Below is the minimally edited acceptance speech delivered on Wednesday night by Ryland Campbell, the executive chairman of Capital & Credit Financial Group, after he was named Business Leader for 2005. The awards ceremony was held at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel.

Ryland Campbell

I accept this Jamaica Business Observer Business Leader Award tonight on this the 10th anniversary of its existence with considerable humility, freighted with abundant pride and inestimable pleasure.

I do so fully cognisant of the responsibility it represents in the fulfillment of the inspiration it is designed to engender in our Jamaican people wherever they are, and even other people beyond our own shores.

It could be any one of the seven of us nominees, and for that I am honoured to be among such hardworking and accomplished persons. From the suave and debonair Tanny Shirley, the measured and incisive thinker Ian Levy, the introverted, hands on and absorbed 'Zoukie' Marzouca, the calculating and prophetic Terence Jarrett, the effervescent and flamboyant Ernie Smatt or the dignified and much celebrated Eugennie 'Gloriana' Minto.

So tonight Mr Chairman, I express my profound appreciation to the Jamaica Observer and the sponsors for identifying us as being worthy of recognition as entrepreneurs. For my own part I first give thanks to God for the opportunity he has afforded me as an instrument of service.

The seven Business Leader Nominees at the awards ceremony on Wednesday. From left: Ernest 'Ernie' Smatt, principal of Shaw Park Hotel, and Water Sports Enterprises; Anthony 'Zoukie' Marzouca, principal, Zoukie Trucking; Terence Jarrett, principal, Altamont Court Hotel; Eugennie 'Gloriana' Carroll Minto, principal, Gloriana Hotel; Ian Levy, principal, Ian K Agencies; Lyttleton 'Tanny' Shirley, principal, Mitchell's Auto Supplies, and Shirlhome Chemical; Ryland Campbell, principal, Capital & Credit Financial Services; and Business Leader for 2005.

I have one regret and that my father passed away in 2002; for I would have liked him to be alive to see the fruits of his enduring values. But my mother Miss Pearlie is alive and I know she is proud of her "big son" from Carmel in Westmoreland - note well, from Westmoreland. One of my daughters, Stephanie is here tonight representing Simona and the other parts of my family.

My journey to this podium has been very long, meandering, challenging and sometimes even daunting. But it is rewarding and delightful to me, more for its altitude than its longitude. I can empathise with St. Paul the Apostle when in writing to the Philippians in Philippians Chapter 4 verse 12, he said, "I know what it is to be in need and I know what it is to have plenty".

The rewards of success have not come only because of me. For as the English Anglican priest, John Donne wrote, "no man is an island: no man stands alone". So tonight, I pay tribute to all those who have enriched my life and helped me on this journey, but more particularly the members of the Capital & Credit team at all levels past and present who have held me up on their shoulders as I journeyed with them.

To the current members of the Capital & Credit team for their shared vision, loyalty, tolerance of my pedagogical disposition, their unwavering commitment to excellence, the Capital & Credit values of professionalism, respect and integrity and for their confidence in me. In the words of the late Jomo Kenyata of Mau Mau notoriety, "if I have offended anyone, forgive me".

But in the manner of the late Right Excellent Sir Alexander Bustamante who was asked by the speaker of the House to withdraw a somewhat un-parliamentary remark he made about another member, and who responded by saying, "I withdraw Mr. Speaker, but a true". So, I say tonight to my Capital & Credit team members, if I have offended you, forgive me, but I really mean you good and this is true.

We Jamaicans have entrepreneurship in our blood. It forms part of what defines us as Jamaicans. Some call it "hustling", some have immortalised it in the caricature of Brer Anancy, some have allowed their unbridled ingenuity to lead them to ignominy in crime and violence.

But I am convinced that the majority of us Jamaicans have channelled our passion and inventiveness into honest enterprise through our vision, resilience, stick-to-itiveness and work. Said the late Hon. Glen Owen my former principal of the Mico College: "Work! Thank God for the might of it - the urge of it, work that springs from the heart's desire, work that sets the soul on fire".

Mr Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, we the nominees represent this latter group and with vision, passion, faith, confidence, courage, values and daring. We have succeeded by turning threats into opportunities.

