Segment:- Business Secrets: I’d Bet on Service and Sales Before Capital.

What if wealth doesn’t “arrive early” and instead compounds late—after years of risk, clean execution, and unglamorous service? That’s the premise we test as we talk through bold bets, the patience to endure cycles, and the real moment when money starts working for you instead of the other way around.

We dig into the anatomy of risk: how one audacious salt venture challenged a market no one had cracked, why 99% of voices will tell you not to try, and how the line between “biggest mistake” and “making history” often runs straight through purpose. From there, we step back to the system level. Indigenous ownership in sectors like telecoms, mining, construction, and retail remains thin; without clear, fair policy and consistent regulation, local founders can’t scale into national assets. Government doesn’t need to hand out cash—it needs to build guardrails, enforce standards, and create predictable rules that attract capital and reward execution.

For builders looking for practical plays, we map capital-light paths in the service economy. Logistics remains a powerful entry point, from parcel delivery to last-mile orchestration, where reliability beats deep pockets. We also spotlight trading staples like maize—where price spreads, timing, and knowledge can outrun capital—and a simple, overlooked model for starting with no money: sell value as a broker. Source demand, find suppliers, add a transparent margin, and deliver with integrity. Along the way, we share hard-won lessons on insurance, time discipline, and choosing your inner circle so your name remains your best asset.

If you’re weighing when to let money work for you, how much risk to take, or which sector to enter next, this conversation offers a grounded playbook: be fearless but principled, serve first, and aim to build more than a balance sheet—build capacity the country can stand on. If this resonates, follow the show, share it with a friend who’s building, and leave a review to help more people find conversations that move them forward.

Chapters

• 0:00 When Money Starts Working
• 0:48 Risk Appetite and Bold Bets
• 2:45 Building National Assets
• 4:40 Integrity, Focus, and Resilience
• 5:46 If I Were 20 Again
• 6:48 Service Sectors with Upside
• 8:05 Start Without Money: Sell Value

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

And then the last level? You have to let your money work for you. Your money must work for you.

SPEAKER_01: 0:05

At which level? Let's say you start off at 17, hustling. At which level, if everything works out, which age do you think it's good to start letting money work for us? It varies.

SPEAKER_00: 0:18

You know, in our continent, we don't become rich very early. You know? We don't become rich very early. Why? It's hard. And we don't have access to so many things. You know, it's hard. We don't have access to so many things. There's no real defined way of having steps to Christ. Like having those steps up. It's you you go, you fall, you you rise, you clean yourself, you move in there. The odds are always against you. So we don't become rich that early. So you're looking at your late 50s from 48 into your 50s, 60s, that is where your money can start or will start working for you. If you are lucky and it hit you at your doorsteps, because you see, you have it have to be embedded in you some level of risk, right? If you have that rich element in you, it could be good, it could be bad. If you are satisfied with the little that you have, fine. Your money can work for you. But if you get to that level where your appetite for risk, like I woke up one day and said I want to do salt, that's that's that's a huge appetite for risk, you know. So it depends on how you your appetite. Then at the level, you know, look, I have a couple of million dollars that it works for me. You're a very fearless man.

SPEAKER_01: 1:49

Because even that salt project, yeah, I was just looking at it and I I watched a video from Maya and watched several interviews that we did. I'm just doing this man says nobody had tried and succeeded. Yeah, but he did it. Yeah, it's that we challenges, but yet. If a gun was to put to your face right now, yeah, on that land, how would you feel inside?

SPEAKER_00: 2:10

Well, I have done something. I mean, you have, you see, whatever you're gonna do in life, 99% of the people will say don't do it. Yeah, it's risky, it's dangerous, right? Listen to them, it's okay, right? If you are able to do it, or if you are not able to do it, it's either you are making the greatest mistakes of your life, or you are making history. A history that changes people's lives. And whatever step you take is not your steps. It's not for you alone. Certain businesses you do in a country like Ghana is go beyond just you. So you you you get to a level, you become a national asset. A national asset like you change in your country.

SPEAKER_01: 2:58

Aliko Dangoti has done it. Yeah. Mike I didn't, and two other people, Femi and Otidola. And I have had conversations and have said that a small country like Ghana, for us to have a lot of billionaires like the way Nigerians have, we need government support.

SPEAKER_00: 3:15

Do you agree? Well, I agree. I mean, government is the biggest stakeholder in whatever business we do. It is very, very important. And you see, businessmen, all we need is regulations and the policies, the right policies, framework. You can't, government can give you money. You'll say we know how to raise our money no matter how difficult it is, we know how to raise our money. But we need a right business environment to succeed. We come from a country where we don't own anything. If you go to the telecom sector, it's owned by British and South African. If you go to the mining sector, it's owned by South Africans and Australians. You go to the construction sector, it's owned by Chinese and Italians, not the Turkish. If you go to manufacturing in Ghana, it's owned by Indians and Lebanese. If you go to retail, even retail, it's owned by the Malcolm, the Indians, the policies, the Liban. It's okay. But why do we stand as an indigenous businessman?

