INTERVIEW: I built real estate business in UK after working as taxi driver, says Daniel Moses

Daniel Moses, founder of Property Wealth Education and a member of Forbes’ coaches council, is a multiple Amazon best-selling author. In this interview with TheCable’s PELUMI BOLAWA, Moses shares his story of going from taxi driving to building a real estate business. The realtor also speaks about how Nigerian celebrities and influencers can harness the real estate sector to diversify income. 

TheCable: How did you transition from being a taxi driver to the real estate sector?

Daniel Moses: Where I find myself today did not come on a bed of roses. It has not landed on my doorstep just because I dreamt that I will be who I am today. I think the most important thing is that everything I have become came on the back of being tested and navigating pain. This is one of the reasons why I wrote my new book, ‘Test: Transitioning from the Ordinary to Extraordinary’. I think a lot of people want to read books on how to become successful. But nobody wants to read books on how to fail and fail forward. How to fail and move from failure to success.

My major breakthrough actually happened in 2015. I was into oil and gas. Having lived in the UK for about 10 years. I first came to the UK in 2004. Having lived there for quite a while. In 2012, I decided to relocate to Nigeria because things were not going right and I was not in the right place which I shared in great detail in my new book. I relocated to Nigeria and started. I got into oil and gas (downstream). I started selling oil and gas products (kerosene, diesel, and petrol). And I was moving products from one place to the other all over Nigeria. So, it came from a setback in my business where I lost two 65,000 litres of petroleum products. I suffered a major loss in running the business, keeping it afloat. That resulted in a total loss of, equivalently, almost £150,000. To a point where I almost lost my home in England, because I could not pay the mortgage. I had to shut down the business completely. 

I returned back to the UK to start my life all over again. Imagine having grown a business to that level and to return back to the UK to become a taxi driver. I became the person I am now through that massive gift that God gave to me. I think about it now because of where I am. In 2015, I was able to grow a business into £150,000, but now I have grown a business into an excess of almost £7 million. So you can see the difference there. I am just so grateful. It is only the beginning, and there is obviously more to come.

TheCable: What should readers expect from your new book?

Daniel Moses: I think first things first; in today’s world where everybody wants to get rich quickly. I was robbed by this mentality at a young age. Nobody told me in my teens that it is one brick at a time. You will lose some and you will gain some. Be prepared to lose. Just like the word test. It means you will be tested. 

TheCable: What would you consider the best investment advice for Nigerians?

Daniel Moses: We need to start learning how to create wealth. One of the biggest problems Africa has is that they go on holidays, enjoy, and party. Nobody is actually building. We become this person that we make money to spend. We do not make money to make money work harder. It is about using that money to create more wealth. Let the wealth that you have created pay for the enjoyment that you wish. 

In order for Nigerians to make this transition, again, looking for people like myself who are doing great things in real estate in the United Kingdom, how can I make N5,000,000 or equivalently £5000 per month? Imagine you are generating international currency into your pockets in Nigeria, it will make a tremendous impact on your life completely. The only hindrance is usually I want to own it. I want to be the one in control. That is the reason why a lot of Nigerians have setbacks.

So, we need to change that mindset of ownership. And that is one of the things that have kept a lot of Africans, Nigerians small. So I will close with this, take a share of something. And with that, a lot of us can start looking at how can we actually invest in real estate companies that are abroad. Because here, your monies are secured. Regardless of the economy, your money is secure.

TheCable: How can one build a successful real estate business in Nigeria, especially Lagos? 

Daniel Moses: In order to run a business in Nigeria and Lagos, the legal system needs to be robust. That is the first thing. You see, the reason why someone like myself has been able to do some tremendous things in the United Kingdom is because of the fact that there is law and order. In order for any business to thrive in any country, there has to be law and order. 

I will give an example; in the last three years, I have raised private investors, human beings who followed me on social media and became acquaintances. They were able to invest with me because they know, God forbid, if the worst was to happen, there is a legal structure that can be upheld. 

In Nigeria, if you borrow me N1 million, if I cannot pay you, which court in Nigeria can enforce it? If you offer people a dud cheque in Nigeria, the cheque bounces, or you present the cheque, which court? Let us be very realistic. For the layman who has nothing, how many dud cheques can he sue people for?

So, until the legal system is restructured, we cannot even begin to start. I give a lot of massive kudos to those that have thriving businesses in Nigeria because this is a major challenge. So, until we fix our legal structure, and make sure that the court system works, and that when people do business, the legal contract will be upheld and maintained. 

TheCable: Are you looking to teach celebrities about property investment, seeing as influencers like Woli Arole attend your summits?

Daniel Moses: Well, interestingly, not just Woli Arole. To God be the glory, yesterday, I had a very interesting chat with Ali Baba who interviewed me on Instagram Live and wanted to get into my mindset of how I got to where I am. 

Recently, I and the likes of Sujimoto connected through Instagram, and recently as well, the likes of Seyi Law. All these Nigerian actors are reaching out to me. And one of the things you know, that is happening right now, I think there is an awakening of the wealth creation mindset. Because we now know that it is time to diversify our income.

Most of these highly influential people usually do not understand how to diversify their income. This is the reason why for example, many have come and gone. Nigerian footballers have played football abroad and they shipped all those money back home and they had nothing. Ten years later they were dead-broke in Nigeria because while they were here, they did not think about investing in a more stable economy. They shipped all the money back to Africa. And when that money got back to Africa, they discovered that very soon, the money that they shipped to Africa became devalued.

And they now struggle to go back to the status quo. Now is the time to cross-pollinate your wealth. The same way you are shipping money to Nigeria should be shipping money and investing in the US, a stable economy. It is called diversification of income. So for me, the likes of Woli Arole, it is not an acquaintance. It is genuine. He attended my three-day summit, stayed in a class, took pictures, and promoted. That was out of his goodwill. And so many others are on their way.

So what we are doing is actively helping people open up their minds, you know, through educating people. What property wealth education is doing is to really open the eyes of many to say actually wealth creation is not created by cash but wealth creation is created by debt and the more you understand your contribution to debt and leverage more debt to create wealth, the better. And this is the reason why property wealth education is out there these days, banking on and helping so many people open their eyes that listen to the difference between good debt and bad debt. 

So until people learn to invest in themselves. Until they learn to play out the funds, learn to find people like myself who have understood the system, and mastered the system creatively, especially black people, we are going to remain in abject poverty.