Why half of the world? Because it’s my way of saying: “Look people, it’s half already!” Now we can touch the other half and let them know how important women are.
In The Art of Drawing, by Bernard Chaet the phrase: “The purpose gives birth to the idea”, has made me understand something about our creative nature.
Let’s see now. We sometimes say to ourselves we have no ideas, right?
Really?
Put it this way. Do you have a purpose? Is there something that you think about a lot. Something you want to try and achieve, some time in the future? If yes, then go for the purpose and the ideas will flow to support it.
Try it!
Probably crazy ideas at first. Don’t despair, I thought you said you had no ideas.
So where do ideas come from? Ideas come from the purpose you set yourself to attain, or someone else sets before you.
In 1971 I won the art prize for my class at Presbyterian Secondary School in Ghana. I received a book that was not by any stretch of the imagination an art related book. Strange! The book was: A Quarter of Mankind: An Anatomy of China today, by Dick Wilson.
My art teacher at the time was my aunt, Juliana Armar. Did she see something I couldn’t yet see?
Did she see that one day I would create a design and call it “Woman is The Key”, and out of the design would come a question. A question that I hope will put a large number of people into action mode. A mode that will affect change.
The Question is: In your life what have you detected, that you can communicate as a vision and give direction to better women’s future.
By so doing you can help touch the world
Questions demand answers. So if you find in a given situation you have no answers, perhaps you have not yet asked the right question. In this project, we hope for answers that will provide the emotion that change needs, to get off the ground.
Many voices working together can bring about change.
I started with a few friends, then I broadened my outlook and continued my network on LinkedIn.
I have connected with some who were not yet born, when I thought of “Woman is The Key” in May 1981. But I could not move forward without their birth and contribution into this worldwide project. There are also others whom I had probably already met but did not know it. Certainly I did not know that they would be a piece of the puzzle, that I could not solve by myself.
For example, I connected with a lady whose house I had been to many years ago when we were in high school. We were teenagers at the time living in Ghana. For the life of me I can’t remember if I ever spoke to her in person, but I do remember her family lived in the same neighbourhood as my best friend at the time. I actually went to her house a couple of times with my friend. Funny thing is I only remember asking about her brothers. We thought her Dad was very strict or something. Guess what, her Dad was not even around those years of her life.
Fast forward to now, there she is on LinkedIn as an architect and fashion designer, forty years later!
She is now helping to answer the Woman is The Key Question. I wish I had looked her in the eyes then and said: “One day you will help me answer a question that will touch half the planet.” She would have thought: “Wow this dude has a big dream” or something to that effect.
So far I have found out that the people who answer a question about leading others, are usually those who have tried and done something for themselves.
However, small their effort, it’s still an inspiration to someone else.
Running with the idea that creativity and passion are important, let me introduce you to two ladies.
First, Helen Teague wrote back and said: “A sound sense of self worth is a healthy platform on which to live one’s life. Being able to develop self worth is obviously helped or hindered by character and environment.”
“I realize that an exploration of one’s creativity is a fruitful as well as robust route towards a balanced sense of self worth.”
“Any genuine exploration is bound to be full of blind alleys – and so choosing to go down – or up – a blind alley can seem a tough choice – unless each journey stems from an effort at creativity. Then there will always be a pay off. At the very least the blind alley would be an exploration of a creative possibility which in itself is a contribution to the quality of your life, and possibly to others lives. At best it will be revealing and fulfilling.”
“So I would say that being actively and purposefully creative every day is enhancing, may be liberating and could even result in a work of art.”
The second lady is Ofie Ofuatey-Kudjoe who said: “It is extremely important for us to identify our passions early in life, ensure that we do everything possible to hone our God-given talent; and work towards building our careers around both.”
“A career should not be that which you do just to make money. That’s a job and with that one must toil.”
“A career is that which brings you joy and fulfillment as it generates an income for you. Pursue this and you will never ‘work’ again.”
“Remember to live life to the fullest, love life in all that you do; and live love in all your interactions.”
There are many more voices coming. With new voices come new ways of looking at an old problem: how to motivate more people to succeed by removing the obstacles to their God-given destiny.
WOMAN IS KEY® 