SPEAKER_01: 4:22

And for me, I think if there's a deliberate action from government to support certain entrepreneurs to get on the Forbes list as billionaires from Ghana, it also makes the country look attractive to foreign investors. Well, we have to understand that as a country, and we have to be intentional about that. But then the problem is that when I get a contract, people will be sitting there saying that I was favored to get a contract. Because they don't understand that at a level, yeah, those contracts are needed to be able to claim the position of entrepreneurship in the country and allow foreign investors to also bring money into the country.

SPEAKER_00: 4:57

Well, that is that is the country we live in. But that shouldn't discourage anybody. Don't forget that Ozeana was sung for Jesus Christ. The same people who sang the Ozeana, less than 24 hours is a crucified.

SPEAKER_01: 5:12

How do you navigate that though? You yourself, how do you navigate? You just don't.

SPEAKER_00: 5:16

You see, you have to be a bit resilient. You have to be what do you call favor? Ghana is our country. We we have nowhere to go. You have to be focused as a businessman. You have to, the most important thing you do as a businessman is your integrity. Work with a high level of integrity. Be very purposeful about that. Be honest to your dealings. We rise and fall. We can rise and fall. We can give and take, but you have to be focused. You have to fight on.

unknown: 5:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 5:45

You are 20 years old again. Yeah. And you're about to start life. What decisions would you make?

SPEAKER_00: 5:50

Well, I have to check my time very carefully. I have to check my circles of friends. I have to be able to be more disciplined for what I have seen. And I have to be able to see right from wrong. It's okay to make mistakes. But at this level, 20-year-old, I wouldn't want to repeat some of them.

SPEAKER_01: 6:12

What's one mistake you can remember in your years of doing business that we can learn from?

SPEAKER_00: 6:16

One of them is what I told you. I mean, not ensuring my whole listening it wiped off. We have to be able to have that level of security. I've been millions because of, let's say, 10,000.

SPEAKER_01: 6:32

This path that you've chosen to become who you are, would you have chosen the same path? I will never change for any other path. I will never change. You understand Ghana very much, more than a lot of young Ghanaians, and especially people with you from the diaspora. If I asked you today to give me five businesses that you think I can do today, or anybody else watching us can do it today, what would it be?

SPEAKER_00: 6:56

I would divide the business into two. Okay. Right. The service industry from the early 90s speaked up. The service industry. I would want young people to also look into the service industry.

SPEAKER_01: 7:12

What sort of services are we talking about?

SPEAKER_00: 7:14

If you look at logistics, for instance, it's service. It's totally service. Some of my business, you look at it, they're totally service.

SPEAKER_01: 7:23

What's the lowest scale of logistics that a young person can do? Which say 20,000 CDs? Package. Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 7:29

You can do package. You can also uh help help the bigger wholesalers or the shops for deliveries. Don't forget that the richest company in the world, one of the richest companies, is into logistics. It's a logistic company. Amazon. Amazon is basically a logistic company. What other service can you think of? I on top of my head, you can start from buying a selling. You can go into maize. I was there before, and that business would never collapse. It would never die. Just that young people are not taking it seriously. What is the bug of maize on the markets today?

SPEAKER_01: 8:07

I have no idea.

SPEAKER_00: 8:08

I think that was 600.

SPEAKER_01: 8:10

Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 8:10

Is it 600 or 700? I'm not so sure. I'm not sure. And in the Interlands, when you get to a crowd, the prices double. And the other businesses, too, you can start without money.

SPEAKER_01: 8:21

Okay, talk to me. What business can I do without money? This is such a big question. I'm sure you've been asked before. It's such a big question.

SPEAKER_00: 8:28

You can start without money, see. But you have to be honest.

SPEAKER_01: 8:32

All right.

SPEAKER_00: 8:32

See, my only problem in this day, many of the younger young guys now, they don't want to serve. There's a lot of honor in service. Look around you. There's a lot of buildings going on around you. Where do you think they buy their produce from? They're contractors all around the place. Can you tell me that a hungry boy or a hungry girl can't sell a square meter of towers to a contractor, a good salesperson, without money? You can.

unknown: 9:02

You can.

SPEAKER_00: 9:03

I think you heard it.

SPEAKER_01: 9:05

Essentially, build value in sales, sales and marketing. Find the products you want to sell, and then look for a supplier in the market. You just go because there's no company in the market that will reject a sale. That's it. And then just put yours on it. That's it. That's it. If you repeat that so many times, that's casual. Go fly. Serious casual. Because this question keeps coming. How do I set a business without money? Maybe now I'm beginning to get it that the people that ask the question are not willing to develop themselves as well. Yes, yes, yes. Yeah. Any more business that I can do?

SPEAKER_00: 9:38

Connected Minds Podcast.