B (2:30)

Yes.

A (2:31)

We had the other one in the other place. This is a more expensive one. Yeah.

B (2:40)

Continuous improvement.

A (2:42)

That's right. Yeah.

B (2:43)

I think it's. It's necessary. I have a lot of respect for you for what you do, but I really want to understand why you chose to get on this path.

A (2:50)

Which part?

B (2:51)

The path to liberate people.

A (2:52)

Wow. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. And your. Your. Your seminar, I enjoyed it. Fantastic. The class. Yeah, yeah, yeah. From the beginning to the end. Yeah. I was thinking I will lead to another program. I. I know I had to stay.

B (3:05)

Yeah.

A (3:06)

And thank you for changing minds and investing in our people. Thank you very much. Why I took this part, Did I really decide to take this path? I think when you're growing up and you have the heart to share and you want the. You want people to do well, nature by itself, God by himself, you know, your path will be directed towards that. Because I think we eventually express what is in our heart. You know, the burdens that we have, problems that we see, the pains that we see people endure those, the love that we have for people. I think eventually that's the path that we all take, you know, so if you don't have any pain, you don't see the pains of others, you don't see any burden in your society, you will tend to live for yourself and for your own glory. If you see the masses and you see what you can do in your little way, I think that is really the essence of life. And that's what I looked at.

B (4:00)

Just to let you know that I haven't prepared for this conversation. I have a fair idea of how I want the conversation to go. But you being a leader in this field and a thought leader in the conversation about money and success, I know we can take this in a direction that would benefit the two of us and our audience. But as an engineer, you could have focused on your other businesses that you have running. What I really want to understand is what problem did you see that made you want to solve?

A (4:29)

Why? Why? I took this part of sharing what I know. I went to Kwame Koma University. I did agricultural engineering there. I did Ms. In engineering as well. I went to Bakuri School. I was good in mathematics. I was actually one of the top mathematics and physics students. Know that. I remember after national service, I pulled a book and I wrote what I would love to see the next 10, 20 years in my life. And I think one of it that kept showing up was my love to see Africans live their greatness. And this was you know, I started reading mainly I started reading maybe latter part of secondary school. Entering university, when we completed secondary school, we stayed at home for two years. And so I stayed with my mother's junior sister. The mother is a pastor. So there were a lot of books. I read a lot of religious books. And then we entered university was still some bit of religious books. Then I started to read, you know, management, business, entrepreneurship. So I think it's the concentration of knowledge. And anybody who is a student of books, who is a lover of books, who loves knowledge, eventually at a point in time, whatever you put in, you would have to find a way to come out. And I think that people who write books, who share knowledge is because of what they invested in themselves, you know. So I think part of me writing and sharing is not so much engineering, it's not so much the business that I built, but the fact that I consumed a lot. And people, you know, when you consume something, it's because people, you know, cook them and there's no better way to give back than to just share what you took from others. And so I think many writers, many, many thought leaders are just people who love knowledge. So at a point in time it starts to come out. I call it concentration of knowledge. If you see this cup here, if you put a lot of water in it, it will start to overflow and there's no way to let it go out. If it doesn't go, it will frustrate you, it probably will kill you early. So I think that was it that.

B (6:26)

Most of the questions I've had has been around your entrepreneurship acumen. As an individual, you don't just share knowledge because you've read it, so you leave it. You are a testament of it. You have a business that you run. Talk to me about that path too.

A (6:43)

Okay, so our business we are into, I did a lot of projects, project business. So it could be agriculture business, agriculture projects, construction projects, or various projects, electrical projects. Actually I've worked with a lot of institutions for the first 10, 15 years of my business. That was it. We're focused on building, you know, working on projects for semi government institutions and private institutions as well. So I would not want to mention their names. But we did a lot of units constructing units for companies and doing some projects, you know, major ones. But along the line I saw that it would be better or it would have been better for me to especially the construction side just to focus on my own projects.

B (7:26)

Why?

A (7:27)

Because when you build, you finish, you take the money, they own the property and when there are stresses or when there are non payment, you suffer with them. So if you have money, then why don't you look at yours as well? So along the line we also branch into our own development.

