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From Broke to 90 Branches: The Pizzaman Chickenman Story - Masterminds Podcast · Masterminds Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: My grandmother was creating a chop back, so then I'll sit here every day selling food to make money.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_01: As a final year student, and you've bent investment worth over 200,000 that then we took his corola S as a collateral for a loan of 12,000 Ghanas.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_01: And 6 a.m.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_01: that morning I had a knock on my door.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_01: Three policemen.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_01: Remember, I I cried.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_01: At the point, some of my family members even thought I'm being, you know, I'm being attacked, that there's a special attack on me.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_01: I had to pick off the money I've collected at the gate.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_01: I had to raise about 5,000 from that money to pay a Dennis balance.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_01: There was one uncle of mine, he really discouraged me.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_01: He was like looking at the way I owe people.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_01: I have to wait for my kids to start to graduate from school, become an electoral and help me pay my debt.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_01: I told Eben Abeku, man has to survive.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_01: So you know, during all those times, I had started Pizza Manager.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_01: We didn't have a laptop.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_01: We had sold our laptops in school those days.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_01: So I had to go a laptop from one of my nieces.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_03: Has there ever been a moment in this winding journey of yours where you've thought I can't continue?
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, yes.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_01: I think the stress became more after success.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_01: Even if you think you are wise, stay hungry, stay foolish.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_03: I'm very excited to be here and to be your tour guide as usual as we go on an exciting journey to achieve true mastery of your most powerful weapon, your mind.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_03: Now, this episode is a very special one because very few people can speak to so many different things that I didn't know how to title this episode.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_03: Because the man I'm talking to today from hustling.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_03: When I say hustling, I mean hustling.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_03: You see that crazy one that he thinks nothing will ever work for you.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_03: He's been through that.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_03: This man has suffered on the street and built himself up to starting a business from scratch and you know going through the beginning entrepreneurship that everybody goes through and hustles, to scaling up one successful business to a huge business which has now taken over all of Ghana.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_03: This man here has actually done things that most people can only dream of when they say they are going to start a business.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_03: Now, his official name is Christian Boace, but we all call him Chris B.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_03: Tell it, Chris, how be?
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_01: I'm good.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_03: How do you feel?
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_03: The first question me I always want to ask you when I plan on sitting here with you is if you went back 10 years, did you ever think you'll be at the position you're in right now?
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_01: If I should go back 10 years, well, I I knew I wasn't normal.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_01: I like that.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_01: But I didn't know that it's going to be this soon.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_01: Growing up, for some reasons, I never saw myself as someone who is going to be normal or to follow the usual trends.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_01: I just knew that I had something special in me.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_01: So it started from class, being first in class.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_01: Whatever I do, I just want to be the best.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_01: Excel.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_01: So I knew I was going to be somebody, but I didn't know it is going to be this fast.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_03: Because it's been fast, too.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_03: Like I think it's been seven years.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, of course, there's the journey before the journey.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_03: But the visible journey towards has been seven years.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, seven.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_03: You before we even go into how you did it, I want to understand the man first.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_03: Well, the mindset.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_03: Let's go to when you were a much younger man, you know.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_03: What kind of mindsets, what kind of things did you start doing or learning in your childhood, which builds the crispy that is so resilient?
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I think I was very competitive.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_01: Remember when I was in class five?
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, those days being first in class was a big deal.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: So there was a time that I was second and I got very furious.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_03: Hey, sir.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_01: I remember that day.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't talk to any of my mates when I was going home.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_01: And the reason was I was second because I always wanted to be first.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_01: And what's what pained me that day was the person who got the first position was a woman.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not I'm not against women shining, but then but I thought like not quite you for this woman.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_01: Her name was Abigail Safwa.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know if I like how you remember the name.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_01: It means it pain you really pain me.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_01: So after that time, I got back to my first position and I I never left until I left that school.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, yeah, and even in SHS too, it happened to me as well.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_01: Initially, I think first year, second year, I wasn't much of that serious academic student.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: I was just trying to taste every aspect of the school.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_01: Until one of my mates, he's called Jomenza.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_01: He came to me in class and was like, You call yourself crispy, you've been rapping and doing all these things, and you won't sit down and study.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_01: That that particular term, Jomenza was sixth in class.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, Jomenza, did you know I can be first?
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_01: And it was like, if you can be first, do it and let's see.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_01: And that triggered it.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_01: And after I became first in class, nobody ever became first till we left school.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_03: That's right.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm very competitive.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, okay.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_03: So that explains a few things.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_03: But you now you've brought it up.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_03: You were rapping?
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_03: Chris B the rapper.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_03: Please, I want to I want to miss that Chris B.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_03: Tell me about it.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_01: At a point, somewhere in 2007, 8, 9, rapping became a trend.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_01: Like when Sarkozy came up, yeah.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_01: Everybody wanted to rap.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_01: But growing up, I I used to listen to a lot of music.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_01: My my grandmother always had a radio on, so you always hear music.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: I used to rap tic-tac songs or boar those days.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_01: I was getting some of the lyrics wrong, and then my big brother would tell me.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_01: That is how so I loved music.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_01: And I used to write music when I was in class four, class five.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_01: My own music.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_01: So then when rapping became a trend, I mean it was easy for me to tag along.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_03: Will you give us a few bars right now?
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, let's meet at the studio.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_03: If you guys yes, I sign Chris Bees from this conversation.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_03: But then how did rapping?
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_03: I also heard that you did a bit of events.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_03: How did the rapping also turn into events management?
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um the rap at that time it became a trend.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_01: So SHS, the usual style, you know, you want to be that guy who goes and rap, you know, just to collect some funds from the students, and that's it.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_01: But then the events management actually came up because I needed money, you know.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_01: I wouldn't say it was my passion, I would say I had to do something that I feel I could do to earn money.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_01: And then I I landed on events.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_03: How did event organizing go?
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_03: Do you say, will you tell someone that's a way to make money?
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_01: I would not advise anybody to go into it if you don't know much about it.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_01: Some people have made events, yeah, and and and they've made good money out of it.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: But then I would say that if you are not ready to lose, don't enter into it.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it can it can actually kill you.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I've had my fair share of that experience.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_03: You didn't die, you are here.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_01: I I I resurrected.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_03: So then from rapping events, pizza man.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_01: Like, how did that happen?
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, rapping events, other things came in between before Pizza Man.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, please tell me more.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_01: Tell me more.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, the basic buying and selling.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_01: So trying to enhance on new things, you know, you see, it's like you feel there is something that you can do out of the usual to make money.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_01: So when you spot an opportunity that you feel you can, you know, provide a solution to a particular problem at that moment, you step in, you try and provide that solution, and then you seek for more money in exchange.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_01: So buying and selling became, you know, some something like calculators.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_01: I remember when I was in uni, first year, second year, actual science students used to use this type of professional calculator called BA2 Plus.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_01: And you couldn't get some to buy in Ghana.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_01: And I had people in China who could buy and then get it to me in Ghana.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_01: So I contacted my friends there.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_01: I made them buy it, they bring it down, then I sell it to the students.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_01: I have some margins and I make the money.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_01: But then you see, it's a seasonal business.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_01: When new students come in, that is when you get to sell.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_01: So it's not sustainable.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_01: So then all the time when this season is out, I'll look for something that is on just to make the money, and then when it's off, you jump onto the next.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_01: Until I decided to find something sustainable because I can't be moving from this one to the other.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_03: But it sounds like you had an entrepreneur mindset right from the get-go.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_03: How was that possible?
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_01: I would say maybe I grew up in a house where I could see you know people always doing something that brings in daily inflow.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_01: My grandmother was operating a chop bar.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_01: So then I'll see her every day selling food to make money.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_01: And money is coming in.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_03: Because most people are trained that you know, go to school, get a job, retire, take your pens, die.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_01: I also had a side of my family on that side.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_01: Who were actually pushing me into that field.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_01: After university, get your master's done.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_01: Then when you are done, you've you'll put you into some company.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_01: So it's like that that that roadmap was already set for me.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_01: But for some reasons, at a point, some of my family members even thought I'm being, you know, I'm being attacked, that there's a special attack on me.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_01: Because why is it that we've we've crafted a path for you and you just want to go award?
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_01: So at a point, some of them felt that maybe some of our, you know, this superstitious thing, house witches are attacking this guy because they feel he has a bright future.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_03: Oh wow.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_03: Please, let's go into a story that you've told me before of some amazing event you organized that everything went just right.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, everything went right.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um, that was in 2018.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um, 10th February.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_01: We named it.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_01: The date is engraved in your brain.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_01: I can never forget.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_01: I I celebrate, I celebrate it every year.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, wow.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_01: The title of the event was for the concert.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_01: We had it at Meklin Hotel in Kumase.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_01: I was in the final year then.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we had um Kwabna Kwabna and Adina on the show.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_01: Kim Promise was supposed to be booked, but for whatever reasons, the guy that I was working with on that never got clear with me on that.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_01: So I wouldn't want to go there.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_01: And we we that that particular year, Valentine was supposed to happen on a Wednesday, okay, which was a weekday.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_01: So we decided to have a pre-Valentine's contest, hoping that you know people would come in because the Wednesday is a weekday.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um everything went out because um the the attendance was very low, and the attendance was poor because I think a day to the event we had a very bad news in Ghana.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_01: Everybody was sad.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_01: May I so rest in peace?
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_01: Ebony, everybody.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_03: 2018, February, true.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_01: So almost everyone was down.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_01: Me, myself, I was down because we all liked Ebony.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_01: So then people didn't show up.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_01: That was one.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_01: I think the organization too, I would say it was inexperience.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I should have started small, small.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, why would you just be too ambitious to just you know do a program at McLean Hotel?
