Sir Sam Jonah, a Ghanaian business mogul, has advised Ghanaian youths that greatness is rarely born in comfort.
The business titan urged Ghanaian youths not to wait for the perfect conditions but to start now, when they have an idea or a dream.
According to him, greatness is born out of discipline and courage, not comfort.
Sir Sam Jonah, in his acceptance speech at the EMY Africa after winning the prestigious Ultimate Man of the Year Award on Saturday, November 22, 2025, Sam Jonah stated, “To the young people listening tonight, let me say this plainly: don’t wait for perfect conditions. Greatness is rarely born in comfort.”
“If my journey has taught me anything at all, it is that excellence is not an episode. Excellence is a habit. Excellence is a discipline. It is a standard we must insist upon daily, even when no one is watching…”
“If you have an idea, start. If you have a dream, protect it, and if you want to lead, lead first with integrity. For in a world overflowing with noise, it is character that speaks the loudest.”
Sam Jonah further challenged the current leaders to create a pathway for the youths to soar high.
He added, “…creating pathways so that the next generation can run faster, soar higher, and dream bigger than we could ever do.”
“I am the beneficiary of mentors who expanded my ambition, colleagues who matched my commitment and ordinary, hard-working Ghanaians whose toil forms the bedrock of every enterprise I’ve been privileged to lead.”
In separate news, Sir Sam Jonah has said Africa’s long-standing economic model of shipping out raw materials and importing finished products is virtually exporting jobs and importing unemployment.
According to Sam Jonah, African countries prioritising the sale of raw materials over local industrialisation are effectively exporting jobs and importing unemployment.
He challenged African leaders and the private sector must move beyond primary commodity exports and focus on producing finished goods that meet world needs.
Speaking at the launch of the Africa Trade Summit 2026 in Accra on Tuesday, November 18, Sir Sam Jonah stated, “For more than half a century, we have exported cocoa, gold, timber, oil, and bauxite. Yet the jobs, the technologies, the real value—those have been created elsewhere.
Every time we ship out raw materials and import finished products, we effectively export jobs and import unemployment. And we cannot industrialise if we continue feeding other nations’ factories instead of building our own”.
Sir Sam Jonah further stated that the transformation Africa needs will happen through business: through factories operating consistently, through entrepreneurs solving problems.
He added, “The transformation we seek will not happen in ministry conference rooms. It will not happen in communiqués, nor in reports that gather dust.
It happens—in the real world—through business: through factories operating consistently, through entrepreneurs solving problems, through investors taking long-term bets, through regional supply chains linking producers to markets.
That is why the private sector must be at the very centre of Africa’s industrial and trade transformation. Governments set the stage, yes. But it is the private sector that performs the play”.