Resilience

Thomas Baafi was one of six siblings abandoned by his dad in a remote village in Ghana. His mum, uneducated, resorted to peasant farming and petty trade to give all her six children a better life. With so many mouths to feed, her toil began to lag as malnutrition took a toll on the health of her beloved children.

By a stroke of luck or serendipity, he was "handpicked" by Uncle Guyman, a direct elder brother of his mother, to be educated. He moved in with his uncle at a tender age, where he was fed, clothed, and educated. With this little opportunity given to him, he was able to make it to his life's dreamland.

Thomas Baafi's chronicle connected the dots as he journeyed through the slums of Agege, in Nigeria, through Communist East Berlin to become a refugee in Hamburg, Germany.

He met the life-changing love of his life in Bremerhaven, West Germany, who facilitated his journey to his dreamland, where opportunities were accorded not by the color of your skin but by the ability to excel.

Now a successful businessman, Thomas Baafi can look back and say that the direction of one's life journey must matter more than where one comes from.