I remember an event from about 20 years ago, while attending a tutorial center in preparation for GCE. It was English class, and the teacher had asked us all to write a narrative essay. I always had a wild imagination, and I loved stories, so it wasn't hard to come up with a story to fit the theme the teacher had picked.

When the time was up, the English teacher started going from person to person, scoring the essay, right there on the spot. I concluded my story, and started reading through. Just then, the girl sitting next to me said, "Your story is good, but you have a lot of punctuation errors."

I didn't know her that well, so I was a bit perplexed, but I followed her instructions. "Put a coma here, put a semicolon here instead of a coma," she said. I did as she said, and we were done with the editing just before the teacher got to us. The man scored her first; I can remember she got 6/10. When he picked up my exercises book and started reading through my essay, he just kept smiling. At a point, he said, "this is what WAEC is looking for." He gave me 8 1/2 out of 10, and said, "great job." My self esteem was through the roof, and this event gave me more confidence to want to pursue a career in writing.

I always wonder what my score would have been if that girl didn't "help" me out with my punctuation on that essay.

In this world, everybody gets help one way or the other. It doesn't have to be monetary help; it can be help in form of moral support. Michael Jackson had his father, Joe Jackson; he also had Quincy Jones (the producer that worked on most of his biggest hits). Nelson Mandela had Winnie Mandela.

As you start this week, have the mindset of being the catalyst to someone's greatness. As I said, it doesn't always have to do with money. If you see potential in a person, encourage that person in the best way you can, and someone will also do the same for you.

I wish you all a great week ahead.