I try and I Made It: Success Secret of William Kamkwamba

After teaching himself to build a windmill which generated power to power some electrical appliances in his family house, the news of Kamkwamba’s feat went viral, attracting news media and global attention. For previous article on Kamkwamba, CLICK THIS LINK.

One influential personality that got attracted to Kamkwamba is Mr. Emeka Okafor, a Nigerian who was also program Director for the TEDGlobal 2007 conference ("TED" stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design).

In June 2007, Kamkwamba boarded a plane, courtesy TEDGlobal for the TEDGlobal conference in Arusha, Tanzania. As he arrived the conference, he stood shyly in a corner where Tom Reilly, community director of TED spoke with him. According to Reilly, “I’d heard his story from Emeka Okafor but after speaking with him for 10 minutes, I realized that he was an extraordinary young man and his accomplishment was more profound than the anecdote I heard back in December 2006. He struck me as a person of great character and had a certain calmness to him. I immediately realised that we had to get him up on stage, even though he wasn’t scheduled to speak.”

Kamkwamba was put on stage. As witnessed by the audience, his English was poor, but his story was inspiring. When he was asked how he made the windmill, 450 inventors, scientists, doctors and entrepreneurs watched him struggle to find the words, which eventually became the motto of the conference: “I TRY AND I MADE IT.”

Explaining the audience’s response to kamkwamba’s speech, Reilly told www.thestar.com (Toronto Star Newspapers): “William brought the house down. People were applauding and laughing and crying.”

Here lies the secret of Kamkwamba’s success: “I TRY AND I MADE IT.” It is not that he was taught by engineers, he was only an ordinary Malawian citizen. It was not that he travelled overseas to acquire the training, he could not afford to travel out of his village by road, not even to talk of affording flight ticket to foreign land. He taught himself to build a windmill with the aid of a book, titled, USING ENERGY. He followed the diagrams and instructions contained in the book, and he successfully built the windmill which generated power to power the electrical appliances in his family compound in his village – Wimbe.

Now, who told you that books cannot make you rich? Tell the person to go and sit down. It is books that make doctors, lawyers, engineers, etc, successful. It was just ONE book (not two) that brought Kamkwamba fame and fortune. The next time someone wants to discourage you from reading, tell him to go and sit down.

Impact of Kamkwamba’s Windmill Ingenuity

Was Kamkwamba’s windmill ingenuity a ruse? No, it wasn’t. that his windmills are still functional till today is a pointer to the fact that he was genuine and authentic. It is this authenticity that made Tom Reilly, community director of TED to set up an NGO called, MOVING WINDMILLS to support him. They are having lots of donors because so many people were inspired or moved by Kamkwamba’s achievement.

Through the foundation, a well was drilled near Kamkwamba’s clay-brick house and one of the three windmills built by him is used to pump water from the well. Women in the village no longer trek1 ½ to 4 hours to bring water to their homes. Moving Windmills has built classrooms for Wimbe Primary School, installed solar panels at his home and schools.

Symbol of Hope

Kamkwamba has become a symbol of hope for Africa. According to Brian Mealer, co-author of Kamkwamba’s autobiography, titled, THE BOY WHO HARNESED THE WIND, Africa is not a hopeless continent needing rescue. If there is one William Kamkwamba, then, there are thousands across the continent. We need to focus our energy and find them. 

Dear, reader, whether you will make it or not is up to you. The key to making it has been delivered into your hand: GO AND TRY THE BEST YOU CAN AND ALSO DEVELOP A READING CULTURE. AND FINALLY, PRACTICE WHAT YOU READ IN BOOKS. 

Until I come your way soon, go and live victoriously!            

Voice for the Voiceless: How Tsartsanis Single-handedly Ignite Compassion for Refugees in Greece

When it comes to inspiration, what it takes to inspire a nation is a single positive act of ONE man. When it comes to change, what it takes bring it about is ONE man. So it is with Greece, a country which has become one of the most welcome places for refugees in Europe. And what it took to make Greece what it is today is the yeoman effort of an ordinary Grecian citizen, by name, Visalis Tsartsanis. By becoming voice for the voiceless, Tsartsanis was able to inspire compassion for Refugees in Greece.  

