Young Bermudians have gone back to work with a renewed sense of self after sitting through a seminar hosted by Stedman Graham.

The seminar entitled ‘Who Are You’, presented by the Family Centre, attracted almost 180 people aged between 16 and 30.

Mr. Graham opened his seminar by saying: “Even if it falls your lot to be a street sweeper, go on out and sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures, sweep streets like Handel and Beethoven composed music, sweep streets like Shakespeare wrote poetry.” He continued: “Sweep streets so well that all the host of heaven and earth will have to pause and say, ‘here lived a great street sweeper who swept his job well’.”

Mr. Graham is an educator, author and entrepreneur, but is most well known for being the long time boyfriend of talk show host Oprah Winfrey.

He admitted that while the world may define him as “Oprah’s boyfriend” he has chosen to step “outside the box” and the labels and to define himself by his own terms.

“Whoever defines you will always define you as less than themselves. The question is how do you take your power back as a human being?”

He continued: “If you don’t own your mind then you are still a slave — and what does a slave do — follows everybody else.” He then urged everyone to step outside the box and to become leaders.

Mid-way through the seminar, ten members of the audience volunteered to do an activity- name all the things they love in 30 seconds, the top winners were promised tickets to the Oprah Winfrey show in Chicago.

One of the winners, Sharon Leman, a member of the board at the Family Centre, said: “To me I think it was a wonderful reward. I decided to push myself and go up and ‘step outside the box’ and look what happened.”

Mr. Graham told the audience to change their thinking and say: “World I’m gonna stop working for you, I’m going to have you work for me.

“Everyone is equal because everyone has the same 24 hours in a day. You have the same 24 hours as Michael Jordan, the same 24 hours as Oprah and the same 24 hours as Bill Gates — the question is how do you use it?,” he asked.

“Success does not mean just financial or career success, but living a fully engaged life in which all your gifts and talents are developed and put to the highest use.”

He spent the remainder of the seminar explaining his Nine Steps in the Success Process, which included: finding who you are, exploring your goals, planning and then committing to your vision.

Above all things, Mr. Graham hoped the Island’s youth would begin to define their own future and get beyond the negative labels.

Attendee Stacee Smith admitted she enjoyed the seminar and said: “The most beneficial thing was getting that reaffirmation and being reminded that there is so much of the world that you can just take a hold of”.

Executive Director at the Family Centre, Martha Dismont, said of the event: “I asked a few people and people seemed to be responsive — it really motivated them”.

Mr. Graham has been to the Island before and told The Royal Gazette that he enjoys it here, he said: “I enjoy the spirit of Bermuda, the people and the culture, of course the language and the way people talk. It’s a wonderful class of people if I can say on a whole.”