8 Solid Business Lessons From Dangote

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While starting or running your business, you can learn and implement actionable business lessons from Dangote.

Dangote, as known and taught by Wikipedia, is a Nigerian businessman, investor, and owner of the Dangote Group, which has a steady interest in commodities in Nigeria and other African Countries.

As at the writing of this post, Forbes recorded Dangote’s net worth as $9 billion; making him the richest man on the African continent. Dangote was born to the family of rich Mr and Mrs Mohammed Dangote (late).

He was able to grow his net worth from $2.1 billion (2010) to $9 billion (2019).

Below are 8 Actionable Business Lessons From Dangote.

1. Ambition Matters

What drives you to drag your effort to the greener pasture is your ambition. Who do you want to become? What do you want to be recognized for? With whom would you like to spend your life? These questions are the driving mechanisms that will help you to stay focused in the business world.

“If you don’t have ambition, you shouldn’t be alive”
__ Dangote

Dangote believes in ambition, as the only reason that makes you a living legend. Without ambition, no magic will happen.

2. Hire Smarter Team

You can’t do it alone – you need people around you; not only people but great ones, who are ready to foster their spirit of effort in favour of your business and investment.

“I always make sure I hire people smarter than me”
__ Dangote

Dangote believes in working with teams, but he loves working with those that know the length and the breadth of business-flow. He’s been able to move his business towards the greater height, by hiring workers, who he thinks, are better than he does.

3. Hard Work Pays

No work, no pay. If you want to build a business that will have the ability to foot your crazy bills, you must start by putting-in the highest effort of yours.

“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.”
__Dangote

If Dangote, a born rich man, could buckle his belt to achieve the greatest of his asset, who are you (the starter) to fold your arms and expect the fallacy to rain money to your bank account?

4. Build Legacy

History has recorded fallen businesses, which were flourishing at their best when the founders were alive but got crashed after the demise of their inventors. These businesses were said to have gone out of existence due to the lack of founders’ legacy.

“After my death, I want to be remembered as Africa’s greatest industrialist.”
__ Dangote

Dangote believes that the best thing that can be left behind by a businessman is a good reputation.

5. Don’t Celebrate Too Early

Retirement is as deadly as it’s awesome. Business is very good at crashing down when there is no one to push its truck, and only you (the owner) can do it the way you wish. Strive to expand – don’t celebrate too early.

“Every morning when I wake up, I make up my mind to solve as many problems, before retiring home.”
__ Dangote

Successful business icons like Dangote, love to establish the fact that their business has the credibility to sustain on its own before thinking of long-term relaxation. They think of expansion and creativity in everything they indulge in.

6. Understand Your Business

An unknown business is as delicate as an angry river, which cannot be jumped into, with no tailored caution. Entrepreneurs (successful ones) don’t just jump into businesses they have no knowledge about.

“The most dangerous thing for an entrepreneur to do is to actually go into a business that he does not understand fully.”
__ Dangote

The rich man, Dangote, sees the act of jumping into strange business, as the most dangerous thing for an entrepreneur. It’s quite compelling for you to know the ins and outs of the business you want to invest in.

7. Be Competitive

One of the greatest traits of an entrepreneur is the ‘competitive spirit’. The market is full of competition, and it’s compelling to have the strength that will enable you to move your business to a meaningful point on the race.

“Don’t kill the competition. Competition is healthy for businesses. It keeps you the entrepreneur on your toes.”
__ Dangote

Dangote sees competition as the awakening tool that triggers the spirit of an entrepreneur into doing what matters – to scale a business beyond normal reach.

8. Believe It’s Possible

If you don’t believe in yourself, no one will. To believe in yourself is to have self-confidence in the life of your business.

“If people look inward, they would see the opportunities for greatness.”
__ Dangote

Being an optimist is great for every startup, as it gives you a clear vision to see the opportunity in your endeavour.

Following The Shared 8 Business Lessons From Dangote

It’s imperative to have the ability to learn from successful and failed entrepreneurs. Hence, we’ve compiled these lessons from the top African business icon (Aliko Dangote) to give you a strong idea on the mindset of successful entrepreneurs.