 Well, why is it that you hardly out there because I have never seen you anywhere? That's a tough one anyway. But you see, for me, I don't believe being out there would add any value to what I'm doing. You see, you know, what I'm talking about, you see, Egel, when the Egel wants to hunt, you know, it's steady, it's prey, you know, and go direct straight and pick it. You know that, the sea. Yeah. Even they can't even catch snakes, you know, pick it and go. So, our focus, not being from buoyants, you know, so mine is focus, focus, focus. You know, if God gave us two years, how many maps? One. One, why? Any reason? You know, I also did not know you. I know the brand Casapereco, right? And I'm a big fan of African-owned businesses. And I was tracing, like, African-owned beverages in Ghana and Casapereco came. So I was doing research and I'm like, who is the person behind Casapereco? And that's why I got to know. The mystic man. I got to know you. I had to reach out to Richard. And Richard was like, you know what? It's my dad, but my dad doesn't like talking. But how are we going to do it? And I'm like, Richard, you know what? You're not a story. Even if it's going to take me one year for me to get your dad, I'm going to wait. You know that it's been a year. Really? Trying to get you. Okay. So I think Richard has done a great job. That is quite persistence. Yeah. You are good. Yeah. You can just succeed. Your champion said one thing that I believe it also motivates me. He said it always go to be a first class Ghanaian and second class European. What makes you a first class Ghanaian? Because of their fishing. But by Beth, I'm proud to be a Ghanaian. You know, so if I even go and take a second citizenship in America, see, I'm just going to buy the citizenship. So they called me African-American. Oh boy, why are you African-American? I'm not African-American. So by definition, I'm African and American. You know, but here, I'm a Ghanaian. I'm a villager. I want to live in a village. I live in a village. I eat what the villagers eat. You grow your own thing and eat your own thing. Does it? So can I call you a village man? Yeah, a village man. To be a villager, right, it's not where you live. It's a brain. It's a brain. You can be in Accra. I don't want to say anything that will hurt somebody, but it could be stupid, stupid, you know. So a village is your brain. Cramming the mouse from Angkor 4. Exactly. Yeah, Angkor 4, it's a village, right? Yeah. It used to be a village. But his name is all about the world now. So where you live, you don't choose it. You know, it's by nature, right? But what you do, you have control over it. You were born here? I was born here. I was born here. Did you grow up here? Yes. For the first 13 years of my life, it was here. I had never travelled anywhere but here for the first 13 years. How was your childhood like growing up from here? Very challenging, right? Because even here, I was not living here in this cottage, this village. I was my mother and father. Only my father and my mother and myself lived in the middle of the forest. Middle of the forest? So I used to walk about the most five miles in the morning to come to school here. This is where I started my schooling, on these very plots. These very plots. The one that you used to walk two hours to come? Exactly, yeah. From the forest in here? Okay, yeah, yeah. So it was, I think, class 1, class 2, class 3, class 4, class 5, class 6. These very plots. You know, and after school, I go back to the forest. There's a hut. So which means when you were living in the forest, you never had electricity around? No, no, no, it was a hut. One small hut. It was a small touch house. Only one in the middle of the forest. That's what it's still here. So people are still doing that here now. You know, it's not just a village, right? But one month cottage. Huts. Yeah, that's how I... How a man who was born in a hut, rise up to be who he is right now. Because the whole world knows you. It's just that they don't know the man behind the brand Casaprako. This world, this world, it's a stage. As I said, the world is a stage, right? You go to a concert party, like the Odin days. Somebody will come and perform 15 minutes and he lives and that person comes in. So because this world is a big stage, everybody will live at a point in time with the parts. You know? So once there's stage, you choose your character. Like a film, right? Yeah, you choose your character. Just like going to the stadium. The stadium, you have the VIP, you have the popular stand, right? You know, the VIP is a bit pricey. Popular stand is the common. Yeah. So you can choose to go to the VIP or you can go to the popular stand. Yes. But for me, I wanted to choose the VIP. But choosing the VIP is not just by mouth, but by deeds. You know? It's just like crossing a river. You go to a river, a big stream. You have to cross. How do you cross? If you are serious, so there's a bit of a river, you cannot cross. Come back. But if you are very serious, then you have to swim across it. You cannot go and learn how to swim, or you can go and make a small boat and paddle it, or you can dive and move. But whatever you want to cross, you cross. So that is why I believe whatever you want to do, you can do it. But the fact is that it's always good to have a target in life and fail than not having a target at all. And this target I'm talking of, right, is like just like a dream. We have, I think, third type of dreams. The subconscious dream, that's the one that you don't have any control about it. Now, at home you dream, a car with chasing you, or you're eating, or off. You don't have any control about