As Aliko Dangote turns 60 on
April 10, 2017, it is
appropriate to reflect on some
of the thoughts of Africa's
richest man who has
continued to inspire a generation of young
entrepreneurs. Aliko Dangote is Nigeria's richest
man Dangote is ranked by Forbes
magazine as the 67th richest
person in the world and the
richest in Africa. Although in 2017, he dropped out of the top
100 richest people in the world,
yet he is still in the top 105. Below are some of his quotes
that should inspire you: 1. "To succeed in business, you must build a brand and
never destroy it. One
competitive advantage I had
when I ventured into
manufacturing was my brand
“Dangote,” which I diligently built in the course of my
trading commodities." 2. “You could easily tell that hard work 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.” 3 ."After my death, I want to be remembered as Africa's
greatest industrialist." 4. “Endeavor to work as hard as possible to attain a new
aim with each day that comes
by. Don't go." 5. "Every morning when I wake up, I make up my mind
to solve as many problems,
before retiring home." 6. “Don't kill the competition. Competition is healthy for
businesses. It keeps you the
entrepreneur on your toes." READ ALSO: Buhari hails Dangote at 60, speaks of his
importance to Nigeria 7. "To build a successful business, you must start
small and dream big." 8. “When you have made it in life, you must give back to
those who made you.” 9. “Let me tell you this and I want to really emphasize
it...nothing is going to help
Nigeria like Nigerians bringing
back their money. If you give
me $5 billion today, I will
invest everything here in Nigeria. Let us put our heads
together and work.” 10. “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.” 11. “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.” READ ALSO: Dangote's house in Banana island 12. "Africa's risks are mainly perceived and not real.
Unfortunately for us in Africa
we are not really very good at
telling our own story. But
things are changing and
people are beginning to understand that things are
going very, very well." 13. “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. 14. "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."