(Editor's note - due to the unpredictability of radio, this segment has NOT yet appeared on The Good News with Angie Austin.)
Win Anyway Warriors is a regular friday feature of The Good News with Angie Austin on 810am KLVZ at 4:00 pm at the bottom of the hour. Be sure to listen in each week, and return here for full videos of the interviews, as well as other motivational posts in between!
This weeks Win Anyway Warrior is Ousmane Ndoye – a Denver, Colorado cab driver who just happens to be living a story that reads like a Hollywood script, with an ending that just keeps getting better and better each year.
Growing up in Senegal, Ousmane found himself an outcast in his own family after his father remarried – a reverse of the classic Cinderella story. After being bullied, put down, and beaten by his new siblings in the 100 person compound he was raised in from age 5 to age 20, he clung to the advice of his great grandmother who told him 'No matter what other people tell you, its not true it will only be true if YOU believe it' He now looks back at these times as a sort of blessing – where he adopted a 'no excuses' attitude, and realized that the problem wasn't within himself, but in those outside of him.
He learned about America through Rock 'n Roll - and set out on a 10 year journey through
Africa and Europe, at one point walking through the Sahara Desert between Algeria and Libya for 6 days, before he eventually landed in NY with little money and no where to
stay. Stepped into a cab which happened to be driven by another man
from Senegal, who took him in. He wanted to go to Hollywood, because
he always believed that was where the American Dream cam true.
Stopped in Denver because of an unexpected connection with a friend.
Here in Denver, he got a job as a
cabbie, despite not knowing his way around town, and applied his 'no
excuses' attitude each day, by dressing up, keeping an immaculate
cab, and taking on the role of an Ambassador for the city with each
fare he picked up at the airport. In 2009, Ousmane was recognized with
'The Best Customer Service in the Transportation Industry' National
Award. Today, he still drives his cab, and runs his own
Transportation Training Company
He has also written two books –
'Serving Unfailingly' and 'Stand With No Excuses', and speaks both to
kids and corporate audiences about pursuing a better life and lifting
others for a better world. You can contact him at MMIMindset.com or at the phone number in the video.
The hour I spent with Ousmane was
amazing, and a bit sobering, when I think about all the mundane
things we find to complain about in today's world. He has done more
than survive his upbringing, more than even pursued and captured the
American Dream. He has committed himself to bettering those around
him, including you and I, to teach us how to live a life with No
Excuses.
Truly a Win Anyway Warrior.
If you know someone who should be
spotlighted as a WinAnywayWarrior, please email me at rich@richhopkins.com!
