“Before I left for South Africa, I had tendered my resignation at the IT Company in April but they wouldn’t just let me go. By then, I had spent 7 years in the company and even though I was the youngest, my pay was way higher than most of the people in the firm. I may have been favoured but I worked hard. I made sacrifices, read, spoiled things so that I can get them right again.
When I left the IT company, I was in debt to the tune of N200,000 and so it wasn’t logical – I mean, I was resigning a paid job to run an NGO that had no funding or grant and yet I was in debt of N200,000. But I was convinced that God was calling me to run Mind Alignment Centre (MAC). So I decided that if I did MAC for six months and there was nothing to show, I’d return to my IT job. When I finally left the IT Company, my resignation letter only got a verbal approval. Till today, I can walk in there anytime and eat rice. So I tell people, if you would leave a place, leave well; someday it might rain and it would be the only shelter you can run to.
So, I was aiming for a program when I didn’t have money but I was just confident that somehow, I’d pool resources together and we’ll have the program and yes, we did. We had a 10-weekend program and we had 33 teenagers and 30 of them stayed through it all till the end. We even got snacks for them all through. The success of that paved way for me as a Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert (MIEE), and I have trained over 500 educators, across the country, including professors. These feats do have their price. People thought I was always been hugely paid at Microsoft but no, I wasn’t. 9 out of 10 times, I personally fueled my car for trips and trainings, but I it didn’t matter; I saw it as the price to pay to gain knowledge, exposure, and invaluable experience. That, money cannot buy.
In March, 2016, my father passed away after suffering stroke for 11 years; my model left. I saw him struggle to stay; it was like God forcefully pulled him. But you know, I learnt bravery, I learnt leadership, I learnt service and ultimately, I learnt the power of “belief”. I am humbled to say that I kept his guard with my siblings; so I knew what fatherhood was like even when I was a teen! That was exciting but challenging.
One of my biggest successes of 2017 is to have championed the first ever 20-day totally free teenage leadership camp in Nigeria for 34 teenagers, without religious or political affiliations or donations up to 100,000 Naira. Our teenagers were camped in 16 Air –Conditioned rooms and our facilitators in a Duplex. It has remained a big feat and a standard hard to beat; I mean very hard to meet. We got promising sponsors but they backed out 13 days to kick off. It took over 3 Million Naira to deliver TELP and I was even willing to sell my car to make it happen.
Right now, at MAC, we have developed our proprietary curriculum that will prepare the millennials for the challenges of their own time.
I am a very hardworking person and I would never give up on a challenge; I must just find a solution. I am also very handy when it comes to tech and cars; be it changing a Macbook screen to disassembling a Gearbox, fixing the power steering rack of sophisticated cars, troubleshooting error codes, or coding cars. There is nothing the mind of man can’t achieve, if only the mind is fed aright. Bravery, I tell you, can be nurtured. To be born for a thing is different; but to be brave at doing it is the sine qua non.
In all, I thank God for people. I thank God for people who had faith in me that I could do anything I wanted to do. That faith has always kept me going on. For me, my journey is not about knowing that there’s something out there for me, it is about believing that there’s something out there even when I see nothing. I know that I don’t have the money but I know I have the my vision planned out and I have the will.
Wherever there is a will, there is a way.
——
Babatunde Vaughan runs the Mind Alignment Center which is focused grooming young minds, especially the millenials with the right values & skills to help them develop their leadership potentials.