it. Then you have a dream that is a bedding castle in the air. You know that you can achieve this thing. I would say, I wish I could do this one. You know you cannot be the head of state of America because you don't even have a visa, right? That is bedding castle in the air, right? Then you have the effective dream. That's a target. So you have a dreamer. Anybody who wants to be big, have a dream. I want to do this before I die. That's your dream. That's your target. So that's what your dream, what do you tell me? So that's what has carried me over the years. I always put targets, I want to do this within 10 years time. You know, yes. What do you do within 15 years time? That's the sort of dream I'm talking of. Which means I always have a target, you know. But a dream, if you have a dream, then give your dream legs. You want to build, sorry, build them. How do you build a ceremony? You want to buy a car? How do you buy a car? Just buy a mouth. When you buy a car, you have to put things in place to make sure that you acquire your words legally. Life is war. Obra, your kum. And it's true, life is war. You know, right now, if you go to Ukraine, Russia, they are fighting the soldiers there. I don't think they are trained drafts. I don't think they are doing coffee. The morning at the Butterford, you know. So if you want to succeed in life, you have to take your mantra. It's hard work. There are some things that you can't escape it. So far as I know, every such person that I've seen or I've read of is a hard worker. Yeah. You think well, hard work has it. But being born in the forest, always a dream growing up. Well, you know, dream changes. But I didn't know that I would be like this. But I didn't also want to be poor. I too much, my mother, I prefer to work hard and die than being poor because I was very, very poor from the beginning. I think I won't celebrate it like this when I was about 10 years. I never put on mushroom sandals for my first 10 years. Never. Never. I was working through the forest to school here on barefoot with my cloth, not even with a salt like this. No. With my, is it color? Yeah, color. And there, you know, we have many people scattered around the forest, children. Okay. This person is here. This person could be there. This man was there. I mean, that young, say, eight years, nine years. So at a print, we all meet at the Johnson and we go. To come back to school here. You know, it's like we're working about convoy. Let's say seven kids working through the forest to the village here. How many minutes? They have to walk from. Let's say about two hours. Yeah. You walk for two hours before you go to school? Yeah, sure. I don't really go to school. But I go to, yeah, yeah. It's not like everywhere here. No, it's far away. The forest. How did you manage to pay the fees? Your mother would pay us, pay not this and for you. But sometimes, for me like this, when I went to the school, I go to school in Nassinjegwa. You don't do anybody. And this one, it looks as if it's like a fairy tale. You don't do anybody. But when the school vacates and you go into the school next academic year, you go to the village, you go to the next city, you don't do anybody. Right? And people will call you. Because they want people to come and work with them. They want to stay with them so that they relax. It's sort of a liberal type of thing. So you go and stay with somebody that you don't never know. You ever did that? Yeah, yeah, I did it. Yes, that's how I was. So for me, I was what a troublemaker. So I also planned for food before I go to school. When I went to Nassinjegwa. And that was very, very good life. After all, we get something good to eat in the morning of the tawa and soup before you go to school. Did you complete school? I completed elementary school, which is sure. Which is... The first 10 years, that's a metaphor for. That's the highest level? No, no, no, you go to the next school. But I didn't have the money. But I didn't have it. So when I was in Form 2, Form 2, I set for the Commodals examination. I remember that only five people passed that year. The horse in Nassinjegwa was a big city. I don't know what that was. Yeah, I don't have a big town. I think I was only about six or seven square feet at that time. Only five kids were able to pass that year. Come on, Trance. I was one. That they ran from flats. I came to my mother. No money. No money. In fact, that time I had a CMB scholarship. They wrote to me that they're giving me CMB, half scholarship. Right? So if you go and you do well, you get a fourth scholarship. But how could I go? You can't afford a half scholarship. No, no, I can't. So I had to continue Form 3. It was very, very hard-breaking for me. Seeing my colleagues who were very brave and going and going to the Form 3. Form 3, I suffered a CMB again. Knowing very well that I wouldn't go. You know, I wouldn't get anything to go. But, you know, for the fact that your pass, the CMB, you know, it's something that was motivating me. You know, I set our pass. I know I set our pass. And all my teachers knew our pass. So when we went for our last final year's examination, that's in Form 4, our headmaster, it's called Master M.A. here, from Master Melfi. He told me that we are our only hope for the station. We don't get the station. Then it can be a result. Because I knew our pass. Me, I knew our pass. I was very brilliant. I was cool. But that also motivated me to move a bit higher. You know, but when I pass, as I speak here to you now, I never went for my certificates. I never, because I thought I didn't deserve it. I wanted something higher, but no money. I thought I was brilliant, but I didn't