Of Ambition and Grind

What if you had access to the man behind $30 million deals in Africa? For 10 years, I did. His name is Mr. Dodzi. In 2010, I asked Mr. Dodzi to coach me and he said yes.

Mr. Dodzi was 23 years old when he built his company in Accra, Ghana. Three years later, money became his native tongue in a time when a loaf of bread was worth more than gold and banku equaled life. If money was the god of his time, he’d be his biggest prophet.

At 26, in 1976, he was a multimillionaire while economic storms broke West Africa’s toughest business tycoons. While others reacted to recessions, he used graphs and econometric models to prophesy where capital would move.

Mr. Dodzi came from a place where humble prosperity seemed just out of reach. He is not a member of the Lucky Sperm Club. Born in a mud hut with no shoes, water, or power, Mr. Dodzi lost his father at 9.

OF AMBITION AND GRIND is my 10 years account of being his student. In Of Ambition and Grind, think Robert Kiyosaki’s RICH DAD POOR DAD meets the reality of building in Africa. This book reveals the tactics and mentality of a secretive man who moves capital most entrepreneurs never see. While recessions destroyed West Africa’s biggest names, his empire didn’t shake. He was simply ahead of his time, or the times were behind him.

This book is for entrepreneurs building in volatile economies like Africa who need battle-tested playbooks, not motivational quotes. Readers seeking authentic stories that reflect their realities of building in Africa when you have no map, no generational wealth, and no permission. It’s part memoir, part battle manual – written in the fire of building in Africa. This is a story of ambition as responsibility and grind as faith.

The hardest lesson wasn’t the work. It was the waiting. The hardest question wasn’t “how.” It was “why should anyone join you, stay with you, bet on you?” I’m telling this story because I have no right to keep it to myself. It belongs to our collective memory. I want it to become part of someone else’s survival guide. The high tide of this book will lift many boats.

Of Ambition and Grind presents its lessons from an African perspective while maintaining universal relevance for readers worldwide. This is a book on African capital, mentorship, and survival told by someone who built in it. This story combines a true entrepreneurial page-turner with a strong mentor-mentee saga. I cover broad ground with enough specificity and hard evidence to reassure readers they're in safe hands.

My pride rose near flood level when I became friends with Mr. Dodzi's fire-eating daughter, Enya, who awakened feelings I couldn’t figure out.