Every generation feels things are worse off for them than previous generations and while this may be true in some aspects, it is not absolutely true. Things have improved greatly in many areas giving more options to grow and create wealth. Wealth has ALWAYS come from knowledge.

We used to pull the knowledge out from books and hard efforts at communication but it is now largely pushed to people in all forms. It is now so prevalent that pushing knowledge to people itself is now a source of creating wealth. Wealth is just knowledge arbitrage transformed.

It can seem harder to profit from knowledge in an age of ubiquity but you will be surprised at how lazy people can be. I see evidence of that daily on Twitter. People will prefer to be spoon-fed than to do the actual work of searching for knowledge. It makes curation valuable.

Execution based on knowledge now becomes a premium advantage when so many people know but very little do. This is what irks me when people keep waiting for perfect circumstances and the perfect investor to fund their perfect idea. Investors have ideas too, they can think.

What investors cannot do is execute. They look for people who think better and execute even much better. This is why I am impatient with so-called intellectual Africans. Get off your arse and DO SOMETHING! If you aren't building daily then STFU about funding or lack of it.

It is typically a red flag for me when I see people complaining about lack of funding. I once told a founder that his idea was great but I did not see him seeing it through as he lacked the grit. Giving him any money would be a waste. He is still trying to raise and complaining.

The definition of who an investor is is the first problem with most young Africans. They don't have to be institutions. You can actually create your own institution of investors from your customers and partners. I learned a lot from a Silicon Valley fund called Array Ventures.

Shruti created a community of entrepreneurs who invest in each other and that community snowballed into a fund. She didn't wait for typical fund LPs. Her community members are people who easily give back once they become successful because the community accelerated their success.

Really smart people don't complain, they innovate. I have met many people who think they are smart but very few truly smart people. I pitched once to an experienced SV investor who built up 4 unicorns and he made me see the light. I didn't need him. You don't need investors.

Investors will need you if you are truly smart. Keep trying to prove that daily. You have more resources, knowledge and access today than all generations before you put together. Use it if you are intelligent, complain if you aren't. Big Chief out