have anybody to help me. Right? So when I finished the Form 4, I was employed as a family brother. A family brother. But I was staying with somebody. That person said I should go and learn Bokkenaza. Bokkenaza? Yeah. But I said, I don't like Bokkenaza. I don't want to be a Bokkenaza. Right? Hmm. Aha. So I was employed as a family brother at a Greek. Right? Yeah. So that's where, at a point in time, I had to run away. My sister from Akira came to the village. You know, it's a short period. She came to the village. And I said, I want to go with you to Akira. It's okay. If you want to go, let's go. So off, I left with her to Akira. She was a husband. So I left without knowing what I was going to do. But my brother was also a garden man in Akira. So you know, garden men, they knew a lot of people. People. Aha, yes. Introduce me to somebody, to be his husband. Yes. And he was the main daughter of Gihok at that time. He was a little boy. So I was a husband for some time. And then the wife was working with 27-year-old hospital. So when I left the houseboy work, I went to one of the suggestors. He said, but you can't. I couldn't remember very, very well. He said, but you can't. My mother was not treating me well. So can you employ me? I said, no, I can't employ you. But there's one thing that I can do for you. My friend had got a beer bar. So we can go and be a bartender. So I went to Tema as a bartender. But he told me that I would like to be the soldier. Of course, you were a soldier. The woman that I was staying with, the old soldier. I was in Bermacombe, 37 years old, as a houseboy. So now I had the interest of being a soldier. Right. So I said, but I would like to be an Air Force soldier. I knew the infantry what they do and Air Force. I know that they're higher. So that's okay. Hold it at the kitchen level. I said, okay, I'm a military school certificate holder. So if you go to the soldier as a certificate, you take a long time before you will rise up. So why don't you do a correspondent course? I said, what a correspondent course? Then he gave me the contact number of other education. So it is the beginning of my education. I was doing online courses with them. He gave me the subject to read. Economist, geography, English, mathematics. So when I was doing that, I was also at the bar at the same time, turning to the bar. So I did a bar for about almost a year and a half. I saw that there was this advertisement in the papers, rolling soldiers. So I went to Mama Dham in Accra. Mama Dham, I wanted to be a soldier. But we said I should go to the bar. So at least could it help me to even be a bar at the mess? So your mother said, we are so good. So now the idea of being a soldier has been cancelled. So you'd be at the bar at the end of the bar, say five to ten years and your mother said she would give you money to go and do some farming. I said no. In that case, then I cannot continue with the bar at the end. So I left. After some time, being in the streets, I had a job as a cashier, cashier laborer at Vaku. So eventually I was made permanent at Vaku. So when I was made permanent at Vaku, because their buses were going to Accra, bringing workers to work. So I then went with the Accra workers' college. So when I closed from work, I go to Accra workers' college. So then I was doing two tuition. I had stopped the correspondent course. I was still doing the correspondent course. Also going for the face-to-face. That made me become very popular at the school. Even workers' colleagues, they called me one day. I remember they called me one day and they interviewed me. You know, I mean, the institute of education. They interviewed me. Where that had been to finish school, I dropped out because of my results, that my trips, you know. Because they knew I was doing very, very well. They gave me the papers. I do it, put it back to them. The market are selling to me. But I was doing actually double tuition. So sometimes what do I do? I've already done it with the face-to-face. So that's how I had my education. So after my GCE, they were encouraging me to go to the university. I knew actually, it didn't go. I knew because I, for the book knowledge, I had it. No compromise about it. I knew I had it. And my colleagues knew I was brilliant. So education was not an issue at all. Why didn't you go then? By the point, I started doing small, small trading. I had small, small trading. And the trading took a better part of myself. Because I was making money in the trading. I was working. And I could remember that my three days of duty trading could rent my one-month salary. So I said, no, then I don't have to waste my time. Because I wanted to be in my country, in my country. You know, the way the country dresses, the tie, the bangs, you know, that I was interested. Now I've abandoned the military. So I wanted to be now in my country. Tell us, tell us. Yes. But when I started the, when I started trading, that time there was scarcity in Ghana. So then I go to Togo to go and bring goose, you know. And then I credit it to my colleagues, you know, colleagues, back workers, you know. So if you need soap, credit, if you need milk, because that time it was, why do you call it? Central communities. There's nothing in the country. I don't know, even in the experience at that time. No, no, no. There was nothing. Even bread. You could not get bread to buy in Ghana. In the rural area, at the point of rural area, yes, scarcity, you know. So everything was scarce at that time. So I go and buy provisions. Milk, sugar, other things. I come and give to my friends on credit, you know. And then I credit it. I credit the money I earned a month. That's