Robert

My mum and dad, Mavis and Charles came here from Ghana in the 1980s to find a better life. My dad’s been exporting yams for over 25 years now. He's been doing this business for a long-time supplying yams to people from Ghana to the UK and for customers to sell in their shops or wholesale. I think for me, from what I see how I love things from outwards. I would say a lot of Ghanaians have that kind of togetherness. They like to show support for one another, you know, that's what I see. For example, like, if someone has a funeral, or someone's passed away we all come together to show our condolences, and give our contribution, you know, no matter if you don't know them, but that's the kind of culture we have. I see that sort of togetherness in the Ghanaian community. Whether you’re from Ghana, Nigeria, the Caribbean or wherever, in the main people, black people kind of look after each other.

I visited Ghana when I was young, but I want to go back there so that I can see how the yam is produced from the farm because it gives me an understanding. It'll make me aware of how valuable my product is. Its real value is when you see how it comes up from the ground, how the farmers produce it. This sort of process makes us more appreciative in the end and inspired to do things well. My dad tells me that that’s how black people prosper, by keeping it all family orientated.

I was diagnosed with dyslexia in secondary school. I was a slow learner, I accepted that, but I just knew that I had something within me that refused to give up. So even though I was put in low sets, I didn't see it as a downfall for me. I just thought that, you know, I'm not going to give up, I'm still going to persevere no matter what. I’ll constantly just believe in myself. I listened to Eric Thomas’s book ‘Secrets of Success’. That's a good one. That was like, a checkpoint for my life, to believe that I can achieve anything I put my mind to. I just kept listening to motivational speakers, and praying to God, and looking at a lot of quotes, as well. One of the quotes that got through my schooling was Nelson Mandela, “It always seems impossible until it's done,” because you see things are coming at you. And you're like, “Wow!” this is too much. It's overbearing, I can't do it. But then you have to shift your mindset. You have to think ahead. You have to believe that it is going to get better in the future. But it's how you see it you understand? So that really helped me get through a lot of a lot of challenges in school you know? A lot of my setbacks I didn't really see as setbacks to be honest. I just saw them as challenges and obviously it's hard. I say a challenge because the challenge can be overcome. So anytime there was a challenge for me, I just I just knew that it can be overcome by just being at it and not giving up.

I went to University in Birmingham and studied Business and Management. I got a BSc Honours. When I was an undergrad, I went to a lot of career fairs, and learned about different industries. One industry that caught my attention a lot at the time was financial services. As an undergrad, they encourage a lot of students to apply for internships and placements, just to increase your chances of getting a job after university. So, I went on to apply for placements and internships. Placement, by the way, is like a sandwich Day, which you do for 12 months in whatever corporate environment you want. I got the opportunity to do an internship with HBC bank doing data analytics and supporting the Global Tenet audit team. I showed my passion to want to work in that division. But when I got in, it was another ballgame for me. I realized that you had to learn how to use certain software. But I just felt that I just wasn't as fast as my other peers on the internship. I was the only black person on the internship, me and one Asian person. When I was with my peers, I just felt kind of out of place. They knew more jargon more than me, and they knew how to use certain software better than me. The minute I started, I just thought that it's going to be a challenge for me. That I had to really try my best. I'm a hard worker, but in that situation no matter how hard I worked, I just couldn't really see my full potential being added to the team.

They're a company that is open to diversity. I just think for me, a lot of expectations were put on me. Yeah…Because of what I said during the interview. It was like they almost thought I knew everything, even though they knew I had joined as an intern to learn. I didn’t know nothing. But for me, I just felt that there were certain expectations, that they thought I already knew, you know, compared to my peers. But for me, unfortunately, there were certain, I mean, certain software or just basic computer skills that I didn't know, compared to my peers. It's not that I haven't learned but just that they learnt them at an earlier stage during their time in school.

After graduating I worked in hospitality as I was still trying to find my feet. Trying to get something, just to put something in my pocket. Then the lockdown came, the pandemic, and my company made me redundant. But you know what? I was planning to leave because my dad wanted me to, you know, continue doing this business, the yam business, but from an organic store perspective, not just supplies. Yeah.. but from opening a store. I started supplying to people, so, yeah, I got made redundant. I think it was a blessing in disguise. I was one of the best employees there, so it just worked in my favour. They made me redundant, and I opened a business. But you know what's funny? I think the best time to start a business is when you go through tough times. In my opinion, that's when people least expect you to do something extravagant. Yeah. Do you understand? It's a big risk, a big, big risk. But in business, big, big risks bring big rewards.

I'm the person that likes to be offered opportunities. That's the thing about me, I was so fixated, on financials, but then I decided to just try something different. As a result of just believing in myself and just being optimistic about you know, new opportunities. I'm now able to really feel that when I'm at work my full potential comes out. In my shop, you know, selling yams and plantain I feel my full potential when I'm just interacting with customers like that. Customers from many different backgrounds, you know, I really feel it in my soul. I feel like this is where I'm meant to be.

I remember coming up and down this road, going to, you know, the Ghana shops my parents used to go to. In my opinion, for me to now be on the same road as them it’s a personal achievement. To be a boy who was born here, and now I'm selling African stuff that's very different, you know. For a typical person that's probably came from Africa to be selling that, you know, I had the opportunity to work somewhere else. But I choose to do something that that's in my blood.

Yeah, I think I think every culture, every country has their own cultures. That's one thing. You have to be able to understand each other’s cultures. Luckily, when you work in a shop like this, you understand different types of people's culture. Caribbean, African, Caribbean Africans, and Asians, South American, you understand each and everybody's kind of culture, what they like, and what they dislike. So, when it comes to handling them, you kind of know how to best bring yourself forward when you're trying to sell a product to them. So that's what I've learned so far.

How I would best describe Ridley Road is that it’s a place full of go-getters. in my opinion, you're surrounded by a lot of people who want to do the best for themselves. So, they made the most of it similar to Africa or the West Indies. You make the most of the small things you have, or you try to make it a big thing. That's the best way I can describe Ridley Road. So, when you see, when you come here, when you come in, everybody's making the smallest thing they have, but they try to make as a big thing on an outer scale. And that's similar to Africa, you make the most of small things you have by appreciating the small things, and then you make a big thing. And that's how I see Africa.

In a way I think if this road does change it will just take away the togetherness that this road has built over the years, you know, because Ridley Road has its history from way back. And, you know, for it to change, like, we're just removing history. And then we're starting something new, but we don't know that. If this road is generational, it's for generations. However, it's for generations to come to know that this road has always stayed the same as it is today. Do you understand? So? Yeah, I just think, I think as the world changes, it will affect our generations of youths coming up. They need to see this, to get a feel for it. Because there's too much. The world is changing too much. If we're not trying to keep this aspect of Ridley Road, we'll just… We’ll just forget. It'll spoil what was built over the years. People are absorbing technology more now. But I'm just saying if they change this to constantly go into a technological world, and they will, all that’s been built will be for nothing.