I wrote a short thread earlier stating the inconvenient truth about the dearth of builders in Africa and many were defensive. I stand by what I said. We are not building enough.

For the first 7 years of entrepreneurship (maybe even 10), I thought I was building but I wasn’t. I was stumbling and learning. We achieved some successes and I personally got a lot of L’s. I was trying to define what I was doing and consulting for the IFC on Socketworks helped.

Inequality is a problem in Africa not because the rich are greedy but because people don't build enough enterprises. Everyone wants a job that pays money but very few are creating those jobs because building is seen as hard. Many don't even try at all. This has to change. I have seen churches start from nothing but sheds and become major institutions. The people who worship at those churches contribute to that growth while they remain where they are and hoping for the miraculous. The lesson is from the church itself. Lessons are also miracles.

I explained to my son while walking with him yesterday why he must work harder than us. My grandfather and father worked hard to build what we inherited, and when my son was born 10 years ago, those things had a lot of value. Now they are worth much less. We don’t depend on them. Clogs to clogs in 3 generations is about lack of dynamism in assets and the risks of macro forces beyond our control. My maternal grandfather had the largest rubber plantation in his village at the time when rubber was the most valuable cash crop in Nigeria. It is worthless now.

Let me correct some impressions here once and for all.

1. Women are not automatically gold diggers when they are with a man of seeming means. Men can also be gold diggers as they seek to marry up. Men can also be more conniving and scheming when seeking wealthier women. I have seen this countless times, even with wealthy men or men from supposedly wealthy families. They are notably more conniving and even date for access. Rich people are first after wealth preservation and RARELY marry down.

I had seen men have affairs discreetly as I was growing up, and many of my relatives (including my father) weren't faithful men. When politicians came into power in 1999, it became very blatant. One affair was puzzling to me, and I couldn't understand why the girl did it at all. Her father was a strict disciplinarian, but he was also very generous. She wasn't broke and did very well in school. She had terrible friends, though, and those friends slept with the 1999 politicians for money. She didn't need the money to do it, but she did. It shocked me.

I watched the video of the guy who broke up with his girlfriend who was earning more and had given him a car and all. On the surface he sounded ungrateful for breaking up with her and moving on. Thinking deeper about it, I remember what it felt like at some point in my life.m It is hard to understand it but helping people can also make them resentful. You can open up your home to a friend, he can kick you out of your bed and occupy it with his girlfriend and even take over part of your business that earns more but he will still resent you.

It is not that deep. Just iconic faces and some are old.

That is the problem. Nothing is that deep anymore. There is no effort to learn about the past because there is an information overload in the present.

Why is it important to know what a sting ray is? Maybe not much but… I was lucky to read some of the classics in literature early in life and it enabled me to see the world very differently and realize that nothing was new and we are bound to repeat patterns.

Peter Thiel once said something profound about secrets. Some were once convention.

I was watching an interview of @LewisHamilton and he said something that finally explained life’s purpose to me in a way that I never realized before.

Your purpose is what you can do for others with the gifts that you have been given.

Sounds simple but it is also very deep. What are your gifts? That is the first thing you must identify before you start to find your purpose. I had two very different calls booked on @calendly yesterday. One was a mentorship call and the other was more of an advisory call with a team. I could immerse myself in both.

It may seem glaringly obvious but you don’t see it until you experience it all over again. We don’t have the same problems in Africa as The West. All I see here is waste. Managing excess and providing solutions for gaps created by scarcity and demand require different ideas. This is why foreign investors rarely get Africa and back a lot of the wrong ideas. You can overcompensate and you can also miss the mark too. The right calibration requires fresh unshackled thinking. Energy waste is a problem here but Africa has an energy deficit.

Who are you?

Most of the time your answer to that question will be to list your greatest achievements because you believe that they define who you are. I listened to Lilly Singh say this on my walk last evening. I started to realize why it was always a difficult question to me.



I am more than an entrepreneur. I am more than a consultant. I believe my greatest achievement is marrying the best woman I know and having great kids whom I want to succeed beyond my own dreams and imagination. I am never jealous of others because of this. I have the best.

Before the books and movies of "Crazy Rich Asians," I had little experiences that humbled me. People in my 2011 HBS LMPSF class with "small consulting business" revenues of $250m yearly. In 2013 HBS LNV, I met a girl from Malaysia who was setting up a resort for billionaires. Why did she come up with this idea? Because her father was one. They had difficulties going for vacation in places they didn't own. There was never enough luxury or enough privacy. She also told me she came to the course to also find an intelligent husband.