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_01: I would also say I didn't do my projections well, and it all goes down to inexperience.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_01: So then I lost woefully.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_01: I think that was the beginning of my my hustle.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: Initially I was hustling, but that was on the on the surface.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_01: But after that event, I literally buried myself into the ground.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_05: Wow.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_01: And I had to find my way up.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_01: So when you say you lost, like how big a loss?
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_01: Very big as a then.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_01: Because as a final year student in the university, and you've burnt investment worth over 200,000 as a then.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_03: Wow.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_01: It was a lot of money.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_03: Wow.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_01: And that money, all that amount wasn't mine.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_01: I had to take some from friends, from family.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_03: So that means now you were owing people.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_03: So how did you find a way to pay them back or to even manage not having money to pay them back?
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_01: That was that was like another episode on its own.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_01: From 2018 to 2020, every month seemed like a year for me.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_03: Charlie.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_01: That moment when you get phone calls and you can't even pick the phone because you know the call coming in is coming to harass your peace of mind.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_01: Just because you know you you owe them money.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_03: So were you sweating them?
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_03: Were you giving payments plan?
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_01: There were some of them I was sweating.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_01: There were some I had to face them.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_01: I remember I reached out to one man, I wouldn't disclose his name, and I told him about my situation, and he asked me to go and read the richest man in Babylon.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_01: At that point, I was very furious.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, I didn't say I need a book.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_01: I need I need help.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_01: And the only thing you can recommend to me is a book.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_01: But I still want to read the book anyway.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_01: And it's it spoke about a man trying to give a payment plan on how to you know pay off his debt.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_01: But that wasn't what I needed at that moment.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_01: And it really led me into so many situations.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I lost, I lost some good family relations, even as at now.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_01: I lost some good friends too.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_01: Along the line, there was one guy, I'll not mention his name.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_01: We took his Corolla S to one car dealer around um Santa Cmilo Junction.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_01: The car dealer's name is Napo.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_03: You mentioned his name, but the car dealer that you mentioned.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_01: I want him to if he's if he's a chance on this video, I want to help him recall that incident.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_01: We sent a white corolla S to Milo Junction as a collateral for a loan of 12,000 Ghana CDs.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_01: Because during the process, I ran out.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_01: So that my guy was very good to me.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_01: He was like, you know what, Chris, you've been helping me financially.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_01: So then if you are in this position, I don't mind giving off my cars to collateral.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_01: Let's take a loan.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_01: When you are done with the event, you pay me back.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_01: Which was a very good thing because how many friends would even sacrifice their cars for?
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_01: He was using the car for Uber.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_01: And he had to, you know, pause working for those days.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_01: So we went for the 12,000.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_01: The event was a mess.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_03: Sadly.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_01: It was a mess to the extent that I had to pick off, uh, pick out the money I've collected at the gate.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_01: I had to raise about 5,000 from that money to pay Adina's balance before she could perform.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_01: So I was left with about 500 CDs in that bag.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_03: Sally.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_01: And after the event, I had to go and pay that 13,000 to the car dealer so that he can give my guy's car back to him for him to resume work.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_03: So you're able to pay no.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_01: Hey Wahala.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_01: Don't tell me he sees the car.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_01: He actually sold the car.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_05: Oh.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_01: After two months.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_01: We were not able to, you know, can't afford to pay.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_01: So he sold the car to some woman, you know, thinking that we'll never come back for the car.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_01: And I remember 9th May 2018.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_01: I was in my hostel room with my partner, Abiku.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_01: He woke me up around 4 a.m.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_01: It was like he had a dream.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_01: And I was arrested in the dream.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_01: And 6 a.m.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_01: that morning, I heard a knock on my door.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_01: Three policemen.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_01: And that my guy that we actually use is car for that.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_01: They came to arrest me.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_03: Oh Charlie.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_01: And I had insurance law exams that morning.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_01: My final exam.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_03: Charlie.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_01: So then I so during all those times, I hadn't informed anyone at home that this is the situation I find myself, and I was trying to find my way out.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_01: So when the police matter came in, I realized now I have to tell them all this.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_01: So I left my my big sister's contact to one of my guys to call her and tell her that is the situation, and I've been arrested.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_01: And I have an exam that morning.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_01: So from the hostel to the police station, I don't I I can't recall whatever happened in the car.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_01: I think my mind went blank.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_01: I got there and I saw the CID asked me to write a statement.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_01: And I asked him that why have I been arrested?
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_01: And he said, This your guy said you took his car for a wedding, you told him that you'd be back after Sunday and you never returned the car.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_01: And he has been asking you since and you've been giving him stories, and he feels you have sold the car.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, which friend?
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_01: He said, This guy was like, Did you say I took the car to a for a wedding?
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_01: So then I think if that my guy didn't do that to put me in that situation, maybe he would have been one of the people I value so much today.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_01: Because he he actually made a very big sacrifice for me.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_01: But then it ended badly.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_03: Because he now twisted the story.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_01: Because he had to lie on me for me to get arrested.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_01: To him, that was the only way he was going to get the car back.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_03: So, what happened to the car?
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_01: So then they had to go and arrest the car dealer.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, yeah.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_01: They arrested the car dealer.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_01: But I told him I have an exam.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_01: So they should pardon me.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_01: Let me go and write and come back.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_01: And come back.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_01: I don't even remember what I wrote.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_01: I scored 40.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_03: Just checking.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_03: Over 100.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_01: Over 100.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_01: I had a very good CWA.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_01: But the latter part of my studies in school got very bad.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_03: Handling all this, you have to clear my.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sure the lecturer just had mercy on me.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_01: He was like, this guy is a good student.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_01: There might be a problem somewhere.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_01: And if I had filled that paper, I wouldn't be graduating that year.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_01: So then I went for the exam.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_01: I got back to the police station.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_01: They had arrested the car dealer and they had also arrested a woman who bought the car.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_05: Oh.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_01: So it's the car dealer who came to tell them that.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_01: See, I was at my workplace and these two guys brought the car for a loom.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_01: So then the the chief inspector of the police station told me that I have to be careful of my friends.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_01: So if people know me today and they sort of see me to be a bit antisocial, I am because of that incident.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_01: I was a very open guy.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_01: I had a lot of friends.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_01: I was the people's person.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_01: But of late, I can stay in my space for like a month without talking to any friend, and I don't even miss anyone.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_01: That is how bad it has gotten to because I just have this feeling that if I should open up again, somebody can do the same.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_01: The next damage might be deadly than what happened before.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_01: So then fast forward, um, we had to the man sort of cleared me that I didn't take the car to any wedding.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_01: So then that made that criminal thing on me, you know, went off.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_01: And then um we had to solve the matter as it is.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, the guys brought their car for money, you charge them interest, they have to pay you back their money, and then you give them their car.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_01: So that's where it ended.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_01: So then my family members, everybody, uh family is like we don't do nuclear family in my family.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's an extended everybody's matter is somebody's matter.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_01: So if your matter comes out, be ready to get the call from that your uncle, that your auntie, that your nephew, your cousin, everybody will call you.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_01: That's more pressure.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_01: And when they call you, be prepared to listen to a lot of words.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_01: For me, I was seen as that good student, promising student that is going to graduate with first class and do the master's and go and work in the company somewhere.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_01: And then the view that we had the most hopes on is in counterback.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_01: So it was very, very terrible.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_01: I remember I I cried.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_01: That was a very long time for me because I don't remember the last time I even cried.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_01: And I heard words.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_01: There was one uncle of mine, it really saddens me that he's dead.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_01: He really discouraged me.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_05: Oh.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_01: He told me that have I seen so the first one was he was like looking at the way I owe people.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_01: I have to wait for my kid's sister to graduate from school to come and work and help me pay my debt.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_03: Sally.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_03: That means you there, you've been thrown away.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, it really had a dent on my brain.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_01: So whenever I get tired, then I recall that statement from my uncle.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, no, I'm going to work more.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_03: But you see, sometimes I always say these challenges, it just fortifies us.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_01: I really got fortified.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_01: He I'm sure if he was alive, I'll be visiting him back to back.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'll just let him know that uncle, I've made it.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_01: And I didn't wait for my kids to come and pay off my debts.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so then you know, we settled the issue.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_01: I got a lot of backlash from family.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_01: It was that bad.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_01: And even to date, it has kind of affected how I even relate with some of them.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_01: Because I got I got pushed away to an extent.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_01: Then he also got his car.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_01: Our friendship became some way.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_01: And everybody took their mother to their house.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_03: So, what happened next?
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_03: Right now, you've been to one.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_03: Difficult challenge, you've lost friendship, you started losing family.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_03: What next?
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_03: How did you dig yourself out of this?
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_01: So then the next battle was now that you've done this, prove to prove to yourself that you're not a failure, it was only a setback.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_01: So then I had to get back to my you know, during all those times, I had started Pizza Man in the room.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_01: So the plan was let me do the event, make some good money, and then you started to pump it into the business.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_03: So the event was just investment for Pizza Man.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_01: I was taking advantage of the Valentine's season.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_01: See, I I told you that I used to take advantage of seasons and then make money out of it.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_03: So you make money from the event, and then you do more pizza and sell it during Valentine's Day.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_01: If if if I had known, maybe I wouldn't have done the event, I would have invested the money directly straight into Pizza Man.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but I'm sure I wouldn't have also learned the lessons that you learned that I learned from that drama.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_01: Because the event kind of slowed me down.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_01: So February, March, April, May, June, business became a bit somewhere for me.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_01: I still had my oven in the room anyway.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_03: So at that time, Pizza Man, so Pizza Man started in your room.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_03: January 2018.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_01: So you you make the pizza at home and deliver.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_01: I wasn't even doing deliveries.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_01: Initially, it was more of bulk orders.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_01: So when an association is having um an event, I take the item 13 contract and then I serve them pizza slices and then add drinks to it.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_01: That's how it started.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_01: So then me selling on the daily was as a result of hardship.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_01: 14th April 2018.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_03: I love how the dates are engraved in the day.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_01: The dates are just in there.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_01: So 14th April 2018, before 14th April, things got very tough.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_01: I said I hadn't been arrested.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_01: I was trying to find ways to raise money and then pay off for the car.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_01: So April, I told Eben Abeku, my partner that man has to survive.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_01: And let's start selling the pizza in boxes.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_01: And for him, whatever thing I bring on board, he said, let's do it.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_01: So then I remember I called one man, I found the number online.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_01: I called for 50 boxes of 50 pizza boxes.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_01: And unfortunately couldn't deliver to me.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_01: He was like, I should go and pick it up from one restaurant in Asoka called the Business Restaurant.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_01: So I was furious, like, why?