It all began on a certain warm day of September, 2014, in the border city of Idomeni.  Idomeni is on the border between Greece and Macedonia, and it is 75km from Thessaloniki.

On the said day, a group of people walking through the field caught Tsartsanis's attention as he passed by the railroad that connects Greece to the rest of Balkans. As he stood watching, another group passed by, and the third group also passed by. These migrants were mostly refugees from Iran, Morocco, Somalia, etc. Just then, he went and got some food, water and clothes for the migrants. This is long before international organisations and donors started lending a helping hand in Idomeni.

As Tsartsanis remained in Idomeni supplying the needs of the migrants freely, he started writing to politicians and authorities, advocating for the refugees and the need to come to their assistance. In response to his constant plea, he was invited to address the European parliament. He also talked to many media establishments. A one-man rioting squad, Tsartsanis had no organisation or team of volunteers, but he was able to single-handedly inspire the EU to respond to the plight of refugees in Greece.

 

Today, Tsartsanis regularly organises missions for members of parliament and EU governments to Greece’s camps and has been active in efforts to relocate refugees to other countries. His humanitarian gestures has earned him grants from George Soros’s Open Society Foundation.

Tsartsanis's story is story of selflessness. It is a story of service to humanity. It is a story of compassion for migrants he never knew from Adam. In this world of selfishness, greed and grab-grab mentality, what we need to bring positive change is having compassion for the needy. It is high time we did away with the “What’s In It For Me (WIIFM) attitude. 

There are people who believe that caring for others at the expense of oneself is foolishness and a sure way to living in want and penury. But, history is replete with success stories that point to the fact that selflessness is the key to abundance. No wonder, master motivator, Zig Ziglar states: “YOU WILL HAVE ENOUGH WHAT YOU WANT IN LIFE WHEN YOU HELP OTHERS TO HAVE WHAT THEY WANT.”      

What we need do to make our community and indeed the world a better place to live in is to approach life with the attitude of a giver and not a taker. And as we do this, it is my hope that we will equally attract the law of abundance to work for us.

Until I come your way soon, go and live victoriously!

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William Kamkwamba: Lessons from an Emerging Light in the Midst of Malawian Darkness

When you enter the village of Wimbe, in the country of Malawi in the night, all you perceive is darkness, except a compound of houses where outdoor fluorescent light illuminates the surrounding. The power source is not the national electric grid of Malawi, but one generated by William Kamkwamba at the age of 13, off the three “rickety” windmills built by him.

The windmill power source has elevated Kamkwamba from starvation and obscurity to plenty and fame. Kamkwamba’s rise to prominence began shortly after finishing his primary school. During this period, Malawi was undergoing recession. Famine caused him to drop out of secondary school. His parents could not afford his tuition let alone the family of nine. During this period of recession in Malawi, boys in Wimbe who had nothing to do looked for day job, drink, smoke marijuana and laze about the trading centres.

 

Having lost the opportunity of attending secondary school, Kamkwambe, born August 5, 1987, started visiting the new library at the Wimbe primary school. There in the library, a book published in the US, titled, “USING ENERGY” caught his attention. The cover of the book showed a long row of windmills which he learned was powered by wind – an abundant resource in Malawi. Following the instructions and diagrams, he erected, experimented and tested his windmill with a cheap dynamo (a bicycle frame, a pulley and a plastic pipe). 

As he was busy looking for material to construct the windmill, people jeered and ridiculed him. According to him: “A lot of people were telling a lot of things that I was smoking marijuana or that I was lazy. I was hearing all kinds of negative things.” Instead of getting discouraged, he redoubled his effort. 

