His words below are transcribed from CNN interviews.
They convinced us for 30 years that Egypt died and there is no more Egypt, that we are a generation that just needs to eat and sleep.
Tens of thousands of decided to search and begin a journey for Egypt and then they convinced hundreds of thousands and then they convinced millions of people-- we were all looking for Egypt and thank God that we found her...
No one is going to stop us.
You guys have been ruining this country for 30 years. Enough. Enough! Enough!
The leader on Tahrir Square was every single person there. The leader in Alexandria was every single person there. " This is revolution 2.0. Just like in Tunisia, everyone is contributing to the contents and there was no massive violence.
I knew, from the day Ben Ali left Tunisia, I knew that Hosni was going to leave Egypt.
At the moment you break the psychological barrier of fear, The moment you break the fear, the moment you convince people that if they die it's better for them to die for a good cause than to live without dignity, which is something that we all worked on in our message at the very beginning. Then you should be sure that you are going to win, because these guys are so corrupted, these dictators don't care about the people. They care about their lives and for them life is much, you know, life is much worth it and it's a shame for us - I love my life. We all want to live. We don't want to die. We all want to make - survive free and open-minded. We all want this country to go where it should be. We should be among the great countries in the world. We can do it and we will do it.
I want to go back to my company and work. I think it would be a big mistake for me to be involved. Also if you read history, you know, the people who helped the revolution should not be part of the revolution afterward. I think my mission has been accomplished. I just need to work for a few days to make sure that the country is in safe hands and then i need to disappear from the scene.
My mission is over. I want to go back to see my kids. I want to go back to start working. I want to be a normal person and this is about the Egyptians. Those guys - I'm not worried about this country seeing all these people in the street right now.
We are dreamers and we made it happen and it's time now to celebrate for a couple of days and then go back and start thinking about how can we develop the strategy and what's the best for us.
I was actually at my mom's house with a lot of, you know, in my mom's house a lot - like a lot of activists and having sort of like the center of my plan, my - so I was there and we were all of a sudden like I heard my mom screaming. I went out and, you know, it was amazing. She started hugging me and kissing me and started crying and it was, you know, the rest of the family came. It was really good.
Thanks to you and you folks on Tahrir Square. You guys have played a great role in saving the lives of hundreds if not thousands of people. This regime did not care about the people and they would have killed a lot of people if there was no international media. CNN did a great job. You guys deserve a great recognition from all the Egyptian people. We're not going to forget your role."
The thing is, even Wael Ghonim was not the kind of top-down leader most people consider when they talk about leaders. He was more, using a chemistry term, a "catalyst" who helped accelerate the reaction process with his use of social networking tools. I'm not saying he was not a leader, but he was a bottom up leader who helped empower the people.
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