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_01: I've ordered for 50.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_01: To me, it was a big deal.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_01: 50 boxes.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_01: 50 boxes.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_01: So when you got there.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_01: When I got to that restaurant, they had the whole room filled with pizza boxes.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_01: And that's why I realized, oh, my order is actually small.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_01: No wonder this man couldn't deliver.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_03: Turn deliver, yeah.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_01: So I went to pick the 50 from the woman and then I started selling.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_01: So I did the flyer two days before.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_01: That was on 12th April.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_01: And then the 14th, it was a Saturday.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_01: That 14th April, we are we are um taking orders and then you can order.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_01: So I got people pre-ordering on the Friday and even on the Thursday.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_01: So then we had about 45 orders that day.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_01: Nice.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_01: So we sold it.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_01: I saw the money.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, oh, okay.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_01: There's some hope here.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_01: Let's not wait for events to take place.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_01: That was tallers.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_01: So let's let's sell on the daily.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_01: And I was still operating from the room anyway.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_01: On that day, I had a lot of you know friends coming around to support.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, they did well, they really helped me.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_01: So I managed to sell 45 boxes.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_01: The following day, I did about 50 boxes.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_01: But then I had a challenge with delivery.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I was a bit inexperienced, but I was still you know trying to push.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_01: Then after the arrest, I came back, market had slowed down, students have vacated.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_01: So all the time was strictly on campus.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_01: On campus.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_01: So then we had to find a way to continue surviving.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_01: But I needed something to keep me going.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_01: And because I did actually science, I had a mass background.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_05: Okay.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_01: So I decided to do some calculations.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_01: How many boxes of Pizza do I need to sell in a day to make this amount of money?
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_01: I was torn in between taking a decision of doing national service or chasing my Pizza Dream.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_01: Those days, national service remuneration was around 550, 559.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_01: Annually is around 6,600 in the points.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_01: And I was able to sell 45 boxes of pizza.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_01: As I then the large box was 35 ganas.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, oh, if I if I'm making more in a day than you would in a month.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_01: Then let's let's do the pizza.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_01: So I showed the reflections to Abeku and I was like, bro, I'm also not doing national service.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_01: So this is what you have to do.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_01: For you, if you don't do it, you'll be in trouble.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_01: Because you have to report to home that you are doing national service.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_01: So as you are going to be a teaching assistant in the morning, I'll go to the shop, set the place up, then once you close from class, you join me.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_01: So that was the agreement.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_01: And it's not like our we are not going to pay ourselves.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_03: How can you pay yourself?
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_01: So that's how it started.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_01: That's so when we had to move out of the room to find a shop closer to campus because we're living in Kotei.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_01: So then we had to rent a shop, set it up, and then start selling.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_01: Renting a shop and setting it up too is another story on this.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_03: Because I was going to say, so as you were in debt, you had to get more in debt to rent a shop to start with a man.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_03: How did you manage to get that money?
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_03: Chris B.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_01: You believe in God?
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_01: I do because miracles do happen.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but there are times to that, you know, God has given us brains.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_01: We just have to, you know, the brain can actually perform on both sides, both the negative and the positive.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_01: But make sure that you use your skills for the positive.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, not the negative.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_01: I don't want to go into that.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_01: You don't want to go into that one.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of stories.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_01: Let's go to the next story.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_03: So, how did you manage to finally jump out of all these debts?
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_03: Like, because I don't think the business would have been successful if you kept going, yeah, owing so many people.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_03: It took me about two years.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_03: Two years.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_01: 2018 to 2019 was very terrible.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_01: Very terrible.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_01: I think very terrible.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_01: That's the best way.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_01: That's the summation.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_01: Very terrible.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_03: So then, I mean, I know that at a point in time, you definitely had to now meet Quick Angels, which expanded everything.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_03: But what transpired?
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_03: What led to that?
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_01: Well, um Quick Angels.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_01: I think that company was actually founded for me.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_01: Time and seasons.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_01: The year that it was launched, that was 2019.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_01: I think the same month.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_01: The month of launching was when we actually visited them.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_01: And as to how we got to know about them, it's even funny.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_01: So during all those hassle days, we ended up at um Tema.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_01: We had gone from uh we've moved from town to town.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_01: Only God knows what we were doing.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_01: And then we ended up in Tema.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_01: That was um my partner's sister's house.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_01: We went there unannounced.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_01: We didn't even know the number of days we're going to spend there.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_01: But it's that movement where you just move hoping that something will come out of it.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_01: So the neighbor's radio.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_01: That neighbor used to complain about the fact that we don't sleep early and we've been having late-night charts and we've been disturbing her sleep.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_01: So her radio one morning was playing PCFM.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_01: And I heard an ad.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_01: Do you have a business?
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_01: Are you looking for an investor?
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_01: Call this number.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_01: So I picked up the number and I called.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_01: And that's how it can be found.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_01: Just like that.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_03: So what's the pitching process like?
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, when you called, what was their response, first of all?
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_03: So one lady picked up.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_01: She asked us what we do.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_01: We told her we are into pizza business and we we need funding.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_05: Okay.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_01: She's like, then you have to come to the office and meet the business consultants.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_05: Okay.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_01: So then we went to the office, met the business consultant.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_01: She asked us to bring a business plan and samples of our product.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_05: Okay.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_01: So as to be how we got the samples.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, because you are in Accra.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_01: Your business is in Kumasi.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_01: It's another story on its own.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_01: But we we got the sample.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_01: So we sent the samples to the office around 2 p.m.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_01: And they were there.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, when we got there, people were already pitching.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_01: We sat till 10 p.m.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_01: Out.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_01: In my mind, I thought maybe they would just close and go and say we should come tomorrow.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_01: I thought Abeku that, see, if they tell us to come tomorrow, tell me I can't do another new sample.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sure it's your last money to make that sample.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_01: We managed to get this sample.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_01: If they tell us to come tomorrow, we can't come with samples again.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_01: So what was the pizza all this time from 2 to 10 p.m.?
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_01: So we had given it to um it was with them.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_01: They took it to their kitchen.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_01: So after I think about a few minutes after 10, we were called up.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_01: And during all those times, I was still putting together our presentation slides because your presentation wasn't ready.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_03: No.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_01: No.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_01: Should I say it?
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, please say it.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_01: We didn't have a laptop.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_01: We had sold our laptops in school those days.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_01: So I had to borrow a laptop from one of my nieces to use for that presentation.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_01: So she brought a laptop to me whilst I was at Quick Angels waiting to be called.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_03: Wow.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_03: So you started the business plan there.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_03: That means it's even God who saved you by them not calling you at the two o'clock.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_01: So before we got in, I think I I smelled the aroma of the pizza outside.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_01: So I told Aboku that see, they have taken the food, they have eaten it.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_01: Once they've eaten the food, they've committed.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_01: They will invest.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_01: They have to invest.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_01: You can't eat my pizza and go free.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_01: So we went in fully charged.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_01: And that was that was when I saw um Mr.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_01: Richard Niamakwe.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_01: And I saw uh Mr.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_01: Lamte, Romeo.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_01: I saw a couple of you know people.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_01: They've gathered around the table, and then we were asked to sit and then start talking.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_03: So we projected our your newly made business plan.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_01: And the conversation started.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_01: I realized they were more interested in numbers.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_01: And that was into that was in my field.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_01: So they asked you how much um how much profit per product, how many have you been able to sell, the margins, percentages.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_01: So they ask and I answer.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_01: They ask and I answer.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_01: So like I know, I know what I'm about.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_03: It's what your your your students' days came in.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so one thing that also helped us, we've been keeping records of all our sales since.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_01: So we we had like records of our sales printed out, yeah.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_01: To show evidence that it's actually a business in existence.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_01: So then after the presentation and a few questions, um, Mr.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_01: Kwe asked, So, how much do we need?
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_01: I tap that big I think if you mention any big amount, and they get angry and you lose.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_01: So you let's say something small for them to know we are considerate.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_01: So we mentioned an amount, and he was like, Oh no, this is too small.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_01: You need this amount, and then he started explaining why we need that amount.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_01: We know we had a picture in our mind, but we were literally we were sort of scared to pronounce it, yeah.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_01: And he he actually projected the picture in our minds to us, and even went further to add more features to it.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_01: So I thought, oh, then this is the person I need.
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_01: This is this is somebody I need because he understands the direction we want to go, so working with him will be very, very easy.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_01: So then that evening, we just had a deal and then things began, yeah, just like that.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_01: And after I left that place, I remember from Circle to Laboni is a bit far.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_03: We walked, that's right.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_01: We were so excited that no time for car.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, brother.
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_03: Hey, please you give your niece back her laptop.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, I give it to her.
