Summary of Key Lessons

1. Career Navigation. It is okay to start out in life being unsure of what you want to do career wise. However, as you move on, clarity increases, and you must be willing to put in the effort.

2. Power of Pictures. In 1985, as an undergrad, I took a picture in front of the Vice Chancellor’s Lodge at Legon and declared, “I will be back.” 32 years later, I became VC at Central University.

3. Decisions. My best career decisions were doing a PhD and going into academia, and secondly, deciding to lecture at Westminster University in the UK. Everything else sprung from these two.

4. Mentoring. The key to mentoring is mutual respect and humility on the part of the mentee. Mentoring needn’t always be close contact. Keith Philips at Westminster had a significant impact on me with just one defining conversation.

5. Stay with the script.  I had financially juicy offers for corporate roles that would have diverted me from academia. I considered them but stayed the course. If you ever have to change your career, ask the right questions and don’t jump without a clear plan.

6. Respect for Humanity. All human beings are created in the image of God and deserve our respect no matter their economic status. A soul is a soul is a soul and is precious to God.

7. Balanced Life. I love reading, driving, poetry and squash. Many executives are on a deliberate path to physical self-destruction and must make time for personal fitness.

8. Patient Building. No one will hand you career opportunities on a silver platter; it takes time, continuous pursuit, the right attitude, being widely knowledgeable and being willing to volunteer.

9. Unglamorous Work. I was inspired by a Legon student who helped her mother sell banana and peanuts to support her education. I carried and sold mangoes in my school days in Ada and cleaned floors in the UK to help fund my graduate education.

10. Legacy. I want Central University to be known as a Christian institution where the ethos of the founder and church are clearly embedded. I want to entrench research and graduate students who are employable and ready for market.