Daniel Armstrong
Daniel Armstrong is a dream coach and author who motivates and empowers people to make a difference in their own lives and the lives of others through his program, Find A Tree.
Inspired by his experiences in Ghana, West Africa, Daniel Armstrong wrote the motivational book How to Live Your Dreams: Find A Tree and Get Started. Subsequently, he developed the companion Find A Tree Program to help others realize their dreams. Armstrong has also written a children’s book Live Your Dream: Read About It! Write About It! And Do Something!
Armstrong has had great success working with incarcerated gang members as well as students in public and private schools, teaching them to identify and achieve their dreams. Currently, the Find A Tree program is being taught in 10 cities across the country through the US Dream Academy.
Raised in Compton, California, Armstrong earned his bachelor of arts degree in political science at Columbia University, where he organized a campaign that led to the withdrawal of the school’s multimillion-dollar investment in apartheid South Africa. Armstrong also holds a juris doctorate and a master in business administration degree both from UCLA. While at UCLA, Armstrong founded the International Black MBA Student Association.
He was a Ford Foundation Fellow in 1984, when he received a grant to study youth development in Zimbabwe. While in Zimbabwe, Armstrong organized a national tour of the country by the Harlem Magicians basketball team, led by former Harlem Globetrotter Marques Haynes. This tour resulted in the largest multi-racial social gathering at that point in the young nation’s history, following nearly 20 years of civil war. The tour “is still remembered as one of [the] greatest America/Africa cultural/sports events,” Mal Whitfield, a former American diplomat and Olympic champion, wrote in 2004.
Armstrong organized a 1995 U.S visit by Ghanaian President Jerry Rawlings. Armstrong later worked for two years in Ghana facilitating business and development projects in association with Korean multinational corporations. While in Ghana, he also coached basketball and instructed Ghanaian youths in how to establish businesses, schools, and other community development projects, despite minimal resources.
Upon returning to the United States, Armstrong discovered that many of the same factors that hamper Ghanaian youths also inhibit their American counterparts. He concluded that it is a failure to dream, not a lack of money or materials, that limits most people's prospects. Armstrong also realized that most people do not understand how to implement their dreams. In response, he wrote How to Live Your Dreams: Find A Tree and Get Started. The title refers to advice he gave to two teenage Ghanaians who wanted to start a school but had no building. Armstrong advised them to “find a tree and get started.” The two youths followed his advice and, in time, a local businessman donated a building for their school.
Armstrong has been a small-business owner, operating a sanitation business firm—“The Dirt Patrol”-- and a basketball training program—“To Be A Champion.” He has served as an aide to former United States Senator Alan Cranston, former Democratic National Committee Chairman Ron Brown and former A&M Records President Gil Friesen.