“The Path is the Goal”
In a family reunion on New Year’s Day this year, Uncle Dipo was asked about the meaning of the Odujinrin name. His answer was “we are calm people who don’t lose their temper”. This got me thinking about how I do not remember my dad ever losing his temper. Only once do I even remember him being upset and it was surely warranted.
When I was 14, we were visiting prep schools on the East Coast and he had arranged for me to interview at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. Andover is a school that is a feeder to the top Universities in the world, but I did not really want to go there because I had a nice life in Pasadena and did not want to lose my friends. When they asked me in the interview why I wanted to go to Andover, my answer was “Because my dad wants me to”.
Reflecting on this decision, what I wanted was to take the easy way out while my dad wanted to put me on the best possible path to success. The most important thing I have learned from my dad is to do everything you can to put yourself on the right path. When you get that right, decision making becomes easier and everything falls into place.
