Marek Zmyslowski - Chasing Black Unicorns: How building the Amazon of Africa put me on Interpol’s Most Wanted list

Leaving HotelOga and moving to Cape Town on my 31st birthday set a year of change in my life. Change which had entered my head on turning 30 (for all you readers in your twenties, if you think that this psychological barrier between a two and a three at the front of a number changes anything, then you thought right. Something just popped in my head then. Like an oil can whose leaking contents had greased my wheels).

I had spent a large part of my time during recent years in airports and airplanes. I had to learn how to live out of a suitcase, not large ones, but hand luggage, as airlines had often lost or stolen my bags. This forced me to take a very practical approach to the material things needed on a daily basis. This forced minimalism began to come to me more and more easily, until I realized that it had become second nature. Recently, I went on a two-week motoring holiday where, despite having unlimited baggage allowance, I fit everything into a rucksack, as I simply didnt know what else to take.

Minimalism has brought me freedom. Not necessarily savings, as it wasnt about that. I always spend a lot on traveling, food and life. Five years in Nigeria has gotten rid of my desire to drive. I dont want to drive anymore. I have a driver and always use Uber when Im out of town, thanks to which Im more efficient while on the move. I work on my laptop or snatch forty winks between meetings and get some energy for a longer, more productive day. Ive limited my wardrobe regarding the number of colors and types of garment, which has given me freedom and saves energy, as I dont need to decide what to wear in the morning.

Ive also realized that, during the last 10 years, Ive been in business for the wrong reasons. I simply wanted to be the center of attention and wanted to win. I wanted to prove to everyone that I can, that I deserved respect, that Im not an object of ridicule. Put simply, I was fulfilling the needs of the 15-year-old me. Those things which I had always lacked to be picked for the volleyball A-team, to be able to regale classmates with jokes that were funny enough, to catch the attention of girls in the classroom. So that I wouldnt be misunderstood: this was one hell of a motivating factor, and an effective one too. But one which had always left me longing for more. Youll always find someone who has a bigger company than you, is more handsome, has more money and nicer pictures on Instagram. It started to get to me that really the greatest internal joy came from the building process. From stages 0 to 1. When everything was still in chaos. When you had to drive everything on yourself, as no-one else would do it for you. Everything higher than this from 1 to 10 and from 10 to 100 was someone elses job. I find this difficult, as it demands things from me which are not my strong points. I prefer to focus on my strong points and make them stronger.

I had stopped having fun at Jovago because we had gone from stage 1 to 1o. Pierre was only an excuse: if he hadnt been there, I would have found another reason. I left HotelOga because instead of building up a business, I had to mess around first in office politics, and then save the company. It was obvious that my sharp tongue hadnt helped me with certain investors and employees and everything could have gone better had I been more mature about things.

Coming to such conclusions liberated me. I decided to give myself a break from founding more companies for the moment. Investment was also not for me yet. I had already invested in five companies in Nigeria and lost a packet. And how I did I invest in companies? Did I pay attention to the market and analyze their business models? Hhhmm, maybe. Did I pay any attention to the quality of the team? Not so much. I invested in businesses about which I had once thought maybe it would be cool to develop that. There was no wonderful investment theory behind it. If not for a couple of bulls-eyes in hotel sales transactions in which I had taken part, and a couple of deals like the one with military drones, I would have left Nigeria only with the bags I came with.

Five years in Lagos had also left its mark. This city is a drug. More like cocaine than weed, though. An addiction where you experience everything with double the intensity. There are no normal parties, just epic ones. Theres no such thing as working calmly, but only working your ass off. Lets just say that no one comes to Lagos for the lifestyle. At Rocket Internet, despite everything, I had a billion-dollar company behind me, which could get me out of any trouble. With HotelOga, I was on my own. Due to problems at the company, life in Lagos in overdrive, indigestible food and the ubiquitous alcohol which flows through business, I became neurotic and had problem with my liver and weight gain. But that wasnt the worst of it.

The worst thing was that my whole adventure with HotelOga had also sustained collateral damage. As Ive mentioned, Keyshia was a beautiful Nigerian girl, born and raised in the States. As if being gorgeous and educated wasnt enough, she was also independent. She ran her own business selling womens products. We had gotten to know each other in Lagos where she had flown in for a cousins wedding. We fell in love with each other straight away, at least, thats how it seemed to me. I persuaded her to move to my place in Lagos, thanks to which we could be together and she could expand her business in Nigeria. She agreed, despite the fact that the traditional Nigerian part of the family werent too impressed with us living together unmarried. Keyshia was also with me when my dad died. Whom I hadnt seen once since moving to Nigeria, something I couldnt forgive myself for long afterwards.

Unfortunately, the love on my side only lasted a few months. We were arguing more and more, while our personalities were not conducive to civilized arguments. The situation started reminding me of my experience with Klaudia. Do I always attract women with character or are they all like that? Or even worse, is it my behavior that drives them crazy?

I had no strength to work on our relationship, as HotelOga was all that counted. But on the other hand, I didnt have the courage to look her in the eye and tell her I no longer loved her and then go through the emotionally exhausting process of breaking up and moving out. I just put it off. I convinced myself that the relationship would last, or maybe would right itself it would just have to wait for the moment. Because first I had to deal with HotelOga and couldnt fix two things at once, for Christs sake. But that was the worst thing I could have done. Because the frustration which I was experiencing in business drove me to nightclubs, which worsened my relationship with Keyshia, who had already been forced to forgive a lot. By the end of the relationship, I was the worst kind of guy you could imagine: unfaithful, uncaring and disrespectful. And its not important what shortcomings were on the other side. What is important is that I didnt end it in time. And the more I put off this difficult conversation, the more I hurt us both. Thanks to this relationship, although I dont know what kind is perfect, I do know which kind is unacceptable. But Keyshia became stronger because of it and probably now knows what kind of guy to avoid and at what stage of life to avoid them. And that was the last lesson for a newly-minted thirty-year-old.

A change of scene brought me back to life. I changed my diet, lifestyle and got back into working out. Within weeks of moving to Cape Town, I felt ten years younger. But I didnt move to my beloved city straight away. The process of renewal had started earlier. First I flew to Bhutan, a less commercial version of Nepal, with tens of Buddhist temples. Its very difficult to get a visa there, unless you have Indian citizenship, for which you dont need one at all. Bhutan maintains very good relations with India as a counterbalance to its non-existent relations with neighboring China. The border between China and Bhutan is basically closed. Bhutan just doesnt want to go the way of Tibet.