Go And Do Likewise

 ........ Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise Luke 10:37 (NKJV). I feel like preaching to someone today. But don’t worry, I am not here to preach. The day for preaching will come very soon.

I attended my first job interview for a brand manager role in September 2008. Jesse was part of the interview panel. If my memory serves me right, I had to attend two separate interviews for that particular role.

On the day I come for my appointment letter, after successfully passing through the interview process while waiting at the main reception to be called the HR Business Partner to her office for my offer letter, I met Jesse again. His words to me were “ hurry and come start work because we have work to do.”

I knew and admired Jesse from afar while I was at the University of Ghana. He was the Landlord of Legon Hall Annex A, one of the traditional halls in the university. I admired him for his good sense of dressing. He was a great orator, a good leader who commanded a lot of respect from the residents in Annex A. I always remember his rallying call when he wants to speak to us. He always shouted in a loud and commanding voice, “Annex A, to your balcony!!!”. The truth is, I never had the opportunity to have a face-to-face chat with him whiles at the university. He was in Level 400 and I had just entered the university at level 100 and was a mere percher in room 107.

Back to my role. When I started work,  I realized that Jesse still had that zeal, maintained his high level of dressing, and still had that leadership aura around him.  He came to work on time and was detailed and intentional about the tasks he was given, and his approach toward his work. You will always see him in deep thought before he speaks and you would always love to hear him speak. Jesse was that good.

Jesse was tasked to organize a flagship activation platform for the brand we worked on. Since I was employed as a brand manager in charge of activation, I had to work directly under Jesse. It was just a joy to work under the same man, I had admired at the university. I could not have wished for a better Senior Brand Manager to work under.

After working on and getting all the approvals for the activation, it was time to experience working with Jesse. Here was the plan. Start the activation in Takoradi, then have an Accra activity and then go to Ho and then to Kumasi and then Tamale, and then come back to Accra to organize two big events in Accra to end the activation. Now this activation was a dance competition in Ghana that was also running in Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, and Cameroon with winning dance groups from each of these countries meeting in Kenya for an international dance competition. This competition earned me my first ever international travel out of Ghana. I remember landing at the Jomo Kenyatta Airport in Nairobi, Kenya at 5 am on an overnight flight and fell in love with that country ever since. That is another story to be told later.

Back to Ghana. When the journey we set for Jesse and me to travel, we left the office en route to Takoradi. It was on a Friday early afternoon. A remember the day like it was yesterday. We traveled on the day that the Late Prof. Evans Atta-Mills made his very famous State of The Nation Address (SONA 2009). The one that he mistakenly pronounced “economy” as “econimi”. Do you remember? Yes, it was on that day. Jesse and I were listening to him and having a good laugh at that throughout the journey.

At some point during the journey, Jesse looked at me and said “Kwame, I am taking you to Takoradi to see how this competition is organized. After this event, I will leave you to go and do likewise in the other regional capital cities as per the competition’s plans. You will have to go and make yourself proud and make me proud as well.”

Jesse’s words struck and stuck with me. How can my Senior Brand Manager have so much confidence in me and my abilities even though he had not seen me organize any event before? I remember though, bragging about my event management prowess during my job interview session with him and other marketing managers during my first job interview.  Well, I was determined not to make this confidence he had reposed in me fail him, and myself as well.

We had a successful event at Last Hour Beach in Takoradi. It was a fun experience and to my shock and for the very first time, I saw people come to the beach after 7:45 pm on a Saturday. We had to turn a host of people away due to safety concerns about the number of people who were in there and the lot who were outside waiting to enter the beach. I was informed that the location is called Last Hour Beach because people come to that particular beach in the last hours of the day. Makes sense right? This will play back to me a year and a half later when I went again to Takoradi to have an event at the Takoradi Jubilee park as an anti-competitor activation against the Schweppes Malt launch in Takoradi.

Following the success at Takoradi, I rode on the confidence Jesse had in me to deliver events in Accra, Ho, Kumasi, and Tamale. The semifinals and Finals were also successfully organized at the National Theatre out of which Kris Stars won and represented Ghana in the Malta Guinness Street Dance Africa International Competition in Kenya.

In my corporate life, I have been blessed with bosses who have given me room to work and deliver with minimal supervision because of their confidence in my abilities. I remember a similar incident in Unilever which is another blog I will release in a couple of days after posting this blog.

https://www.myjoyonline.com/kris-stars-wins-malta-guinness-street-dance-africa-competition/

 

Wofa Ampong Kwesi writes to share his life experiences to help you learn the lessons so you can live a better and fulfilled life. 

Think positive, be positive, and stay blessed. 

Email the writer at wofaampongkwesi@gmail.com