The Vim Views & Versions - Blogs of a MIghTy African

While getting breakfast at the Best Western Island Hotel this morning in Lagos, a guy called my name and called me over. He was wearing suit with 2 other guys also wearing suits. The face looked familiar but I couldn't remember where I knew him from. Then he mentioned "Barcamp!" Anthony Fesu. Oh yeah, you are  +David Nikoi 's friend from Ecobank. " E-Process ", he said.  I remembered that he mentored at  Barcamp Sunyani  2013. Anthony was in Sunyani then attending the anniversary for Catholic University College in Fiapre. He's part of the class of 2006 and an alumni like +Kofi Kafui Kornu  &  +Yaw Adu-Gyamfi . He'd been invited to +Barcamp Sunyani  as a speed mentor. told his Ecobank colleagues, "you need to know this guy, he's doing an awesome job". He gets people to mentor others. His colleagues were impressed. Anthony went on. " There were a lot of junior high school students there". We had over 70 students from Du

Many thanks for all the support you have all given my blog over the years, especially last year. I set a goal to write 233 blog posts and I met it , even though it was extremely hard.  I have set the same goal for myself this year and though I am behind schedule I shall meet it again. I hope you enjoy the ride, get inspired, learn a few things, have a number of laughs and become an avid reader, and commenter, and sharer :-) I have been nominated for the Blogging and Social Media Awards organized by  +BloggingGhana . This is happening as part of their +BlogCamp Ghana  event. I am nominated for best male blogger - (Ato Ulzen-Appiah), best blog (mightyafrican.blogspot.com + +Mighty African ) and best Google+ profile (+AtoUlzenAppiah).  Kindly go to  www.blogcampghana.com/voting/  and vote massively for me to win. It's a fairly easy process to do so.  It's interesting to see how I have almost 3 times the number of followers on Google+ as on Twitter. I find Google+ easy to

I don't know much about Northern Ireland. I do know that they have their own 'national' football team that's not really good and they've not been to the World Cup before. That said, why do they have their own national football team? Because the British invented soccer. It's true. As in, that's the reason . Anyway, Northern Ireland could have benefited from playing from a British soccer team cos I don't see them going to the World Cup anytime soon. It is the home of George Best and also where the great Jonny Evans who plays for  +Manchester United  hails from. I expected Northern Ireland to be crazy about football but it was not really meant to be. Every country should have  #Supersport . Including Northern Ireland. And then  #ESPN  because of the  #NBA .  #sportsfanspeaking . — Ato Ulzen-Appiah (@Abocco)  February 19, 2014 I am a huge fan of sports, especially watching, and studying soccer aka football and basketball.  +SuperSport  is my kind of c

While in Belfast last month, I stayed at the Europa Hotel. When the taxi driver was dropping off my boss Ehi and I at the hotel from the airport, he said "this hotel is the second most-bombed in the whole world". It didn't look it. The hotel was a little expensive though and I was going to have to cough up a little extra to stay there 3 nights. So I decided that after the 2nd night, I'd check out and find a cheaper place to stay. Enter +Airbnb  aka Air Bed & Breakfast. I went to airbnb.com and started looking for a place for a night in Belfast. Knew friends who'd used the service, nothing to be scared off. It would give me a story to tell anyway :-) Why does  @Airbnb  take your money before verifying your ID? This verifying your ID can take a lot of time too. Sigh. Not cool.  #airbnb — Ato Ulzen-Appiah (@Abocco)  February 21, 2014 Okay, this scared me. I knew I had to pay for the accommodation, thank you GT Bank Visa Card. But I didn't think that I wo

Last month, I traveled to the UK for the first time in over 10 years for work. The particular place I went to was Belfast, in Northern Ireland. Belfast is quite the interesting name . Makes me say things like "Belfast. Make I bell you fast before I go lef Belfast." It took a while to hit me that I was actually in the same country that has London. If some other events had gone a certain way, I'd have been in Dublin, Ireland instead. It turns out they are really different countries, they even have different currencies. In this blog post, I'd share some memories. I couldn't get any phone network to roam on, but who needs that, when you have wi-fi :-) 2:33pm in #Belfast , Northern Ireland. Here for work with Rancard, meeting Intel on an ongoing project. Colder here than Ghana. #233moments — Ato Ulzen-Appiah (@Abocco) February 19, 2014 Been working on this project for over 9 months. Intel Explore & Learn. Explore & Learn . Change of plans. No more Du

The very first  +Barcamp Ghana  event of this year is  +Barcamp Tema  on Saturday, March 22. Come and learn how to get rid of mediocre habits and pick up excellent ones. Press release below. BarCamp Tema 2014 is a free networking forum bringing people together for a day of discussion, demos and dialogue on Tema, Ghana and beyond. It takes place on March 22, 2014 at the Rotary Centre (Club House) in Tema. The theme is “ Building People of Excellence ” . This Barcamp will be the 29th organized by the GhanaThink Foundation as it builds a network of young change makers, doers and entrepreneurs in Ghana. It's being organized in conjunction with the Rotaract Club of Tema. There will be a speed mentoring session where mentors will give insights and answers to questions from attendees. Confirmed speed mentors include +Victoria Okoye   (Relief International), +Edem Kumodzi  of QuickBets, +Kow Essuman (Lawyer), +MANASSEH AZURE Awuni (Joy FM), +sara nana yeboah (Nurse & Ent

It's still Women's Day here in Yankee in the Eastern Time Zone. So, I can say a few things about the woman who was keeping me up last night. Let's say that one of my goals to finding a wife this year is on course. God forbid anything that derails that lol. Sometimes, a woman comes along who inspires change. She makes you want to be a better you because you can't stand to disappoint her or yourself in the grand scheme of things. When they say behind every successful man, there is a woman, the man sometimes becomes more successful because of the things the woman makes the man do. People have told me countless times, you need to find a woman. I understand that more now. So sometime last year, I tweeted. "I only had time mostly for my passions and family. Now, there's you. Let's grow something beautiful. I love you". — Ato Ulzen-Appiah (@Abocco) September 4, 2013 I meant it. She's the woman I sang about in the infamous Amanone video take

It's in the early hours of International Women's Day. A woman is keeping me up. :-) But I figured I should write this blog post before it's 2:33am and then I will finally go to bed. I want to honour some great young women I know on the occasion of women's day. Before I get to women I know who lead, I'd like to give a special mention to my first girlfriend  +Phelele Fakudze . She leads too, don't get me wrong. She was and still pretty much is a female version of me. We connected on so many levels and shared many passions. I've not seen her since she moved to Swaziland after 2008, and she's continued to inspire many young women. I will never forget this  blog post  she wrote. She has some of the best advice any woman can give women, and really, men as well. Last weekend at the African Business Conference at Harvard Business School , I attended the women in leadership panel. One of the panelists wrongly attributed this following quote to Kofi Annan or

Happy independence day to all Ghanaians! I'm on vacation, albeit working a bit. I'd have a written a new long post but in the interest of vacationing :-) and time, I'd reproduce an old long post. The messages in here are very dear to me and in my opinion, critical towards achieving the kind of Ghana we need. It's my very first blog post written for the  +Global Shapers Accra  blog - Sesamu. Read it below. I am passionate about Africa. Many times, people joke saying that the African dream is to get out of Africa. Many times, I would say my dream for Africa is for Africans to be able to achieve their goals and dreams without having to really leave Africa. I’ve heard Patrick Awuah of +Ashesi University  and +Ory Okolloh , two of my biggest role models, say the same. At the very first +Barcamp Koforidua , one of the mentors mentioned something that really struck me. “The most successful people would be those who build connections”. There were many great things about at