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_03: She's been billing me off late without her, you wouldn't have to be a little bit more.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, oh yes, oh yes.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_01: I went home.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_01: That that was actually my first time going home in 2019.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_03: Oh wow, yes.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_01: So from 2018 after I left home, you know, they had they had they've had all the bad news.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, 2019 was another story, but the debt was following me in 2019.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so I had even had people going to look for me at home.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, telling.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, and then they told them that me myself have not been home for some time.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_01: But after that meeting with Quick Angels, I went home.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_01: I went home with very with confidence.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_01: I I knew I've had my breakthrough.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_01: So I went home and they were all struck.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_01: Where have you been?
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_01: So oh, I've been around.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_01: I came to meet some investors and our confidence has come exactly, and not knowing all those all those times, they had their own plan for me.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, I mean they they wanted me to just leave, leave the country and go and further my education.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_01: And I also had my plan and go to school and get a job, exactly.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_01: So so their plan, I had to, so then when I realized they had their plan, I had to conceal mine and go with their flu.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but I was working backdoor okay, until 2020 March, when I had to just escape from school, come back to Ghana for good.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, so you actually had to go abroad and oh yeah, I had to be a good boy.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, yeah, but I had stubborn for long.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_03: I had my plan.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_01: At that point, I had to be a good boy to be saved.
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_01: So I think from then Eben 2 went home because we've all been away.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_01: So he also went home to tell his people that well, he has business partners now, he has investors now, he's going to do business, so he's going back to Kumase.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_03: So, how did you start the company?
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_03: Like, I mean, let me say, take off from the point that you got investment.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, so from that time we started doing campus stores in school because we didn't want to be absent for too long.
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_01: We had to start a construction at uh Mango Road.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_01: That was our first store.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_01: The first branching.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_01: At that location, we went there in 2017 before we had even met Quick Angels.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_01: I told Abekui that it would be nice having a restaurant on this road.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_01: So I was sort of describing that type of restaurant with glass in front and nice light and finishing and all that.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_01: So when we we had that encounter with Quick Angels, we were asked to look for a space that we want to set up.
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_01: And you said we knew where we wanted to set up, so we just went straight to that place to set it up.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that was our first tour.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, so then what success of the first tour made you know it was ready?
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_03: Because mean one thing I I tell everybody all the time that what I marvel about the most with Pizza Man Chicken Man is not just the business model, but how you've been able to duplicate that model all over Ghana.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_03: So, at which point did you know it was time to scale up?
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I wouldn't say there was a point that we were for us, we knew we were going to scale up.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_01: So from the onset, we knew that okay, let's work with this.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_01: Once we are able to master the operations, we check our profitability and we are good, we can move.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_01: So then um those days, I think after K N USD, our second location was at Sofuline.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_01: So K NOC is too far, but we have people from Abuakwa, Tan or so, audience from K N US.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_05: Okay.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_01: So then our the first thing now we got was okay, since more orders are coming from this side, it would be better we set up a location there.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_01: So then our second store was at Sofu Line.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_01: And it worked.
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_01: So exactly.
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_01: So now you have proof of concept.
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we were we were looking at where the deliveries are going to.
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_05: Okay.
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_01: So where we get more deliveries going to, then we know that okay, then there is room for us to make some business there.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 38:47
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, so at this point in time, I want to understand what do you think changed in your mindset?
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_03: Because now you had gone from being the hustler, the baby entrepreneur, yeah, to the man who was ready to scale up.
• 39:01
  SPEAKER_03: What was going on through your mind at that point?
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_01: A lot changed.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_01: I felt I need to level up to match the volume of work that is going to be put on me.
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_01: I wouldn't say I've been 100%.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_03: Really?
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_03: Because what you've done there is 200% too.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that is your opinion.
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_01: But I see you feel there is more room for improvement.
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_01: And I've been actively working on that.
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I thought I have to up my game because it's like I'm dealing with a top investor who has the business knowledge, yeah, has the resources and would want to run with you.
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_01: So if you try to crawl, he will have to leave you behind.
• 39:46
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 39:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 39:47
  SPEAKER_03: So, okay.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_03: Especially when it comes to food business.
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_03: I remember saying this thing after going to three different Pizaman branches.
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_03: The fact that what I always order, which is kesame, tastes the same everywhere I went.
• 40:05
  SPEAKER_03: That is the hardest part of scaling up.
• 40:07
  SPEAKER_03: It's already difficult enough when you have to manage 10 to 15 employees who are sitting right under your nose for you to tell them what to do.
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_03: Then now when you have branches and different people at different places, how are you able to maintain the same systems, same qualities, different branches?
• 40:27
  SPEAKER_03: It's hard.
• 40:30
  SPEAKER_01: In summary, it's hard.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, in summary, it's hard.
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_01: We are trying.
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know how to put it, but then I think it's our desire for constant improvements.
• 40:41
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_01: We have we have really evolved from 2019-20 to date.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_01: There's been a lot of evolution even in our systems that we used to operate.
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_01: We've been working with a lot of IT, you know, technology.
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_01: We've been we've built some in-house systems that helps us to monitor how inventories are being controlled, how they are, how they are being um depleted on the system, when sales are being made, you know, the usage of CCTV cameras, using some key KPIs, that makes it very easy for us to assess if this store is doing well or if they are not doing well, or if there's something that we need to go and fix.
• 41:20
  SPEAKER_01: So it's like it's it's a life where you review reports on the daily and make decisions on the daily.
• 41:25
  SPEAKER_01: And once you make those decisions, you have to act on them.
• 41:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 41:28
  SPEAKER_01: Because the more you wait, the worse the problem becomes.
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 41:32
  SPEAKER_03: So what type of systems?
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_03: You say you put systems in place, but what kind of specific systems do you use to measure these?
• 41:39
  SPEAKER_03: Like, how are you able to measure to make sure?
• 41:42
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, like how you mentioned, you are measuring inventory, right?
• 41:45
  SPEAKER_03: So maybe if this person is supposed to use this amount of cheese and it's supposed to last them two weeks and it's only lasting one week, then you know that it means they are using too much.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_03: But what kind of systems measures that for inventory usage?
• 41:57
  SPEAKER_01: That one is even direct.
• 41:58
  SPEAKER_01: Inventory usage must correspond to sales.
• 42:01
  SPEAKER_01: If you have used 10 kg of cheese, if it was supposed to last you for two weeks and it lasted you for one week, then it means you have made the sales that's supposed to be made in two weeks, in one week.
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_01: So then your sales must correspond to your inventory um usage.
• 42:13
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_01: If it doesn't correspond, then that means it's either there's wastage or there's still fridge.
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_01: Then we start to investigate.
• 42:19
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_01: And we have a wastage system where anything that you waste at the store has to be sent back to the central store for verification.
• 42:25
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 42:25
  SPEAKER_01: So you cannot waste and put it in your bin at the store.
• 42:28
  SPEAKER_01: It has to be sent back.
• 42:30
  SPEAKER_01: Tracks come around to pick waste.
• 42:31
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_01: So whatever thing that you say you've wasted, give it to the track.
• 42:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 42:35
  SPEAKER_01: It will go back to the central store for verification before it's done.
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_01: So then, if it's not wastage, then it's obviously pre- uh pilferage.
• 42:42
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 42:43
  SPEAKER_01: And that is one of the threats that we've been dealing with in the restaurant business.
• 42:47
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, because restaurant business, there's so many tiny, tiny bits that it's very easy for somebody to just you know grab what they need from you.
• 42:55
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, so now I understand a bit more.
• 42:57
  SPEAKER_03: So it's a consistent check-in consistency of every single branch.
• 43:02
  SPEAKER_01: Consistency.
• 43:03
  SPEAKER_01: We have we have a team, we have structures like the head of departments, we have like zonar managers, we have branch managers.
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_01: At a point, we didn't even have branch managers.
• 43:12
  SPEAKER_01: Wow, we were operating a very, you know, weird system.
• 43:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, please, how were you operating without branch managers?
• 43:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we we at a point we had to.
• 43:22
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 43:23
  SPEAKER_01: What was the reasoning behind that?
• 43:25
  SPEAKER_01: So then um, it was an experiment.
• 43:27
  SPEAKER_01: We are trying to run a model where we wouldn't want to have anyone there to be responsible for all of them, but for them to be responsible for for themselves.
• 43:37
  SPEAKER_03: For themselves.
• 43:37
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_01: We wanted to promote that kind of thing, but then it is not it is not available in Ghana at the moment.
• 43:43
  SPEAKER_01: So it's not available in the country.
• 43:47
  SPEAKER_01: If you if you try it, you can kill the business.
• 43:51
  SPEAKER_01: I think we've had our fair share of that, you know, the impact that comes to that decision.
• 43:57
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 43:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 43:57
  SPEAKER_01: So this year we had to, you know, reverse and then.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_01: Start recruiting managers.
• 44:01
  SPEAKER_03: For the branch managers, yeah.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, okay.
• 44:03
  SPEAKER_03: So that's been more efficient when you had the branch managers.
• 44:07
  SPEAKER_01: It's a two-way thing.
• 44:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 44:09
  SPEAKER_01: For some efficient.
• 44:10
  SPEAKER_01: For some, it's been efficient.
• 44:12
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 44:12
  SPEAKER_01: But for some to, you know.
• 44:15
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, because it's still based on the person that's exactly sitting there.
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 44:19
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 44:19
  SPEAKER_03: So what kind of challenges have you faced mainly when you had to scale up such a large number?
• 44:23
  SPEAKER_03: You have over 75 branches right now.
• 44:25
  SPEAKER_01: Currently, we have like um yeah, 90 locations.
• 44:29
  SPEAKER_01: 90 locations, wow.
• 44:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 44:31
  SPEAKER_03: And most people can't even handle two locations.
• 44:33
  SPEAKER_03: You have 90 locations.
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_03: And how am I even doing the 90?
• 44:36
  SPEAKER_03: How are you doing it?
