it changes
with the seasons of life well this
message today is to help you understand
that your truth is very different from
your direction and lastly for the
seekers for those too trying to conjure
up a definition of their truth those who
are asking questions that feel they
should be doing something bigger
impacting the walls in a greater way but
just don’t know how
find the road to that journey or how to
live that journey well welcome
I hope this talk helps you find your way
so no matter what group you are
identified with at the end this message
is supposed to leave all of us with some
tools to being able to describe our
truth to find it and to live it and the
tools are the same for all of us whether
you’re about to graduate and you’re
wondering what to do with your career or
you need to make decisions about life
and love and family and relationships or
you’re in a career wondering what should
I do next and those of you who
entrepreneurs and seeking that next step
or those who want to jump into
entrepreneurship and if you’re just
assessing life in general and wondering
what you should be doing with yourself
if you’re truly living a life that is
authentic to you well I can tell you
that finding and living our truth is a
universal constant to all of us so how
do you find your truth I like to kind of
describe it as our truth is found in
collecting all of our life’s little
treasures and putting them together to
one day a picture forms before us where
we can grasp at a definitive description
of who we are but let me say that again
our truth is found by collecting all of
our life’s little treasures and putting
them together so we can come up with a
definitive description of ourselves and
you see this journey starts from
childhood it’s all of your life little
treasures that are moments of your life
experiences the lessons that you take
out of events the things that have
piqued your interest and your curiosity
the imprints of conviction that I’ve
been left on your heart from a young age
which is overlaid on your traits and
your personal temperament and sometimes
our treasures we’ve done of the stories
of our parents and generations before us
let me give you an illustration of what
I mean by that I come from a line of
grandmothers on both sides who wear
self-starters risk-takers and business
owners who
in a time where education was favored
for boys and not girls and I often
wondered what they could have become
what they could have achieved with their
talents and I can tell you that that
little treasure from me imprinted on my
young mind that I was going to cherish
my education and support other people to
do the same that I was going to work
hard to maximize my talents but I will
also help other women achieve their full
potential
now here’s another treasure I can share
with you when I was about eight years
old at the end of the school day I would
go pick up my baby sister from her class
now one day I arrived and she was crying
and I asked her what happened I probably
had teacher had spanked her know before
you all get carried away you could spank
kids in Nigeria with you know without
having any problems now what happened
was it was nap time and apparently she
was talking with a friend of hers
because she wasn’t sleepy so I remember
going home that evening and thinking oh
this isn’t really fair so I took a long
piece of paper and I wrote my sister’s
teacher a letter and in this letter I
gave her my personal suggestion for how
I thought she should run her nap times
if everybody doesn’t want to sleep then
some kids should be allowed to play or
read quietly so the next morning I took
my sister back to a class and I marched
up I said to the lady good morning and I
gave her my letter now needless to say I
became pretty popular for this letter my
mom host called to school but the best
part about is the teacher actually came
to adore me and my sister but you know
what I will tell you is that Who I am
and who I’ve become lays in the treasure
of that story that I share with you of
the eighth year ago who wrote it a
letter to her baby sister’s teacher and
so in the end how you define your truth
truly comes from collecting your
treasures they’re about your stories
that the things that you like and don’t
like
they’re about your opinions that you
have formed through things that you’ve
been through they’re oftentimes things
that have inspired you in other people
sometimes they’re the challenges that
have been created inside of you that
made you resolve to do a certain thing
and at the same time this can also come
from a yearning of things you didn’t
have or experiences you didn’t have or
something you wish would have been done
a different way and usually this
template is set from a very young age
now the definition of your truth matures
with age so for example eight year of me
would have said I want to change the
world and 15 year old me will say well
I’m gonna go change the world because
when I become an engineer I’m gonna
design things to make the world a better
place and here I stand today telling you
as a much grown woman that I want to
change the world by helping more women
attain senior positions in the industry
now if you notice my truth hasn’t
changed the core of Who I am has
remained the same now my definition has
matured over time and the message has
matured over time so I invite all of you
to spend some time collecting your
treasures trace your stories back and be
brave enough to affirm who you know you
are now let’s talk about how you live
your truth living your truth is about
remaining authentic to yourself living
your truth is the navigational aspect of
life it’s very different from the
definition of your truth and I think
this is where a lot of people get stuck
how many times have we all said I feel
lost I bet you if I did a show of hands
everyone’s hand will go up there you go
how many times have we all said in life
I just don’t know what I’m doing anymore
I really can’t figure this out and I
