The Youthful Champion: Keys to Achieving Life-Long Greatness

The YOUTHFUL

CHAMPION

CHAMPION

Keys to Achieving Life-Long Greatness

Charles Gbollie, Ph.D.

The Youthful Champion

Copyright © 2019 by Charles Gbollie, Ph.D.

All rights reserved. Except for short excerpts by a reviewer and reader, no part of this book

may be used, reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means,

without the prior written permission of author and/or publisher.

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Email: charleson20@yahoo.com

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ISBN: 978-164606511-0

DEDICATION

To Tukor Kpehe Gbollie: A Real Mother!

Apart from God, you are the main brain behind who I am today. You picked, nurtured and impacted my entire life. You provided me with endless motherly love, care, kindness and all I needed. Most importantly, you were the one who awakened and cultivated the dead sleeping giant of a champion within me and set me on the path to greatness.

To the over seven billion people, particularly youth on this planet Earth who have burning desires and willingness to take actions to become youthful champions or successful people. May this material equip you with the tools to not just achieve life-long greatness but to also play a pivotal role in the building of a much better world.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Our world has been and is the home to great men and women whose contributions and exemplary lives in all spectrums have inspired me to do more and crave for more each day. I owe tremendous gratitude to them for directly or indirectly impacting my life positively.

I am forever thankful to the woman (late Tukor Kpehe Gbollie) who picked, nurtured, loved and impacted my whole life. Much of whom I am and becoming is because of the seeds she planted within me. Thank you for awakening and cultivating the giant of a champion within me and setting me on the path to greatness and to my parents, Mr. and Mrs. Tamba S. Korfeh, dear sister Menche Gbollie, and my beloved friend, motivator and encourager, Faith K. Kialen for making my life worth living.

In addition to the above, I am very grateful to Professor Shaoying Gong, my greatest earthly mentor and principal academic and career advisor. Your kind support, guidance, assistance, tolerance and inspiration throughout all my major levels of higher education, including my doctorate have been resounding and remarkable. With a joyous and grateful heart, I acknowledge you in this special way.

To my dear friends and editors, Ernest Kwame Affum (PhD), Savior Ayertey Nubour (PhD), Hanna Yeshinegus Adamseged (PhD); Ayodeji Adetunji Idowu (PhD), Basuula Nicholas, Flemmings Fishani Ngwira (PhD) and Manyika Kabuswa Davy (PhD): I sincerely appreciate your commitment to excellence and quality of this book. I owe you a profound sense of gratefulness for assisting me to complete this task for the good of humanity, especially young people.

Finally and most importantly, Hallelujah to my Heavenly Father, God Almighty, the source of my joy, strength, favor and inspiration to write this book. With him I am 100% sure that all things are possible. In my unfaithfulness, He remains faithful. In my weakness, He strengthens me. And, in my despair, He gives me hope and joy. I am very grateful to you, Lord! My appreciation also goes to the Wuhan International Christian Fellowship (WICF) and the Salvation In Christ Ministries (SICM) families for their immense love, support and prayers.

Contents

FOREWORD

In today’s world where millions depart the universe without fulfilling their championship potentials, it has become imperative to device solutions to remedy the situation, starting from the youthful population. Though they are in the finest period of their lives, many young people have become vulnerable, unemployed, inexperienced and less motivated in spite of their freshness, vigor, spiritedness and vitality. Hence, breaking the chains of human tendencies and challenges, including being backward, average, mediocre and idle are a matter of must.

As Charles’ mentor and spiritual father, "The Youthful Champion" by Dr. Charles Gbollie—a well-accomplished youth and student leader, educator, researcher, media practitioner, mentor and motivational speaker, provides the much-needed answers. Having watched him grow up amidst several strikes against him, including poverty, uneducated parents, absence of financial support and unemployment among others, these unexpected hindrances could not stop Charles from becoming a youthful champion.

