How come when Ghanaian (and African) professional get together it’s mostly to have fun and show off rather than to figure out how we can combine our brains and resources to help each other for a greater good?
I’ve seen it many times. I used to play soccer with a group of mostly Ghanaian and Nigeria professional in a major US city. In that group were lawyers, doctors, bankers etc. Yet nobody mingled and talked about anything progressive. It was mostly showing off who drove the nicest cars to the field (nothing against nice cars).
Recently, a former colleague of mine who moved to Ghana last year to start a company lamented the apathy of her Wesley Girls alumni network in getting her face-time with major corporations in Ghana to grow her business. She started a business that provides conference call numbers to companies where as many as 50 people can join a conference call at a time. Being part of an overachievers group like Wesley Girls Alumni, you would think she’ll land a pot of networking gold. Turns out most of her fellow alumni show up to meetings just to show how well they are doing.
Sometimes, I wish we in Ghana (and Africa) had a little of the Jewish culture in us. For anyone who has had any interaction with the Jewish culture you know the Jewish businessman has a Jewish accountant, a Jewish lawyer, a Jewish dentist, and a Jewish doctor. It turns out helping each other is self preservation.
I’ve seen it many times. I used to play soccer with a group of mostly Ghanaian and Nigeria professional in a major US city. In that group were lawyers, doctors, bankers etc. Yet nobody mingled and talked about anything progressive. It was mostly showing off who drove the nicest cars to the field (nothing against nice cars).
Recently, a former colleague of mine who moved to Ghana last year to start a company lamented the apathy of her Wesley Girls alumni network in getting her face-time with major corporations in Ghana to grow her business. She started a business that provides conference call numbers to companies where as many as 50 people can join a conference call at a time. Being part of an overachievers group like Wesley Girls Alumni, you would think she’ll land a pot of networking gold. Turns out most of her fellow alumni show up to meetings just to show how well they are doing.
Sometimes, I wish we in Ghana (and Africa) had a little of the Jewish culture in us. For anyone who has had any interaction with the Jewish culture you know the Jewish businessman has a Jewish accountant, a Jewish lawyer, a Jewish dentist, and a Jewish doctor. It turns out helping each other is self preservation.
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