Billionaire Explained the Secret To Building True Wealth | Strive Masiyiwa

He's a London-based Zimbabwean entrepreneur and philanthropist. He's the founder and executive chairman of Econet Wireless. He's considered one of Africa's most generous humanitarians. He's Strive Masiyiwa, and here are his top 10 rules for success.

Being an entrepreneur is not just about, uh, making money. It's about being an agent for change, transformative change of our societies. When we finally launched the service, it wasn't with high technology advertising. We hired 300 young people and we said to them that they were to get on the kombis, the minibuses or matatus if you are from Kenya, And each one of them was required to ride the matatu in pairs. They were to go, two of them, just as ordinary passengers, and they were to ride the matatu at least 15 times a day and talk about the new service. So they would just jump on and say to each other, "Have you heard about this new thing?" And we knew that one another 2.5 million people get on those kombis every morning. And that's what we did. These young people were required, they would get on a kombi, jump off until people said, "But weren't you talking about this yesterday?" And then after doing this for about a month or two, they went back now and they were wearing t-shirts and bibs. And they started register people. Because sometimes you have— simplicity is the key. At the end of the day, we want our customers to feel that they can do just about anything you can do with a bank. People do know why— what banks do, that I should be able to save money, that I should be able to borrow money. But of course, Bob, what we needed to make sure is In execution, this is where a lot of things fall over. People must first— we must get through one step at a time. Mobile money works because of a partnership. It actually isn't our money. The money belongs to the agents, who are our partners. We have 13,000 agents. 80% of whom are in the rural areas. The selection and the recruitment of the agents— they have to be trusted within their community. If the trust falls with the agent, there is nothing we can do. We can build a Rolls-Royce of a system, but if there's no trust with the agent, and if the agent doesn't trust us to recruit, to give them back their money, the whole thing collapses. Technology is a tool. It's an instrument. You can use an axe for good. You can use an axe for destructive purposes. When radio was invented in the 1930s, people thought radio would bring enlightenment, education. Hitler took it and used it for propaganda. We face the same forces of evil today. They are— internet is the greatest invention in the modern time. It's an invention which can be used for extraordinary good, but there are also groups out there, as you know, who are— who go online to, to do heinous things, to attack children, pornography, and other things The terror— today's jihadists are using the internet in the most heinous ways. So what is important when we— is for the good people to try and use technology for as much to win against evil. But in the end, it's about people. One of the first things that we realized was the hyperinflation had destroyed people's confidence in financial institutions. Never mind that people were outside the financial system. They had no confidence in even going near this. So trust was the key. Whatever you do, we had to win on trust. And so we began by saying to people, "The system only moves $1." So people said, "Just one? You can move a dollar. Why can't I move 10?" We kept quiet. We said, "Why don't you try moving a dollar?" And some of our customers, we would give them the dollar and say, "We would like you to send it." to a relative. So we'd send— spend $100,000, put it in open people's wallets, and say, "Send the money." And they would send the money and say, "Why can't I send $2?" We say, "Send $1." And then we said, "Oh, because you have pressured us, we'll let you send $10." Today they sent $30,000. We always think in terms of empowerment. Empowerment because sometimes it's not possible for you to create the jobs. But so you don't have to take on people you don't need to hire. But you can have an enlightened self-interest by looking at ways to, as Rhonda was talking about earlier, how do you engage in the community? Maybe you're an oil company. But not everybody can be employed on a rig. But there are things you can do in that community which empowers people so that they're not resentful and they feel a part of what you are doing. And that is good business. How important, looking back, how important was that 5-year litigation process to get the telephone license? It was extremely important because One of the cool things that came out of that identity was everybody knew that I was fighting a battle against corruption. I could have solved that problem in one day, okay, by just agreeing to say, "Okay, I can accommodate this one, I can accommodate that one." It would have been over. And the people knew that. But I stuck it out, I went through the courts and fought the battle. So it said to people, "Eh, you can stand up for what is right. You can say no to corruption." Africa needed to hear that message very loud, that it is possible to be in business, to do it with zero tolerance to corruption, and you can be successful. So if you employ 77,000 people, let everyone know that you're against corruption. If you employ 2 people, let them know that you're against corruption. And remarkably, we will get rid of it. From the outset, I've always been interested in philanthropy because I believe that business must be a force for positive change. In the community in which you work. So I, I don't really pursue what some people call corporate social responsibility. Um, I've never stopped to think of it in that way. What I pursue is using the resources that are out of— that are available to me through business to help people in need and to address the urgent social needs of our time. If you really want a legacy, if you want to lay down the foundations in which people remember you for the right reasons, then philanthropy is the way to go. Not knee-jerk reactions to give away money, but real systematic area— identifying strategically what you're good at and how you can work with others, sometimes even to, to push that through. At the end of the day, success for us is reaching out to, to meet people's needs, and sometimes People don't always— we have to sell a service where people haven't even realized something is missing. You know, when I went into this business 20 years ago, I had to do it by way of a Supreme Court hearing because the government of Zimbabwe refused to issue us a license. And in the hearing, we had to submit evidence as to why we wanted the state monopoly removed. And I'll close with this one where we put in our paper that 75% of the African people had never heard a telephone ringing. And we had these 5 Supreme Court justices in their wigs, as you know, because we are Anglophone, you know, so we keep these wigs. I don't know why, but they were these men in wigs. One of them, for 3 days they hadn't said a word. We had no idea. Then suddenly the Chief Justice reached out and said, "Is your client really saying that 75% of the people have never heard a telephone ring?" I almost jumped up and my lawyer held me down. He said, "You can go to jail. I answer here." He says, "Yes, my Lord." He says, "We've got to end this." So I'm glad to tell you, Bob, 75% of the people of Africa have a cell phone. Yes. All right. And I want 75% of the people of Africa to have a bank account on their cell phone.

Thank you so much for watching. I made this video because Kevin Masundiire asked me to. So if there's a famous entrepreneur that you want me to profile next, leave it in the comments below and I'll see what I can do. I'd also love to know which of Strive's top 10 rules meant the most to you. Leave it in the comments and I'll join in the discussion. Thank you so much for watching. Continue to believe, and I'll see you soon.