Why hope is the greatest currency

As I flew back to Baltimore, I was thinking of this week’s column and of the great people I have around me that supported the Bermuda100 workshop on Saturday.

I want to thank Ms JaKisha Douglas, Bermuda100 vice president, Mrs Lisa Greene, Bermuda100 executive director, Ms Alicia Zuill, Dellwood principel, Mrs Lisa Marshall and her Dellwood staff and their hard-working custodians, the Ministry of Education and their staff, the great presenters, our volunteers, the participants, T.N.Tatem, Bermuda100 Hub leaders, deputy principel Mr Chris Swan and Mrs Cindy Simmons-Bean and many others that help make the Bermuda100 workshop a success. 

Your help and support was greatly appreciated and I look forward to our next leadership and critical-thinking workshop.

This week I want to talk about HOPE and our choice of having hope. I want to talk about the young boy in the picture from a Guatemala orphanage I visited a few years ago. 

His name is David and he gets dropped off to the orphanage every day hoping one day he will live a pleasant life in a home with a family that will give him the same love he is getting from the orphanage staff.

As David gets older, despite all the rough times he has seen and will see in front of him, he will have that choice to want more and better for himself.

Author and speaker John Maxwell put it best that “hope is in the DNA of men and women who learn from their losses. When times are tough, they choose hope, knowing that it will motivate them to learn and turn them from victims into victors.”

Let’s all think about those hard times we have had and no matter what we may have lost or suffered, how we stood strong and kept the HOPE that things would get better.

I recall when I was going through my abuse, thinking one day all will be okay, thinking that there would  be some light at the end of this road, believing one day I would be able to talk about my tragedies in a positive manor, hoping the game I love so much would  be a shining light that would cover me and many others like me. 

I hoped that one day I would be in control of my own destiny and not have someone controlling it for me.

Hope was all I had to rely on at the time and I had to believe that one day all would be great.

All I could say to you is never lose hope, no matter what you are experiencing, if it’s through a family, personal, social, sport or business challenge, never, ever give up hope.

“Hope is our greatest asset and the greatest weapon we can use to battle our losses when they seem to be mounting. If you want to find the motivation to learn in the face of your losses, to keep working to get better tomorrow than you are today, to reach your potential and fulfil your purpose, then make use of the difference maker. Embrace hope.” John Maxwell.

Until next time.  

David Bascome is the coach of Baltimore Blast and founder of the Hope4Life Foundation and the Bermuda100 initiative, which aims to support schools, and recruit and train leaders in our community to address youth development challenges.