Summy Smart Francis is the Founder and President of Africa’s Young Entrepreneurs, (A.Y.E) which is the World’s largest entrepreneurship network with over 12.9 million members in various African Countries. He was introduced to entrepreneurship at the age of 14, and from there he has continued to shape his skills and has become a serial entrepreneur, and a role model to many.

He shares his journey in an exclusive interview with Everyday Greatness host - Dilianne.

DA: You were introduced to entrepreneurship at a very young age, how has that shaped your perspective and what major principles did you learn?

Summy Smart: Introduction to entrepreneurship at a very young age was not something I found funny; I saw it like a punishment. In my house it was a family routine, become a teenager and work for my dad, I believed I should be able to play games after school and not just finish from school and go to an hotel to work.

But I must also say that it shaped me a lot, both in my leadership and managerial skills. It has also helped me to make very active and sound decision in businesses, and most importantly it created my entrepreneurship hunger and appetite. Seeing my dad make profit, well, I didn’t know he was making loss at that time because I was counting money every day, and all I saw was money; I then decided that I wanted to live that kind of life, where I would make profit daily.


DA: What inspired ‘African Young Entrepreneurs’?

Summy Smart: Like I always say, AYE was born out of business frustration, so it was because of the challenges in business I personally encountered that made me think to myself that there has to be a platform that can help other entrepreneurs, there is one common thing among entrepreneurs, When you cannot pay salaries or seem to get the business right, you feel so lonely, and you feel the world is crumbling down, but you are not alone, there are many other people going through similar situations, so I said that there should be a network that brings people together.

Then I remember going through one of my biggest business challenges, and I told God that if he sees me through this challenge, I would create a platform to help other entrepreneurs, so they do not have to go through the same thing, fortunately for me, God came through for me and I fulfilled my own part of the bargain, so AYE to me is a calling.


DA: When you got the vision, what was the first step you took?

Summy Smart: When God calls you, He either changes your name or He gives you a new name. I believe there is power in a name, which was why God changed Abrahams’ name from Abram to Abraham. If you want to talk to me about business, honestly, I start with your name, what is your business called?

When God gave me the idea, He also gave me the name ‘Africa’s young Entrepreneurs’. I remember this being one of the very clear conversations I had with the Supreme Being. Sometimes we say we hear things or we listen to our own conscience, but we really don’t. I remember vividly, having this conversation with God because I was arguing with Him that why not ‘African young entrepreneurs’ and He said the name was ‘Africa’s Young Entrepreneurs’.

Now I realise that African Young entrepreneurs would have been limited to entrepreneurs in Africa, but if it is Africa’s, then it encompasses entrepreneurs both inside and outside Africa.

It was very clear, I wrote down the name precisely at 2:15 am on the 1st of March 2010, and while I was writing down the idea, I wrote down the slogan ‘If we can achieve this much alone, how much more can we achieve together?’ I equally saw the logo clearly, and I understood the colours of the logo - Yellowish Gold signifies our wealth and Black signifies the colour of our skin.

So I put everything down on a piece of paper. Till today I believe AYE has given me the discipline of sleeping with a pen and paper by my bed-side.


DA: How much did you raise to start-up and how much did you raise?

Summy Smart: I wouldn’t say I started by raising funds, but I tried to raise money and that was when I wrote one of the quotes that is in my collection which says ‘funders and sponsors do exist, but they are not at the origin of your business’.

I really tried, so much, and everybody would be like ‘what do you do?’ And I would tell them, they would be like ooh it sound great, but what have you guys done? And I would not be able to tell what I have done so I realised that I was doing things the wrong way.

The voice came back to me, most times when you are sent on an errand, the Holy Spirit is always there to guide you and tell you when you are doing the wrong thing at the wrong time, so instead I focused on building the network, building the database, building the brand power, brand image and of course funders and sponsors started coming, because then there was something to leverage on, they wanted the members, our network, our buying power, loyalty, patronage, etc.


DA: What major challenges did you face and how were you able to overcome them?

Summy Smart: Major challenge for AYE has been finding the right team, you sit down with a bunch of people that know why we should liberate Africa out of poverty, explain to them how entrepreneurship is the way out for this continent, we have the population, and we are strong.

An African man can stand under the sun selling gala from morning till night; if you put a white man to do that, he would break down before noon. Most people would want to be part of the team for the wrong reasons, majorly because what is in it for them, sometimes you set up a board meeting and you would find out that you are the only of packing the chairs, and you would be wondering – where is everybody?

Another challenging thing is after pouring the vision into someone, having the person work with you for some years, and then because the person needs more money, they would leave for a better paying job. But of course we have been able to combat this, the organisation doesn’t work with staffs, we work with volunteers, and we don’t pay salaries, we pay allowances, we look for people who can see the vision, who have a passion for Africa and people who are willing to work hard to liberate this Continent.

DA: What in your opinion is the major challenge facing entrepreneur in Africa that prevents them from rising to great heights?

Read the full interview here

https://dilianne.com/2019/03/from-multiple-business-failures-to-president-africas-young-entrepreneurs-summy-smart-francis/

Kindly visit www.dilianne.com

Kindly visit www.dilianne.com

In your post, you linked to a 404 on Wikipedia because Francis doesn't have a Wikipedia page, he has a Wikiafripedia page at: https://en.wikiafripedia.org/wiki/Summy_Smart_Francis . I hope you correct you link to point your readers to the right resources.

Cheers.