My purpose for this post is to inspire some entrepreneur out there. I met an entrepreneur and shared my story with him, but with a focus that he should concentrate on getting himself out of the hole, focus on the future.
You can cry about today’s challenge but your cry would not change the situation, what would change the situation is you remaining focused on work, restrategize, rebrand, get your socks up!
My story
The past 2 years has been a period of pain and loses for me and my family.
From 2017 we started having some challenges with our businesses and ministry, we tried pulling ourselves out and the more we pushed the more we got sunk.
The life of an entrepreneur in our side of the world is no joke, the support system is virtually non-existent and it seems people are waiting to laugh at you.
We had a growing ministry, got about 15 missionaries to work with us for 3 months, after the mission work, we lost everyone, I had only my family left.
I eventually lost all my staff at The African Entrepreneurship Academy (AEA) in mid-2018.
I was left alone to rebuild and start from zero. Then came the era of crypto currency, the entrepreneur in me jumped at it, initial gains were good until the whole financial sector clean up started.
We lost everything, I also started a department that searched for investment platforms where our entrepreneurs can raise funds for their ventures.
We helped some of my entrepreneurs to invest on these platforms after the shut-down of most of these platforms, we had to refund these monies to them and some we are still working on and some got us to the court.
I also ventured into Kwese as a dealer in 2017, invested thousands of cedis and got our hands burnt (I would share my experience with Kwese later).
We could not pay salaries and got into soo much debt.
In the early part of this year we lost our home, corporate office and church hall (that is another story). My son stopped schooling for about a year and half.
I reached out to a number of friends and pastor colleagues Hmmm, some helped and some made me shed a tear.
During this period my understanding of Christianity got deeper, I became less religious and focused on Papa God.
From March to around July we were virtually homeless, we moved homes about twice in a month, finally we got an uncompleted building, I moved in and had my family with my in-laws for a while until the house was put in shape.
My school had to move to another facility, got a partner to ensure we can remain in operations.
I kept pushing, was constantly at work, still smiling, the thought of stopping or quitting never crossed my mind, my focus was getting out of this hole and keep pushing, keep running.
Now I have a renewed strength and joy.
The path of an entrepreneur in Africa or Ghana is a difficult one. if you are out there, just know you are not alone. Keep pushing, keep running. Africa is our Land and we have to build it.
Least I forget, A Special invite to our 11th Graduation ceremony and the relaunch of the AEA brand. This year, despite the challenges, we would do exploits.
Author: Wilson Senya (Ghanaian Entrepreneur)