• 44:37
  SPEAKER_03: That's what I want to understand.
• 44:38
  SPEAKER_03: Do you sleep, first of all?
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, I do.
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_03: Sometimes.
• 44:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it comes with its own level of stress.
• 44:48
  SPEAKER_01: But I think I'm used to it now.
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_01: I see it more as a lifestyle.
• 44:52
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 44:53
  SPEAKER_01: Than a job.
• 44:55
  SPEAKER_01: Because, yeah, this means you are living Pizza Man Chicken Man.
• 44:58
  SPEAKER_01: I see it as a lifestyle.
• 44:59
  SPEAKER_01: So I barely get tired doing it.
• 45:00
  SPEAKER_01: But then my biggest challenge has been the people.
• 45:03
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_01: The people.
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_03: Handling the people.
• 45:05
  SPEAKER_01: The people I work with.
• 45:07
  SPEAKER_03: So how many employees does Pizza Man Chicken Man have?
• 45:11
  SPEAKER_01: We have a little over 1600.
• 45:13
  SPEAKER_03: 1600.
• 45:14
  SPEAKER_01: Direct employees.
• 45:15
  SPEAKER_03: Wow.
• 45:16
  SPEAKER_03: And that's not including like the delivery.
• 45:19
  SPEAKER_03: No, they are not part.
• 45:20
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 45:20
  SPEAKER_01: Well, the delivery guys, the ones we've actually registered on our system, they are over 800.
• 45:26
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 45:26
  SPEAKER_01: Nationwide.
• 45:27
  SPEAKER_03: So that's 2400 if you add the delivery.
• 45:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 45:30
  SPEAKER_01: But they are not on our payroll.
• 45:31
  SPEAKER_01: So okay.
• 45:32
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 45:32
  SPEAKER_03: That's crazy.
• 45:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 45:34
  SPEAKER_01: Very crazy.
• 45:35
  SPEAKER_03: So every end of the month, you have to pay 1600.
• 45:39
  SPEAKER_03: Don't go there.
• 45:40
  SPEAKER_03: Hey, I don't want to be you 27th.
• 45:46
  SPEAKER_03: So you said the people have been the biggest challenge.
• 45:48
  SPEAKER_03: What has been challenging about the people?
• 45:50
  SPEAKER_03: Is it the attitude of the people or is it managing the people?
• 45:54
  SPEAKER_03: Managing the people, one.
• 45:55
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 45:56
  SPEAKER_01: The attitude two is two.
• 46:03
  SPEAKER_01: Can I say we lack moral courage?
• 46:06
  SPEAKER_03: True.
• 46:07
  SPEAKER_03: I get you.
• 46:08
  SPEAKER_01: It's that bad.
• 46:09
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 46:11
  SPEAKER_01: People always trying to find a quick way to you spend your life managing the business, managing the people, and acting like a CID sometimes.
• 46:26
  SPEAKER_01: You always have to think like a criminal.
• 46:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 46:29
  SPEAKER_03: What are they going to do to try and pull a fast one on me?
• 46:31
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 46:32
  SPEAKER_01: And that that that makes it very drainy.
• 46:34
  SPEAKER_01: I've been telling my people that you see, you guys are very smart.
• 46:39
  SPEAKER_01: Because for you to decipher a way to break certain systems or to find loopholes, you need to be smart to identify those loopholes.
• 46:50
  SPEAKER_01: So why are you not going to be able to do that?
• 46:51
  SPEAKER_03: Why don't you use your brain in the positive way so that we can all make more money?
• 46:56
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 46:56
  SPEAKER_01: But no, the typical Ghanaian would never do that.
• 47:00
  SPEAKER_01: That is our biggest threat.
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 47:03
  SPEAKER_01: Biggest threat.
• 47:06
  SPEAKER_01: The biggest threat is within.
• 47:08
  SPEAKER_01: It's never from outside.
• 47:09
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yes, of course.
• 47:11
  SPEAKER_03: You know, I I did a bar and restaurant for a few years.
• 47:14
  SPEAKER_03: I stopped, I stopped.
• 47:15
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, why?
• 47:16
  SPEAKER_03: So then you have me more.
• 47:17
  SPEAKER_03: I stopped after sucking one batch of stuff and sucking all.
• 47:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's always like that.
• 47:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 47:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 47:24
  SPEAKER_01: So you all so then at a point I used to blame the people.
• 47:30
  SPEAKER_01: But currently, as I sit here, I don't even want to shift any blame to any stuff again.
• 47:34
  SPEAKER_03: Because it's the system.
• 47:35
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm like, okay.
• 47:38
  SPEAKER_01: Why were you able to get the opportunity to get this or to do that?
• 47:42
  SPEAKER_01: It's because you found a loophole.
• 47:44
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 47:45
  SPEAKER_01: Then I'll find that loophole and I'll close it.
• 47:48
  SPEAKER_01: And I'll put in a measure not to make sure that that loophole even exists or any other loophole comes up.
• 47:54
  SPEAKER_01: If you find another one, I thank you.
• 47:56
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for helping me.
• 47:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 47:57
  SPEAKER_01: Then I redefine my strategy.
• 47:59
  SPEAKER_01: That is how I've been moving out.
• 48:01
  SPEAKER_01: So of late, I barely get angry at the stuff.
• 48:04
  SPEAKER_01: Because I realize that if I start to get angry, you end up with a high blood pressure.
• 48:10
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it doesn't serve you in any way.
• 48:12
  SPEAKER_01: So you might as well just solve the problem.
• 48:14
  SPEAKER_01: So now when the issues come up, okay, that's fine.
• 48:18
  SPEAKER_01: The next thing is how do I prevent this from happening again?
• 48:21
  SPEAKER_01: Because if you attack the person and you don't attack the problem, yeah, the person you can fire the person.
• 48:25
  SPEAKER_01: But the problem still exists.
• 48:27
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 48:27
  SPEAKER_03: You know, obviously, one of my biggest mistakes in when I opened the restaurant and bar was I had my business which I was running, and I thought, oh, I can open this on the side and get someone to run it.
• 48:40
  SPEAKER_03: I don't have to put my attention there too much, and I'll be making extra money.
• 48:43
  SPEAKER_03: Restaurant business is a jealous wife.
• 48:45
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you.
• 48:45
  SPEAKER_03: I learned that it's very hard.
• 48:48
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 48:48
  SPEAKER_03: And then COVID came.
• 48:50
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, and when COVID came to close down.
• 48:52
  SPEAKER_01: I said enough is enough.
• 48:55
  SPEAKER_01: I've been actually a time for you to make the most out of it because it's a daily essential.
• 49:01
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, true.
• 49:02
  SPEAKER_01: Even during COVID, people were eating.
• 49:04
  SPEAKER_03: True.
• 49:05
  SPEAKER_03: I guess if I had fixed my systems before COVID, exactly.
• 49:07
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, it beats me, it beats me.
• 49:09
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, when I talk about my failures, that is one of my failures.
• 49:13
  SPEAKER_03: I try to you see like your event one.
• 49:16
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that's my own.
• 49:17
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, so yours is the restaurant business.
• 49:19
  SPEAKER_03: It beats me left, right, center.
• 49:21
  SPEAKER_03: Wow.
• 49:22
  SPEAKER_03: I I was actually doing great from people's point of view.
• 49:26
  SPEAKER_03: Because when you come there, every time people are sitting there, they're buying drinks, they're buying food, Richie Dear Mind that touched everything he touches, succeeds.
• 49:34
  SPEAKER_03: I was suffering.
• 49:35
  SPEAKER_03: The back end.
• 49:36
  SPEAKER_03: The back end.
• 49:36
  SPEAKER_03: Crazy.
• 49:37
  SPEAKER_03: Hey, yeah, crazy.
• 49:39
  SPEAKER_03: I think that's one thing that I've admired so much when I keep watching Peter Man Chicken Man because I know, and this was one location.
• 49:46
  SPEAKER_03: So I know what it takes to be in the food service industry for one location.
• 49:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 49:53
  SPEAKER_03: So when I look at it, times 90, that means you are solving massive problems at a massive scale.
• 50:01
  SPEAKER_01: Too much problems.
• 50:02
  SPEAKER_03: How are you still breathing?
• 50:03
  SPEAKER_01: How do you have hypertension and I have a mini uh BP tester though?
• 50:08
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, okay.
• 50:09
  SPEAKER_01: I've been checking my is it the pulse?
• 50:11
  SPEAKER_01: That that's been I've been checking once in a while.
• 50:14
  SPEAKER_03: So work life balance.
• 50:15
  SPEAKER_03: What's your work life balance?
• 50:16
  SPEAKER_01: How do you there's no balance?
• 50:20
  SPEAKER_03: You sound like Cody Sanchez.
• 50:21
  SPEAKER_01: There's no balance.
• 50:22
  SPEAKER_01: I need to be honest.
• 50:24
  SPEAKER_01: There's no balance.
• 50:25
  SPEAKER_03: Do you think there should be a balance?
• 50:28
  SPEAKER_01: It depends on your goal and objectives.
• 50:31
  SPEAKER_01: Anyone who has ever tried to achieve excellence has never had a balance at a certain point in his life.
• 50:37
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 50:38
  SPEAKER_01: I think they're saying work-life balance is a cliche.
• 50:41
  SPEAKER_01: I don't I don't really believe in that.
• 50:44
  SPEAKER_01: Let's take Christiano Nado as an example.
• 50:46
  SPEAKER_01: Those days when he was, I think even right now he still trains like crazy.
• 50:51
  SPEAKER_03: I honestly don't think there's any massively successful person who has achieved a work-life balance.
• 50:57
  SPEAKER_03: If you want to be mediocre, if you want to be average, yeah.