think part of the challenge there is
that we need to get to a point where we
can separate the definition of our truth
which is our goals and our dreams and
that doesn’t change it matures with time
yes but the journey that we take through
life the paths that we have to take now
life presents us with challenges so we
adapt living our truth is really just
about the decisions and the sacrifices
that we have to make so that we can get
through life so we can conquer the
different phases of our life and
sometimes that journey just doesn’t look
like what we thought
for those of you who are in here who are
locking a life has turned out exactly
how you planned can you meet me at the
end please and share your secret with me
because truly the rest of us are just
trying to live our life and I arrived at
the definition of our goals in our
dreams by taking different paths and
being flexible with life and what I can
tell you is that while living your truth
on these different paths actually lies
your opportunity for you to keep
searching to keep seeking and keep
digging deeper to continue to find more
within yourself and define yourself it’s
the same if you research any famous
person or you pick one of your heroes
and and you think oh wow this person has
it figured out they’ve accomplished so
much they’ve achieved so much if you
ever listen to any of the
autobiographies or you read their books
they always start off by telling stories
from their childhood the reason why they
decided to be a certain way or not be a
certain way what inspired them what
caught their interest and for me that
person is Oprah Winfrey I could tell you
that because every time she talks very
clearly about her childhood she shares
her challenges her opportunities in her
childhood but also growing up through
life she speaks very clearly about how
she decided to become who she is today
when she found out she had a big voice
and she wanted to share that with the
world but what I love most about her is
that she uses that platform to help
other people but she always talks about
living her truth and being authentic to
herself so to be effective at living
your truth is very simple for every step
that you take continue to assess am i
doing what resonates with me am i doing
what resonates with my truth what I feel
comfortable with on the inside and is
what I’m doing the way I’m living is it
gonna help me get to my goals now I know
there are more questions okay so you
find your truth you live it but if you
like any of us we all get a little bit
confused once in a while
and the question is how do we deal with
that what happens when we get scared or
what do we do with that fear and what if
life just doesn’t give you the lucky
lottery what happens if you don’t have
the resources and the tools to live your
truth or you live in a part of the world
where your truth this challenge or a
part of your challenge is that your
truth really is in conflict with other
parts of yourself now I could tell you
that on my way to this talk I’m actually
going through a big life decision I was
thinking to myself gosh I really wish I
was in the audience and someone was
giving me this talk but since I’m up
here I said hey how would I actually
deal with these challenges well my
guidance to you is simply this the first
thing I’ve done at every point when I
face the challenges I’ve overcome I
assess I think to myself how can i
balance and compromise and then I seek
advice there is power in asking guys but
when you ask remember to enter into an
offering of asking and giving because
there are people who have come before us
who’ve lived this journey who may have
answers or things that we haven’t
considered and then I act and when I act
I do with courage and without cynicism I
jump because I believe life will catch
me and you know if it doesn’t really
work out or I find out that I was wrong
I am really willing to say hey I did it
wrong I’m not shy to change direction
and try something else we also got to be
willing to take risks in trying
something else sometimes you gotta seek
new opportunities and just really push
your boundaries but most of all
personally I could tell you that all
those countries I named and all the
things I shared with you that I’ve done
truly just came out of the fact that I
genuinely trust life and I have blind
faith but I believe that somehow the
universe is aligned to help all of us
achieve who we are called to be and to
achieve our goals and I think you should
believe that too well at the start I
promise to leave all of us with
a set of tools for how to really figure
this thing out so here we go
here are my three points first remember
to collect your truths put them together
and define yourself secondly don’t
forget the power of asking for help for
support for advice and even listening
and lastly be an angel but be open to
accepting the Angels in your life
because I can tell you that oftentimes
on this journey of asking and receiving
help it’s when we actually discover the
answers that we’re looking for and
lastly what has come up is something
that I wrote specially for today which I
truly feel and Compass’s everything that
we’ve talked about and it’s something
that I want to share with all of you
remember to listening to the whispering
voice inside that calls out to you to
achieve greatness enjoy your journey
through life have fun doing life be open
to life without any cynicism in your
heart accept new opportunities and
experiences with an immeasurable
innocence be naive enough to be creative
and do what no one else will contribute
to move in mankind further have the
wisdom to remain prudent be courageous
enough to remain humble accepting and
forgiving but most of all have the
audacity to be daring to be authentic
and leave a positive impact on the world
because only you can leave your mark on
humanity and therein lies your truth
thank you very much
[Applause]
[Music]
you
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