Mentor Wisdom: "I built a conglomerate and emerged the richest black man in the world in 2008, but it didn't happen overnight. It took me 30 years to get to where I am today." - Aliko Dangote
Mentor Lesson: The 30-Year Overnight Success
I love stories about "overnight successes."
Because they're all lies.
Take Aliko Dangote. He became Africa's richest man "overnight." It only took him 30 years.
He built a conglomerate worth billions. But he's brutally honest about the timeline: "It took me 30 years to get to where I am today."
Yet every day I see entrepreneurs who want his results in 30 days. Maybe 30 weeks if they're being "realistic."
Here's what cracks me up about this...
Everyone wants the penthouse view. Nobody wants to climb the stairs.
Dangote started small. Really small. He didn't begin with billions in his bank account. He started with what he had and built piece by piece.
The vision was always massive. But the execution was methodical as heck.
Most people get this backwards. They want the outcome without the timeline. They see the Instagram highlight reel and think that's the whole story.
Dangote calls it "tenacity of purpose." I call it "not being a quitter when things get boring."
Because that's what building something real looks like. It's boring. It's repetitive. It's slow.
But here's the thing nobody tells you...
Thirty years from now you'll either be glad you started today. Or you'll be starting over again because you kept looking for shortcuts.
Every billion-dollar empire started as someone's random Tuesday idea. Every overnight success took decades of work nobody saw.
Your job isn't to get rich quick. Your job is to start small and outlast everyone else who quits when Netflix looks more appealing than work.
As promised, wisdom in under a minute.
30 years sounds about right,
-Chris
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