B (3:14)

It doesn't have to be nice?

A (3:15)

No. Why does it have to be nice? Because you already don't have anything anyway. It's just like the seed that you want to plant, it goes to the debt. Does it have to be nice? Does it have to worry about me going to the debt? Because you have to be planted, then you can germinate, you know. So I think that you look at your situation and tell yourself, listen, these are the things that I have and so I have to start something. So I think, I think that many of us, if we stop the argument of me waiting for somebody to hold my hand and daring to do whatever I have to do. I mean not, not crime, not something wrong, but at least something decent. All of us can do something. I know a man who is at office, 70 year old man, he started to move, you know, the brown boxes that people you buy machine and they come with, they started to gather them and sell them to people you Know industries. And that man the other day, the other day that I was talking to, he had about 70,000 in his account. You know how he started? We were talking, he asked me something, I said but you can start to pack because we bring things, you know, the things that we said we bring some of them and the boxes that are left, you know. So he started to gather them. I draw, I drew his mind to it. And now that is his business. He bought Abuboya from that business. Somebody stole it, he bought another one. Now the man is even collecting plastic bags. Okay, the sashay one. I think that anybody who is trying to wait for capita to start anything that he has never done is not ready yet. If you are so ready, you start some. Because the guy who is telling you he needs capital, his phone is 5000 and many people have started some things with 200 Ghana cities. I know a gentleman who sometimes brings me some interim roasted corn. Roasted corn? Yes. He heard us talk that you can do something. This is a guy with a master's degree or something like that. And now he's even exposed some of them. I think that you can learn a lot of this business concept from everybody everywhere. But when it comes to our country, if you are writing business plan proposal looking for investors and nobody knows you, the time that you go, you, you are using to go and look for investors. Use that time to go and do something, you'll be better off. Because I know people who have gone everywhere to look for investors capital and they're still looking senior. Really? That capital is you senior? Yes sir, that's.

B (5:20)

I think you've given us two examples already. Yes, five businesses that people can start.

A (5:24)

Yes. Without capital, I don't know why people have. People want people to chew everything for them. Business is looking for problems in our society. You can't be even direct about which business to start. If you go out of this building now we can see hundreds of problems that are there. And any one of them, the trained mind can turn in one of them.

B (5:42)

The train mind?

A (5:42)

Yes, into business. The train mind. How do we train our self development? Where do we start from? Knowledge acquisition. You need knowledge to face life, not the classroom knowledge. Knowledge to discover yourself, your strength. As a matter of fact, I start with even as Africans, knowledge of ourselves, our history. Because that changes the game for everybody. And that changed the game for me actually because many of us, the way our mind is, we really don't have a lot of confidence in ourselves and we don't have a lot of confidence in our country and Even in our own people.

B (6:10)

Well, before we solve the problem.

A (6:11)

Yes.

B (6:12)

Why don't we have that confidence in.

A (6:14)

Ourselves because of the way we were brought up. You cannot develop confidence as a people or as an individual if you do have good memory of who you are. And many of us as Africans, we don't have good memory of ourselves. The kind of connection that we even talk about, the history that we know as a people. Many of us, we can't go beyond 200 years. Some of us will even stop at 1957, Ghana Independence Day. That kind of history will never make you strong. Because every time that you get up as an African, whether is the Africans who are saying a lot of negativity to you or everybody else is telling you that we are nothing. Listen to radio, watch tv, go to the classroom. Everybody is trying to tell you that look everywhere about Africa. So that breaks your confidence in your own ability to do something for yourself. So when you come out, I would say that the onus is on you to read history. Not, not, not 50 year history. I will go as much as 10,000 year African history beyond the lies that the Europeans have promulgated because that's where they, that's where they, that's where the problem is. Because you can see a very nice lawyer prominent in our society become successful. Interview him. Half of the statements if you're really critical, you see that you can never build your confidence with a lot of these statements from what they are saying. Why? Because they themselves have not studied the history. There's no group of people who are not proud of their heritage and where they come from, who have become successful in creating their own destinies. So the self confidence is key, the self identity is key. And for me that is what. If there is anything that changed the game for me, it is when I started to study that that I became so much relaxed. Because the history bombs you. The people that have studied African history to a very, you know, deep level when you, when they meet, they don't, they don't mistrate themselves. They speak well of themselves.

B (7:53)

Where do we start from?

A (7:54)

Where do we start from? You know, there is a lot of information by African writers, Pan African historians, our own President, Dr. Nkrumah, his books is a good start. I have one that I'm reading. African Minds Unite. Just read it. It's gold. These are the tools, we have them. If you have completed any course anywhere, it doesn't matter the, anywhere in the university, if you're any university in the world, if you're an African, the Knowledge that you need to repair yourself, to face life, this world that they have created for us, that they say that the Africans are nothing. The other day I was doing a program and somebody said that somebody from Nigeria went to some of these universities, top universities, and they were teaching them some economics. And the man asked the lecturer, all these examples that you're giving, where is Africa? You know what the lecturer said that Africa is not part of the global economy now. This is the psyche that they have on us. And you are here trying to go where. And so if you don't develop your mind to situate things, you become so much frustrated. And that's why sometimes even people who have become so much successful still feel inadequate because they compare the complexities of Africa and where they are, you know? So I say that the calmness will come when you start to study your history. And it does the magic if you don't. There's no people who are not proud of their language, their culture, their tradition, not probably never.

B (9:08)

Let me stop you here for a minute. We are on the journey of changing the minds and the lives. So if you haven't subscribed and become part of the family, please hit the subscribe button and turn on the notification. Thank you. Now, let's carry on with the conversation. Finished university, did some work, started a business. Now enlightening people on this journey, after I have started discovering myself by reading this whole African consciousness stuff, getting deep into our roots, what will be the next step?

A (9:38)

Once you have discovered yourself, nobody will tell you what to do. It's just like if you put something that, let's say there are some chemicals, when you put here, you leave it, it will rise. You know, the same thing, the force is in that, that force. Because the moment a man becomes confident, a man becomes confident in who he is, nothing will stop him. There's no great achiever who does not believe in his own ability to create his own destiny. So when the man is sitting back asking for somebody to hold your hand, they have no confidence in them. And I see a lot of us, we are trying to get confidence from everywhere, but within us or from us. And so I say that that history that you study, Ghana empire, Mali Empire, Asante empire, all those you start to see, start to connect the dots. It repairs your mind, I tell you, because the results are there. Connected Minds Podcast.