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Sangu Delle shares thoughts on leadership, failure and learning at Ashesi Business Week

“During the Harvard-Yale game last week, a Harvard alum asked me what I think would have happened to me if I had not studied at Harvard. I told him my life would probably have been the same because I would have come to Ashesi.” With these opening lines, Sangu Delle started his address to the Ashesi Community on the role young leaders can play in creating change across Africa.

Currently an MBA candidate at the Harvard Business School, Delle, 27, is co-founder of Golden Palm Investments, a holding company that invests in early stage venture and growth financing across Africa. His work spans across real estate, healthcare, agribusiness and technology and was named by Forbes as one of Africa’s 30 Most Promising Young Entrepreneurs in 2014.

Speaking as part of the Ashesi Business Club’s “Business Week”, he shared his experiences as an entrepreneur and clean water rights activist, highlighting the importance of failure as a tool for young people to learn and succeed.

“The path to success is not a straight linear path,” Delle explained. “It’s a path that is wrought with a lot of ups and downs, with a lot of barriers, and that is why I think it is important to talk about the role of failure in success.”

As a business leader, Delle mentioned that he has met various successes in business. His initial venture into corn farming in the Afram Plains for example, was a remarkable success, but he met business failure for the first time when he went into aquaculture. After strong preparation, he went into tilapia fish farming, sourcing feed from Taiwan and investing heavily in the implementation of fish farms. When his fish finally arrived in the market, it was a spectacular embarrassment; market women remarked that his fish were so small they were nicknamed “schoolboys”. The returns on the business did not even cover the price of fuel back to the farms.

For Mr. Delle this was a lesson on humility, better assessment processes and being strategic with scaling a business. He cautioned students that they always had to be prepared to handle failure, especially when things seem to be going incredibly well. He also spoke on the importance of youth responsibility, and encouraged students to rise to the occasion, and maintain a philosophy of hard work as the best path to success.

“Pursue excellence, discipline and hard work, and always measure your work with global standards,” he said. “Before you pray at night, ask yourself ‘what have I accomplished today?’ If the answer doesn’t satisfy you, don’t sleep,” he concluded.

“I was deeply inspired,” said Makani Mweembe ’16 after the address. “Hearing Mr. Delle speak made me realize there were no limits to my achievements. I took the speech as a call to action to re-think my daily schedule, time and commitments.”

“Sangu Delle’s speech was remarkable,” Beryl Kwapong ’18 added. “I felt his passion as he spoke about Ghana, and this moved me because I’m also extremely passionate about Ghana. We really need more committed people who are selfless and can inspire change.”

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