Hey the following is a speech by CEO sameer Africa Bwana Eric Kimani,this speech is one of the best speeches i have ever read,it has the oppurtunity for the first time to appear in this addictive and popular blog.
Enjoy!
The only bad thing about this guy is that he heads sameer Africa ,a company that has been making losses for now 2 consecutive years , i wonder what his take on the issue is.
LIVING BY CONSCIENCE
A talk by Eric Kimani to Strathmore University Alumni on Friday 06 July 2007
Distinguished guests, alumni members, ladies and gentlemen, I feel privileged to speak at your alumni night and thank you for your kind invitation. I take this early opportunity to wish the alumni well into the future.
Friends, I feel honored today to come and speak on this auspicious occasion on three counts;
1. I studied at Strathmore for part of my CPA and Jim McFie an icon in the profession and in Strathmore was a colleague of mine in the service of the ICPAK where we served in the Education and Training Board together for many years
2. It is an honor for me to speak to relatively younger people as it gives me an opportunity to share with them the mistakes I have made and hope they can learn from me.
3. My attempt to inspire you is a greater attempt to inspire myself to walk my talk.
This evening I intend to spend a few minutes and plant a few thoughts to help us wade through our career and life struggles. I want us to engage our minds on CONSCIENCE.
As I speak I want us to ask ourselves- what we truly aspire to do with our lives? What are we doing to pursue those aspirations? Are we focused on the important things in our lives or are we floating through life fighting with the urgent issues that are not necessarily important?
As I speak tonight, I speak as one who has tasted what you have tasted; one who attended accounting 3, then called financial accounting in Strathmore before Jim McFie; one who won distinguished national awards in the CPA exams and yet failed and repeated some examinations. But more importantly I speak to you as one who is a little older and a little more experienced and one from whose mistakes and failings you may learn.
A little about my growing up…
What were my aspirations as I grew up?
Ever since I was mature enough to present my catalogue of needs before God, I asked him that I would like to be a rich God-fearing man. I repeated this kiddish and rather silly prayer through high school and into the early years of my married life.
I was however keenly aware that while I was constantly asking God to make me rich, I was not keeping my end of the bargain- I was not God-fearing enough. I, like many of you here tonight was fooling around; doing a few ungodly things. But I recall this one thing clearly- every time I did these things it broke my heart with guilt; each of these times I had ignored or refused to listen to my conscience.
Human conscience is higher than any written law. It is the single distinguishing factor between men and animals. It is the one gift that every normal human being has in equal measure. All thieves, rapists, corrupt men, etc have it in equal measure to all good men. It is the small voice that tells us that what we have done or want to do is wrong. But we often ignore it. We justify our wrongful actions. When you want to have wrongful sex, we justify ourselves by arguing that God gave us these emotions; when we loot public funds we argue that the public has benefited greatly; when we steal we argue that it is because we are hungry or needy; when we approve a shoddy public contract and get a kickback we argue that this is only a thank you we did not demand and the list goes on and on!
Our conscience in all these instances will raise the red flag! But we will justify ourselves. The more we justify ourselves the more we kill conscience and the more we move from humanness towards animal like behavior. We are left wanting more sex with more partners; we plunder the public coffers more and more; we receive more and more kickbacks.
Many of us are not lucky and cross the Rubicon- they kill conscience completely! Animal instinct takes over!
Have you ever wondered why a normal man would behave the way most us would disapprove? Why an old man would be flirting openly with a girl young enough to be a granddaughter? I saw it with someone I know who is now 65 years old. He moved around with one my younger relatives when he was about 50 and she was about 22. They did it so openly. Their conscience had died and they did not know. Today both have paid dearly for this. For many years now I have watched them live hell on earth!
I know of a corrupt rich man who has all the wealth you would wish for in the world but would not give a dime to anyone and would kill to add to his riches. Why? He ignored conscience. He killed it! He continues to be corrupt but is blind to it!
I have a friend who thought he was addicted to sex – he slept with every woman that came his way. He served jail twice for rape. Why? He ignored the small voice of human conscience and allowed it to die.
I could go on for ever with true stories but what is my point?
Once you allow your human conscience to die it is beyond you to control or correct the situation.
Tonight my Friends, I want to encourage you to live by conscience. Do not ignore it when it calls; acknowledge wrong doing when you do it and conscience will lead you; feel the pain of ignoring conscience and acknowledge it. To kill your conscience is to die.
There is nothing I know in my life I regret most than the times I have ignored my conscience. I have, like many of here would confess, suffered needlessly. We hurt needlessly. I won my long drawn war with my conscience and resolved to follow it in all instances. I will share a story about my life. Years ago I was responsible in conferring benefit to a certain individual in my normal line of duty. The contract was awarded judiciously and performed judiciously. All parties were satisfied. The books were closed cleanly. Then one day the contractor called me and told me that for the part I played in making it work, he would wish to thank me. The thank you was to take the form of some money running into seven digits! My conscience told me this was wrong. I liked the man and respected him and I knew deep within he wanted to truly say thank you. But my conscience spoke loudly against it. I tried to tell myself that this is only a thank you. The contracts were awarded and performed properly and by taking it I would harm no one. But my conscience won the day and I told him that I would not accept this form of gratitude. This individual is my friend to this day and has done to me greater things than the little thank you he would have offered that did not resonate with my conscience. I regard him highly and he regards me most highly. This single opportunity to educate my conscience changed my entire life’s perspective- for my good and the good of many others.
If we all lived by conscience, and I repeat that it is given to all of us in equal measure, we would never need the law or jails.
Peace and harmony would replace worry and anxiety. Fear and worry are the two human emotions that are the result of failing to educate our conscience. From my experience it is the two emotions that kept me from achieving extra-ordinary results for far too long.
If I was sitting where you sit tonight, what then would I do different?
I would do four things differently;
1. I would follow my conscience more than any written law or any preacher.
2. I would banish fear, worry and anxiety more. Unfounded fear and worry kept me far too long chained to procrastination. Fear and worry will rob you of energy more than any other human emotion I know. Many times I feared I would die of some sickness; that I would fail: that my children would fail; that my projects will fail and on and on. It has been conclusively established that 95% of our fears are unfounded. With hindsight, I think 99% of my fears were unfounded!
3. I would reach out more. I would give out more of myself- my talents, my wealth et all! I have learnt this immense secret rather late in life that those who give of themselves immortalize themselves- they live lives that are far longer and fulfilling than their physical years. This is man’s greatest yearning. I would be a little Mother Teresa in my community and within my capability.
4. I would endeavor to live life more abundantly. Believing in myself more. Believing in the world more. Believing that there is more good in the word than we care to acknowledge. Believing that the world is truly a catalogue for me to place an order for my life. I would follow my dreams more no matter how lofty. If I was sitting where you sit tonight I would believe in my unlimited ability to achieve my dreams. I would take life less seriously. I would play more. I would act like a kid more. I now truly know that we human beings are supernatural beings in human form.
Friends if I were part of the Strathmore Alumni tonight, I would make a covenant with my spirit to live by conscience. To listen more to that small voice that is my human spirit. To educate my conscience more.
This, my friends is my simple message tonight.
Thank you and God bless you.
Eric
