About Daniel

Daniel Armstrong is The Dream Mentor and creator of Find A Tree, a purpose-driven education model designed to help students discover their talents and interests, determine their dreams, and take action toward those dreams now.

Growing up in Compton, California, Daniel’s commitment to academics and athletics earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Columbia University and both a Juris Doctor (J.D.) and MBA from UCLA. As a student at Columbia, he founded The Coalition for a Free South Africa, catalyzing Columbia’s divestment from Apartheid South Africa and sparking a national campus movement.

Named one of Columbia University’s top student leaders over the past 50 years, Daniel has always been committed to pioneering change. As a Ford Foundation Fellow, he studied youth development in Zimbabwe and organized a landmark national basketball tour by the Harlem Magicians, creating the largest multiracial gathering at that point in Zimbabwe’s post-civil war history.

Daniel’s passion for youth empowerment deepened while coaching basketball in Ghana, where he inspired two local boys to open a school under a tree — a spark that led to the creation of his now-signature Find A Tree empowerment program. Today, Find A Tree serves thousands of students, teachers, and incarcerated youth, providing the tools and mindset to pursue dreams with urgency and confidence.

Through his book How To Live Your Dreams: Find a Tree and Get Started, international speaking engagements, and groundbreaking empowerment initiatives, Daniel Armstrong continues to exemplify the power of believing in the possible — and getting started.

Video: “Daniel Armstrong: A Biography”

Changing The World
‍With Flyers

In April 2018, the Columbia Daily Spectator named Danielone of the university’s top student leaders of the pastfifty years. The excerpt above is the opening paragraph of that story.

Daniel Armstrong opened our eyes, not just to the terrible injustice and brutality of apartheid in South Africa, but to the idea that we, as college students, thousands of miles away, could play a direct role in building pressure for a solution. Daniel went beyond consciousness-raising. He got us to act, and the job got done. History was made; that’s no exaggeration.

─Steve Greenfield
Columbia University
New York, New York

Daniel In Ghana

Find A Tree Is Born

Daniel served as an international liaison to the president of Ghana, Jerry Rawlings. It was during this time that Daniel’s true career calling became apparent.

While coaching basketball in Ghana, Daniel encountered a set of teenaged twin brothers who dreamed of one day teaching in their own school, but they had no resources. He challenged them not to wait, but to “find a tree and start their school there.”

This simple motivation inspired them to act. Within four months, their school under a tree attracted nearly 100 community youths. This success captured the attention of a local businessman who donated a building to house their school─effectively bringing their dream to fruition. With that, the Find A Tree program was born.

President Jerry Rawlings of Ghana

Beverly Hills, California
(November 1, 1995)

As someone who has known Daniel Armstrong for nearly 40 years, I can think of no one better to inspire people of all ages to follow their dreams and achieve their goals.

─Michael Massiminio
Former NASA Astronaut

From Ghana to America

Upon returning to the United States, Daniel recognized the unique challenges preventing American youth from maximizing their potential. Similar to his experience in Ghana, Daniel saw an opportunity to make a difference by empowering young people to overcome obstacles and act with urgency and confidence in pursuit of their dreams. Daniel went on to create the Find A Tree program to address the American education crisis, conducting empowerment workshops for thousands of students and teachers across the country and for at-risk youth in Los Angeles area juvenile detention centers.

In 2002, Daniel went from motivational speaker to published author with the release of his book How To Live Your Dreams: Find a Tree and Get Started. Following the book’s release, the lessons and principles of Find A Tree began to attract a growing corporate audience. Daniel expanded into public speaking engagements and specialized workshops focused on motivating professionals, at all career levels, to become more productive, engaged, innovative, and collaborative team members.

In 2018, Daniel was recognized by Columbia University as one of the school’s Top Student Leaders over the past 50 years, and, in 2021, he was featured in a documentary by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art about locals making a difference in the community. Today, Daniel and his Find A Tree program are moving from mentoring classes to a global dream-building movement changing people's lives one dream at a time.
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Daniel Armstrong’s presentation and out-of-the-box thinking was just whatour team needed.

─Celeste M. Alleyne
Director, Citizenship and Public Affairs West Coast Region & US YouthSpark and Education Lead at Microsoft Corporation

Find A Tree isn’t simply something Daniel teaches.

It’s something he has lived.

