Jack Langworthy is an entrepreneur who started as a Peace Corps Volunteer in rural Tanzania, where he became obsessed with more efficiently connecting food supply and demand in the local farming economy. He has since founded NINAYO, an online trading platform for African agriculture, which is backed by the chairman and founder of Uber, Expa Labs, Science Inc. and the United Nations. Today we chat with him in his office in Dar Es Salaam in Tanzania.
Entrepreneurial Role Models:
- Tim Ferriss
- Jim Altucher
- Ingvar Kamprad
When business started difficulties overcame:
“I was very nervous to go in on a high risk African website having never really ran a website before and I was fortunate enough to arrange things with my job so that I could take some time off and go back to Tanzania and interview users and I’m actually somewhat risk averse, I was very much methodical”…[Listen for More]
Favourite Books:
Zero to One: Notes on Start Ups, or How to Build the Future Book by Blake Masters, Peter Thiel
Favourite Quote:
“To those leaning on the sustaining infinite, today is big with blessings”
Recommended Online Resources:
- Derek Sivers – Entrepreneur, avid student of life
- Tim Ferriss – Author of The 4 Hour Workweek
- Jim Altucher – Ideas for a World Out of Balance
- The Entrepreneur Way
Best Advice to Other Entrepreneurs:
“Tell your story, get your word out there”…[Listen for More]
More About Jack Langworthy:
Neil’s Quote at the Beginning:
“Curiosity—asking questions—isn’t just a way of understanding the world. It’s a way of changing it.” Brian Grazer, A Curious Mind
Other Quotes From the Chat with Jack Langworthy:
- “I think hiring is the most important part of any business, who you have working for you”
- “If you haven’t taken the first step on the entrepreneur way then you’re not an entrepreneur on any level, make a step, make a business plan, make a bad PowerPoint, I made such a bad PowerPoint and shopped it around to people who sort of looked at me cock eyed and said well I kind of get what you’re doing but it’s unclear here, here and here and then I built the website and the website’s first version was wrong, if you’re not taking steps that you’re ashamed of in 6 weeks, you’re not moving quickly enough”
- “Only other people can make you successful”
- “The secret to success is not to hide your good ideas but to share your good ideas”
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