Episode Details

From three years of job rejections to building a distribution business on credit and integrity, and why the brutal truth about Ghana's job market is that it's a cartel where 90% of positions are filled internally before they're even posted, the young entrepreneur who grew up without a father but with a grandmother and auntie paying school fees while his shopkeeper mom provided breakfast money and pocket change, the university student who couldn't afford hostel accommodation so he slept in a chapel dormitory for three years sharing a room with three people just to complete his degree in business administration, the vacation visits to his grandmother's sister who was a distributor for three big FMCG companies in Ghana where he learned the business of moving consumer goods before she died in 2016, the realization that white collar jobs don't pay in Ghana when the job search turned into rejection after rejection and calls to aunties asking for help securing employment turned into "we'll get back to you" stories that never materialized, the inspiration from Mr. Simpi, the big money man he was named after who had his own business because every Simpi in Ghana didn't wait for someone else to make things happen for them, the decision to pull his own weight and work his own things out instead of waiting for family connections or government jobs that never come, the family business background that taught him how to brand products, how to sell products, how to identify suppliers and look for people to buy, the distribution knowledge gained from watching his grandmother's sister move goods worth hundreds of thousands of cedis proving that money in Ghana is in trade not in white collar office jobs, and why the ultimate truth is this: growing up in a family where people tried to work their own things out, where you're not provided with everything but you're expected to pull your own weight, where sleeping in a chapel dormitory for three years because hostel fees weren't available teaches you resilience, where watching market women buy goods worth 100,000 cedis and pay cash while university graduates sit home waiting for 800 cedi monthly salaries proves the system isn't giving way for the average youth to think beyond employment, creates the kind of young person who says "I actually need to work my own things" and builds a distribution business solving problems in Koforidua and Eastern Region because the Simpi name means you don't wait for someone, you create your own path.

In this raw episode of Konnected Minds, host Derrick Abaitey sits down with Kinsley Opoku Simpi, a young entrepreneur who dismantles the dangerous "wait for family connections to get you a job" mentality that keeps graduates stuck in three year job searches, revealing the exact moment when sleeping in a chapel dormatory for three years sharing a room with three people because hostel accommodation wasn't available taught him that comfort doesn't build character, when vacation visits to his grandmother's sister who distributed FMCG products for three big companies showed him that money is in trade not in white collar jobs, when calls to aunties asking for help securing employment turned into "we'll get back to you" promises that forced him to realize he needed to work his own things out just like every other Simpi in Ghana who built their own businesses instead of waiting for someone else.

Guest: Kinsley Opoku Simpi

Host: Derrick Abaitey