Backroom to his African Queen
This was not an invitation to double down on your African safari project, which is exactly what I received! I told the gentleman that Elon, through the power of public equities, can bring the internet to anywhere in the world without turning it into a large-scale cultural vortex, and I stand by that—even compared to affordable housing.
I also told the gentleman to enjoy his love life there, which was probably not unwelcome advice. The reason I was able to predict he would approach me about Africa and was about to make a thesis him having a “queen” in Africa is because of discernment.
When I’m able to speak freely, as I mentioned before, it’s shocking how accurate I am.
A while back I met a man involved in several ventures across Africa after he had seen one of my presentations.
In my follow-up note, I remarked how presumptuous it was to assume that discussing opportunities in Africa would naturally interest me, given the themes and priorities that were clearly expressed in my work.
My perspective is shaped by experience.
Having spent years observing and operating across different regions, I have developed a strong aversion to many of the ventures and investment narratives that originate in the East.
Too often they are built on weak institutions, political dependency, opaque incentives, or the hope that capital alone can overcome structural realities.
What I find fascinating is that people frequently assume that because something is marketed as “emerging,” “high growth,” or “underserved,” it must automatically be attractive.
In reality, I am drawn to the opposite.
I am interested in systems that have already demonstrated resilience.
The difference is not merely economic. It is cultural, institutional, and philosophical. Strong systems create opportunities because they reward competence, execution, and merit.
After waking up today, I opened TikTok and, sure enough, there he was.
This is the same individual I had long suspected, through observation and discernment, may have been involved in some of these virtue-signaling projects that ultimately monetize blood, precious metals, or geopolitical instability.
With a pic of his queen.
You might ask yourself: why does that matter?
It matters because incentives matter.
When someone’s incentives include finding a new queen after a divorce while simultaneously pursuing a high-risk bet on metals, those incentives begin to shape how they see the world and how they interact with other people.
At that point, they are no longer simply presenting an opportunity. Consciously or unconsciously, they are attempting to pull others into the same narrative, the same motivations, and the same emotional baggage that produced those incentives in the first place.
From my perspective, that is not a business proposition. It is an invitation into someone else’s trauma, someone’s unfinished story, or someone’s backroom agenda.
And those are two very different things.