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Mesage from the DVC Finance & ADMINISTRATION
Mr. Jomo Gatundu
“Creative and
transformative hearts
for Africa and the World”
On my own behalf and that of
the Finance and Administration
Division, I wish to extend our
congratulations to the Class
of 2015 on this auspicious occasion of
your graduation. The choice of a befitting
theme “Creative and transformative
hearts for Africa and the World” is a clear
demonstration of your desire to make an
impact in Africa and the World.
As I reflected on what kind of message
I should give you the Class of 2015, I
was torn between crafting a message
around the 2015 graduation theme or the
realities of the world in which you are just
about to step into as you begin your next
phase of life. In light of the challenges
and pressures of the socio-economic
environment that we live in, my message
to you is on the benefits of failure. Our
society today detests failure and anyone
seen as a failure is considered not a
useful member of society, yet failure is
simply lack of success. As grandaunts of
Daystar University, the subject of failure
may seem misplaced. The Christian
education that you have received here
in Daystar has been a journey into the
heart of change and innovation, building
in you a deep and true sense of purpose
and a desire for success. You possess the
knack of passing exams and a number of
you are graduating with honours, which
is considered a measure of academic
success. It is important to note that in our
journey through life, failure is inevitable
and it is what we do after the failure that
determines our future successes. The
apostle Paul in Philippians 3 verse 13
advises us to forget what is behind and to
strain towards what is ahead.
Winston Churchill is quoted as saying
that success consists of going from failure
to failure without loss of enthusiasm.
Constraints resulting from our failures
provide us with great opportunities
to engage our creative hearts and
minds to generate new possibilities to
move us forward. Failure may result in
discouragement but the willingness to get
back on our feet and try again is the mark
of success. The word of God in Proverbs
24 verse 16 states “for though a righteous
man falls seven times, he rises again, but
the wicked are brought down by calamity”.
I encourage you to use your failure as an
opportunity to exercise your creativity.
Our resilience or ability to bounce back or
recover quickly from difficulties is greatly
enhanced by failure. At this moment as
fresh grandaunts, I am sure that you
are feeling on top of the world, perfect
in every way and in a sense invincible
(unbougable as our politicians would say).
Failure strips us our notion of perfection
and invincibility. It takes strength of
character and humility for us to accept our
imperfections
The lessons that we learn from our
failures are priceless. Many of us are
socialized to belief that success should
be achieved first time and that those who
seek a second and subsequent chance
are regarded as failures. However most
of the success stories are about people
who kept trying again and again after each
failure. Steven Spielberg, Sylvester Stallone
and Steve Jobs were considered failures
and good for nothing at one point in their
lives yet they went on to build successful
careers in their fields. Reflecting from his
being fired from Apple, Steve Jobs said “I
did not see it then but it turned out that
getting fired from Apple was the best thing
that could have ever happened to me”.
The word of Psalms 119 verse 71 reminds
us that it is good for us to be afflicted so
that we may learn God’s decrees. In the
same manner experiencing failure helps
us to better understand the world around
us and provides us an opportunity to
make a difference in the lives of others as
we share our past failure experiences with
them.
Failure is a spring board for future
success. For those of us who are fans
of team sports such as football, rugby
and basketball, we know that winning
a match is a combination of missed
chances, numerous shorts on and off
target and the winning shot. Similarly the
world is not a “one short only world”. It
takes many missed chances to achieve
success. Thomas Edison the investor of
the light bulb experienced many failures
in his experiments. He opined that many
of life’s failures are people who did not
realize how close they were to success
when they gave up. As you begin the next
phase of your journey of life, my prayer
is that your will experience success in all
your endeavours as you put to work your
creative and transformative hearts for the
benefit of our society in Africa and the
World. Never give up. Success may just be
one try away. Go ye forth into the world,
live life to the fullest in accordance to the
teachings of our Saviour the Lord Jesus
Christ and may He richly bless you all the
days of your life.
8 • DaystarConnect 2015