• 51:00
  SPEAKER_03: So I think if you want to be a failure, then the life balance needs to be more than the work.
• 51:07
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 51:07
  SPEAKER_03: If you want to be average, then life and work can share.
• 51:10
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I want to be excellent.
• 51:11
  SPEAKER_01: If you want to be excellent, Charlie.
• 51:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, there's always an imbalance.
• 51:15
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 51:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 51:16
  SPEAKER_01: And it's hard.
• 51:17
  SPEAKER_01: In my situation, it's very hard because I'll say my colleagues or my age mates do not face the kind of problems that I face.
• 51:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 51:26
  SPEAKER_01: So it always becomes weird when you find yourself amidst them.
• 51:30
  SPEAKER_01: And it's like, are you the only person with the business?
• 51:34
  SPEAKER_01: Are you the only person working?
• 51:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 51:35
  SPEAKER_01: You look too known, right?
• 51:36
  SPEAKER_01: I hate to explain myself.
• 51:38
  SPEAKER_01: So the best thing is I'll just stay away.
• 51:40
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 51:40
  SPEAKER_03: I was going to ask you how this has affected your friendships, family relationships.
• 51:46
  SPEAKER_01: It has affected a lot.
• 51:48
  SPEAKER_01: A lot.
• 51:49
  SPEAKER_01: I think where I get to talk to people currently is at the gym.
• 51:52
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, okay.
• 51:53
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 51:53
  SPEAKER_03: You know one thing I always say about Jim?
• 51:56
  SPEAKER_03: Jim makes good friendships, right?
• 51:58
  SPEAKER_03: Because people in the gym have a lot in common.
• 52:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 52:00
  SPEAKER_03: One, they all care about their well-being.
• 52:03
  SPEAKER_03: Two, they are disciplined.
• 52:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 52:05
  SPEAKER_03: And three, if you can keep seeing this person there, then it means they're consistent.
• 52:09
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 52:09
  SPEAKER_03: So you have enough shared goals to build friends.
• 52:13
  SPEAKER_03: Consistency discipline.
• 52:14
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 52:15
  SPEAKER_03: True.
• 52:15
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 52:16
  SPEAKER_03: So right now, only your gym people are your friends.
• 52:18
  SPEAKER_01: And the people I work with.
• 52:19
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 52:20
  SPEAKER_03: Because you have a shared goal once again.
• 52:22
  SPEAKER_01: If I work with you, getting access to me is very easy.
• 52:26
  SPEAKER_01: Very, very easy.
• 52:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 52:27
  SPEAKER_01: But if you should leave my working environment.
• 52:32
  SPEAKER_03: This is one thing I've suffered with for years that most people don't understand.
• 52:37
  SPEAKER_03: Like I'm sad to admit the fact that I don't think I have a friend outside of work.
• 52:42
  SPEAKER_01: Because for me, I feel like okay, you are my friend.
• 52:45
  SPEAKER_01: What are we doing together to impact our lives?
• 52:48
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you.
• 52:49
  SPEAKER_01: If you are not contributing to my life, or if I'm not contributing to your life, or we are not contributing to each other's life in any positive way.
• 52:56
  SPEAKER_03: What's the value exchange?
• 52:58
  SPEAKER_01: Then I have no business dealing with you.
• 53:00
  SPEAKER_01: So all the friends I've made, they'll tell you, Chris, if you engage, if Chris becomes your friend, you end up doing some business to get out.
• 53:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, and that is how I am.
• 53:10
  SPEAKER_01: That is the only way I'll find a reason to continuously engage you.
• 53:15
  SPEAKER_01: But if it's just that friend that you have to just go out, I barely go out.
• 53:20
  SPEAKER_01: If you see me out, then we are all out.
• 53:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 53:23
  SPEAKER_01: But I barely go out.
• 53:24
  SPEAKER_01: There's never been a time where I'll just wake up and dress and tell myself I'm going out.
• 53:28
  SPEAKER_01: No, I barely do that.
• 53:29
  SPEAKER_03: It's just I believe it's about goals.
• 53:31
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 53:31
  SPEAKER_03: It's like, what are you focused on?
• 53:33
  SPEAKER_03: What are you trying to achieve in life?
• 53:35
  SPEAKER_03: If you want to go out for going out sick, then you're probably not focused on being excellent in life.
• 53:41
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 53:41
  SPEAKER_03: So then it's hard to meet.
• 53:43
  SPEAKER_03: Whereas somebody too is at their stage in life where they just want to go out, and that's cool.
• 53:48
  SPEAKER_03: I let them go out.
• 53:51
  SPEAKER_03: You want to be indoors.
• 53:53
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 53:54
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 53:55
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 53:56
  SPEAKER_03: So this is a tough question, but has there ever been a moment in this winding journey of yours where you've thought I can't continue?
• 54:04
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yes.
• 54:06
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, it happens almost every day.
• 54:08
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, yes, I'm human.
• 54:12
  SPEAKER_01: There are times you know, you get hit by situations and you question yourself, why did I even start this in the first place?
• 54:19
  SPEAKER_03: So this is okay.
• 54:21
  SPEAKER_03: At which point have you thought of quitting the most when you were hustling or when you succeeded?
• 54:26
  SPEAKER_01: I think the stress became more after success.
• 54:29
  SPEAKER_01: After success.
• 54:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 54:31
  SPEAKER_01: You know, when I was hustling, at a point it was even fun to me.
• 54:35
  SPEAKER_03: When you were swebbing people, eh?
• 54:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it was fun to me because I just I remember there was one day I hold this guy.
• 54:45
  SPEAKER_01: His name is Godwin.
• 54:46
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 54:47
  SPEAKER_01: And he came to my hostel, that was in 2018.
• 54:53
  SPEAKER_01: 20 2019, thereabout.
• 54:55
  SPEAKER_01: World Cup era.
• 54:56
  SPEAKER_01: 2018.
• 54:56
  SPEAKER_01: 2018.
• 54:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 54:58
  SPEAKER_01: And when he came, I'll be good with him, I'm not around.
• 55:04
  SPEAKER_01: And I've traveled to Accra.
• 55:07
  SPEAKER_01: But I was around my hostel area.
• 55:10
  SPEAKER_01: Those who do Kote very well, there's a certain uh spot at the Kote station.
• 55:15
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 55:16
  SPEAKER_01: It's painted with these club drawings.
• 55:19
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 55:20
  SPEAKER_01: So the woman who sells food there is my friend.
• 55:23
  SPEAKER_01: We call her Auntie Roose.
• 55:25
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 55:25
  SPEAKER_01: So whenever I move from my hostel, I'll just go and sit by her, you know, have some chats with her, then probably get food and I'll go.
• 55:32
  SPEAKER_01: So Godwin too was coming to buy food from Auntie Roose.
• 55:35
  SPEAKER_01: Hey.
• 55:36
  SPEAKER_01: After he had come to search for me in my host.
• 55:38
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, Godwin.
• 55:40
  SPEAKER_01: So Godwin came and I crossed my legs, sipping clap Sandy.
• 55:46
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, how is Accra?
• 55:52
  SPEAKER_01: Like, Accra is fine.
• 55:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so you know, it at the point it was fine.
• 55:59
  SPEAKER_01: At the point, I didn't even see that I'm suffering.
• 56:03
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's that moment when you just you just suffer to the point that I feel like, okay, it's it's it's okay.
• 56:08
  SPEAKER_01: That is how life is supposed to be.
• 56:09
  SPEAKER_01: Let me just go through it.
• 56:10
  SPEAKER_01: You get used to it exactly.
• 56:12
  SPEAKER_01: I got used to it.
• 56:12
  SPEAKER_01: There are times today that I miss those days.
• 56:15
  SPEAKER_01: Because in as much as I would say I was struggling, I would say I had a lot of I had a lot of free mind and so much peace.
• 56:25
  SPEAKER_01: The only problem that I'll face is someone is chasing me for their money.
• 56:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 56:29
  SPEAKER_01: But aside that, you never get a call that the track has hit somebody somewhere.
• 56:33
  SPEAKER_01: I think a lot of police has arrested the track somewhere.
• 56:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 56:36
  SPEAKER_01: Someone is trying to steal some bags of rice or some gallons of oil somewhere.
• 56:40
  SPEAKER_01: Nobody will call you that the customer is making the complaint about a bad product and it's on social media and they are lashing you, and people are criticizing you.
• 56:48
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you don't get to hear those.
• 56:50
  SPEAKER_01: The only thing you hear is Shallow's my money.
• 56:52
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, I will pay them.
• 56:54
  SPEAKER_01: That's all.
• 56:55
  SPEAKER_03: I keep saying most people don't know.
• 56:57
  SPEAKER_03: There's more responsibility in success than there is in failure.
• 57:01
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 57:01
  SPEAKER_01: Those days you don't even care what you eat.
• 57:03
  SPEAKER_01: You can just stand by the roadside and buy some CDs, and you are good.
• 57:08
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, life was free.
• 57:09
  SPEAKER_01: And now it's like, you know, if someone looks up to you, there's a way, a particular way you have to present yourself just so you don't pick the wrong impression.
• 57:16
  SPEAKER_01: You know, like now you are aware of there's this self-awareness that you have to be always and you have 1600 people exactly who you are feeding 1600 people who are also feeding their families and their friends, so indirectly, you are probably responsible for over 10,000 people in Ghana.
• 57:33
  SPEAKER_03: I wouldn't be surprised, and that's a heavy weight every single month.
• 57:37
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you know, there's this powerful thing I read in Satellite of Not Giving Up, you know, where they said every path is hard.
• 57:46
  SPEAKER_03: Choose your heart.
• 57:47
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, being poor is hard, yeah.
• 57:50
  SPEAKER_03: Being rich is hard, working out in the gym is hard, eating all the time and becoming fat is hard.
