About the year 2014 or so, I stumbled on an article in a publication that the author said IPMC for example, made $20 Million revenue (or is it profit) annually. But in that same story, I read that the CEO of IPMC came to Ghana broke some 18-20 years ago when he lost everything he had to the war in Liberia where he run night clubs. He explored Nigeria and Ghana and finally settled in Ghana. Today look what IPMC has become.
I know a very broke black American who came to Ghana just 2 years ago, infact I was the one who built his Software for his very small business. Today his business is in Millions! What do these foreigners see here that Ghanaians don’t see themselves?
I met him last week and I was blown away, I asked him what happened and how did he blow this big in just 2 years in an economy like Ghana? His answer kept me glued to the seats as I grappled with my startled mind. I hurriedly tried to re-align my disarrayed thoughts to make a comprehension of his unconventional and brutal approach to a supposedly ailing economy that we have perceived so for so long.
Before I tell you what he shared with me, take a look at this rhetoric:
Why are foreigners trooping in to Ghana in droves? What is it that we have here that Nigerians, Ivorians (yes, they are here), Lebanese, Togolese, Indians etc are all coming into Ghana to mine which we don’t see?
Do you know that this is the same way Ghanaians also travel to other countries and make it big there? And the citizens of those countries also ask the same question why is it that foreigners come to their country and make it big? For example, foreigners who journey to Nigeria ends up building great businesses there and employ the same Nigerians to work, then launder the millions of dollars back to their home country.
There is something missing in this whole puzzle; something happens to a man when he travels! A Ghanaian who travels to Rwanda will see more opportunities than a typical Rwandan! He sees things differently and identifies opportunities at the speed of light, do you know why? He hasn’t been yet negatively informed enough by the native citizens to blindfold his eyes and conform his thinking to the darkness and gloom that others have been used to. He came with his own perspective, he hasn’t formed THEIR POPULAR PERSPECTIVE! Could this be why in the Holy Writ God told Abraham to get out of his country to a land he will show him? Couldn’t God just do what he had to do for Abraham where he already was?
Take a look at this paradox, a man with MBA from University of Texas, left his lucrative banking job in London and landed in Kotoka, he wasn’t coming just for a visit, he came for good to start selling pie and other pastries – Barimah Osei Mensah of Adinkra Pastries!
Ask yourself a question, why are people moving to an economy that you and I have concluded is in a mess? Is there anything we are missing?
Back to the black American’s answer: he said to me, “…when people travel for a supposedly greener pasture, they leave with a goal, an ambition, a vision, they travel with the objective to go and make it. Deciding to pack your bags and journey elsewhere is a tremendous act of faith, and that drive opens a new doorway to endless opportunities, people work harder, hussle harder, complain less and everyday they wake up with the enthusiasm that they have a task ahead to accomplish and return home with success!”
Aha. This is not exactly so for native citizens who has been conditioned by media and all the toxic information readily available. It is not that the hardship and economic challenges are untrue, they can be bare facts which can be scientifically proven, but the problem is, people dwell on it for so long till all the possibilities diminish before their eyes and they end up latching to despair and live every moment exasperated.
No matter what the economy looks like to you, it is your perspective even if it is fact, because facts are relative to your positioning, its either half full or half empty – both are correct!
Run a scan on your mind regularly and check your perspective, there is wealth in every economy, convince yourself that you refuse to be conditioned by pessimistic voices and default demoralizing environmental prevailing conditions, and that no matter what the news is, you will do well and be a beacon of hope to many lives who have lost hope that success is possible for them in the country there have been born into.
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Godwin Martey is the CEO of Websoft Solutions LLC, (www.websoftghana.com) an I.T Company that is specialized in Software Development and Website Design.