True North Leadership

30/08/2022

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07/08/2022

It will be unfortunate for one to wake up early queue in long line because even 700 people is not small number in polling station then your vote is classified as spoilt. First make sure your ballot papers are stamped for validity purposes, then after getting the six ballot papers for various position up for grab make sure you mark your ballot papers appropriately within the box you can use √ or x making sure your mark doesn't go overboard and in case you make mistake you have a right to ask for another ballot paper. Please avoid writing your candidates name as there is absolutely no need to turn up in large number to vote for your vote to end up as rejected vote. Make sure you cast your ballot papers in the right ballot boxes putting to consideration stray ballots will also be counted as spoilt. Lastly when your done be your brothers keeper its your responsibility to go help mobilise your neighbours too to come out to vote.

16/09/2018

Enlightened Leadership. Talk by Master Del Pe in Rotary club of Makati, Rotary Club of Forbes Park

28/04/2018

There are risks and costs to a program of action. But they are far less than the long- range risks and costs of comfortable inaction. — John F. Kennedy

18/11/2017

Congratulations to the young entrepreneurs who are being the change that we want to see!
"BeInspired "Entrepreur "SefLeadership

(Part 1).
__What gives me sleepless nights.

Congratulations to the 12 finalists I announced a few days ago at the Abuja Town Hall. At win.kwese.com you'll see fellow entrepreneurs from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. There's another word for these 12 finalists... !

By now you know that the biggest crisis facing Africa is . I read a report recently which said we currently have over 300m young people in Africa of working age, who have no jobs. That figure is set to double by 2030, only 13 years from now!

How we deal with that problem will shape the future of Africa, if not the world, for the remainder of this century. The problem is so huge that many political leaders are just in denial about it. Most policymakers aren't sure how to tackle it. Progressive business leaders are worried.

President Obama once asked me what gives me sleepless nights. Without hesitation, I told him:

__“How do we create jobs in Africa?”

“I would like you to come to the White House one day, so we can discuss this issue. You are right to be thinking about it.”

I was privileged to spend time with him and discuss my ideas.

As an entrepreneur, to try to tackle this challenge, I'm using what is in “my hand.” I am not a politician or policymaker. All my life, I have started businesses, and grown businesses. I have always appreciated that this is the most assured way to generate wealth and create jobs.

__We can create jobs in Africa, through a revolutionary culture of entrepreneurship!

As a tech entrepreneur though, I'm also acutely aware that we are entering a “Fourth Industrial Revolution,” and I understand more than most that the technologies underpinning this new revolution require fewer and fewer people to carry out certain activities.

If you haven't already, take a look at this World Economic Forum 2017 report on the future of jobs and skills in Africa -- https://www.weforum.org/reports/the-future-of-jobs-and-skills-in-africa-preparing-the-region-for-the-fourth-industrial-revolution which says:

"With more than 60% of the population under the age of 25, sub-Saharan Africa is already the world's youngest region today -- and, by 2030, will be home to more than one-quarter of the world's under-25 population."

Crisis or opportunity? That is up to us. This is not an easy time to be trying to launch the greatest employment-creation revolution in history!

I was speaking to a well-meaning African policymaker the other day who spoke passionately about “a manufacturing revolution in his country, in order to create jobs.”

I thought to myself: “It may not be enough to create jobs, because manufacturing was principally a tool of the last industrial revolution.”

# Having a job really matters!

Not everyone can start their own business. We must help those who can start their own businesses, so they can employ others, but ultimately, we must face the huge challenge of creating employment through bold courageous policymaking, including improving and transforming our education systems to prepare our next generation for the jobs of the future (not jobs which soon will be extinct!)

I wish I could say to you, “Here's an African country that has got this right." I really wish I could! We are running out of time, so we must use the little time we have wisely.

I recently shared how Kofi Annan told me whilst we were traveling in Mali several years ago: “Look at all these young men milling around with nothing to do. Either they will have to cross the Sahara and Mediterranean Sea to look for work in Europe, or they will start listening to extremists, and come back to fight us.”

He was speaking prophetically, because both are happening with a vengeance!

When you take a look at the pitch videos of the Kwesé Inc at win.kwese.com, you will meet African in the making! (Each of our finalists was given only a few days to put together his or her pitch videos on their phones, and no equipment or resources to do so).

Now it's YOUR turn to put on your shark hat and vote for one man and one woman (you can vote for more than one of each). Just one question you might ask yourself: Whose venture will ?

We have no time to waste anymore.

To be continued. . .

11/11/2017

Dear all,

Africa 2.0 Foundation is currently working with President Macron's Advisory Council on Africa in an effort to redefine the future partnership and relationships between France and the continent through a consultative effort to reach out to African youth and Young leaders to express their views and suggestions on how the future partnership should unravel. Through this consultation, we are looking for creative and constructive ideas on how to make things work better going forward.

Please see questionnaire attached and kindly take the time to respond. Feel free to pass it on. Note that we expect CONSTRUCTIVE CONTRIBUTIONS from as many people as possible from our generation on the continent. So please respond to the questionnaire and pass it on to your various networks and whatsap groups. Thanks in advance. Your contribution is urgent please.

Kind Regards

M.K.T

Click on the links below for either french or english questionnaire.

French: http://bit.ly/2gbxaLA

English: http://bit.ly/2zqq5iS

Dans le cadre de sa mission, le Conseil Présidentiel pour l'Afrique mis en place par le Président Macron souhaite ouvrir une consultation auprès de la jeunesse africaine, afin de mieux répondre aux attentes sur le continent et de redéfinir le rôle que la France peut jouer.

22/10/2017

There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.
-Edith Wharton

" I have embraced Candle Leadership as I am seeking to spread the ideas of success that I have learned and continue to learn. I believe that my level of success will increase when others learn and utilize the ideas that I have developed".

