Aga Sekalala Snr’s brilliance for business and risk-taking shines in this compelling easy to read 175 pages book. In the first quarter of Aga’s biography, he recounts how a chance encounter with Joseph Nyerere, brother to Tanzania’s statesman Julius Nyerere, a great Pan- Africanist, changed the course of his life. Just like that, “Joseph unexpectedly asked me whether I would represent them at a conference in Denmark, despite not being Tanzanian…”
Thanks to Joseph’s recommendations, Aga applied and got a British passport. And on he travelled to Denmark and got the opportunity to traverse Europe which changed is life’s perspectives due to great exposure at an early age.
Determined to make the most of the trip, Aga tells how he travelled to London determined to stay there. Read about his experiences and insights to survive in a foreign land. After five years in London, Aga made the trip back home.
After six months on the streets of Kampala looking for a job, just any job, Aga says he finally landed a job at Management Training and Advisory Centre (MTAC) in 1967. Thanks to his media and broadcasting education in the United Kingdom, the idea of “Double Your Money” was born which he ran for 10 years with great success and impact on the local business landscape. Each job became a steppingstone to the next.
In the book, Aga explains how he left this job to start a private business. Getting his first loan and being open for business as a fuel station owner. He never looked back despite several setbacks and struggles due to wars and crafty business partners and employees.
Double Your Money will give you many lessons you need to win: How do you start a business? How do you run an agribusiness? What is the role of luck in your business journey? How do you handle family dynamics and succession in the business? And how do you choose your next big investment? And why it is not advisable to start a business for which you lack knowledge and networks.
Unlike typical biography books that merely provide an account of a life well-lived, Double Your Money, offers life challenges experienced by the author, how they were overcome, and lessons for you as a reader. You will learn why having a good relationship with your bankers is key and the power of resilience for entrepreneur success.
Despite a good narrative, some of the chapters in the book seem unrelated to the promise, Double Your Money. Some businesses the author ventured turned into loss-making, while others have offered a low return on capital employed.
Nevertheless, you will find Double Your Money a great read full of wisdom by someone who has done this and that – traveled to Europe at a great time of the 1960s, experienced the Ugandan wars in black and white, tried his hand at several businesses including hospitality and the very specialized fish farming. He is one of the few businessmen whose name is not associated with taking advantage of the state coffers for personal benefits.
The brilliant Professor ABK Kasozi wrote, “Double Your Money is a book by which one cannot fail to be impressed, as it chronicles the achievements of a very intelligent and practical entrepreneur who surmounted obstacles and built a huge agro-business empire through challenging times.” I agree.
Give yourself and loved ones a gift of lasting wisdom. Buy Double Your Money and read it. Thank me later.
Copyright Mustapha B Mugisa, 2020. All rights reserved.
