A (2:31)

That's a good question. Two reasons. One, we have something called as. We have a negativity bias as human beings and that comes from our hunter gatherer. To survive as a species we had to careful for snakes and lions and etc in the jungles where we grew up.

B (2:47)

Yeah.

A (2:48)

And so that has been encoded in Our brain, you know, and even if you don't believe in that, then it's. This is encoded in the sciences. But even just behavior, you know, just looking at human experience, where we come from culturally, most of us come from societies where the origins of our societies, where there was constant danger, we had to survive, we had to battle wild animals. And so we have. So naturally we've to survive economically, to survive materially. It has come at the cost of peace. So if you, if you live in a village, if you look at most of our films and most of our books, there was always a resistance once a stranger is coming in. Yeah, but that's as a cost. So it's self protection at the cost of ease. Yeah, yeah. At the cost of peace. So to survive, to be powerful, we've also had to sacrifice peace. And we've learned that as a tradition so that even when it's no longer necessary, we think that that is the default way to live. We believe that chaos and drama, you know, and fighting and going on the offense, we believe that that's the way we, that's the way we achieve what we need to achieve. And that's where we protect what we have. We learn it all the time. We learn it everywhere. We learn it everywhere. And so, and so that's how we grow up. We don't know, we don't know any better. It's our original sin. We don't know any better. And so to the, the role models for peace in our society and the minority, right, the role model, I said to people, I say in Africa, if you're looking at countries to learn from, most Africans will be learning from Nigeria and Rwanda, South Africa and Kenya. Meanwhile, when it comes to the happiness indexes, should be learning from Botswana and Namibia and Benin Republic, you know, the small, quiet countries that are at peace with themselves, with small airports that work efficiently.

B (4:31)

So in effect, we are not aiming to be happy, we are aiming to be richer.

A (4:35)

That's what we're aiming for. We are optimized. And then the deception, if you were at, if we knew the truth, it would be better. But the deceptions that we have been told or we have observed, that when you now become richer, you become happier. So we've been told that the order is get rich, then get happy. Unless you get rich, you cannot get happy. Meanwhile, the truth is that you can be happy now even on your way to getting rich.

B (4:57)

So I made a post on X, right. This is interesting. You spoke about this about two weeks ago, right? Will money make you happy?

A (5:05)

Yeah.

B (5:06)

And then the comments, of course.

A (5:08)

Of course.

B (5:08)

Obviously, the people that are commenting, a different type of people.

A (5:11)

Yes.

B (5:12)

There's nobody in there that said it wouldn't.

A (5:14)

Yes, of course. Everybody, of course.

B (5:16)

Damn sure.

A (5:16)

Yeah. Even now, as I'm talking, people in the comment section will be like, oh, please, because he has made money. Yeah.

B (5:22)

Somebody even said, well, give me the money.

A (5:24)

Yes, yes, yes, yes. I always say when I speak at events, I say, I pray for all of you that you have all the money you want in the world, that you have a private jet, have an eye, that you fly business class, that you have a house abroad. All of those things. I pray for you that you get it fast, that you will find out, that it will not make you happy.

B (5:45)

Now, it is not possible for you to, you know, sit and have a conversation with me without us talking about business. So we are going to get there.

A (5:51)

Let's do it.

B (5:52)

But before we do, are you aware that you can go on your phone and go on Spotify or Apple and search Connected Minds podcast? And very simply, you can listen to this podcast while you're jogging, while you're driving to work, wherever you are, comfort of your home, you can listen to this podcast. So please do, because we also want to be number one in 2026. And happy new Year to you. All right. I've had a business partner for more than 13 years. You started your company, Red Media.

A (6:23)

Yeah.

B (6:24)

What an amazing man. How did you guys work it out together, partnership wise?

A (6:29)

Well, the first things that we got lucky. That's the first thing. This is. This is. This is not. We got lucky. Because now when I look back, the things that have made our partnership strong, I didn't know that those are the things that were going to make our partnership strong. So it's now later that I now have. I'm like, oh, those are another. I've read more books and I've seen more of the research. I'm like, oh, oh. Well, we were lucky that we intuitively understood those values. So I don't know if, you know, the business theorist Jim Collins wrote good to great, and he says, all of us in life have luck. Most of us don't have return on luck, so we got a very high return on luck. So meeting Debala was just luck. We were sitting down at an event, we started talking. We knew that we had the same vision. What we didn't know was that we're lucky to have two things. One, to have different personality types. So I was the volatile one. He was the calm one. But not the kind of calm that is subsumed, is the kind of calm that withstands. So, you know, the people that are confident when you come, they can contain it without shrinking. And so we're very lucky. That's what I mean by luck, because it could have been another person who would be insecure when they take that, and it will make them less. And so we're very lucky. We're very lucky that we also had a deep respect for each other. Deep respect. So I had so true. Debola. I learned, you know, before I met Debola, the people I respected were people who were. Whose. Whose approach to life was intellect first. And Dibola's approach to life is gravitas first. So if Gobela enters this room, you don't need to know who he is. You will just know that somebody is in the room. And people think it's because. Because now he's worked with presidents across the globe and speaks everywhere. I said, this is how Dibola was when he was 15. When he stepped into a room, you knew that somebody had come in.

B (8:12)

There's an aura.

A (8:13)

There's an aura. And so before that, I used to disrespect that. I used to think that people like that were fake, you know, because he was my friend and I knew that he was not fake. I now learned to respect it. As a talent, you respect presence. You respect somebody who can sing, you know, and so until the mutual respect for each other was not the foundation of our business partnership. Yeah.

B (8:39)

So I'm picking this from you to actually be able to get into business partnerships that work. Respect is number one.

A (8:45)

Yes. Yes. Oh, yes. You have to respect the person deeply. Not. And I call it ontological respect. You don't just respect what the person achieves. You have to respect the person for who they are before they've achieved anything. Yeah. As I remember, because I was the CEO of the company, and I remember when one of our. We were three at the beginning, and then we became two very quickly. And I remember d. When the other person left, I always thought. I always thought the. Was going to be the better. Was going to be the better salesperson because he had presence. Suddenly that person left. I told, you're the one that's going to do it. And he said, so you can kill me with pressure like you almost killed the other person. And I said, you don't know yourself. You don't know yourself. I said, you are the one. You are the best person to do this. It wasn't. It wasn't a It wasn't a debate. In my mind, I saw him clearly. Remember, we're working with the president and they hadn't paid us balance. It was a lot of money. Connected Minds podcast.