• 57:59
  SPEAKER_03: So just choose your heart.
• 58:02
  SPEAKER_01: I'll I'll choose this heart.
• 58:04
  SPEAKER_03: Better you know, suffer every day and at least cry in your nice car instead of crying that's you know while Godwin is saying how's a crack.
• 58:15
  SPEAKER_03: Oh what'd you say?
• 58:17
  SPEAKER_01: Instead of crying while Godwin is asking you how God asked me how is a crack.
• 58:22
  SPEAKER_03: So I have a question.
• 58:23
  SPEAKER_03: I hope, I really hope you've paid everybody you were owing from those days.
• 58:27
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, are you sure?
• 58:28
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, you didn't leave one or two be out because they were annoying you but by now they wouldn't even let me rest.
• 58:34
  SPEAKER_03: How about Denise?
• 58:36
  SPEAKER_03: What have you done for her?
• 58:37
  SPEAKER_03: Right now, I'm I'm campaigning for her.
• 58:39
  SPEAKER_03: She needs to own pairs or something in Pizza Man Chicken Man.
• 58:42
  SPEAKER_03: She's fine.
• 58:42
  SPEAKER_03: What's her name?
• 58:43
  SPEAKER_03: Yvette.
• 58:44
  SPEAKER_03: Yvette, if you are watching this, I will defend you.
• 58:48
  SPEAKER_03: You need a stick in Pizza Man Chicken Man.
• 58:50
  SPEAKER_03: At least every branch should be able to give you something small.
• 58:53
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, she's fine.
• 58:54
  SPEAKER_03: She's fine, eh?
• 58:54
  SPEAKER_03: I'm pushing it.
• 58:55
  SPEAKER_03: She's fine.
• 58:57
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 58:58
  SPEAKER_03: What is your vision for Pizarman Chicken Man?
• 59:01
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, this is a silly question to ask.
• 59:03
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 59:03
  SPEAKER_03: Because you've already opened 90 branches.
• 59:06
  SPEAKER_03: But what is the next plan?
• 59:08
  SPEAKER_03: What's next?
• 59:09
  SPEAKER_01: Do you really want to hear it?
• 59:10
  SPEAKER_03: I really want to hear it.
• 59:12
  SPEAKER_01: Somewhere 2018, I told, I think we were home somewhere in December.
• 59:18
  SPEAKER_01: We were having a conversation.
• 59:20
  SPEAKER_01: I told some of my cousins that you see this kind of um backdrop where the players stand to do interviews after a football match.
• 59:31
  SPEAKER_01: You see Nike, you see Adidas.
• 59:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 59:33
  SPEAKER_01: And you see those um screens that they display during the football pitch.
• 59:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 59:39
  SPEAKER_01: I used to see Leferrando, McDonald's, Pepsi Cola, and all that.
• 59:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 59:43
  SPEAKER_01: And I told them that 2018.
• 59:46
  SPEAKER_01: I told them Pizza Man will sponsor Workout 1D.
• 59:49
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you.
• 59:51
  SPEAKER_03: Wait, 2018, the time we were running from people because you have money.
• 59:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
• 59:55
  SPEAKER_01: Big vision.
• 59:55
  SPEAKER_01: The vision never dies.
• 59:57
  SPEAKER_01: I told them Pizzerman will sponsor Workout 1D.
• 1:00:00
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 1:00:00
  SPEAKER_01: And the kind of idea he gave me.
• 1:00:03
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, why?
• 1:00:04
  SPEAKER_01: I'm saying my vision.
• 1:00:06
  SPEAKER_01: You to say yours.
• 1:00:07
  SPEAKER_01: So my vision for Pizza Man is very big.
• 1:00:11
  SPEAKER_01: God should give us long life and good health.
• 1:00:14
  SPEAKER_01: And God should help all major stakeholders to stay alive and stay active and still be interested in the vision.
• 1:00:25
  SPEAKER_01: If we've been able to import a foreign brand into Africa, why can't we export an African brand?
• 1:00:33
  SPEAKER_01: We export cocoa from Ghana to other parts of the world.
• 1:00:37
  SPEAKER_01: We export timber from Ghana to other parts.
• 1:00:40
  SPEAKER_01: That means that I want to establish that there is a certain exportation that happens from Ghana to the rest of the world.
• 1:00:50
  SPEAKER_01: If that link is there, then that means that whatever you may want to export from Ghana to the rest of the world is possible.
• 1:00:59
  SPEAKER_01: So I want to see that moment where a regular customer in Ghana will travel to the UK and they can just walk into a Pizza Man shop or they can have access to Pizzerman meals.
• 1:01:14
  SPEAKER_01: That regular customer in Ghana will be in America and they can search Pizza Man Near Me or Chicken Man Near Me.
• 1:01:22
  SPEAKER_01: That is that is what I want to see.
• 1:01:24
  SPEAKER_01: So Pizza Man, Chicken Man Global.
• 1:01:26
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 1:01:27
  SPEAKER_03: I like it.
• 1:01:28
  SPEAKER_01: And even to the point where you can even have it on a shelf.
• 1:01:31
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 1:01:34
  SPEAKER_01: You can have our pizza frozen.
• 1:01:37
  SPEAKER_01: Just go and bake it at home.
• 1:01:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:01:39
  SPEAKER_01: Or probably we can even have a restaurant with a frozen pizza in an oven beside it.
• 1:01:43
  SPEAKER_01: Pick your pizza, bake it, take it home.
• 1:01:45
  SPEAKER_01: Don't talk to any chef.
• 1:01:47
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 1:01:48
  SPEAKER_03: AI pizza.
• 1:01:49
  SPEAKER_03: AI pizza.
• 1:01:50
  SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
• 1:01:53
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 1:01:53
  SPEAKER_03: This is a question that um every entrepreneur has had to do this, but they don't tell their story.
• 1:01:59
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 1:01:59
  SPEAKER_03: What sacrifices have you had to make and do you keep making to keep the dream alive?
• 1:02:08
  SPEAKER_03: Plenty of let's say the top two.
• 1:02:12
  SPEAKER_03: Top two.
• 1:02:12
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 1:02:13
  SPEAKER_03: Currently currently.
• 1:02:14
  SPEAKER_03: Currently current.
• 1:02:20
  SPEAKER_01: Denying yourself.
• 1:02:24
  SPEAKER_01: Denying yourself the things that you desire.
• 1:02:32
  SPEAKER_01: Let me let me let me make it more practical.
• 1:02:37
  SPEAKER_01: Let's say you have 10 million CD sitting down, but you are only expected to spend 10,000 out of the 10 million.
• 1:02:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:02:46
  SPEAKER_01: How does it feel like very painful?
• 1:02:49
  SPEAKER_01: Are you sure it's only painful?
• 1:02:51
  SPEAKER_01: It's not depressing.
• 1:02:52
  SPEAKER_03: It's depressing.
• 1:02:53
  SPEAKER_03: I always say, like me, when I look at my end-of-year report and I look at how much money has come in.
• 1:03:02
  SPEAKER_03: And I look at my personal life and how much money has come in here.
• 1:03:08
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, oh Charlie, I'm not working for me.
• 1:03:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:03:11
  SPEAKER_01: So you see, when when the size of a mission is too big, there's a price you pay for it.
• 1:03:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:03:17
  SPEAKER_01: So that price is when you deny yourself the things that you desire for the sake of the business.
• 1:03:27
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 1:03:28
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes, not even just in monetary terms.
• 1:03:31
  SPEAKER_01: There are times I would want to just roam.
• 1:03:41
  SPEAKER_01: In the course of roaming, you pick your phone and you see that you have work to do.
• 1:03:46
  SPEAKER_01: Just go back and get it done.
• 1:03:49
  SPEAKER_01: That constant reminder where you feel like there is more to be done.
• 1:03:53
  SPEAKER_01: I have never felt satisfied with my level of operations.
• 1:03:56
  SPEAKER_01: I want even that.
• 1:03:58
  SPEAKER_01: So I've been talking to my executives, the HODs.
• 1:04:01
  SPEAKER_01: I told them that see, you guys are not doing bad work.
• 1:04:04
  SPEAKER_01: If anybody convinces you that you are not working well, it is a lie.
• 1:04:08
  SPEAKER_01: It is me that I don't see it.
• 1:04:11
  SPEAKER_01: So if you should leave the business right now and go into any other space, they will hail you.
• 1:04:17
  SPEAKER_01: But if you come here, it's because it takes a lot of things to make me satisfied.
• 1:04:22
  SPEAKER_01: So appetite is bigger.
• 1:04:24
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 1:04:24
  SPEAKER_01: I always come at you for the little mistakes that you do.
• 1:04:29
  SPEAKER_01: And if you're not too careful, you might think I don't appreciate your efforts.
• 1:04:33
  SPEAKER_01: I do appreciate your efforts.
• 1:04:34
  SPEAKER_01: But why do you want to be 90 when you can be 100?
• 1:04:39
  SPEAKER_03: And you know the gap between 90 and 100 is bigger than the gap from 10 to 90.
• 1:04:45
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 1:04:46
  SPEAKER_01: Because at excellence is an attitude.
• 1:04:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 1:04:50
  SPEAKER_01: I think I've seen it on your post.
• 1:04:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, excellence attitude happens.
• 1:04:53
  SPEAKER_01: You have to be intentional about it.
• 1:04:56
  SPEAKER_03: It doesn't just happen.
• 1:04:58
  SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
• 1:04:58
  SPEAKER_03: Excellence is from every single thing you do, the way you wake up, the way you walk, the way you show up.
• 1:05:03
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 1:05:04
  SPEAKER_03: You know.
• 1:05:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:05:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:05:06
  SPEAKER_03: Wow.