what I used to do. So now, when I close from work, sometimes in the afternoon, I go there to Bagus and come back. I come to work there for the morning. Yes. Sometimes I wake up very early in the morning, right? By three o'clock, first, first bus. Then I'm on the afternoon shift, right? So I go and buy the goods. When I come, I don't go to house, but to my house. I just join the bus and go to work, you know. So like now, enterprising, business, trade-offs, yes. So that's why I started doing business. So because of that one, I didn't last too much, too long in the formal employment, you know. Because man, three days, you know. Then it went to the whole month. So I said, no, come on. I don't have to waste my time. How I meet my money, I'll tell you the story. Because I was on the street for some time. Yeah. It toughened me up, right? So just imagine you being on the street for some time with guys, you, you, you, you. And then getting a formal employment. That's easier. Easy. Because I have friends now. Yeah. So in the morning, oh Charlie, you brought, you brought a king cake, I'll come and eat. So when I, when I joined the Valko, we met Sisu. Sisu. And I think, Sisu that you made, you take all the money this month is for you. All 100 percent, right? The next month is for this person. And this month too, I was the last person to take it. So I think about the seventh month I took also the money. That's how I get the money to be trading. That is the story. And that's the money that I had till today hasn't left me. And not that I had money from a loan from anybody. That's the Sisu money. That Sisu money. Aha, that I had. You know, that's how I've natured it from, from that time to this time that money has never left my hand. That's how I, if you say with, that's how I came about it. Doc, I want to ask you this question. Are you a billionaire? I'm not. I'm not a billionaire. You are. I'm not even, I don't know. As for wealth, I cannot say I'm a rich man. No, I can't say I'm a rich man. Then who are you then? I'm a rich man. I'm a rich person, yes. Doc, I think it's all about the mindset. Yeah, yeah, because if I say I'm a rich, yeah, right, if I can't say I'm a rich, because I was in America, right? America, they are billionaires, dollars, right? So if you have some cities, say you are a billionaire. You know, Africa, apart from that, Dangute, who's rich in Africa? Nobody. The fact I know are some few South Africans. Ghana, who's rich in Ghana? You are not, no. There's two to four money that we have. No, you know, so if you go and meet the actual billionaires in America, they meet a lot of dollars in a month, not hours. So for me, I don't see myself as a rich person. If I want to be rich, I try to stay in America, right? Because in America, I was in the real estate business. You know, I happen to have, for me also, God also helps me. Happily, I don't know what I'm talking about again. Happily have some friends who are Jews, you know, and they introduce me to how to make money in America. You know, not to steal, right? But they know that if you do this, you'll make this money. If you do this, you know, you'll believe that I was the landlord of the biggest pharmacy in America. What took you to America? My children, my children. You see, for me, I don't joke with my children. That's why they're able to take over my business, you know. So wherever my children are, that's where I want to be there. I want to be there, you know, so that I can policy. Because America is a very dangerous place. America is a very dangerous place that if you rape children in America, we are not careful. Because of their system, we lose them. And once we lose an American boy, he's gone forever. Forever and ever. Because we say one, he's eaten. But if I was with them, I have to control them as Africans. So you go out, you sleep, at this time, come at this time, you know. It's because people, why is it that people who are rich, I mean, they are unable to train their children well. Their children, most of them, are true ones. They don't have time for their children. But there's money here, right? There's family here. I have to balance it. See, if you concentrate too much on the money aspect, you lose your family. So so many business people have lost their children. Because they are always on their money, money, money. Right? So we have to balance it, you know. So that's how I train my children. I train them. We asked Richard at the point, say that I'll stop the work. Richard, I want to stop the work and say that yes, I can't work again. Why? Say too much pressure. Richard, did you ask him? I said no, Richard. Too much pressure and so we are leaving the work. We are a man. Challenge yourself and give me too much pressure. You don't know what I've gone through. You can do it. So do it. I said okay, I'll do it. You know. So a lot of people give goodies to their children, right? Without the moral training. Without telling that sort of discipline in their children. You know, so at the end of the day, you have money but you have real your children. So if you have no money, they can't succeed you. You bring the business up, you die, your company dies. You bring your company up, you get sick, you get stroke, your company gets stroke. Because I've not trained any vibrant successor. And that's what I didn't want to do. So when they were schooling, I was with them in America. You know, I thought I was going to be with them. But when I went, I asked the businessman, I said, why can I be here without doing business? So I started knocking doors. Fortunately, there were some doors open to me. That's how I was able to go to America to start my business there.