Though the journey was very tedious as a young man in post-war Liberia, he has to fight through survival of the fittest and broke the cage and set himself free from a place of nothingness and hopelessness to the highest level of education among others through hard work, consistency and perseverance.

In this book, Charles deemed it prudent to share his tested experiences, success mantras and key lessons learnt along his championship journey as part of his fervent aspiration to assist you achieve your dreams and transform the world for the better no matter your current circumstances. You can be guaranteed that through this book, his tested and proven keys will empower and equip you to achieve life-long greatness as it has been carefully designed to ignite and awaken your inborn giants.

The Youthful Champion helps you to discover who you truly are, to have clear purpose and determination, positive mental attitude and ideas, and to develop courage, burning desire and momentum to serve and work harder and smarter as you utilize your freshness and energy to impact the world in spite of difficult circumstances.

I am so glad that Charles was able to give keen attention and time into the years of mentoring and pruning the leader that has come out of him. Through it all, he never settled for destructive help neither did he wait for people to do for him what he was capable of doing for himself.

This worthwhile book is a manifestation of Charles’ continual devotion to giving back to others as he addresses critical issues related to human, social and educational development of all individuals, especially youth and students as he now motivates, mentors and coaches other young people from all backgrounds.

Over the years, for instance, he has impacted many young people in the Salvation in Christ Ministries where I serve as one of the pastors who has invested in many youths on the national level in our church. Charles did not only limit his mentoring and passion for young people in our church but also extended it across Liberia through his Foundation for Research, Education and Empowerment (FREE Liberia) of which I am also a board member.

Charles through his foundation continues to emphasize the promotion of research and educational programs and interventions, including youth development, upgrading of learning institutions, training of teachers/administrators, provision of learning materials and fostering a vibrant culture of teaching and learning to guarantee excellence. I am not surprised by his new book "The Youthful Champion." You are a real champion!

It is my ardent hope that Charles will continue to develop young leaders and communities for effective change in the world, particularly in Liberia through this book "The Youthful Champion" and other initiatives as it is absolutely needed.

Finally, let me seize this opportunity to congratulate and acknowledge you, Dr. Charles Gbollie for being an exceptional mentee. I wish to admonish you, dear reader, especially young people to emulate Charles’ example and do exploits, no matter your present situations. I strongly believe that this book will help you greatly as you read and share with your friends.

Thanks, Charles, for pouring your life into the next generation of leaders. You are truly a youthful champion!

Mentor and spiritual father

George Festus Blamoh

PREFACE

The greatest desire and source of fulfilment of every individual on earth is to become a champion. Particularly at youth, becoming a champion is the finest thing that can happen to you and the world. Imagine if most of our young people were champions in their teens and twenties and actively live forty to fifty years thereafter, you would be amazed how much transformation the world would experience. Unfortunately, majority of them, like millions of the adult population never realize their true potential, while a minute portion flinches success close to their time of retirement or demise. What a tragedy! This, therefore, demands an immediate call to action. And, this book is written in response to this glaring call.

The Youthful Champion is a mind-expanding, motivational, action-oriented and experience-rich life transforming book based on my tested experiences and success stories. It is an invaluable pillar for every person who loves and desires to break the shackles of a meaningless and backward life to become a successful champion on earth. It is primarily directed at young people who have a burning desire or would love to develop burning desires and the courage to get to work and change their lives and the face of the world. In this light, I have devoted overwhelming attention to materials that are very important for the holistic transformation of any youth irrespective of background, whether you were born in a poor or rich family or an economically challenging nation. In various parts, I have clearly discussed understanding and cultivating youthful prowess, investing and securing your youthfulness, exploring and impacting the world as a youthful champion etc. Most importantly, a whole chapter is devoted to my championship race with key lessons learned. This is meant to further inspire and challenge you to become a youthful champion in this generation. Nonetheless, it is obvious that many adults are yet to fulfil their true potential and desire not to leave this universe without cultivating the seeds of greatness within. Therefore, this book has been tailored for their benefit.

