The second mountain

As the new year begins, I celebrate a significant milestone birthday. I took some time and consider what I will do with the 2nd half of my life and see if I have been responding adequately to the things that trouble and unsettle me. I have been working full time on and off for a better part of the past 22 years. In those years, I had multiple lives as a marketer, kitchen designer, videographer, and missionary. I am grateful for the experiences I have had and the skills I gained that have served me so well and continue to add value to all that I do every day. The same skills that have made me so good at seeing monumental shifts in the world have made me rethink my place in the world.

Poverty has a way of dehumanising perpetrators and victims; it has a way of turning societies upside down. In the last year, my first-hand experience of some lives of the millions of people in the generations lost to poverty has cut deep. I have been even more convinced that the biggest and most important issue in my lifetime is poverty in Africa. Frantz Fanon states, “Each generation must, out of relative obscurity, discover its mission, fulfil it or betray it.” I am blessed with the opportunity to reflect on these things to look at issues from a different point of view. Today, Africa faces a poly-crisis in feeding and employing a growing population. Africa’s resource- and agriculture-based economies must radically transform to respond to the complex mix of demographic boom and climate change. The twin challenges need us to reconsider how Africa can continue to grow and prosper.

In 2021, I went to do my Masters in Strategy and Innovation at Maynooth University because I had a hypothesis about Africa and the role that entrepreneurship can play in addressing the poly crisis that is threatening to speed up poverty on the continent. My view was that strategy and innovation could help create radically better businesses on the continent that would support Africa’s economic development. When I completed my master’s thesis, three things became apparent: (1) economic prosperity without sustainability is an illusion, (2) entrepreneurship on the continent needs an enabling ecosystem for productive entrepreneurship, and (3) we need to shape markets to give entrepreneurs the opportunity to affect economic development. These lessons have reshaped my beliefs on how to best to reduce poverty on the African continent and the role that I wish to play in creating a more prosperous future for all.

Poverty on the African continent is a complex problem, with no silver bullets that can fix it. I believe that the following can have an impact on this problem: (1) entrepreneurship is the key to African prosperity; (2) Africa needs to have sustainable prosperity that is not resource extractive; (3) the government’s mission should be to deliver a stable and conducive platform for prosperity; and (4) the essential ingredient in Africa’s prosperity is the transformation of its food systems. These beliefs are at the core of the lessons, connections, and experiences I am looking for in 2024. Innovative, purpose-driven, market-creating entrepreneurship can change the future of Africa. The African model of prosperity needs to differ from existing models. This new model of prosperity must be fairer and more sustainable. There is no more significant challenge in this lifetime than creating a fair and sustainable model of prosperity.

If you have made this far, I have an ask. In 2024, I am looking to increase my understanding of the following areas; entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial ecosystems, futures thinking, missions, policy analysis, policy development, prosperity, development studies food systems and sustainability. I am looking for connections, learning opportunities and experiences that help me understand these areas deeper. If you have people I should follow or connect with, please make an introduction. If there are interesting conferences and experiences that align with these, please invite me, tag me or send me a message. Finally, I want to say thank you to every voice that has encouraged, challenged, and shaped me. There are so many things I have left out in this note regarding my intentions and career, but I am excited to be doing amazing work at Microsoft and I am focused on translating my lessons to make an impact in 2024. It’s an exciting year and I am here for it.