Kwame L. Dougan is a former refugee who discovered as an adult that he had a learning disability.<\/p>\n
[contextly_sidebar id=”wz34x1USSWmZfMDMya90skJdyp74S7qB”]Initially Kwame\u2019s disability felt like a curse.\u00a0 He now understands that it can be a \u201cblessing,” since it has forced him to be innovative in every aspect of his life.<\/p>\n
Kwame graduated magna cum laude from York University in Canada, earned a Master\u2019s degree from the London School of Economics, and a law degree from Columbia University.<\/p>\n
He also learned to speak fluent Mandarin, a language considered\u00a0one of the most difficult for non-native speakers to learn.\u00a0 Each achievement was borne of fear of returning to poverty.<\/p>\n
His fear drove him to work in traditional jobs, as a banker, insurance broker, and eventually, as an attorney on Wall Street.\u00a0 A few years ago, Kwame decided to eschew traditional careers and embrace fear as his partner.<\/p>\n
Today, Kwame invests his capital where others are afraid\u2014in Africa.<\/p>\n
Why you should listen to his talk?<\/strong><\/p>\n Even with my training, achievements, and experience overcoming seemingly insurmountable challenges, I remained fearful.\u00a0 I have been afraid of disappointing my mother, who risked everything to give me an opportunity to succeed.<\/p>\n I have been afraid of embarrassing my friends and family, those who proudly call me Lawyer Dougan.<\/p>\n Most troubling is that I have been afraid of myself.\u00a0 This last fear is what my talk will focus on, because self-doubt has been the most debilitating yet liberating fear that I have ever encountered.\u00a0 Self-doubt is that soft inner voice, a djembe drum pounding, \u201cwhy you?\u201d and \u201cc\u2019mon now, how?\u201d<\/p>\n Crucially, I learned to re-invent myself, and after dancing to the beat of the self-doubt drum and I uncovered my deepest fear:\u00a0 Becoming significant.<\/p>\n I feared losing my cherished wealth (and my talents) by investing in other Africans.\u00a0\u00a0 I had seen success, but had been scared to reach for significance. We all face this fear, and I will share my story of how I learned to use it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Source: TEDx Accra<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Kwame L. Dougan is a former refugee who discovered as an adult that he had a learning disability. [contextly_sidebar id=”wz34x1USSWmZfMDMya90skJdyp74S7qB”]Initially Kwame\u2019s disability felt like a curse.\u00a0 He now understands that it can be a \u201cblessing,” since it has forced him to be innovative in every aspect of his life. Kwame graduated magna cum laude from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[6,33],"class_list":["post-91598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-togbe-afede","tag-unemployment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=91598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91598\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=91598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=91598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=91598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}