As a young man passionate about launching a banking career, Derrick S. Vormawor was not only excited after landing a job at a bank at age 19 but also worked very hard although he was paid little.
Two years later, he struggled to save his job after a transaction nearly went amiss. He lost his job and the incident turned out to be one of the darkest moments in his life.
“I went through a lot of pain and by healing, I decided to find my real purpose on earth. After a lot of soul searching, reading and attending conferences, I found something I was willing to live and die for. Business strategies came to me naturally so I decided to create a business venture out of it,” he told Business World Ghana in an interview.
With a borrowed laptop, zero bank account and a friend paying his business registration fee, he took a chance with entrepreneurship.
But starting up also presented a slew of challenges; first about his age, “Sadly in Ghana, most people think young people have nothing more to offer. My biggest challenge was how some people turned me down because they thought I was a kid and probably inexperienced. Because they didn’t see me in a flashy car nor an expensive suit, they thought I was coming to probably joke,” he said.
Adding to his woes was getting a committed team who believed in his dream, “But thankful to God, I learned to stand up for something and for myself.”
First forward to 2019 and Derrick is a proud entrepreneur with many initiatives under his sleeves plus an enviable portfolio of international clientele.
Platinum Africa Solutions Limited, his primary business is a business consulting firm established to help companies to strategize, organize and globalize in Africa. Their services include business strategies, business plans, proposals, market research, corporate training, products development, and investment consulting.
Platinum Africa Solutions, according to its founder has worked with a number of startups and small businesses in and outside Africa with Access Bank and the East African Business Consultants Limited in Kenya as partners.
In just 3 years and at age 25, he sits and advises on boards of some organizations in Ghana, Kenya and in Germany. He is also the author of Testing The Paint with his second book launch on the way.
Aside these, he also run a luxury brand, Derek-Newton (formerly Kept Luxuries) dealing in authentic Ghanaian made leather products like wallets, check book holders etc and is co-founder of a new investment fund called The 25th Fund.
Vormawor is working on a Youtube channel (Strats with Derrick) while pursuing an MA in International Business in Germany.
He also supports start-ups through The Business Startup Clinic which is sponsored by Access Bank’s W-Initiative. The initiative is also modelled in Kenya, Ivory Coast and Germany.
He has a piece of advice for young people who want to take a plunge into entrepreneurship, “entrepreneurship goes beyond your stomach and your selfish gains. It is actually a call on our lives to continue creation and to build legacies not with just our businesses but even with our lives so that the world becomes a better place.”
“They should be humble, consistent, and patient and be good with people, strategies and the numbers,” he added.
By Pamela Ofori-Boateng/Business World Ghana © 2019