You don’t need to be from a certain background for you to offer leadership. Young people should get up and give direction to this country.

Today, if anyone asks members of our tribe if it really matters if the chief is male or female, the majority will reply that gender has no bearing on leadership. (p250)

The two biggest challenges that i face all my life as a young leader has always been my age and gender. Coming from an exclusively patriarchal or masculine society rather l have always been perceived to be a bit of a wrong gender to achieve and reach certain milestones and a bit too young to dream, to be ambitious to be an active agent of change and a catalyst of development.

Look for young men and women who can one day lead your agency. Is there any way of predicting the capacity to lead? The only way I know is to look at their college records. If they were leaders between the ages of 18 and 22, the odds are that they will emerge as leaders in middle life.

Age shouldn't affect you. It's just like the size of your shoes - they don't determine how you live your life! You're either marvellous or you're boring, regardless of your age.

Age does not matter, it’s not the age that works, it’s the brain and the knowledge that one has.

It doesn't really matter if you lead or follow

You don't have to hold a position in order to be a leader.

Similarly, I don’t think the desire for leadership is based in biology. Do we really believe men are natural leaders and women are not?

You can lead from wherever you are. Even if you are in a junior position, you can mentor and speak positively about other women. It is wrong to think that you can only lead when you are in a leadership role.

Success or leadership is not limited to a particular gender.

You should have access to ideas and information regardless of your age. If anyone is going to limit or guide a young person, it should be the parent or guardian — and only the parent or guardian.

Age doesn't matter: an open mind does.

No generation can choose the age or circumstance in which it is born, but through leadership it can choose to make the age in which it is born an age of enlightenment, an age of jobs, and peace, and justice. Only leadership -- that intangible combination of gifts, the discipline, information, circumstance, courage, timing, will and divine inspiration -- can lead us out of the crisis in which we find ourselves. Leadership can mitigate the misery of our nation. Leadership can part the waters and lead our nation in the direction of the Promised Land. Leadership can lift the boats stuck at the bottom.