Initially, the villager thought he was crazy, but after he had built his windmills at his farm in Wimbe, and the lights went on, it became glaring to the inhabitants of the tiny village of Wimbe that he was in his right senses after all. The windmill generated power which powered some electrical appliances in his family's house in Wimbe. 

Kamkwamba’s power is more reliable than the Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (ESCOM), the only power source in Malawi. Kamkwamba’s outstanding feat is a reason why a global village is yearning to assist him. His autobiography co-written with Journalist Brian Mealer, titled, THE BOY WHO HARNESSED THE WIND, has become a bestseller on Amazon.com. He has been a guest on The Daily Show with Jon Steward and Good Morning America.

Education

TED conference director, Emeka Okafor, once invited Kamkwamba to talk at TEDGlobal 2007 in Arusha, Tanzania as a guest. His speech moved the audience, and several venture capitalists at the conference pledged to help finance his secondary education. He became a student at African Bible College Christian Academy in Lilongwe. He then went on to receive a scholarship to the African Leadership Academy.  He was courted by the best engineering universities in the US, but he eventually opted for Dartmouth College in the US and in 2014, he graduated from Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, USA. 

 

While there, he continued to participate in speaking engagements at various universities, colleges, high schools, and conferences around the US. He not only spoke about his experiences building the windmill, but he also informed audiences about the work that he was doing as he sought to bring development to different rural areas in Malawi.

Philanthropy

Through his organisation, Moving Windmills Project Foundation, Kamkwamba is making great impact in Malawi. He had worked extensively in Kasungu district, particularly his own home village, Wimbe. He had been able to build three classroom blocks with two classes each for the local primary school, Wimbe primary school. These new classrooms have solar panel installations that allow the students to study late into the night. He has also introduced a one-laptop-per-child initiative, which enables him to expose these youngsters on how to use computers at an early age. His local high school too has been a beneficiary. 

 

He has also installed solar panels and systems in Kachokolo high school, which allow the students to use computers for their studies. In fact, he has created a local network through the use of egranary, a box that stores academic information within a local network. It is like a digital library. This means that students don’t need to be online to access academic material. They simply need to access the local network using a router!

He has also piloted a biogas digester project in Masitala village. This digester uses cow dung to generate gas for cooking, thus providing an alternative energy source to firewood. 

He also saw it fit to create a soccer team for both girls and boys to provide a space for school drop outs to engage in meaningful activity, rather than remaining idle. The matches also create small business opportunities for women and families in the area, who bring food items to sell to the spectators.

In all, he has built a solar-powered water pump that supplies the first drinking water in his village and two other wind turbines (the tallest standing at 12 meters (39 ft)) and is planning two more, including one in Lilongwe, the political capital of Malawi.

Lessons

The story of Kamkwamba reveals that your background does not matter and when God wants to elevate you, He will lead you to discover ideas that will lift you from obscurity to stardom. Kamkwamba’s story also teaches us not to be lazy. Regardless of the recession that Nigeria undergoing, we can always find something to do. Let us not sit down idle. Let us go out and find something to do. It is the work of our hands that God will bless.

Until I come your way soon, go and live victoriously!   

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Here are some of our products that we highly recommend to all our readers:

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INFORMATION GOLDMINE! – Tap into the never ending goldmine of information!  

PRINTING PROFITS! – Make fortunes from printing with little or no capital.  

MAKE FORTUNES FROM IMPORT! – Start with little capital without travelling overseas!  

WRITE ONLINE ARTICLES FOR MONEY! – Discover the secret of making money online writing articles.  

AFFILIATE MARKETING GOLDMINE! – Discover the success secret in affiliate product marketing! 

ONLINE PLATFORM FOR ALL PROFESSIONALS! – Discover how to leverage the internet to grow your professional practice.  

LUCRATIVE POULTRY BUSINESS SECRETS! – How to make huge income constantly from egg and broiler production.  

A-Z OF COPYWRITING! – Master the technique of copywriting and earn fat income constantly!  

SUCCESS SECRET OF THE AGES! – Grab hold of the lessons contained in the ancient, life-changing parable of the pencil.