• 1:05:07
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 1:05:08
  SPEAKER_03: There's something I need you to do for me before we close, right?
• 1:05:11
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 1:05:11
  SPEAKER_03: My goal for this entire podcast, everything that I'm doing, is I want to affect people.
• 1:05:17
  SPEAKER_03: I want to help them to become masterminds.
• 1:05:19
  SPEAKER_03: I feel like mindset is one of the things that is bringing Africa back.
• 1:05:23
  SPEAKER_03: And I want to remedy that.
• 1:05:25
  SPEAKER_03: So having a mastermind like you here, I want you to imagine that as you're looking through the camera, you can reach into the mind of the person watching and drop one mindset shift.
• 1:05:36
  SPEAKER_03: What would that be to set them on the right path?
• 1:05:40
  SPEAKER_01: Arrival mentality.
• 1:05:42
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 1:05:43
  SPEAKER_01: Never have an arrival mentality.
• 1:05:45
  SPEAKER_01: Why am I saying this?
• 1:05:50
  SPEAKER_01: After Elon sold paper.
• 1:05:53
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 1:05:54
  SPEAKER_01: You didn't say that.
• 1:05:56
  SPEAKER_01: Move on to the next step, to the next step, to the next step.
• 1:06:00
  SPEAKER_01: Now he wants to make life multiplanetary.
• 1:06:05
  SPEAKER_01: After Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone.
• 1:06:10
  SPEAKER_01: iPhone 4 was what it started with.
• 1:06:12
  SPEAKER_01: I was watching a documentary on uh when he was presenting the iPhone 4, he he he did a a live um FaceTime call to his best friend Ife.
• 1:06:21
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, and it was projected in the hall where everybody was watching, and that sort of changed how video calls are being made.
• 1:06:28
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 1:06:29
  SPEAKER_01: And from iPhone 4, there's been much progress, and now we have iPhone 17.
• 1:06:36
  SPEAKER_01: Let's come to Africa.
• 1:06:38
  SPEAKER_01: When we heard of Dan Goute being the richest man in the world, the richest black man, I'm sure he hadn't done certain things that he's doing now, and he's still doing it.
• 1:06:50
  SPEAKER_01: How much success have you achieved that you think you have arrived?
• 1:06:54
  SPEAKER_01: Let's come to Ghana.
• 1:06:56
  SPEAKER_01: My own godfather, Mr.
• 1:06:59
  SPEAKER_01: Richard Nemakwit.
• 1:07:01
  SPEAKER_03: What hasn't he achieved and he's still doing working?
• 1:07:04
  SPEAKER_01: And then you how much do you have?
• 1:07:08
  SPEAKER_01: What have you achieved?
• 1:07:10
  SPEAKER_01: You feel you have arrived.
• 1:07:11
  SPEAKER_01: So then when you are supposed to work for eight hours, now you feel you are a boss, you are doing two hours.
• 1:07:17
  SPEAKER_01: Jumping from the first floor to the ground, and jumping from the tenth floor to the ground are two different things.
• 1:07:26
  SPEAKER_01: They are all a jump anyway.
• 1:07:28
  SPEAKER_01: The first floor, you might not even sustain any injury.
• 1:07:31
  SPEAKER_01: But from the tenth floor, from the tenth floor, your fall is dead, it's not could be, it's deadly.
• 1:07:38
  SPEAKER_01: So it is more difficult staying at the top than getting to the top.
• 1:07:46
  SPEAKER_01: So if you get there, or if you think you are getting there, keep going.
• 1:07:52
  SPEAKER_01: There is more for you to achieve.
• 1:07:55
  SPEAKER_01: If you should look at where you came from and where you have gotten to, you might be satisfied, which is okay.
• 1:08:01
  SPEAKER_01: You should show gratitude to your creator, you should appreciate the journey so far.
• 1:08:06
  SPEAKER_01: But if you look at where you are, maybe you don't have too much vision.
• 1:08:10
  SPEAKER_01: But if you look at where you are and you compare to where you want to get to, and you don't know where you want to get, then you realize that you just started.
• 1:08:18
  SPEAKER_01: So feeling that you have arrived can kill you, can kill your dreams.
• 1:08:25
  SPEAKER_01: My friends tell me, Chris, oh, oh, but Chris, you still go to work as if you just like bro, but what have I achieved?
• 1:08:32
  SPEAKER_01: But then you have this number of branches.
• 1:08:33
  SPEAKER_01: I said, okay, but McDonald's has over 100,000 stores.
• 1:08:39
  SPEAKER_01: He's so a human being, he's not an AP.
• 1:08:41
  SPEAKER_01: Human beings like us, they are selling beggars and they have moved out of their country to other countries.
• 1:08:48
  SPEAKER_01: And you want me to be okay with this?
• 1:08:51
  SPEAKER_01: But after you die, yes, we all die.
• 1:08:53
  SPEAKER_01: No matter what, but be prepared to die empty.
• 1:08:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, make sure that the world you gave back everything to the world, exactly.
• 1:09:02
  SPEAKER_01: Until until you do that, I don't think you should stop.
• 1:09:05
  SPEAKER_01: So arrive a mentality and always stay hungry, stay foolish.
• 1:09:10
  SPEAKER_03: I love that.
• 1:09:11
  SPEAKER_03: Stay hungry, stay foolish.
• 1:09:13
  SPEAKER_01: You see, sometimes when you think you are too wise, yeah, you never make money.
• 1:09:18
  SPEAKER_03: It's true.
• 1:09:19
  SPEAKER_03: You know, they said that um it's actually very difficult for the people with the highest IQ to make it money, like the person with the slightly lower IQ.
• 1:09:29
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, because what happens is the person who is too wise.
• 1:09:32
  SPEAKER_01: Too much analysis, too many analysis.
• 1:09:34
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, maybe if I do this, maybe if I do that.
• 1:09:36
  SPEAKER_03: But the person who is slightly dumb is like, let's go.
• 1:09:38
  SPEAKER_01: Stay hungry, stay foolish, even if you think you are wise, stay hungry, stay foolish.
• 1:09:42
  SPEAKER_01: And staying hungry is on the fact that don't it's the contentment is being preached sometimes, yeah.
• 1:09:50
  SPEAKER_03: But I would say that stay hungry, and I think in Africa, especially, yeah, we are trained to be oh, yes, be humble, don't push too hard.
• 1:10:00
  SPEAKER_03: You know, we're not very good at sales in Africa because pushing things on people feels like a button.
• 1:10:05
  SPEAKER_03: Let me let me tell you my own story, right?
• 1:10:08
  SPEAKER_03: So I felt some way as I've started this journey with this podcast, and I'm on a new channel and everything.
• 1:10:14
  SPEAKER_03: I felt weird about coming to City and tell people, oh, subscribe, oh, subscribe.
• 1:10:19
  SPEAKER_03: You get it's like, oh, I'm worrying them if they want to subscribe, they should subscribe.
• 1:10:24
  SPEAKER_03: And then I'm watching Diary of a CEO who has 12 million subscribers.
• 1:10:29
  SPEAKER_03: Then he breaks his interview and tells people, please subscribe.
• 1:10:33
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm like, Who am I with thousands?
• 1:10:36
  SPEAKER_03: This man has 12 million and he's begging for some please subscribe, subscribe.
• 1:10:40
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, subscribe.
• 1:10:41
  SPEAKER_01: So stay handy.
• 1:10:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, one last example.
• 1:10:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, one last man I mentioned, Mr.
• 1:10:45
  SPEAKER_01: Richard Niamakwe, has that does uh has deals in Ghana.
• 1:10:49
  SPEAKER_01: He didn't say he just wants to be in Ghana, he does the same thing in Tanzania, thank you, alone, Nigeria, uh which other country, Liberia, and the last conversation we had, he was even thinking of India and me.
• 1:11:07
  SPEAKER_01: You want me to stay quiet or stay satisfied?
• 1:11:11
  SPEAKER_01: No, there's more room, the world is too big.
• 1:11:13
  SPEAKER_01: You are just occupying Accra, Ghana.
• 1:11:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, if you check the map of the world, you realize that we have a long way to go.
• 1:11:21
  SPEAKER_01: So, yes, to those visionaries out there who really want to move, I would say stay hungry, stay foolish, and never have an arrival mentality.
• 1:11:32
  SPEAKER_01: Because that could be very deadly to their growth.
• 1:11:34
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I love that.
• 1:11:36
  SPEAKER_03: Chala Chris, thank you, thank you, thank you so much.
• 1:11:39
  SPEAKER_03: This has been an awesome interview.
• 1:11:42
  SPEAKER_00: You're welcome, and thanks for the platform.
• 1:11:44
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, thanks to the entire team.
• 1:11:45
  SPEAKER_00: You guys are doing an amazing job.
• 1:11:47
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, team masterminds.
• 1:11:49
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, please, if you finish watching this episode and you are not motivated to make something great of your life, then you know you have a personal problem.
• 1:11:56
  SPEAKER_03: Whatever you are doing right now, whatever idea you have, wake up, take action.
• 1:12:02
  SPEAKER_03: This man in seven years has gone from running away from people who are chasing him to being the one to sponsor people's lives.
• 1:12:10
  SPEAKER_03: Stay hungry, stay foolish, and be a mastermind.
• 1:12:16
  SPEAKER_03: Thanks for watching this episode.
• 1:12:18
  SPEAKER_03: The fact that you stayed all the way through to the end tells me that you're not only curious, but you have the discipline to see what you do all the way through to the end.
• 1:12:27
  SPEAKER_03: Now, let's build a community of thinkers who are ready to become the best version of themselves.
• 1:12:34
  SPEAKER_03: So, subscribe to the channel and the mindset that you will develop and grow every day to become a true mastermind.