Yassin Amuji – “ENTREPRENEURS SHOULD NOT ALWAYS DO WHAT THEY LIKE”
The Vilankulo Futebol Clube and Vilankulo TV are two of Yassin Amuji’s developments, to which the Vilankulo Beach Lodge is added, in his role of co-owner. In common, they all raise the flag of a city, his city. But there is more, from the oil & gas industry to agriculture, the businesses are so diverse that it is impossible to draw a continuous line to mark a linear evolution, anticipate the next step or guess his tastes. “Entrepreneurs should not always do what they like” – this is his statement, which ends the romantic speeches that are attached to entrepreneurship and to instill a sense of opportunity, the need to diversify utopias in a country with so many unexplored sectors.
Born in 1982, with the air smelling of the powder of the bullets fired in the civil war and in (at the time, still the district of) Vilankulo far from being the idyllic place it is today, necessity taught him to share, which was a lesson for life. He looks at the world of business as a tightrope, suggesting that balance is only achieved when you stretch out your arms. “I can’t feel myself losing if a partner can grow my business. Sometimes, it is necessary to know how to share to earn more.”
After a childhood spent helping his parents in the family’s grocery store, it was in his teens that he had his first “business” under his own name: producing invitations and copying CDs. “I didn’t know it was wrong at the time,” he laughs. For a period of time, he took over the family business, which gave him the experience necessary to walk on his own two feet. Years later, he was already the owner of the Vilankulo Futebol Clube, trying to create a national championship club in the image of European champion-ship clubs, with his own bus and credit cards. “I got too ahead of myself”, he recognizes now, he who has always been rebellious and stubborn. “I can’t get anyone to tell me that this is not possible.” Vilankulo FC remains in the main league. In 2019, it came up fifth, it’s best performance ever, ahead of several historic clubs. “I want to show that Vilankulo can be a valuable name,” he says, which opens the door to another stage, that of the Vilankulo Tourism Association, of which he is president. “We need to promote our tourism. We are not behind any other destination.”
I can’t feel myself losing if a partner can grow my business. Sometimes, it is necessary to know how to share to earn more.
The conversation ends with the entrepreneur standing in the gar-den of the Vilankulo Beach Lodge, with the sea ahead, his eyes on the horizon, as if he wants to find the silhouette of the island of Bangue, south of Magaruque, to which he holds the license to explore. Perhaps the crowning achievement for an entrepreneur who has always put the name Vilankulo ahead.
Issue 67 May/Jun | Download.
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