The driving force behind this finished product is in several folds. Firstly, someone reminds us that life’s ultimate question is: what are you doing for others? In our generation, if we are to make the world better than when we came into it, we must resist the temptation to hold back. I hold a strong view that when we are not purposefully giving to others, we are directly or indirectly subtracting from ourselves. This is why giving is one of the underlining principles that underpins religious beliefs, including Christianity. Personally, there is nothing that makes me much happier than to see your life transform. Through this book, it is my hope that you and many others will be deeply touched and transformed. In short, I am indebted to you. But you and I are indebted to changing the face of the world for the better.

Secondly, I have directed this book, particularly at youth, not because it was written in my youth but because I would argue that young people are the greatest wealth and resources that the world is blessed with. Tapping into their potential, energies and charisma is what every society needs. It is anticipated that this book would immensely contribute to the ultimate goal of raising and nurturing youthful champions world-wide to transform the universe for the better. As a proud youthful champion, having transformed my life and destiny from literarily a zone of nothingness and hopelessness to the place of being a champion in my generation, it is compelling; therefore, that I respond to this privileged call. Looking back, I have received and honoured enormous requests for counsel, mentoring, coaching and even to be a role-model to dozens of youth over the past decade. This, to admit, has been a perfect classroom for me. I, therefore, owe them big gratitude and remain indebted to them. This is one of the stimuli that inspired me to write this book as it is vital to do so in a more public manner for you to benefit. I am aware that as one climbs the ladder of life, there are always individuals who yearn to be at a position where you are. Of course, this is the beauty of life. An ardent responsibility of those who are there is to lead the way and give others the privilege to get there. I want you to get there and go beyond.

Finally, I hold a personal conviction to see societal transformation for the younger generation. It is unjust and regrettable to leave this world without making a landmark contribution on the course of history for good reasons. There is nothing more crucial for us to do than to prepare ourselves adequately and contribute to societal growth and development in such a manner to touch humanity through the best means possible. We owe it to the world and let us do so together because your success is my success and vice versa. My quest for you to be a youthful champion is held in this regard.

I, therefore, have the distinguished honor to welcome you to this trail of life transformation. You can be assured that something worthwhile is about to unfold in your life if you consciously read, reflect and immediately begin to apply contents herein in your journey of life. Welcome, let’s change the world together!

Charles Gbollie, Ph.D.

INTRODUCTION

"We cannot always build the future for our youth,

but we can build our youth for the future."

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Youth mean everything to the world. Constituting about half of the world’s over seven billion population, the world and its entirety may become void and non-functional in less than a century without them. Certainly, young people are the building blocks of the future and the continuity of human existence. Thus, the building of a much better world begins and hinges on the building of youthful champions who would utilize their freshness, vigor, energy, strength and age to positively impact the universe. It is through the youthful era that the future can be prepared or destroyed. This is because seeds sown in a person’s youth have everlasting and immeasurable life-long benefits. In order to truly measure the future with exactness, the best yardstick would be to look at the lives and progress being made in our young people. How will the world be in the next 2, 3 or 4 decades? Is there a guarantee of a much better world through the young people of today? It is a million-dollar question.

Howbeit, what is certain is that the future depends on youth. And this is irreversible and not an option. What then can we say or do in this regard if we all agree that youth are the future and that the survival and development of the world depend on them? If you ask me, I would say extraordinary actions are needed to break the status quo of normality, averageness, mediocrity and fear. We need to break the shackles of insufficiently using our God-given abilities and begin to fully maximize our potentials to bring out the hidden greatness deposited in our DNAs. We must inspire and cultivate youthful champions. We must ignite and awaken the giants within our young people, so that from the very beginning they can discover who they truly are, have a clear purpose and determination, positive mental attitude and ideas, and develop a burning desire and momentum to serve and work harder in spite of all odds to promote personal development and societal transformation.

