90k per quarter from a farm investment in Africa with record low commodity prices
Sounds like a fairytale
Making a career of investing at 32...?
- Thread starter TJamesHTX
- Start date
90k per quarter from a farm investment in Africa with record low commodity prices
Sounds like a fairytale
Do you know what a farm produces ? Tomatoes, Potatoes, Chicken... please remind me on what exchange do eastern-african chicken delivered futures trade on ?
Sounds reasonable to me. Just from a real estate perspective its not impossible to make 100 pct a year on your investment if you are careful.
[edit: had a conversation with a F500 CEO.He said his privately owned businesses usually return around 500 percent a year of his initial investment with the first two years.]
I've been to Ghana, South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Congo, and worked with Somalis here in the states. Africans are more diverse than an american would expect. I found the Nigerians to be the most hospital by far, but there has been genocide there since then and I bet the nice ones are all gone. The Kenyans were also very hospitable. In South Africa I actually liked the natives more than the Boers but its like there was something in the water - if you looked close there was lots of criminal mind set. They were usually careful not to break the law but were constantly tugging at the leash. Ghana surprised me. I had so many criminals make a run at me the first day I couldn't believe it. When the cops found out what I did to the criminals they OFFERED ME A JOB! Here in the states I would have gone to prison. I tried to start three businesses in Africa over the years. In one someone copied me on an email where some guy in parliament was planning on trying to take over the company (steal) after I had everything set up and running, in another they pestered me relentlessly about hiring. They didn't seem to understand or agree with my careful style. They wanted me to just dump lots of cash in the economy and hire 500 people all at once without having any work ready for them or any contracts lined up. The other one also pestered me a little but let up when I told them to stop. I eventually gave up on the idea because of constant attempts to break into the buildings. Weekly, sometimes nightly. One guy seemed to have teleported into the building. All the locks were still on, windows shut, etc. I think part of it is me. People think I'm an easy mark because I'm nice. I try to be nice with everyone until they cross me. Even then I can be sneaky and give them lots of rope. I liked the Congo pretty well. I spent most of my time with the soldiers. Congolese soldiers are something else. VERY motivated. Its almost religion for them. I was surprised how steeped they were in warrior philosophy and philosophy in general. Maybe soldiers in the states are too but I've never had any conversations like that with them except for one guy. The Somalis can be very nice people and are patient with clueless whites. I think in a way they view us like children and in a way they are right. They like to fight though, especially with each other. And they will clan together and have their own little wars, it does not matter what country they are in or what laws are there.
Despite all that I'd rather run a business in Africa than Detroit.
That was a heck of a story.
What led you to move to so many countries in Africa, what is your background?
Do you speak Swahili, arabic or other languages?
Are you American?
How do you ensure that you are not being taken advantage of if you are half a world away?
The guy in charge of my farm is co-invested with me and is the son of a big client for the hedge fund I'm working for, so it sets this notion that if he steals me, I can steal him. Also he's not African, he's one of the many Chinese there. Otherwise I probably would have never done it.
It's ironic on Elitetrader where people ostensibly come here to learn and read about making money, so many miss the forest for the tree. The world's a big place and there are many more ways to make money as @wintergasp has said. Instead, people go and fight it out for a tick in ES/CL/whatever.
I didn't really move. I'm unusually mobile. I used to do a lot of contract work and was used to living out of a suitcase. Sometimes I'd bid all-inclusive and save money on hotels by living out of a van. I was looking for cheap motivated workers and localities that were motivated to have the business. Unfortunately they were more motivated to HAVE the business. In one case I was looking for a second citizenship.
I'm not a rich or sophisticated as you might guess from the story, just ambitious and willing to accept risk.
In most places its not necessary to speak the language. English is pretty popular. Even in countries where it isn't you can hire a 'manager' who is bilingual, record EVERYTHING that goes on in your business and occasionally check what the manager is telling you by hiring another translator to transcribe some of the recordings. You can also guess, harsh voice means one thing, whispering means another. Stepping out back to talk is definitely up for review. In the end you are usually better off hiring two manager so the one does not let it go to his head. Its paying more up front but substantially lowers risk. The reality is there are no trustworthy employees. You have to make them love you and fear you at the same time.
See my other reply. Also, don't be half a world away. Go there to set up the business. Stay for at least three months. Lie. Tell the employees you are going back to america, but just take a bus out of the country. Come back unexpectedly. Do it repeatedly and act like you have so much cash you can come and go as you please. Pay a few expats from a neighboring country to suit up and pretend they are business partners/suppliers/customers so the locals don't think you are flying solo.
Creativity is expensive. Its much easier to try to out do others than to find a novel way. Its also less risky. People love to complain about their failures so you know more about the risk if you copy something someone else is doing. I think its apt to compare it to cutting trails through jungle. In a lot of primitive societies you don't use someone elses trail without paying them. You get killed if you get caught. They don't care if you cut a trail right next to theirs or across theirs, but don't you dare use that trail that they busted ass to cut. Off course cutting trails is hard work, it uses a lot of food and so on. So some enterprising travelers will take a short sprint down a trail, then jump off and wait for a while look and listening, then get back on and sprint. Usually they only make it less than a km before they get caught. If they are children or white they might get excused one time, maybe branded.