All Quotes

"A ruby is a valued and precious stone. As precious as rubies are, they have imperfections in them. I am a woman of rubies because I am a precious and valued daughter of God."

"My passion for education and sexual & reproductive health for adolescent girls is influenced largely by my background and experiences growing up."

"I discovered that there is a gap in how people find volunteer opportunities and how non-profits find volunteers, so I designed a platform that advances community action by volunteering."

"Volunteering worked for me; I believe it is a solution that can tackle the problem of unemployment in Nigeria. By serving and giving your time, it can turn up to learning or earning opportunities."

"It is good to always remember that everyone you meet is fighting a battle you might not know about. So whatever it is you are going through, keep your spine straight, be honest in all you do and don’t be lured into becoming somebody you are not."

"As you try to make a meaning of your life, learn to build strong networks and collaborate with others in your field. It helps you to not only grow but also to keep hope in times of difficulty."

"I was always doing something with my hands. I never remember buying a Christmas present. I carved angels out of soap and candles, did ‘paper sculptures,’ then went on to silk screening, enamel work, seashell earrings, etching glass bottles, pottery and ceramics.”"

"I'm always delighted when the response to one of my sculptures is favorable, and I know that the response to LBJ has been. I've actually seen people carry on conversations with the LBJ bust, and that's what you want to achieve."

"In addition to creating my own sculpture, I am involved in encouraging communities [to] provide original works of art in less prominent areas of our cities. I believe works of art have the potential of contributing a sense of value to the citizens of a community."

"Every sculptor tries to reveal the character of his subject"

"Women need to be in key operational roles where they run businesses in the organization. Sometimes when organizations focus on leadership diversity, they're mostly in areas like HR or non-operating line functions."

"It doesn't matter what your pedigree is, who your family is or what degrees you have. What really matters is how you perform your job and how you produce results. Whoever could do the best job, that's who the focus is on - and it definitely doesn't matter if I am a woman or a man."

"Back when I was looking for my next step and was researching Gannett, I was interested in who was leading the various businesses within the organization: Are there a lot of women and minorities in important, operational roles, senior management and the board of directors?"

"If you're going to succeed, then you just have to be thick-skinned. It's something I developed early in my career, and it just goes with the territory."

"News in printed form is in secular decline. However, news delivered the way consumers want it is growing and thriving."

"Every day, all of us at Gannett are given the rare and sacred opportunity to affect change for the good in the communities we serve, to make life better for the people who trust us to know them and do right by them."

"At Salpha, we are constantly innovating our operational processes to enable us to come up with entirely new ways of filling orders, developing products, providing customer service, other activities across our value chain."

"Businesses that only prioritize producing money risk squeezing customers for every dime without attempting to add value."

"An illustration would be when businesses reduce the size or content of their products to minimize expenses but keep the price the same in the hopes that no one will notice."

"Long-term gains from this kind of short-term thinking are not enjoyed by anyone."

"Numerous businesses across the world, including mine that call themselves social enterprises are already doing this by combining profit with a desire to improve society and address social issues."

"This idea needs to be applied to both large and small, conventional enterprises."

"As a Nigerian based business, internationally facing supply chain projects are challenging."

"The challenging business environment is exacerbated by fluctuating exchange rates, inconsistent tariffs, and delays in customs clearance."

"The Forbes recognition was a humbling and life-changing moment."

"It provided global validation and sparked a wave of new alliances."

"I am proud that a young, Nigerian woman like myself through hard work and grit gets to represent Nigerian entrepreneurism in such a positive manner."

"The best part about being an entrepreneur is the opportunity to have a vision and inspire other people around me to contribute towards actualizing that vision."

"I’ve always viewed myself as a rebel with a cause, solving issues that are plaguing the African continent and impeding growth."

"I decided to leave my career at the UN to come to Nigeria to set up this solar energy business."

"The excitement was also to see how I can bring young entrepreneurs who could work with me to actualize my vision."

"The deal with All On is the $1million investment that is supposed to help Salpha Energy to scale its deployment of solar home systems across Nigeria and the plan is that we are focusing on the areas where people do not have access to energy."

"These people are the ones that have the most to gain and the most to lose from access to clean energy."

"We are also working with distributors to expand our services and businesses in the Nigerian market."

"We will be opening at least between 10 to 12 retail outlets in Nigeria including the South-South, South-East, South-West, North Central and North West."

"We had a project with All On, with the US African Development Fund, USADF."

"That was a project to deploy 2000 solar home systems at the entry level."

"It lasted for a year and six months."

"The aim of the project is to help people especially women in that area to have experience with clean energy instead of using kerosene."

"We finished the project nine months beyond schedule which is an important breakthrough for us to be able to scale this solution quickly."

"The challenge is that in solar energy, you do not see enough solar products in key marketplaces and we are trying to make sure that these products are visible and they are of good quality."

"Without the test of heat, no metal proves its strength; without the test of life, no love can prove its worth. Rare is the love that survives the tests of the life she knew, but the pain from loves that failed those tests could fill more than one lifetime.”"

"It seems as though I was always writing something – little stories, poems. All through school, whenever there was a choice between a written or oral assignment, I always chose the written. Later, writing became affordable therapy. I taught in the public school system for 25 years, as closeted a profession as there is, except possibly the religious sector. Expressing and exploring who I was as an individual, as a whole person, had to be done secretly and during those times when I wasn’t teaching, coaching, or losing my mind. It is the need to express beliefs and thoughts and feelings that had been suppressed for so long."

"For me, a story must be relatable and believable. As a writer, I want to immerse the reader in the lives of my characters, in hopes and dreams that may be lofty but reachable, and in struggles that are realistic and frustrating, and even frightening. If I can do that, the reader will be able to live the story with my characters."

"I have a great amount of respect and admiration for a number of authors. It’s difficult to single out one as a favorite. Each offers me something special, unique to their style and presentation. Alice Walker offers introspection and a raw, yet palatable honesty. Harper Lee gave us an unrivaled one-time shot to the gut challenge to our humanity. Sarah Waters masterfully weaves her fictitious characters through places and time in history. And, I have yet to find an author whose craft is more impeccable, or plotting more effective, than Val McDermid."

"I have written 9 books. Each has something that makes it special to me. The first, Legacy of Love, for the obvious reason. Love in the Balance has an emotional connection to my mother, and to a hate crime that was committed near where I live. Mirrors emerged from my teaching experiences, and losing a student on my watch. Losses in my personal life, and an unexpected connection with the daughter of the hate crimes victims, made The Indelible Heart a difficult and unforgettable effort."

"Most surprising, I think, was the depth of my sense of injustice. At times it bordered on anger, and it was such a cleansing, therapeutic experience to be able to express and explore that through my characters."

"My biggest writing challenge is embracing the freedom that I have now from page and word restrictions. My first few books were published by Naiad Press, and were subject to restrictions. I learned to make every word count, minimalize description, and move quickly from scene to scene, all of which improved my craft. But, now I can expand the scope of my story lines without fear of drastic cuts."

"The character created most closely from my personal experiences is Jean Carson, the teacher in Mirrors. Her struggles were mine, her hopes and fears were mine. She struggled to protect her job, while trying to help a bullied student. I kept my job, but lost a student to suicide."

"The hate crimes described in Love in the Balance are based on the hate crime murders of Susan Pittmann and Christine Puckett, committed in Huron Township in Michigan. I was honored to have their daughter, Cynthia Pittmann, write the poignant Foreword for the sequel, The Indelible Heart."