Speaker Fonati Koffa has urged the 2024 graduating class of the Adventist University of West Africa (AUWA) not to be afraid of failure, rather admonished them to be optimistic, because the real life’s definition of optimism is ‘failing and trying again.’
Serving as the 10th Commencement Speaker Thursday on the AUWA’s main campus in Margibi County, Speaker Koffa reiterated that despite acquiring quality education from a Christian-based University, they might still fail at something amid their best because life has never been easy.
“Maybe no one has told you young leaders that in life, no matter what you do or don’t do or what your parents or your community gives you, you will fail at something and at some point, if you are not hopeful, this will put you off and cause you to stop trying and then in the end you will stay down,” he explained.
“Just as when you were learning to walk you fell many times like we all did but today you are moving about as confident adults. Get used to failure, don’t be afraid of it, rather learn from it, be optimistic, have the faith to try again and the world will be yours; Liberia will one day honor you or maybe it will be the world that will honor you,” the Speaker told the 10th graduating class of AUWA.
The Speaker told the 139 graduates a secret comprised of four techniques to tackle failure or when failed at something, explaining that himself had failed before when he contest the 2011 Representatives but won in 2017, because he tried again.
“Let me tell you the secret when you failed, because I myself have failed; the first thing is not to beat yourself up, reflect on your failures and why did you fail but don’t try to force open a door that God has closed – just reflect on why you failed and lift yourself up and be optimistic and try again, ” he admonished.
Meanwhile, Speaker Koffa told the graduates to never put themselves in situations that they cannot afford to walk away from but rather their embrace their failures and try again.
Koffa charged the graduates saying, “Be very optimistic and put yourself in that position. If some of us look at our failures and looked at what we are today, at the moment we failed if we haven’t been optimistic things could have been different. So carry that into your heart; carry that optimism; I don’t want to leave you with any impression that there are beds of roses ahead of you; ahead of you, are troublesome times to make life; some of you will raise a family, some of you will be examples in society, some of you will be great men and women; embrace that, work for that, study for that and be one of the few Liberians that strive to make this country better.”
Accordingly, 139 students earned their first degrees in 15 disciplines, including Biology, Computer Science, Public Health and Nursing.
Others are Early Childhood Education, Primary Education, Secondary Education, Theology, Accounting, Banking & Finance, International Relations, Human Resource Management, Public Administration, Management and Criminal Justice Administration.