01/09/2017

Keep your positive mind:-)

"Nothing turns on this" (Part 2)
__You can overcome adversity.

If you have just failed your exams, lost your job, or had a setback in your venture, I want you to declare: " . It will not change the outcome concerning my destiny." Then get back into it, and don't give up... Believe me, you are not alone.

Most of you know that in 2001, I set up a consortium to bid for one of Nigeria's first two mobile licenses. We had 22 investors, including ourselves. Each held a stake between 1-10%. This was a huge project and the license alone cost us US$285m. I ran the entire project and provided over 200 people to help set it up.

After we launched the network within the required six months, I had the great privilege of making Nigeria’s first GSM phone call (to the regulator) to say, “We’re live!”

It was meant to be the crowning achievement of everything I yearned to see -- so many Africans working together not just to build a network, but also help build a nation. Alas it was not to be.

After less than 12 months, our consortium had a major dispute, even though we had succeeded in setting up the country's first mobile network. Today is not the day to re-litigate that dispute. For now, just accept that I didn't agree with some of the shareholders, and they kicked me out of the business and changed the name of the company.

Not long after kicking us out, the majority of our partners decided to sell the business to a group from the Middle East. Although I offered them $1,5bn for their shares they refused. Under our agreement they were required to sell to me. (We call it the right of first refusal).

After failing to get an urgent hearing in Nigeria, we rushed to a court in the U.K. The judge there refused to entertain our request and referred us back to Nigeria! He went so far as to say we had no right to approach a British court: "This matter is for the Nigerian courts. You must go there!"

Our opponents were jubilant.

"See you in Nigeria," they chimed, "in 10 years!"

"A case like this could take 20 years in most African courts," said one of my lawyers quietly. "You should consider giving it up."

As we left the court I did not say a thing. I just got into a cab and went back to my hotel. There I locked myself in my room for several hours, and prayed.

Afterwards I said to my team: "Nothing turns on this. Let's go back to Nigeria. We shall win there, because the God I serve will give me justice anywhere on the face of this earth."

It took several years to get judges in Nigeria to begin reviewing our case, but eventually we won, in every court, before Nigerian judges. In the end, after 10+ years in court, an international tribunal comprising a majority of Nigerian judges ordered we be compensated for hundreds of millions of US dollars for the refusal to sell us the company in the first place. It was the highest financial settlement in African business history.

We were paid our money and we invested it in other areas of our business including Kwesé TV, which now boasts Nigeria as its biggest market.

Remember I said: ?

The battle in Nigeria, like the battle in Zimbabwe before it, is not the way I would have chosen for the best training for me as a business leader, but in the end, that is what it was. And as my Nigerian friends would loudly declare to me: "We thank God!"

What is happening in your life?

Can't find a job?
!

Someone treated you really badly today?
!

Bank turned down your loan application?
!

You can get up from whatever situation you find yourself in. You can overcome adversity. You can "speak your truth, even if your voice shakes"...

In the final part of this series I will tell you how the issue returned to the British courts. What happened this time will blow your socks off!

To be continued. . .

Image Credit: Shetzers Photography

28/02/2017

The eyes that see.
Are you busy with a political rally demanding government to create jobs,
Or are you busy nurturing your business, planting your seeds, improving your products?

A Kwesé Inc. Moment:
__First, start "seeing" like an entrepreneur!

The other day, I went to a restaurant in Johannesburg, South Africa. As I sat down to eat, some of the waiters came up to me and asked me for the usual "selfie." A while later, some of them came up again and said, "Mr Masiyiwa, we follow you on Facebook and we're always inspired by what you write. We would like to be entrepreneurs. What advice can you give us?"

I looked at them intently at first, then I asked one of them to get a piece of paper.

"I want you to write down these 10 questions, and see if you can answer them next time I pass through here."

1. How well is YOUR existing business doing?

2. How much money did you do yesterday?

3. What does it cost to run this business?

4. This restaurant you work for -- what would you do to make it more successful?

5. Have you suggested any of these things to the owner?

6. Which of these other restaurants (around you) is your most serious competitor?

7. How many customers come and ask for you personally?

8. Which waiter does the owner value the most?

9. How much do you think it cost to set up and run this business?

10. What do you do with you own money?

As I asked each of the questions, I studied their reactions. I was looking for the entrepreneur amongst them.

How would you react if I asked you these questions about the business where you work? If you work in a restaurant like these guys, can you say to me:

# "We get about 50 customers per day, and they spend about R200 each. That means we make about R10,000 per day."

# "Our costs are staff, rent, food, security..." (and so forth).

# "Customers have been going down because of the new guy next door. I think he has a better menu than we do..."

# "I saw some guys here the other day. I think they were from the bank. I think they gave us a loan..."

Do you actually know what's happening in the business you work for, or do you think, "It's none of my business; I'm just here to get my pay. I will think about those things when I start something on my own..."

When we meet, I want a business discussion with you. And it must show that you "see" as an entrepreneur, first and foremost. How long can you sustain a business discussion before you take refuge in politics or sport?

__But you said you want to be an entrepreneur, so let's talk!

On Kwesé Inc., there's a weekly show called "Restaurant Start-Up." I first saw it when I was flipping through the channels whilst I was in the US; I then asked my people to get it. I have watched many of their episodes, not because I'm interested in owning a restaurant, but because I'm interested in entrepreneurship.

To be honest with you, entrepreneurship is my passion; I would rather watch something like that, than listen to endless political talk shows.

What about you?

A while back, I saw a poster somewhere that said: "You are the books you read, the movies you watch, the music you listen to, the people you spend time with, the conversations you engage in. Choose wisely what you feed your mind."

Food for thought!

To be continued....