There is old money, new money, and wannabe rich money.

I was traveling on Emirates to Uganda once, and they upgraded me to First from Economy. As I was going from Economy to Business and First, I was looking at the differences in how people dressed and carried themselves. A lot of the guys in Economy Class were traders. Some had money but didn't spend it lavishly on a short flight between Dubai and Entebbe. They were mostly dressed informally and were respectful. Business Class was full of people dressed up and uppity. Most likely company people.

Jay's (not his real name) father was a well known religious figure. The family is wealthy and he married into another wealthy family. His wife was gorgeous and accomplished but he had one weakness. He slept with maids and househelps in our estate. I was shocked when I found out. It was a perversion and he was a sex predator but he didn't see it that way. He genuinely felt that it was some form of benevolence. He would argue with the bible and show how Abraham and others were truly polygamous and I later discovered that his father had secret families.

I have been laughing at the clowns trying to humiliate someone for buying a house on mortgage because they are ignorant AF!!

A small story, when my best man got to the UK, he needed a car and he decided to buy a Mercedes for £8k cash and was proud of himself. He later regretted Why? He told his Indian colleague and the guy was quiet for a while and decided to help him do some Math. That money could have been down payment (or part of it) for a mortgage of a house that he could have rented out to pay the mortgage of the same house and a car loan.

Racism sadly works in America and that is why Homelander is using it on his last stretch. Going full racist will divide the country and it helps him.

A lot of people are quietly racist and he is sending them a signal to vote or act with extreme prejudice. The fires have started Going full Proud Boys is not a mistake, it is very deliberate. He uses everyone including the racists.

After my son was born, we went visiting my wife's cousin in Atlanta but I had a meeting back in North Carolina and I drove back alone. A trucker I overtook stalked me.

Someone I know reached out to me for help but didn't specify what he needed help with and wanted to call me first. I had already concluded that he would ask me for money and formed my response in my mind. He called, and it wasn't money. He had to make a health-related decision. I felt very bad about my initial assumptions, and I would have given all I had now to help him overcome his problems. I have been calling him daily to follow up, and he keeps thanking me and telling me it is okay. He has enough money to solve the issue. He only needed advice.

"Nigeria's biggest trick is convincing you that nothing is happening. Meanwhile everything is happening." - @YarKafanchan as revealed by @DavidHundeyin.

I have been thinking about that profound statement for hours and realizing how true it is. Many people in Nigeria are for sale It is when they reveal their true colors after negotiations and being settled that people are surprised. No Nigerian surprises me anymore. The evils people are capable of because of money and power are beyond imagination. Plus many are trapped because of their ambition.

The first form of formalized apprenticeship training I had seen in Nigeria was with my classmates who were engineering students mandated to do industrial training and provide reports afterward as part of SIWES. Even in the 80s, they struggled to find suitable placements. Unsurprisingly, 100% of my engineering classmates at that time ended up in banking and other professions like information technology. I remember one of them, an engineer at Xerox, coming to meet us at school once during our MBA and just returning to resign. This was early 90s

I caught up with my cofounder in Australia this morning and discussed current tech trends. As he shared his experience of being acquired by a global tech company, I realized that if shared publicly, the conversation could have been better than 99% of tech podcasts today. We also discussed his daughter, who is just entering the job market as a developer, and the challenges she faces thanks to the current AI wave. His son, who is still in school and learning from those challenges, is doing things differently. I am also priming my kids for it too.

One thing that will never be discussed or exposed are the cults behind politics and power in Nigeria. The struggles we see outside are far less than the fights unseen. My grandfather was almost a victim of those cults and was caught in between them. He was lucky to survive. All political assassinations are sanctioned by these unseen cults. Most are to serve as a deterrence. There was a case where the man was shot many times and the car was burnt s while those who killed him waited to be sure that the job was completed. It was a message.

When I was living in Nigeria, I was so ignorant.
This guy used to go drinking with us and spent a fortune every night. We were trying to find out what he did for a living and discovered he was running an outsourcing company. Outsourcing, we asked. Was it that profitable?? Yes!!! It was profitable because it was ALWAYS an insider deal, and he was a front for the bosses. He didn't have one company alone but a group. Each subsidiary was an SPV with the insiders. I didn't grok this until I was on his side of similar deals and had a gun to my head.

I have always told people that the disposable cash thing we keep using to judge our markets is a myth. It is more about choice, wants, needs, options, and availability of credit.

