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. Youths of today aspire to be like me but they want to achieve it overnight. It’s not going to work. To build a successful business, you must start small and dream big. In the journey of entrepreneurship, tenacity of purpose is supreme.

Manufacture, don't just trade. There is money in manufacturing even though it is capital intensive. To achieve a big breakthrough, I had to start manufacturing the same product I was trading on; which is commodities.

Don't kill the competition. Competition is healthy for businesses. It keeps you the entrepreneur on your toes.

You could easily tell that hardwork and perseverance go hand in hand with patience. We often hear people say patience is worth it, yet we don't practice it. I did and look how well it worked out for me.

Nigeria is one of the best-kept secrets.

To build a successful business, you must start small and dream big.

I enjoy myself a lot but I derive more joy in working. I believe in hard work and one of my business success secrets is hard work. It's hard to see a youth that will go to bed by 2am and wake up by 5am. I don't rest until I achieve something.