Aliko Dangote Reveals He’s Planning To Make A Bid For Arsenal Soon

Nigeria and Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, has revealed he will soon be making a bid to buy Arsenal.
Dangote has previously been rumored to have interest in the Premier League side, and in an interview with the BBC, confirmed his interest.
“When we get this refinery on track, I will have enough time and enough resources to pay what they are asking for,” he said in the interview.
Dangote, who is worth a reported £11.5 billion, revealed he had almost purchased part of the club in 2011 when Lady Nina Bracewell-Smith had sold a 15.9% stake in the club, eventually purchased by now majority owner, Stan Kroenke.
“There were a couple of us who were rushing to buy, and we thought with the prices then, the people who were interested in selling were trying to go for a kill,” Dangote added.
“We backtracked, because we were very busy doing other things, especially our industrialisation.”
Dangote also said that Arsenal, who he had been supporting since the ’80s, could be more successful with a change in leadership.
“They are doing well, but they need another strategic direction. They need more direction than the current situation, where they just develop players and sell them.”

Richard Branson’s Favourite Quotes on Dreams

Richard Branson, is an English businessman and investor. He is best known as the founder of Virgin Group, which comprises more than 400 companies.

Today, I want to share his favourite quotes on dreams which he published on Virgin’s blog. He explained that Virgin is a story of big dreams. He admonished us to all dream, and also encourage others to do so too (just like I’m doing now), as dreaming is one of humanity’s greatest gifts. On that note, here are Richard Branson’s top 10 quotes on dreams…

15 Tips On How Successful People Think

The world's most successful people have one thing in common: they think differently from everyone else.
This is how John C. Maxwell introduces his New York Times bestseller, How Successful People Think (he's also written a ton of leadership books, which have sold around 19 million copies worldwide).
Because we also believe that smart thinking will change your life, we picked up a copy from Barnes & Noble. Here are the best takeaways.

Thinking is a discipline. If you want to be better at it, you've got to work at it

U.S. Army via Flickr

Consider developing a thinking schedule like Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy, who sets aside a half day every two weeks, a whole day every month, and two or three full days every year.
Source: How Successful People Think

The Billionaire Founder Of GoPro Just Paid His Old College Roommate $229 Million Based On A Promise 10 Years Ago

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Being rich is whatever. Cool? Sure. But being rich with the people you love and care the most about? That’s the American Dream right there. That’s why every Bro has to love this tale of a Bro with a vision making his college roommate very, very rich based off a promise made 10 years ago.
Nick Woodman is the self-made billionaire founder and CEO of GoPro. Business Insider reports he was named the highest-paid CEO in America, being compensated with 4.5 million restricted stock units worth $284.5 million. According to Business Insider, Woodman’s total net-worth is much, much more, worth an estimated $2.3 billion since GoPro went public in June 2014.
Earlier this week, Woodman returned 4.7 million shares to GoPro so that his college roommate, Neil Dana, could cash in to the tune of $229 million. Via Bloomberg:

Chinese businessman pays $2.35 million to eat lunch with Warren Buffett

A Chinese multimillionaire businessman has agreed to pay $2,345,678 for a private lunch with one of the world's richest men, Warren Buffett. He won the charity auction to have dinner with the billionaire investor. The money will benefit the Glide Foundation (a nonprofit in San Francisco that provides food, health care, rehabilitation and other services to the poor and homeless)



According to Reuters, Glide said the man, Zhu Ye, chairman of Beijing-based Dalian Zeus Entertainment Co, submitted the highest of 76 bids to win the five-day auction on eBay, which concluded on Friday night. His bid was well below the $3,456,789 winning bid in 2012, still a record for an eBay charity auction, but will help Glide meet its $16 million annual budget. The 16 auctions have raised about $20.2 million.

Why the founder of Victoria’s Secret threw himself off a bridge

 

The Victoria’s Secret show costs more than $10 million to put on and is hailed as one of the most important fashion shows in the world.  What is not so known about the company is the tragic story of its founder, Roy Raymond.  Raymond started the company after being influenced by a shopping trip he’d just taken with his wife.
The saddest part about Raymond’s life is that he killed himself after not being able to participate fully in the potential of his company.   Raymond opened the first Victoria’s Secret shop in Northern California in 1977.  They named the company after the Victorian period during which their home was built.
“Our original idea was to have a store where men felt comfortable shopping for lingerie. It all began when Roy went shopping for me, and felt out of place in a lingerie store. Victoria’s Secret tried to change that,” says Gaye, Roy’s wife.   Gaye is now a 65-year old professor at Samuel Merritt University.
The couple had five shops by 1982, and then made the horrible mistake of selling the company for $5 million to Leslie Wexner, founder of The Limited.

Akon Launches Solar Academy That Will Supply Electricity to 600,000,000 People in Africa

 

When he’s not singing or producing music, Akon is busy providing sustainable living options to people in African countries. The Senegalese-American singer’s initiative, appropriately called Akon Lighting Africa, aims to supply electricity to 600 million people in Africa who lack it with the launch of the Solar Academy.

Located in Bamako, Mali, the Solar Academy will help African engineers and entrepreneurs develop skills that will enable them to produce solar power. Experts will be on hand to help the participants with training and equipment, according to a Reuters report.

According to Akon Lighting Africa, the goal of the academy is to teach people how to maintain solar-powered electricity systems and microgrids. Both systems have been growing quickly in rural parts of Africa. In a continent that has 320 days of sun a year, roping in its natural resources will be valuable to the solar-energy efforts.

“We have the sun and innovative technologies to bring electricity to homes and communities. We now need to consolidate African expertise,” said Samba Baithily, who founded Akon Lighting Africa with Akon and Thione Niang.

The organization also hopes to create jobs with its initiative.

“We expect the Africans who graduate from this center to devise new, innovative, technical solutions,” said Niang. “With this academy, we can capitalize on Akon Lighting Africa and go further.”