Michelle Loubon

The late ca­lyp­son­ian Garfield Black­man (Ras Shorty I) penned Watch Out My Chil­dren to sound a warn­ing knell about the dan­gers of sub­stance abuse.Lead­er­ship speak­er Robin Shar­ma re­mind­ed pri­ma­ry school stu­dents about the pow­er of words.He ad­dressed about 350 chil­dren at the Grow­ing Lead­ers ses­sion at Hilton Trinidad, St Ann's yes­ter­day. The theme was Lead With­out A Ti­tle and Grow Your In­ner Leader. Among the spon­sors for the sem­i­nar were Guardian Me­dia Ltd, First Cit­i­zens, At­lantic and Arcelor Mit­tal.Shar­ma said: "It's the words you use when you talk to one an­oth­er. Use words that in­spire. Every word you use is pow­er­ful."

He urged them to read the bi­ogra­phies of pow­er­ful peo­ple like the late Nel­son Man­dela's (Long Walk To Free­dom), Moth­er Tere­sa and Ma­hat­ma Ghan­di. Born in Al­ba­nia, East­ern Eu­rope, Tere­sa was ven­er­at­ed as the "Saint of the Gut­ters" due to her work among In­dia's in­di­gents.The un­der­ly­ing mes­sage was they had made orig­i­nal con­tri­bu­tions which im­proved oth­er peo­ple's lives.Quot­ing po­et Os­car Wilde, he said: "Be your­self; every­one else is tak­en."

Shar­ma's Grow Your In­ner Leader ad­vice

• Get clear on a dream

• Don't lis­ten to peo­ple who laugh at you

• Be a great friend

• Live to read and learn

• Deal with your fears

• You are spe­cial