AMBASSADOR OF AFRICAN ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT

“And then a hero comes along; with the strength to carry on. And you cast your fears aside, and you know you can survive. So, when y ou feel like hope is gone, look inside you and be strong. And you’ll finally see the truth, that a hero lies in you.” –

Mariah Carey, American singer and songwriter

The world is in dire need of superheroes who will ensure remarkable transformational shifts in their own lives and in the lives of others. At no time in the eventful history of mankind has there been so many opportunities for advancement on the individual and collective levels. In an age in which first class performance is in fervent demand, there can be no excuse for anything less. For that reason, the hero in each one of us must advocate strongly for the pursuit of the heroic transformational change that will liberate humanity from the shackles of ignorance and mediocrity. This is my story.

Humble Beginnings

My quest to discover my own inner superhero commenced with my difficult upbringing. I was the eldest in a family of three children who were raised by a simple, humble woman in the tense atmosphere created by an alcoholic father. My family had to endure despairing and dispiriting grinding poverty occasioned by unemployment, unimaginable domestic abuse, personal health issues, and the rather incapacitating social limitations placed on my parents by the Apartheid regime in South Africa. Apartheid was a system of institutionalized racial segregation characterized by an authoritarian political culture that ensured that South Africa was dominated through a systematic and institutional form of minority rule.

I rather precociously, at the age of thirteen, decided to become a feisty participant and activist in the anti-apartheid struggle.

With the wisdom of insight, I am now in a better position to appreciate the enormous risk I took at such a tender age, to wear the toga of a human rights activist, and join in the fight against the cruel and unjust apartheid system. I was so committed to my purpose of fighting for the political and economic freedom of my people that I ended up sacrificing the sweet innocence of youth hastening my evolution into adulthood.

Embarking on The Road of Life

The road of life can be long and arduous. I arrived at the wisdom that, while I could never totally master life, I could, at the very least, learn to love life to perfection. I resolved to find the love that was embedded within me and quickly discovered that the only way to achieve this seemingly Herculean feat was to hearken to the words in one of the most beautiful prayers ever offered by the Son of Man, in which He alluded to the eternally relevant phrase, “Be in this world, but not of this world.”

With my Creator’s glory beaming its grace upon me, I completed my legal studies, graduating with a law degree. However, even before I became an attorney, I was appointed into a position as one of three provincial managers to run the first cycle of historic elections in South Africa. The election took place under the direction of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), the institution responsible for running and administering free and fair elections.

I worked closely with leaders of different political parties, and I can declare, with all the pride, yet with all the humility at my disposal, that President Nelson Mandela was most impressed with all that I accomplished at that critical period of the emergence of a new South Africa. The Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), Lawyers for Human Rights, under the directorship of Anne Skeleton, was equally impressed. Two years after those landmark elections, the African National Congress (ANC), nominated me for local city council elections in the central ward of my city. I consider myself extremely and uncommonly fortunate to have had the rare privilege of working at such close quarters with this great leader. Nelson Mandela worked from a place of the rare combination of unimpeachable integrity and unassailable truth, both of which are principles I have always resonated with.

By virtue of my short stint in formal politics, I developed an expansive network of associates amongst leaders in the rural areas of South Africa. I served the rural communities by providing over 100,000 meals to them. After this exhilarating excursion in politics, I shifted gear into the formal legal sector gaining experience in Family & Divorce Family Law, Commercial Law, Insolvency Law, Criminal and Civil

Litigation, as well as Conveyancing. I have achieved nothing short of roaring success with my conveyancing law firm, YMi (Yugandrie Maharaj Incorporated). As a South African attorney, I have been able to meritoriously attain the highest designation in legal practice; one that is only earned by less than 1% of female attorneys in the entire country.

