Daniel Armstrong is a motivational speaker and author of the book How to Live Your Dreams: Find A Tree and Get Started. His Find A Tree educational program has been credited with transforming many incarcerated gang members and underachieving students throughout Los Angeles, teaching them to identify and take the necessary steps toward achieving their dreams.

Raised in Compton, California, Armstrong earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from 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.

Youth Empowerment Summit
Compton, California (2006)

Armstrong 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. Of the tour, American diplomat and Olympic champion Mal Whitfield, wrote in 2004 "[It] is still remembered as one of [the] greatest America/Africa cultural/sports events."

Harare, Zimbabwe (1985)

Armstrong organized the 1995 visit to Los Angeles by the President of Ghana — Jerry Rawlings. With the encouragement of President Rawlings, Armstrong later worked for two years in Ghana, West Africa, 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, which 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.