Hi dear Readers, I will like to draw your attention to an inspiring personality whose name now rings a resounding in our world today. He is eleven year old Olamilekan.
You see, Olamilekan has a mother who has foresight. She understands the dynamics of being successful. Although poor, she is mentally not blind.
Olamilekan said: “When I was six, I started drawing. My mother noticed it and took me to an artist to learn under him.” First, she understands the place of talent, nurturing, mentoring and hard work. She saw a son who loved to draw and decided to nurture the talents by enrolling me with an artist, who will mentor and train me so that this talent can boom.
I will tell you a story about talent and hard work. Which should come first?
It’s going to be a long read.
First thing, I will also like to re-echo my constant words that “in 20 years’ time, ‘rock bottom’ will produce famous people more than ‘privilege.’”
This Today, I will want to introduce to you Olamilekan, that is the young 11-year-old who met with the President of France and drew his portrait in less than two hours.
Well, I will need to explain for the benefit of those who never heard the story. Hmmm…. At the Afrika Shrine, where the French President went recently, the boy Olamilekan went to work and came out with a perfect portrait of Macron the president of France Macron a 43 year old. The President was so thrilled that he said, “This is exceptional”.
Let me give you a brief story of this inspiring young boy, Olamilekan.
He’s from a poor background. Yes, a Rock bottom background! To most of us who see ourselves as average, Olamilekan sees us as the privileged few. He’s so poor that he said: “In his family, they have to toil and sweat before they can put food on the table.” Poverty was the order of the day. So, he made a portrait showing a young boy with sweat all over him putting food on his table, to depict his family scenario.
Olamilekan was so emotional when he was speaking in an interview about that art work that one could sense the tears in his words. He called the work his favorite.
He is barely 11 years and he understands poverty and struggle so much that he could create a mental picture and put it to drawing. Then you need to understand where he’s coming from.
Secondly, if you saw the house where Olamilekan was interviewed, you will understand his roots — his life and his story.
I was drawn to him when I first saw the interview and downloaded the video, and read some works about him, then I decided to share this experience to all.
I think I need to tell young people something about mentorship, nurturing and training. Young people as well as parents should try to lend themselves to mentorship. Because it goes a long way to affecting one’s direction towards success.
Dear readers, Olamilekan has a mother who is foresighted. She understands the dynamics of success. Although poor, she is not blind. Olamilekan said: “When I was six, I started drawing. My mother noticed it and took me to an artist to learn under him.”
First, she understands the place of talent, nurturing, mentoring and hard work. She saw a son who loved to draw decided to nurture the talent by enrolling him with an artist, who will MENTOR and TRAIN him so that his TALENT can boom.
This attribute that his mother showed is not learnt at any special school worldwide. As a matter of truth, the most sophisticated and learned mothers/fathers don’t have it; they are shallow. They only understand the place of academics, so they put their kids in an expensive school and pay for them to do another lesson during breaks, especially the end-of-session break that is fast approaching and bug their heads with books without any opportunity to nurture the creativity in them. Every single soul on earth has an inept gift or will I say talent and for most of them, without proper mentoring, nurturing and training, it will be lost.
Another thing is, she understands the role of TALENT before hardwork. Because hardwork does not sustain success, talent does. with talent, you can have a ‘come-back-to’ factor every time.
Talent before hardwork. It’s when you understand the TALENT you have that you can now put in hard work. Hard work has it reward, and it sometimes comes late but talent is a show-stopper. Talent catapults you into greatness. Talk about Ronaldo or Serena Williams and the many talents around us.
Olamilekan may not be the most brilliant boy in his class. He may not even be going to a private school for all you know, but he has a mother who knows what greatness smells like, and I tell you, greatness is not in wealth or in books but in the mental growth of everyone. The day we all realize that we need to first know the talent that God has given us and how to nurture it, that is the day we have stopped existing and have started living.
Olamilekan’s story can never remain the same again. He said: “I want to be like Michelangelo. Wow! Looking at his background, who told him the story of the great artist?
Who are the ones your kids want to be like? Who are the people your kids live up to? Who are they? What story are you relating to them? You think if his mother was telling him about Slay Queen, he will know Michelangelo? What are you saying around your kids?