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| One Young World : Counsellor Kofi Annan and Co-Founder David Jones |
It is very unusual to attend leadership conferences like "One Young World". Why is it so unusual?
For five
reasons:
First,
it is dedicated to young leaders aged 18-30 from all over the world. It is an
impressive feeling when you get there and you are surrounded by inspiring,
game-changing, beautiful young characters ! Aged 42 myself, I sometimes felt
like a dinosaur... especially when instead of exchanging business cards the other
person takes a picture of you with your name-tag so he/she can find you on
Facebook...
Second,
the achievements of these 1.300 young leaders are mind-boggling. I watched in
pure amazement a 17-year old young leader, basically a teenager, get on stage
to talk about his Education charity called Rwanga which runs 32 projects across
4 countries (Kurdistan, Syria, Iraq, Ghana) which he founded 4 years ago, when
he was just 13, the age of my elder daughter ! This is truly humbling as well
as amazing. This teenager is pure energy, and pure incentive to make the world
a better place.
Third, you hear from the young delegates some things that you would not hear or believe otherwise, from 190 countries across the world... Personal extraordinary stories about poverty, child abuse, rape, hunger, disease, disability, slums... dramas against which many of these young victims have decided to stand up and fight. These 1.300 young leaders have only one dream in mind: Eradicate the problems of the world. Idealists? Certainly... but with a clear purpose and really action-oriented mindset.
Fourth,
I was amazed by the presence and commitment of a fantastic panel of speakers -
the "One Young World Counsellors" - whose names are the Hall of Fame
of Leadership: Kofi Annan, Mohammad Yunus, Bob Geldorf, Francois Pienaar, Paul
Polman, Ahmed Kathrada, Richard Branson, Jochen Zeitz, Lily Cole, Boris Becker,
Antony Jenkins etc. All of them are very inspiring speakers, as they speak from
the heart about their actions to make the world a better place.
Fifth,
because One Young World took place in Johannesburg, there has been a special
tribute to Nelson Mandela, a leader whose perseverance, charisma, intelligence
and compassion helped to change the face of South Africa, and to end the
infamous apartheid which still existed here until the 90's. The testimonials
from personalities who know him well are really moving. It is not often that a Rugby
World Cup champion, captain and living legend like Francois Pienaar cries on
stage. It is not often that 1.300 people feel touched at the heart by the
testimonial of Madiba's friends. It is not often that myself have tears in my
eyes when attending a leadership conference.
The story of Nelson Mandela, given
by his close friends, gave me the ultimate lesson of leadership, and is
probably (so far) the peak of One Young World summit !
In my
next blog post, I will share some of the best lessons of leadership from the
One Young World counsellors… Watch the space and follow my blog. Also on
Twitter: @jmliduena
One Young World : Inspiring and Connecting !
