Why transformation is so important.

On my first trip to West Africa, I taught a marketing class to small business owners in Conakry, Guinea. It was an experience like no other I had ever had up until that point. Guinea was and still is one of the poorest countries in all the world. Poverty was very evident traveling around the capital city of Conakry. Deplorable housing conditions. The infrastructure of the city was in horrendous condition! There was trash throughout the city, and constant smoke filled the air due to people burning the garbage. There was only enough electricity for about 6 hours a day. It was a filthy and dark city.

Jonathan Müller Keba - en.wikipedia to Commons., CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=47427083

My host took me back to the airport at the end of my stay. As we approached the airport, my host turned to me and said, “look at what you see when we round the next turn into the parking lot of the airport.” As we turned into the airport, I noticed that large lights lit the parking lot. It was unusual and harsh to see as I had gotten used to the urban darkness. As my eyes adjusted to the lights, I began to see what was underneath those lights. Thousands of kids were gathered under the lights! I turned to my host, and he said, “They’re doing their homework. They don’t have lights at home!”

At that very moment, my mission changed.

I had come to West Africa to teach a marketing class. I was leaving intent on being an agent for transformation.

The essence of Go Global, Inc.’s vision and mission is to be agents for transformation. I am not naive, and I know that transforming West Africa (as well as New York City, for that matter) will not happen overnight. But it does start with me! I can help transform business and government leaders, and they, in turn, can change how they do business within their organizations and agencies. Those businesses and government organizations can transform society and, in turn, a continent. And it does start with me! If not me, who?

That vision with thousands of school children huddled under those airport parking lights sticks with me to this day, and it drives me, and it pushes me to be an agent of change and an agent for transformation!