Do You Like this Podcast?

Though my podcasting service is currently undergoing some technical difficulties, I am on it and intend on it being up very soon.

If you enjoy this or any of the other podcasts, this blog has to offer then make sure you subscribe to the Displaced African Podcast. You can do this in two ways:

1) Either click here to subscribe via your favourite RSS reader (If you have no idea what RSS here, click here to watch 2 videos where I explain what RSS is and why it’s the best thing since sliced bread, only better than bread )

2) Go to the Itunes store, search for “the Displaced African” podcast and subscribe to it (I have created a video tutorial that shows you step by step how to do this which you can find by clicking here or watch below – I debut it today, Yay!).

Without further ado:

The Podcast

Things Covered

1) So what did he do after Part 1?

2) Funny story about how a struggling speaker gets his daily bread.

3) How did he transition into being on Def Poetry Jam, the Queen Latifah Show and performing for the NAACP?

4) After speaking to hundreds of college students, his take on what separates the successful college students?

5) How one can acquire discipline and self-initiative?

6) What was his grand vision when he first quit his job?

7) Was he always a good speaker?

8 ) How would one become a professional speaker?

9) What is his process as a speaker?

10) Final thoughts….I ran out of questions

PURSUE YOUR PASSION,

Mwangi

Technical Difficulties

For some unforeseen reason, I am unable to put this out as a podcast for the time being, however the audio file works just fine. It’s an absolutely wonderful interview, enjoy.

The Podcast

Do You Use Twitter?

If so, please follow me by going to my twitter page:Twitter.com/masmilele

Things Covered

1) Brief introduction: Just who is Kirk Nugent?

2) His life story beginning in Kingston and how he arrived in the States.

3) Comparisons between education levels in White schools and Black schools in the States

4) How he ended up dropping out of University

5) Interesting story of how he got his first job in sales while his friend ended up on America’s Most Wanted

6) His super difficult transition from a successful job in sales sales to a spoken word poet and speaker via a long period of destitution.

Much much more

Websites Mentioned

1) Kirk Nugent’s website: http://www.kirknugent.com/

2) Kirk Nugent’s Myspace page: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=52415162

Hey,
I have been tagged by Mo Ma. So I thought that with Mo Ma’s permission, rather than answering all the questions in the “Meme Mo Ma” (brilliant branding) at once, I would spread it out over time and discuss different elements of it. I begin with……

Eight Things for Which I Have a Passion

1) Women: The only thing on the list that I have loved, hated, feared, not understood, fully understood, cared for, been hated by, been loved by, lusted after and been lusted after all in a brief lifetime. Women are not just a dichotomy, y’all are a eight-cotomy (I was too lazy to Google it, what is it an octocotomy, is there a word for this situation?) with more sides than a sphere (the illogical nature of that statement is deliberate ). Not understanding the female side of humanity in my early years is part of the reason that I fell in love with:

2) Psychology: From the moment I heard that Psychology was taught in high school in Oz, something just switched on in my mind. I loved this idea that all our behaviour is driven by underlying principles and isn’t just based on random elements. Ultimately though, I love understanding psychology because it gives one:

3) Control:One of the results of living in a capitalist world is that anytime we investigate something we seem to do it either to use it to our own ends, control it or both. I never ever want to be at the mercy or the beck and call of anyone and want to be one of those people who will determine where I go, what I do and who I do it with. As a result I always:

4) Question Things: I love Timothy Ferriss, Erwin Mcmanus, Noam Chomsky, Steve Biko, Malcolm X and Tony Robbins basically for the same reasons (among other things). They act as points of contrast to the norm. They are living proof that there is success to be had and pleasure to be derived from living outside of what is normal. As a result of their existence I question everything (”Why does a company need to continue pursuing profit-which is basically excess after everything’s been paid off-when it’s reached an all time high in profit and all its workers are well paid?” or “Why do I go to school?” or “Why do I read books?”). Needless to say that this makes me:

5) Different:I love to be a mirror that forever reminds people that there are alternative ways to do things and be. My hope is that over the course of this blog, I will uncover and discover new schools of thought and bring something new to this African immigrant design. Aah and who can forget:

6) The Displaced African: For the 14 or so hours I am awake, I think about this blog for 12 of those. To be honest I am still not 100% sure where I am taking this blog, but I have many ideas that I want to test out and my hope is that this blog at some point will become THE GO TO PLACE for some element of the immigrant experience and hopefully this will make me:

7) Guru/Teacher:This occurs much more in the offline world than online (though I’m receiving quite a few, “give me advice” emails nowadays, thanks to the folks who’ve sent them). I love to give people advice and motivate and challenge them. I study so much success literature and self-help stuff that I am always looking for an opportunity to give advice. Yesterday someone asked me for advice on Internet marketing and I literally typed out a 3 page answer to three sentence questions. At some point I want to get paid for helping people change their lives for the better and if I live to old age I want to become a village elder or lecturer….move the passion I have in me to other folk. Finally I love:

8 ) Performance and Public Speaking:Entertaining folks just comes easy to me. I love being on stage, I love talking to and entertaining folks when I first meet them, I love telling and writing stories. Anything that involves my making other people feel something, I love to do and think I do in a semi-descent manner.

Enough About Me

What are you passionate about? What excites you about this life? Leave some comments below and let me know.

Eight People Who Should Do This Meme
I will link to Mo Ma’s original meme so that folks know what format to follow. I am really looking forward to seeing what folks come up with:
1) R from What an African woman thinks
2) Jim from Kenyan Zone
3) Tony (namesake) from Naija Ecash
4) Gal Africana from a search for sanity
5) Seinlife
6) Mzeiya (You have to start a free wordpress blog man)
7) Julia from Relationship checkup
8 ) akiey

Alright folks, I’ll end that one there. To be frank it’s always love-hate when I write posts about myself…I am human and I do love talking about myself BUT I always feel guilty when I write something that am not sure will help, so feedback as always is appreciated.

Who are Eight Minutes You Ask?

I searched for something to do with the number 8 on Youtube and here are the results

I End with Barrack Obama

First of all huge congratulations to Obama and all minorities and marginalized people in the States for moving a step closer to a race-neutral society. Every once in a while I write something which makes folks stop by and call me stupid, naive, silly, idiot, spawn of Satan etc etc and one of the articles that caused quite a bit of controversy was the article I wrote the Empty Symbol that is Barrack Obama. Anyway, this Daily Nation article doesn’t say exactly what I said, but still has the same conclusion: Obama doesn’t exist for our interests and so let’s not invest too much in him,even emotionally. He isn’t ours.

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Enjoy meme-ing away,
Mwangi

When I wrote about Coach Carol’s book, one of the things that came up was the fact that there aren’t that many people for the African boy-child to look up to and the general lack of support that African boys have from their peers.

Anyway I was browsing around the blogosphere, and while I was checking out Africabeat, I found this Youtube video where this young African man was asked to justify why he supports Obama. I must say, I have been absolutely blown away!

This brother actually made American politics make sense.He actually made me start believing that American politicians can exist for anything other than corporate or self-interest.

Most of all, he moved me. So check him out and let me know what you think and what you know of him.

The fourth video is by Kirk Nugent. Over the course of this blog, I will post up that video A LOT. I don’t think “Pursue your passion” will ever go stale. Do you?