Inspirational stories from successful people in entrepreneurship

Hello steemians I'm glad to participate in this contest. Kudos to @tucsond for the opportunity.
They say necessity is the mother of invention. Yeah it is at the very least, just as entrepreneurship is the mother of innovation. Much of the rise in entrepreneurship is as a result of unemployment which continues to run rampant with about 114 million jobs lost worldwide last year.
Today I'll be talking about a character who has made name for himself when it comes to entrepreneurship in Africa and Nigeria in particular.
His name is Aliko Dangote.
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EARLY LIFE /EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND
Born in 1957, Dangote grew up in an entrepreneurial household in Kano State, Nigeria. He began his educational career at the Sheikh Ali Kumasi Madrasa, followed by Capital High School, Kano.
In 1978, he graduated from the Government College, Birnin Kudu. And further proceeded to the Al-Azhar university, Cairo where He received a bachelor's degree in business studies and administration.
Having spent much of his childhood with his grandfather, Dangote quickly became interested in the world of business, once saying, “I can remember when I was in primary school, I would go and buy cartons of sweets [sugar boxes] and I would start selling them just to make money. I was so interested in business, even at that time.”
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BUSINESS CAREER
Dangote is the CEO of dangote group. It was established as a small trading firm in 1977. Today its a multi million dollar conglomerate with many of its operations in Benin, Ghana, Nigeria, Zambia and Togo.

After graduating from college in 1977, Dangote managed to convince his uncle to lend him money to start a business. The funds from the loan allowed him to import soft commodities at wholesale prices from international suppliers. Two of his main imports were rice from Thailand and sugar from Brazil. He then sold those items in small quantities to consumers in his village at a lucrative markup.

The venture quickly became successful and turned into a cash cow. In an interview with Forbes, Dangote claims that on his best days, he was realizing a daily net profit of $10,000. That allowed him to repay his uncle in only three months.

Dangote Group has moved from being a trading company to being the largest industrial group in Nigeria including Dangote Sugar Refinery, Dangote Cement, and Dangote Flour.
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It has expanded to cover food processing, cement manufacturing and freight. The dangote group dominates the sugar market in Nigeria and is a major supplier to the country's soft drink companies, confectioners and breweries. In July 2012, Dangote approached the Nigerian Ports Authority to lease an abandoned piece of land at the Apapa Port, which was approved. He later built facilities for his sugar company there. Today that facility is the largest refinery in Africa and the third largest in the world, producing about 800,000 tonnes of sugar annually.
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One intriguing thing about Dangote is that he always reinvest the majority of his profits back into his businesses. This is one of the reason the company has grown so much since its inception. In fact, This birthed my love for him and his company as he's solely focused on the expansion of the business, not only on the profits.
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During an interview with Al Jazeera News, Aliko Dangote explained, ‘‘We [Dangote Group] are not doing like other Africans who keep most of their money in the bank. We do not keep money in the bank. We fully invest whatever we have and we keep on investing.

AWARDS AND RECOGNITION
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•Dangote was awarded Nigeria's second-highest honour, the Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON) by the former president, Goodluck Jonathan.
•He was also named Forbes Africa person of the Year in 2014.
•For six consecutive years, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018, Forbes listed him as the "Most Powerful Man in Africa".
•In 2014, he was listed CNBC's "Top 25 Businessmen in the World" who changed and shaped the century.
•Dangote was cited as one of the top 100 most influential Africans by New African magazine in 2015, 2017, 2018 and 2019.
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•In October 2015, he was listed among "50 Most Influential Individuals in the World" by Bloomberg Market.
•In 2016 he won the African Business Leader Award, organized by the Africa-America Institute (AAI).
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Entrepreneurship is not always about starting a business with a million dollar capital, in fact most successful entrepreneurs started theirs with relatively little capital which had since grown to become multi dollar businesses.
Mistakes most aspiring entrepreneurs do is waiting for massive capital before kick starting a project which is why most intended start ups never becomes reality.
I want to end by saying that all aspiring entrepreneurs should be committed to their course no matter the challenge, the road that leads to success is commitment.

REFERENCES

1. CNBC (29 April 2014). "The List: CNBC First 25". www.cnbc.com. Retrieved 23 March2020.
2. "Aliko Dangote GCON – Omnia Strategy LLP". omniastrategy.com. Retrieved 22 March 2020.
3. Ilan Bijaoui (2017). Multinational Interest & Development in Africa: Establishing a People's Economy. Springer. p. 55. ISBN 978-33-1948-914-8.
4. Gabriel Edigheji. The Entrepreneur Magazine. Lulu.com. ISBN 978-1-105-9093-20
5. The World's Billionaires: Aliko Dangote". Forbes.com. Retrieved 9 March 2018.
6. IV, Editorial (4 January 2018). "Birnin Kudu College hails Dangote on projects". Blueprint. Retrieved 15 March 2020.
7. "Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc (DSR)", Institute of Developing Economies-Japan External Trade Organization. Accessed 26 November 2015

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