Brian Ochieng's Speech at the second edition of the DierkeHouben Leadership Academy in Kenya

Brian Ochieng' delivered a rousing speech at the 2nd edition of the 'Lead Your Self' academy implemented in Nairobi, Kenya. He is a second-year student at Kenyatta University pursuing a degree course in Agribusiness Management and Trade. 
Being one of the academy participants, he had so much to share about his experience at the academy which he delivered in a speech on the last day of the academy. Find his speech below...

"Coming empty, highly expectant as always, looking for silver but unexpectedly finding gold. Finding ourselves was the mission, it was the object, the core for everything.
Doors that we would want to remain closed forever, experiences that we wished would never come to memory, people our tongues never wanted to mention, the past that we wanted to be the past, was the first step to completing our mission.
It felt scary, it was awful, it felt like throwing a stone at a beehive knowing entirely the outcome, it felt like opening a can of worms. The dark path had to be retracted and walked once more in our minds, but when we ventured into this ominous space, this threatening hole, we found something that we had left behind.
Striking that bottom rock expecting it to break us, we broke it. Therein we found our treasures, the gold that we had left there, bigger than 
when we left it. We found confidence, we found peace, we found strength, we found humility, we found bravery, and we found love.
Reconciling with the past was the best and most important moment, the fears of yesterday had been overcome. Carrying our gold, we sold it to the world in our proudest leadership moments. We gave courage, kindness, generosity, empathy, determination and most importantly, we gave love. Still, on this path but with a different perception, the call came, who are you?. To find ourselves was going to be the ultimate victory and thus, the purpose was formed. With the gold nuggets that we had travelled with from the past, direction, destiny and reason for existence were coined. True, it was awful tasting medicine but the patient needed it.
The leader had found himself, his destiny but how was he going to live it. It had just begun. Our purpose was to be lived by understanding our strengths, and our weaknesses and how to integrate and complement them with those of whom we had been born to give a difference.
I will focus my attention on anger as a weakness. Sun Tzu in his book; The Art of War says, 'Those who are good at knighthood are not militaristic, those who are good at battle do not get angry'. As a leader, anger is a weapon for destruction, because weapons are instruments of ill omen, to be used only when unavoidable. Therefore, as a leader avoid anger or its manifestations in all forms for it is like fire which unless stopped, burns itself out
One word is enough for a wise man and thus I draw nearer to a conclusion by saying, I have three treasures that I keep and prize, one is kindness, the second is frugality and the third is not presuming to take precedence over others. By kindness one can be brave, by frugality, one can reach out, by not presuming to take precedence over others one can survive effectively. If one gives up kindness and courage, gives up frugality and breadth, and gives up humility for aggressiveness, one will die
We have been called to be the best version of ourselves and then give it out to an ailing world, a world that may not appreciate the best that we have given them, but will accept it."

Speech delivered by Brian Ochieng - AiduTalent Kenya
at the 2nd Edition of the 'Lead Your Self' Academy in Nairobi, Kenya