I could afford another sofa but I decided to fix the old one. Why? Because it is my choice. Now, if I had been given the option of trading it in for a new one and paying the difference over time, my choices would have been vastly different. Plus, there was an upholstery guy recommended to me who had worked on my car and I saw that he was great. Those were my choices.

“Sell at a premium and don’t sell at desperation” - @mcuban

There is nothing that puts people off a service business more than desperation.

A lady came to our estate looking for houses to clean. I needed a cleaner but I didn’t hire her. I preferred one who was recommended. It is also the reason why people end up being poorly paid but remain at their jobs. Confidence is much more scarce than we imagine.

My problem is that all the desperate people I have helped have also turned out to also be terrible people. Maybe I’ve been unlucky, I don’t know.

My greatest lesson learned from watching SharkTank for over a decade is that people can still win in seemingly crowded spaces with uniqueness and simplicity. Scrub Daddy is a perfect example of this. It applies to everything also in Africa. Many never try to be different. I see people copying a strategy and branding or marketing exercise simply because it worked for others. They want to do exactly the same thing and in the end waste a lot of money while being drowned in the noise. I have been steering a founder away from influencers for months.

Breakups are painful, and heartbreak can do things to your self-esteem that you never thought were possible. Most people will go through one major breakup, and I tell younger people to prepare for it with some ground rules: 🧵 Rule 1. NEVER compare yourself to other people.

Comparison is not only the thief of joy but the root of all inferiority complexes. Every human being has unique advantages. Some find them in each other to complement themselves, while others remain searching. It is not you.

Alhaji is the most effective businessman Nigeria has ever seen. I laugh when people talk about his monopoly advantages in the past but it is the nature of all businesses to seek monopoly. You are not working to feed your competitors. That said, I think he pressed on too far. If your success creates so much imbalance in a system, there will always be efforts to counter your progress unless you have absolute control. This is what worries me about his new adversaries. Alhaji never had full control, he played all sides as businessman and avoided politics

I dated for many years and was a chronic bachelor before I finally understood the most important rule in relationships—they are between two people, not a crowd. I had always let others interfere, and it was the same on the other side. I left an 8-year relationship because of it. I had a girlfriend who would tell everything to her friend, who would, in turn, discuss it with her boyfriend, who was my friend. That was how I heard she was unhappy that I didn't have my place and was still living at my uncle's mansion in Lagos. I felt betrayed and unhappy.

Years before our saviors from the Valleys of Silicon and views of mountains came to bestow upon us the gifts of unicorns, we used to humbly do pilgrimage to their land to learn and also to see if we could get them to part with some coin. We suffered indignities yet persevered. I cannot forget a couple of humiliating encounters that made me determined more than ever to get that coin. I was told to my face by Naval at a Google I/O event (video still exists online) that a fish cannot survive in the desert. Meaning that our land was barren and fruitless.

A friend died of stomach cancer. Long before then, he would fart uncontrollably in front of me, and I saw nothing wrong with it. I guess that he had the problem a decade before but ignored it. Why? No proper checkups or, worst case, wrong diagnosis, as in the case of Gani. Another friend who was the exact age was being poisoned slowly by his wife. He investigated his frequent state of malaise until he realized what was happening and then had a very public divorce. He initially thought it was his drinking and stopped drinking. He did tests abroad.

Last year at Ashford, I witnessed a professional cleaner at work at my sister-in-laws’ place. She comes to clean once a month (the 15th) and we were notified a couple of days ahead to make plans not to be at home so she can work properly. I had a meeting, so we overlapped an hour First thing that impressed me was that this lady came in a brand new car. She also came with her cleaning equipment which she unloaded. Her services were not cheap and she had work all month because she was a professional. We chatted briefly as she had tea before she commenced.

People are focusing on the wrong things in the Moniepoint report. Firstly, I'm very happy that they did it, and secondly, it confirms all I've been saying about cooperatives and informal credit. Profit is nuanced. Most of them keep their value in goods, and they also lend.

Cooperatives are the dominant form of business organization and are more effective than banks or governments. This is true not just in Nigeria but in almost every African country. Cooperatives are how most people manage risk. They are also the best form of social insurance.

A friend asked me recently what I had learned most from all my years seeing us try to create impact with tech and innovation in Africa. My answer was simple. We haven’t learned anything because we keep looking for winners instead of understanding why failure is prevalent. The story about the image above is below in case anyone wants to learn more. It is a fascinating story about survivorship bias. Those who learn from those mistakes end up building more resilient and sustainable systems and ecosystems.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivors…