Who do you spend the most time with? Is it your spouse? Your best friend? Your colleague? Your driver? Who is that one person in whose company you are most likely to be found?

Whoever it is, I'm sure it's someone who trusts you, someone who supports you, and someone who believes in you. At least, I hope so - otherwise you might want to reconsider how much time you spend with them.

The truth, however, is this: the one person with whom you spend the most time is you.

You spend every moment of your life in your own company. Even when you are in the company of others, you are there too. So let me ask you: Do you trust yourself? When you say you will do something, do you do it? You said you would save a hundred cedis every month, but then payday came, and along with it came a sudden need for a new shirt.

Payday came and it was suddenly time to upgrade from Brazilian to Peruvian. Payday came and you suddenly just HAD to buy credit for that girl in Marketing who also got paid on the same day!

Do you trust yourself? You promised yourself you would stop drooling over that new secretary who you hired more for her BMI (Body-Mass Index) than her GPA (Grade-Point Average). So why have you placed her in the room next to yours at your corporate retreat? Do you trust yourself?

Do you support yourself? This world is full of obstacles and difficulties. If you're in Ghana, then you definitely know what I mean. These are hard times for everyone. Nothing comes easy anymore. You have to work twice as hard for everything - even the basic necessities. So what happens when times get tough and you feel like giving up, and there's nobody there to help you? Are you able to find motivation within yourself? Do you encourage yourself? When there's nobody to rely on, can you support yourself? 

Do you believe in yourself? Do you have faith in your own capabilities? Or do you only believe what others say you can do? Is there a limit to your potential? Or do you look in the mirror every morning and believe without a doubt that there is no problem you cannot solve, no obstacle you cannot overcome, and no goal you cannot achieve? Do you believe in yourself?

Whatever your answers may be to these questions, there still remains only one simple universal truth: You, and only you, are responsible for your own destiny. Whatever you will be, whatever challenges you will overcome,  whatever heights you will attain, it will all be down to YOU.

It is very important that you remember this: in your own life's story, YOU are the main character. You are the VIP in your own life. Whatever you say goes. If you say it shall be so, it MUST be so. 

You are ALWAYS in control. If you say you are going to save five hundred cedis a month, there should be nothing or nobody else in your life that can stop your wishes from being carried out.

You're the boss. What you say goes. If you're not going to take off your face mask, then it doesn't matter how Badly your nose itches, or how ripe that pimple looks on your chin, YOU have declared that your mask shall not come off, and nobody defies you. Not even YOU!

Just as you build a financial reserve every time you save money, you also build a reservoir of inner strength every time you overcome an obstacle or resist a temptation.  A person who has savings can fall on them in times of need. In the same way, when you're on the verge of giving up, you can tap into your reservoir of inner strength and self-discipline to support yourself from within.

As a nation, It's hard enough to believe in ourselves sometimes, but in these tough, trying times, we need more than belief - we need faith. 

Faith is what will make you believe you can make it, even in the absence of any evidence to prove you will succeed.

Our leaders need to have faith that the people of Ghana will thank them in the long run for making the tough choices today - as long as they are honest about it. The people need faith in our leaders that they will not put their private interest before the public good. And we all need that one ingredient without which faith does not work: and that is action.

My friend, I invite you to start the rest of your life today, with one simple thought: You are your own best friend. Others may disappoint you, but you must never let yourself down.

My name is Kojo Yankson. That's who I am, and I'm the best guy I know for that job.

GOOD MORNING, GHANAFO!