B (7:41)

Where did the desire come from, the.

A (7:42)

Desire to branch into our own after having made a lot of errors and mistakes? I remember there was a time we worked for some people and they owed us in millions and it was all people, they were pulling us and we could not take from them as well and eventually had to negotiate, you know, so. But it's business, business, when you start, it's a journey. You are learning, you're learning. And when we start, there are a lot of errors that we made, you know, because I didn't come from so regulated business background, I just had a desire to be to myself, you know, the more you acquire a lot of knowledge, the more you see that for you. If you want to live life on your own terms, you would have to take the path that many people would not want to take, which is entrepreneurship actually. And so that path that we have, to which we did not have a lot of preparation, a lot of knowledge, you know, we, we cut ourselves through a lot of bad decisions and that's why we got to a stage. I decided to say, okay, how do we channel all this knowledge, all these experiences, all these pains into something beneficial, you know, so that's why we went into development as well. And we are into fashion, fashion production and fashion retail as well, you know, so we, we've been through some other, other things, but I hardly share a lot of these businesses that we own. Why? Because what pushed me into sharing was I saw the need for us to rediscover ourselves as Africans. That journey would not have to have a lot of businesses. I had to see the shift of minds. I don't think that it's just us building businesses and employing people that will change our continent. Because if you meet any thought leader or any leader that you have talked to or you listen to, you see that they talk about our mindset, our mindset, the way we see ourselves, the way we think. And I think that kind of solution will come from people who are thinking at a very high level. And that will be an intellectual exercise, you know, so that's why I really focus on that, the mindset. So my first book was Perspective how to develop the mindset to start and build your own business. I focus on the mindset. The journey that I had to go through to shift my mind from just looking at everybody and saying that they are doing well, but where are the Africans?

B (9:44)

For a man who speaks very much about starting a business without capital, how did you get your capital?

A (9:49)

Capital? I was the capital. Capital from where? That's. That' many people would want to look at. I think that when you watch a lot of business discussions and education, you might situate it in the systems or in the culture or in the environment that we come from. You know, there are a lot of things that the west particularly have taught that we have blindly copied and tried to apply as if they work here. So, for instance, if you pick a typical business tutorials, you have to have an idea and then you have to have some equities, some investor, you know, and these are the way that you regiment them. For many, many of us in our country, I don't think that's the part the people that I saw, my uncles, my grandparents, the things that he did, what they did, that they would say they are not business, they just started with that they had and that the zeal, the passion, said I want to do something for myself. And what do I have to start with? The first step that you have.

B (10:43)

But that's the question.

A (10:44)

Yes.

B (10:45)

What do we have to start with? What is that thing?

A (10:48)

It's more of a mental thing. First, you must accept that. Okay, this is the path that I want to take. Okay. As a matter of fact, many people who are looking for what they call capital, they are looking at something different from what I see. Because if you look at the economy In Ghana, about 80% of us, our source of income is from us, we are not employed. Those other countries that you look at, I think about Maybe just about 10% of them are really people that create their own businesses. Many of them in those countries rely on working for some organizations, some government, some individuals and being paid. Our statistics are different. That's why we have a lot of young people looking for job. Why? Because the jobs must be created by people. And if you look at the percentages, many of us, the jobs that we have to do will be the jobs that we have to start ourselves. And so when you say that you are looking for capital in such an economy where many people have started something just by going to see Derek say that, okay, you have blocks here, can you give me some to sell? That's the way you start. You see, when you come from those cultures where the business must be staged like, you know, the way you have started, and an office, a car, a project is set for you, a product is developed, you take it to the market. You have a marketing manager, sales manager, accountant, operations. That's not how many of us will have to start with because the structures that we need, you know, to start from that level are non existent in our country.

B (12:16)

Okay, so if you use me as.

A (12:17)

A case, then yes.

B (12:18)

Use me as a case, then yes. And say, Derek, you are 20 years old today. You didn't start with capital. How what steps do I have to take to also be able to have my business?

A (12:28)

I think that is the ambition and I told you, the self investment, the knowledge. The knowledge itself is the capital. Building yourself connected minds podcast.