» Marek Zmysłowski- Chasing Black Unicorns

Guest bio

Marek Zmysłowski is a Polish-born entrepreneur and executive, focused on online businesses in Frontier and Emerging Markets.

He co-founded Jumia Travel – Africa’s Biggest Hotel Booking Portal listed on NYSE as part of Jumia Group and HotelOnline.co – a Travel Technology Company. In 2014, he was chosen as one of the Ten Most Important People in Tech by IT News Africa Magazine. He is a Lead Mentor at Google’s Launchpad and World Bank’s XL Africa Program.

In this episode of Zaprojektuj Swoje Życie:

– do problems and obstacles contribute to building humility and growth

– most important lessons that Marek learned while writing and publishing the book

– what is the advantage of alternative income sources

– what is it like to start or grow a business in Africa

– what it means for Marek to be an influencer

Episode notes:

For Marek, publishing the book was a learning curve. He could write a book about all the experiences and learnings connected with writing and publishing it.

The book, Chasing Black Unicorns, was supposed to be a summary of a certain chapter in his life – his business in Africa, Interpol problems. Publishing the book in English caused quite a bit of controversy in Nigeria – this was an experience that he was not prepared for.

With the book comes a certain level of self criticism which Marek describes during his conversation with Mac. He learned humility and gained a new perspective not only on life but also on himself as a person, an investor, entrepreneur and author.

Our guest’s ordeal taught him to be a better and more careful decision maker. What is more, he sees the great impact of personality and ego issues on business problems. The answer to this may be concentrating on how and what we communicate.

Books recommended by Marek: