Moments that make it all worth it.

It’s been said that the most meaningful journeys in life are not measured in miles, but in moments. Moments when you pause and look back on how far you’ve come. Moments that take your breath away. Moments that change the course of history. 

A few short weeks ago, I experienced one of those moments.  

Six years ago, we embarked on an odyssey to unlock a new era of opportunity and prosperity for people across Africa. We endeavored to achieve this ambition through a revolutionary new model for education. This new model — called African Leadership University (ALU) — would attempt to produce human capital at a speed, scale, and quality never before achieved in history. We set a goal to develop three million high-caliber leaders for Africa by 2035. Two years into that journey — in 2015 — we launched our first campus on the vibrant Indian Ocean island of Mauritius. 

Many said our huge goal was unachievable.

While our journey is far from finished, about six weeks ago — on June 12th, 2019 — we celebrated a major milestone: 76 young African leaders became the first to graduate from our Mauritius campus (this follows a smaller batch that graduated from our business school in Rwanda in 2018). As I watched the procession of graduates confidently striding across the stage, I reflected on the blood, sweat, and tears that so many people on our team have poured into ALU since it was first envisioned.

Because of our team’s heroic work, the vision that started in Mauritius has now expanded to three other sites across Africa, and has grown to almost 200 staff and 1,500 students. 

On that radiant Wednesday afternoon, I was flooded with a wave of emotions — gratitude (in particular for our great team), joy, pride and excitement to name a few. Yet one emotion —optimism— stirred my heart and strengthened my resolve to keep charging forward despite the obstacles and setbacks we will continue to face on this entrepreneurial journey. 

My optimism about the future of Africa — and indeed the world — was reinvigorated by the remarkable stories of success that came from this inaugural class:

• One of our students from Zimbabwe was a finalist for the Rhodes Scholarship. Others had been accepted into graduate programs at Cambridge University and the London School of Economics. 
• Many were graduating with job offers from prestigious global firms operating in Africa like Bain, Dalberg, Pernod Ricard and Cellulant. 
• The class completed over 400 internships and left a good impression while doing so. In fact, 85% of internship managers said they would rehire an ALU student. Several pursued gap semesters at global companies such as Google, Goldman Sachs, Facebook and Bank of America. 
• The class launched the first ever student government. 
• They produced the team that won the Africa prize for the HSBC case study competition and went on to represent all of Africa at the global case competition in Hong Kong. 
• Students from the inaugural class won the Debate Championship in East Africa. Another group made it to the Top 20 of 450 teams from around the world who participated in the Chief Financial Officer Global Competition. 
• Two members of the class were even named Queen’s Young Leaders and went to Buckingham Palace to meet the Queen.

One of the graduates — a young man named Sandile from Swaziland — took a keen interest in the growing impact of China and the global influence of private equity. He secured his first internship with McKinsey in Shanghai, and then learned Chinese — all on his own — demonstrating the best of student-driven learning, a cornerstone of our model at ALU. Sandile’s research has been published in the Southern Africa Venture Capital Association journal. He is now off to China for postgraduate study. I expect future leaders like Sandile to lead our continental negotiations with China soon, to ensure that Africa gets a better deal from its trading partners.

The quality of this graduating crop of young leaders is also illuminated through the evaluations they received from mandatory internships they undertook each year during their ALU experience. This is what a manager said about Ashraf, a graduate from South Sudan, after his final internship:

“Ashraf has shown qualities that you would want to see in every employee, from junior to senior. His maturity level exceeds the managerial positions we have. He will be a great asset to any team you send him to. He sets the bar high and always manages to exceed it. His versatility is remarkable. His friendly and hard-working personality contributes to that. He always asks for feedback. He never sits idle. He is very humble and never hesitates to take on tasks that are below his capabilities or job description. If every one of your students is like this one, then I completely believe in the university’s vision and mission. I completely believe that the university is truly graduating the best leaders the continent is about to have.”

The manager rated Ashraf 5 out of 5 on every dimension of the evaluation form. It’s clear that Ashraf is a doer, an executor and a problem solver.

If Ashraf is the type of young person we are unleashing to lead this continent, then I hope you can see why I’m filled with so much optimism about the future of Africa and our world.  

With all the fresh thinking and bold action coming out of ALU, it’s not surprising that the world is taking notice. In fact, earlier this year Fast Company magazine ranked ALU as one of the 50 most innovative organizations in the world and as the most innovative endeavor in Africa. No other university – in the entire world--was on that list, which tells us something: what we have started in Africa is not just an African innovation — it’s a global innovation. The world is hungry for a new model of higher education — one that’s more relevant to the world of tomorrow. A university model that produces agile, disruptive, unconventional doers who will shape an increasingly uncertain global future.

As we celebrated that milestone, ALU Chancellor and human rights advocate Graca Machel did not miss this opportunity to remind our graduates — and the rest of us — just how fragile the gift of leadership is. The former Mozambican Freedom Fighter and widow of the late Nelson Mandela challenged the future leaders to never lose or compromise their idealism, integrity or humility, as so many leaders from her generation did after attaining wealth, power and influence:

 “Keep dreaming, remain determined, and give the best of yourselves. But make sure that you keep true to those ideals you embraced; that time and power don’t change you but instead make you a better servant of the people.”

Indeed, leadership is a privilege. It must be earned every day. And for those of us who are privileged to lead — we should not be solving small problems. The only way we can justify our relative privilege is by solving the biggest problems in the world, not the smallest— and by doing hard things. 

In closing, the impact that this inaugural graduation — this historic moment in our journey — will have on the lives of millions and potentially billions of people over time, cannot be overstated. It is a turning point in Africa’s history—the day that an outstanding group of young African leaders stepped out into the world. A small trickle that will grow into a flood of three million leaders across Africa. 

If we’ve come this far in six short years, I can’t wait to see what we will accomplish in the next 10, 20, or 50 years. Our journey ahead won’t be easy. But it will be immensely rewarding.