Imagine if half of our world’s youthful population adopts this stance in their teens or twenties and serves up to their sixties and seventies. The world would explode and change for the better as a result. Are you in your adulthood? You have a key stake in this. One immediate action you take towards achieving this goal is a major step closer to this world changing vision. Are you a youth? The responsibility is on your head to become unstoppable because you are in your "book writing period or seed sowing era." What you do now in this finest age determines your tomorrow and how the world would be. Don’t take it lightly nor trade it for anything; your life and the world’s future depend on it!

No matter the circumstances of life, you can become the true champion you were created to be. Through all of human history, this has been proven. There are thousands of people who became champions in their time and made indelible marks the world will never forget. As you will soon discover in this book, I did not have a good start in life. Worst of it all there was absolutely no hope of acquiring education. You may feel anxious, unfulfilled, poor or rejected right now, but take no excuse for an answer. I was there before. Just a single decision, even by reading this book and putting it into practice, would change your story and make you a proud history. That is why I want to use my struggles, rich experiences and testimonies to sow in your quest to becoming a youthful champion or a successful person. This has been a big burden on my heart since I serve as a role-model and mentor for many. It, therefore, brings so much joy and gladness to my entire being to unleash the keys to achieving life-long greatness for your benefit. I have been asking myself so many questions about the solution of a much better world. Finally, I have reached a conclusion and my answer is simply: YOU! If you become a champion, the world will succeed. As champions always finish competitions and clinch prizes, my first challenge to you is to make a decision to finish reading this book and practice its rich contents.

In this book, I will take you on a journey to help you become the successful champion you are truly meant to be on earth. I will provide you with proven keys to break the chains of a mentality of averageness, stagnancy or backwardness, and strengthen your courage and desire for greatness so that you can become a true champion or successful person. This is one vital privilege, I and many other young people did not have, but you now do; utilize it, change your life and become a champion to impact the world! As a young person, you do not need to wait for things to happen to you. You must sponsor their happening. This book is meant to teach and show you the way. In so doing, I have arranged it into four parts. Each part is structured in a way to inspire, challenge and help you discover something interesting and transformational. Besides the main contents, each chapter comes with a short introduction, conclusion and reflection/action exercises. This is a book that will transform your entire life if you let it.

In part one: Understanding and cultivating youthful prowess, which is divided into three chapters, I dived deep into the championship journey, focusing on youthful prowess and self-discovery, the champion’s mindset and characteristics and the hidden opportunities in adversities. In the 1st chapter, I started by introducing the championship journey with emphasis on the essence of youthfulness. Next, I will take you through a step-by-step process to self-identification. In chapter 2, I focused on the path to becoming a champion through proper mind cultivation to manifest what you desire. In this chapter, I will show you various mindsets of a champion to help you cultivate, nurture and develop your full potential. Chapter 3 will help you to uncover the starting point of major breakthrough, discovery, transformation, better life and clinching of unimaginable successes through adversity. Complemented by case studies of champions and personal adversity I experienced, I will highlight lessons and benefits in adversity and introduce to you some strategies for overcoming adversity and how to live at the next level of your life after adversity.

Part 2 will introduce you to Investing in your youth for a secured future. In this part, you will realize the necessity of youthful investment as a trendsetter for your entire life. It will help you to understand the investment concept with the view of youthful life as a book writing period with possible areas for investment, requirements and ways to maintain a balanced life as you press for the higher prize. Another chapter is dedicated to helping you realize the true power and impactful nature of a purposeful and planned life based on personal experiences. I will deliver to you, among other things, the recipes of a great purpose and plan and then planning itself through a step by step process with clear strategies for implementation. In addition, I will take you through hard-work and smart work as behind every accomplished champion, there is a great seed of hard work, courage to pay the full price and mastery of the detail. Through various aspects, your mind will be enlightened about man or woman’s call to work and the consequences of not working. As a champion’s helmet, examples of hard-workers who became champions, ways to transcend beyond hard-work to smart work and the