“Acting broke is how you get Rich. Acting Rich is how you get broke.”

How do you then act if you’re really rich? I discovered something about a friend this week that I didn’t know in 20 years. Her late father was extremely rich. So rich that he manufactured a product used daily. I can’t mention the product not to reveal her identity but it was shocking to me. She never one day mentioned it. She was his youngest daughter and was born right into the peak of his wealth. She had known no other life but wealth and was always trying hard to be “normal.”

The last few days have been a blur to me for many reasons. I was forced to meditate about life once again in a way I never expected. The purpose of life is love and gratitude. While coming back from golf practice with my son some weeks ago, I saw a fatal accident almost happen.

Two bike riders were with passengers and the bike behind overtook the bike in front as they both passed us. I noticed that the passenger on the bike behind had a very sharp saw sticking out of a bag. He quickly moved it seconds before it sliced the passenger on the bike in front.

Charlie Munger talked a lot about Lollapalooza Effects in his speeches and yesterday one became quite clear to me. We keep wondering why Lebanese and Indians are doing better than Africans in African countries and speculate when the answers are right before us in plain sight. Yes, there are some of them who do things that are borderline or outright illegal but they couldn’t build the massive operations they have on illegality alone. Most of them are totally legit operations with unfair advantages that have compounded over time from running things well

It is very possible to be successful in African commerce in one place and not know why you are successful until you try another geographical location. The results are typically humbling. We don’t know enough about African consumers and make far too many assumptions. The first assumption we make is about purchasing power without realizing that many people save money to have good things. The crowd at KFC WestHills Mall in Accra on Christmas Day even shocked KFC. There is a KFC clone called Chicken Man spreading like wild fire in Accra.

Discussing with my cousin about how Igbo traders gain retail advantage with incentives. The first thing they do is to test the brand in the market to see if there is demand then they secure the supply side to prevent competition. That demand is enhanced via distribution. Securing the supply side makes it possible for margins to be consistent. They don’t do price gouging. They want regular demand. They make it possible for their distribution to keep making money or else they won’t sell the product.

A friend here openly says she doesn’t want kids. She is 30. I jokingly tell her that she may change her mind but I know that she isn’t joking. I haven’t heard her full thought process on how she arrived at the decision but I can respect any decision anyone makes in that area. I wanted to have kids and thank God, I have them now. They are a joy to have. The thing about my wife though was that while she wanted to be a mother, she knew that the decision wasn’t up to her but nature. We had a conversation on this before marriage that I recommend to people.

Simple prosperity hack:

When you travel, think of what you can sell there and not just what to buy and use. What do people use there that you can take there to sell?

I am planning a trip and I want to defray the cost by selling something. An idea came right me right away. If every African who travels has contact with an aggregation company that can buy what they can help to ship, we will not be complaining of exchange rates. I think the Lebanese, Chinese and Indians do this well. The shops they have locally are aggregators who sell for others.

One of my relatives works in the same building with Seplat in Lagos and I went to look for her the last time I visited. I saw all these expensive brand new Toyota SUVs in the compound and the security guard refused us entry with our “dirty cheap Camry.” I was laughing when someone working there recognized me and was mad at them for turning us back. It was fine, I told the driver to park outside and I walked in. I remembered that we probably used to own the property but I wasn’t sure. I know we once owned one on Temple road.

Try to make less people hate you. It is better for business.

Arrogance is attractive in the short term, but in the long term, it is destructive.

I was asking myself why I disliked someone, and there was no reason but his arrogance. I looked at the mirror and saw myself too. Arrogance can come off in many ways. Primarily from seemingly innocent remarks. You are lucky when people oppose you openly. That feedback is a gift.

Those who secretly despise you are much more dangerous. They may never change their mistaken opinion of you.

22 is usually the age when most people have their most options. The choices you make at that age will provide enough inner momentum to change the trajectory of your life unless there is a stronger external force. Inaction at that age is also something that’ll affect you as well. It is more than likely at that age that you have finished at least two stages of education or started training for a profession. You are four years into adulthood and also would have experienced a lot of things on the personal relationships side. You are aware of who you are.