We, I believe, have overcome obstacles, and many there are in the entrepreneurial path. We do so by going over them, or going under them or going around them or even going through them if necessary. It is our hard work and smart work and our attitude to achieving which defines and determines our altitude to success.

There is only one place in which success comes before work and that is in the dictionary. It is not luck - it is not chance - it is risk and daring where others have not trod. It is work - hard work - smart work. Except, of course, for the Honourable Gordon 'Butch' Stewart not every venture yields the desired result - some have failed - that has even been my own experience. But in the words of the late British prime minister, Sir Winston Churchill "success is not final: failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts".

On the road of entrepreneurship, never look back! When Orpheus in Greek mythology looked back, he lost his beloved Eurydice and eventually his life. Lot's wife looked back and she turned into a pillar of salt. Life moves on with or without you, so muster the courage to continue. Success is achievable. Abraham Lincoln said, "I am a slow walker, but I never look backwards".

Mr Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, please permit me on this auspicious occasion, if you will, to crave your indulge to consider entering seriously into a collaborative forward effort of a social partnership, if you will, between the government, trade unions and the private sector in developing and implementing realistic goals, objectives and strategies to improve our system of education and training, and to create more qualified and competent people who can find a meaningful place in this globalised world.

Let us stimulate and support the spirit of entrepreneurship through the micro and small business sectors and help our people to rise from beneath the social and economic inequalities which they face in our country. Let us teach those who are willing to learn - let us teach them how to fish.

In addition, let us disenthrall ourselves from the clutches of gunmanism, drugmanism, donmanism, anancyism, extortion and corruption, and build together a nation of honest, hardworking, competent world class citizens and facilitate the expansion of entrepreneurship. Let us work together for Jamaica the land we love.

The revival of community councils and the recreation of the community enterprise as instruments of social intervention for change improvement is a proposal worthy of adoption. I urge you to join in this alliance for empowerment and economic advancement of our depressed communities. It is our corporate social responsibility.

Our country Jamaica, is an excellent place for investment. Several opportunities abound. Some of us as nominees will certainly use our new found honour and recognition as a spring board for further expansion within the Caribbean and the Diaspora.

This Jamaica Business Observer Business Leader Award provides the centerpiece for us nominees to be noticed, hopefully mostly for good and not to be preyed upon by the lazy and inventive do-gooders who think we owe them a living. I hope that more importantly however, that this award will serve as an inspiration to the young people and all who want to achieve. That it is possible, is our message.

The late Right Excellent Norman Manley said in the manuscript of his autobiography and I quote from Manley and the New Jamaica edited with notes by Professor the Honourable Rex Nettleford: "Nothing good can result from sloppy work, half-hearted application, dependence on the facile, worship of the superficial or from mere self-indulgence."
In Norman Manley's own words, I again quote, "I grew up a 'bush' man. I earned my pocket-money cleaning pastures and chipping logwood at standard rates".

He worked mostly twelve to fourteen hours per day on the Belmont farm in St. Catherine as a young boy with only a struggling mother who had to take care of her blind father, two sisters one of whom was an invalid, and her own four children. Norman Manley's achievements are legendary.

I say to all who will listen and hear me, With God all things are possible.
I was born at Carmel, a little agricultural district in the hills of Westmoreland and I lived there for several years before I stopped for six years in St. Elizabeth on my way to reside in Kingston in 1974. I am not ashamed of my humble beginnings and tonight I am proud to be named among the successful entrepreneurs in Jamaica.

I hope that this award will serve to encourage and inspire those who doubt themselves, as well as those who are ambitious, to realise that it is possible. We can, the humblest of us rise from beneath "the foul and ugly mists", as Shakespeare calls it, of social and economic hardships and ascend the mountain of success and enjoy the bright lights of prosperity and happiness along the way.

My colleague nominees and I, say with an unrepentant assertion, that it is possible. So tonight I say especially to the young people and budding entrepreneurs of any age group, whether you are from the hills in the county of Cornwall, the plains in the county of Middlesex or the inner cities of the county of Surrey - It is possible, but it is you who have to make it happen.

Believe! All things are possible if you only believe says a well known church song. Have confidence in yourself and take action. It is possible.
The Right Excellent Marcus Mosiah Garvey reminds us, and I quote, "God and nature first made us what we are, and then out of our own created genius we make ourselves what we want to be. Let the sky and God be our limit and eternity our measurement".

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