A Journey Like No Other

My purpose now is to embrace a life mission in which I am irrevocably committed to helping empower South Africans who find themselves in similar circumstances through building initiatives such as International Association of Human Values, Saree for Change and Life For A Purpose. I have partnered with local municipalities to transform communities by awakening the spirituality of the people, so that they can tap into their deep reserves of potential, exploit their innate gifts and talents, and develop their entrepreneurial skills.

Along my own journey I have taken two proactive steps. The first step was to decisively come out of my comfort zone. There is a self-imposed prison called ‘Comfort Zone.’ where, not only is the average individual the prisoner, but he is also the jailer, for the simple reason that he is in possession of the key to a freedom he is surprisingly unwilling to pursue. The second step I have taken in my life, and which I still consistently take, is to insinuate myself into a gap as soon as I see one. I like to shake things up.

A Woman of Incomparable Influence

I am an internationally certified John Maxwell Leadership Coach, a Doctor of Humane Letters, an Ambassador for the Trinity International University of Ambassadors, a global Ambassador for the Women of Wealth Magazine and a director of the Global Women Empowerment Organization. As a transformational coach, I have shared the stage with influential speakers like Tony Robbins, T. Ecker and J.T Foxx and have also attended many prestigious international events with Coach Nido Quebin. I have won prestigious awards for philanthropy, and for my role as an Ambassador for African economic empowerment. I am a recipient of a Presidential Award of Service from the President of The United States and have been honored with a Resolution from The State of Georgia. The South African Sunday Tribune Newspaper honored me as a South African Hero.

I have succeeded in building a strong personal brand that has empowerment and transformation as its key drivers and that passion has found expression in my seminar series, “7 Steps To Becoming A Superhero; otherwise called 7 Steps To Self-Mastery.”

Enter The Wealth Elevation Academy

I am fortunate to join the faculty at the prestigious Wealth Elevation Academy, with its eminent array of distinguished and accomplished experts. The Academy was founded by the renowned and redoubtable Dr Lei Lewis, a Leader and Influencer in Business and Entrepreneurship in the United States. She is also an Icon of the Fourth Estate as CEO & Publisher of Women of Wealth Magazine. Wealth Elevation Academy offers top-notch training and resources for entrepreneurs who wish to start their own businesses. Boasting an expansive, all-embracing, cross-disciplinary and thoroughly inclusive curriculum, WEA aims to teach you how to start a business on your own terms, grow it into a multimillion-dollar empire, and live the life of your dreams.

I will be facilitating a course called, “How To Grow And Expand Your Business Into Global Markets.” This course provides participants with the tools and knowledge that will empower them to propel their businesses into the global arena. I intend to employ my expertise in business and commercial law to help South African women business owners, and black-owned small businesses, to position their companies globally. I want to encourage them to step out of their own comfort zones and become disruptors.

Conclusion

Right from my youth, I have developed a capacity for refusing to play it safe. The common denominator amongst the generality is the tendency to play it safe. Most people are either willing only to, at the best, play in familiar territory, or at the worst, maintain fidelity to the evil that they know, or can see. Yet, beyond this crippling comfort zone often lies the field of infinite possibilities in which may ultimately be found potentials for advancement on a scale that most people cannot even begin to imagine. They are unwilling to trade what they can see for what they cannot see, in total ignorance of the fact that the greatest of life’s dividends often lie hidden in treasure troves that have remained unexplored for centuries.

May the ultimate sacrifice of the Son of Man; Him who is also known as the Prince of Peace, infuse your life with the inspiration, and the new hope, to continue to follow the path of courage, truth and redemption all the days of your life. Amen.

About The Author

Yugandrie Maharaj is an eminently qualified and highly skilled conveyancing attorney. She is also a gutsy humanitarian, and a dynamic transformational speaker, coach and facilitator. She is a disruptor of note, and a formidable South African woman of tremendous influence with a global following. She is happily married to dynamic business entrepreneur, Suren Maharaj, and they have two daughters who are becoming success stories in their own right.

Ambassador Maharaj can be reached at 0027828572838. yugandrie@yma1.co.za