Become an "Opportuniac"

TRANSCRIPT OF VIDEO:

And the fact that you chose to come, and the fact that you're still sitting here after forty-something minutes, tells me one thing: that you all take advantage of opportunities. So I declare everyone in this room an “opportuniac.”

You are an opportuniac.

OPPORTUNIAC.

That comes from the Mensah dictionary.

Now you're probably saying, “what does that mean, Albert?” This is what Opportuniac means—a person, such as you, that takes advantage of opportunities. But where there are no opportunities, they just don't complain. They don’t give up. They don't quit. They don't blame other people. They create their own. That's an opportuniac.

I stood up here, ladies and gentlemen, I tell you my story.  I saw a cinema with a whole village and one guy said, “I want to go live there,” and everybody said, “it's not possible.” So I said, okay, I'll do my part, the universe will do its part, and I got a scholarship.

Seven and a half years ago, I worked for the phone company in Seattle, Washington. And I come home, I tell my wife, “honey, I quit my job.”

Now my wife, mind you, was a freshman when I met her. Best time to catch your wife, guys! When you're a freshman, I was a sophomore, so I think this lady knows me really well. So I come home and I said, “honey, I've quit my job.”

She said, “What are you going to do?”

I said, “I'm going to be a professional speaker.”

Haha! She said, “Have a seat.” (And guys, when your spouse calls you by your last name, you know it's bad news, right?) She said, “Mensah?”

I said, “Oh, here it comes...”

“I have three reasons why you are not going to make it as a professional speaker. Go back to work.”

“What are the reasons?”

“One, you're not from this country.”

I said, “I know that.”

“Two, you have an accent.”

I said, “I'll be the first speaker with an accent then.”

She said, “that brings me to my third point—no one in America will pay you a penny to listen to that accent. They can't even hardly hear you!”

Today, she says, “Honey, the only reason why you made it is because of your accent!”

You must continue to be an opportuniac to survive in this ever-changing world that we live in. Those laws and all those issues that you think are issues, they're not going nowhere, ladies and gentlemen. You know that, I know that. Don't complain about it.

It's like being on a plane and it is turbulence. You can't go to the pilot and say, “Dude, can you slow down this thing?” Nothing you can do but just sit there and enjoy it. It's not going anywhere.

You have to be an opportuniac. Now I'm not just going to stand up here and preach to you because you know what opportuniac means and you know what to do with it.