Daniel Unites Zimbabwe

The Harlem Magicians Tour Zimbabwe

Years before Find A Tree had a name, Daniel was already living its principles—starting with the resources he had, building relationships, creating opportunities, and turning an ambitious idea into action.

Before earning both his Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) and Juris Doctor (J.D.) degrees from UCLA, Daniel was a Ford Foundation Research Fellow in Zimbabwe, where his experience with international affairs grew while studying youth development. In addition to his research, Daniel coached basketball in the racially divided and recently independent nation following 15 years of civil war.

Former Harlem Globetrotter and basketball Hall of Famer, Marques Haynes, agreed to bring his team, the Harlem Magicians, to Zimbabwe to support Daniel’s efforts to promote the development of basketball in Zimbabwe, but only if Daniel could raise the money to bring the team, along with an opposing American team. Working with no resources─except a typewriter, phone, and phone book─Daniel raised $50,000 in cash and services to bring the Magicians to Zimbabwe. The tour’s opening night game was the largest multi-racial social event at that point in Zimbabwe’s history following 15 years of civil war.

The tour is still remembered as one of the greatest American/African cultural-sporting events.

─Mal Whitfield
Diplomat
United States State Department
Africa

Highlights Of The Harlem Magicians’Tour Of Zimbabwe

Video: “The Power Of A Dream”

Daniel Planting
‍Seeds in Ghana

Daniel Armstrong’s Find A Tree workshop inspired me to stop making excuses and to pursue my dreams today, to be a better team player and to become the catalyst to my own success.

─Aaron Batts
Product Presentation Specialist
Nike West Coast Headquarters

Building Bridges:

Basketball Is More Than A Game

Video: “Daniel In Argentina”

Watch Daniel inspire a basketball team in Argentina to be champions on and off the court.

They Changed The World

Encounters with History Makers

Lessons in Courage, Leadership, and Creating Change

Throughout his life, Daniel has had the opportunity to learn from and interact with extraordinary people whose courage, leadership and commitment to change reinforced the principles that would ultimately shape Find A Tree.
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ROSA PARKS

CIVIL RIGHTS ICON

In 5th grade, Daniel memorized Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s entire "I Have A Dream" speech. Later,he met Mrs. Parks.

DESMOND TUTU

NOBEL PEACE PRIZE LAUREATE

Daniel met with Desmond Tutu in Apartheid South Africa to gain his endorsement of the divestment movement at Columbia.

REV. MARTIN LUTHER
KING, SR.

THE FATHER OF THE DREAMER

Daniel and his mother greet Rev. Martin Luther King, Sr.

STEVIE WONDER

MUSIC LEGEND

Daniel and Stevie Wonder attended the funeral for Syreeta Wright, who was Wonder’s wife and musical collaborator, and who was also a great supporter of Daniel and the Find A Tree program.

A Life-Changing Meeting

Daniel and Rev. Martin Luther King, Sr.

Watch The Day I Met the Reverend Martin Luther King, Sr.

The Los Angeles
‍County Museum of Art

Highlights Daniel’s Work

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art included Daniel in their documentary film about people in Los Angeles who are making a difference.

Portraits of Radical Generosity

Los Angeles County Museum of Art

“Watch the video: “Daniel Armstrong Helps You Find Your Dream.”

Daniel Armstrong is one of those truly gifted motivational speakers who is a role model for our students. He has walked his talk and is especially valuable in inspiring our students to make a positive difference in the world.

─Elizabeth J. McGregor
Associate Head of School

Daniel Armstrong’s presentation is unbelievable and very inspirational, especially good for children.

─Byron Scott
Three-time NBA World Champion
with the Los Angeles Lakers and NBA Head Coach

Daniel Armstrong is a passionate and persuasive communicator, an instinctive and energetic leader, a charismatic and commanding intellectual and physical presence, and inspiring role model to all who aspire to the extraordinary.

─Ronald L. Davis
Teacher
Los Angeles, California

I believe that Mr. Daniel Armstrong is being used by God as a tool to bring His children to higher level and to have a strong impact in their lives.

─Alvaro Esquivel
Fred C. Nelles Youth Correctional Institution
Whittier, California

The Daniel
‍Armstrong Archive

The Experiences That Shaped Find A Tree

The Find A Tree program was developed through decades of experiences in education, youth development, leadership, athletics, community service, international travel, social activism, and entrepreneurship.