This article is part of the series “When Dreams Need Builders” – exploring how visionaries and builders must work together to transform ideas into lasting impact.
When every breakthrough depends on one person, success becomes the very thing that kills scale.
After 20 years in business, I’ve learned something that still keeps me up at night: the very skills that help you build a company from nothing can become the chains that prevent it from scaling.
I remember the early days at Yati Group. I was spotting opportunities others missed, solving problems others couldn’t touch, negotiating deals that seemed impossible. Every breakthrough traced back to me stepping into the trenches. My team would celebrate these wins, and honestly, part of me loved being the hero who could fix anything.
But I’ve realized something dangerous was happening. In my eagerness to drive results, I was inadvertently training my builders to watch from the sidelines.
The Visionary’s Dilemma
In my experience, every visionary faces this trap. We see the opportunity faster, we understand the stakes deeper, we feel the urgency more intensely. So we step in. We close the deal, rework the pricing, fix the supplier relationship, resolve the HR dispute. The company moves forward—but only because we couldn’t wait for others to figure it out.
I’ve watched this pattern in my own business and in countless others across Africa. The entrepreneur who built everything personally continues to be the solution to everything. And here’s the uncomfortable truth I’ve had to accept: when this happens, it’s usually not because the visionary can’t let go—it’s because the builders haven’t stepped up to catch what we’re drowning in.
When Builders Watch Instead of Build
Let me be honest about what I’ve observed in my own leadership team over the years. Too often, when a crisis hits or an opportunity appears, I see the same pattern:
My finance head identifies a cash flow problem but waits for me to figure out the solution. My operations manager spots inefficiencies but expects me to redesign the process. My business development lead finds potential clients but wants me to handle the negotiation.
They’re not lazy or incompetent. They’re incredibly talented people. But somewhere along the way, they learned that bringing me problems was their job, and solving problems was mine.
The Weight of Constant Intervention
What builders don’t always see is the cost of this pattern on the visionary. I’ve realized that every time I step in to solve a problem myself, I’m not just helping—I’m also:
Exhausting my strategic capacity: The hours I spend in operational details are hours I’m not thinking about where we should be in five years, what markets we should enter, or what partnerships could transform our trajectory.
Creating dangerous dependencies: When I personally handle every breakthrough, I become the bottleneck. The company can only move as fast as I can make decisions, and that’s a terrifying limitation when you’re trying to scale.
Robbing builders of growth opportunities: Every problem I solve is a chance for one of my builders to develop their capabilities. When I consistently step in, I deprive them of the very experiences that could make them breakthrough-makers in their own right.
Building a fragile organization: If I’m the answer to every challenge, what happens when I’m not available? When I travel, get sick, or simply need to focus on strategy?
What I Need from My Builders
Over the years, I’ve come to understand what I really need from my team—and it’s not more problem identification. It’s builders who can create breakthroughs in their own domains:
In Finance: I need a CFO who doesn’t just track cash flow but builds relationships with suppliers that automatically improve our terms. Someone who creates systems that prevent cash crises rather than just reporting on them.
In Operations: I need an operations head who doesn’t wait for me to spot inefficiencies but systematically improves our processes, builds better workflows, and creates systems that get stronger under pressure.
In Business Development: I need a BD leader who doesn’t just identify opportunities but builds systematic approaches to client acquisition, creates relationships that don’t depend on my personal network, and opens markets I haven’t even considered.
In Human Resources: I need HR leaders who don’t just escalate every culture issue but build systems for team development, conflict resolution, and performance management that create sustainable high performance without my intervention.
The Builder’s Opportunity
Here’s what I’ve realized: when builders step up to create breakthroughs in their domains, they don’t just help the company—they liberate the visionary to do what visionaries do best. They free us to think long-term, spot the next big opportunity, and guide the ship instead of constantly patching holes in the hull.
In my experience, the best builders I’ve worked with understand this dynamic. They see a struggling visionary buried in operational details and think, “How can I take this burden off their shoulders?” They don’t wait for permission to solve problems—they build solutions and present results.
The MTN Lesson
I’ve studied how companies like MTN have scaled across Africa, and here’s what I’ve observed: their Group leadership sets the vision, but the breakthroughs that drive growth happen when local builders take ownership. The MTN Nigeria team doesn’t wait for Johannesburg to solve every market challenge—they build local solutions. The Eswatini operation doesn’t need Group approval to innovate their customer service—they hold their line and improve their domain.
This is what I dream of for Yati Group: builders who carry the vision so completely that when they speak about our strategy, it sounds like they invented it themselves. Not because they’re taking credit, but because they’ve made it their own mission to build it into reality.
The Builder’s Honest Assessment
If you’re a builder reading this, let me ask you some questions from my heart:
When your visionary is drowning in details that should be handled at your level, do you:
- Wait for them to figure it out and give you instructions?
- Or do you step in, take ownership, and build the solution yourself?
When challenges arise in your domain, do you:
- Immediately escalate to get the visionary’s input?
- Or do you see them as opportunities to develop breakthrough solutions that will impress and relieve your visionary?
When you look at your visionary’s calendar and see them stuck in operational meetings, do you:
- Think “that’s just how leaders lead”?
- Or do you think “I need to build systems so they can focus on strategy”?
My Personal Challenge to Builders
After 20 years of building businesses, here’s what I know: I don’t want to be the hero of every story. I want to be the visionary who set the direction, and then watch with pride as my builders create breakthrough after breakthrough in pursuit of that vision.
I want my finance leader to surprise me with creative funding solutions I never would have thought of. I want my operations head to build systems so efficient they make our competitors wonder how we do it. I want my business development team to open markets and secure clients using approaches that go beyond what I could have imagined.
This isn’t about me stepping back—it’s about you stepping up. It’s about builders who see a visionary struggling with the weight of constant intervention and say, “I’ve got this. Let me build the solution so you can focus on the vision.”
The Partnership That Scales
In my experience, the companies that truly scale are those where visionaries and builders form a powerful partnership. The visionary casts the dream, sees the big picture, and sets the direction. But the builders—the builders make it unstoppable by creating breakthrough after breakthrough in their domains.
When this partnership works, magic happens. The visionary isn’t drowning in details but is freed to think strategically. The builders aren’t waiting for instructions but are innovating solutions. The company doesn’t depend on one person’s heroics but becomes a breakthrough-making machine.
This is what I’m building toward at Yati Group. This is what I believe every African business needs to scale. Not visionaries who hoard all the decision-making, and not builders who wait to be told what to do. But partnerships where builders step up to support the vision by taking ownership of making it real.
The Call
So builders, this is my challenge to you: the next time you see your visionary buried in operational details, don’t wait for them to delegate. Step up. Build the solution. Create the breakthrough. Show them that you’re not just there to identify problems—you’re there to build the future they’ve envisioned.
Your visionary needs you to be more than spectators. They need you to be builders who can carry the dream forward, who can create progress in your domains, who can build breakthroughs that free them to do what they do best: envision what comes next.
The future belongs to this partnership. The question is: are you ready to build it?