257: Is Africa Actually Difficult, or Just Different? with Curt Laird
- E257
- 56:33
- September 17th 2026
In this episode, Brett sits down with Curt Laird to tackle a core question facing investors and entrepreneurs across the continent: Is doing business in Africa actually difficult, or simply different?
Curt brings a rare depth of firsthand experience in frontier and emerging markets. Having spent years building and operating businesses in high-stakes, complex environments—navigating ventures in Afghanistan, transitioning through West Africa in Nigeria, and establishing operations in Kenya—Curt offers a grounded, practitioner's view of what it truly takes to build sustainable enterprises in dynamic economies. Together, they discuss moving past conventional assumptions, understanding local context, and developing the resilience required to thrive where others see insurmountable barriers.
The Afghanistan thread matters. Someone who built a business there until the Taliban made it impossible, then picked themselves up and went to Nigeria, then Kenya — that is a person with a very specific kind of resilience and a very specific set of filters for what "difficult" actually means. Is Africa really difficult?
Based on principles in my new book: https://a.co/d/01FbgINs
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Repurposing Business
A podcast encouraging business owners, entrepreneurs and leaders to get their business into God's business, and to do business for more than just the bottom line. The podcast explores capital, leadership, generosity, work-life integration and societal transformation. Brett Johnson interviews leaders from around the world on topics including Web3, AI, kingdom economics and finding meaning at work in a post-pandemic era.
-- Brett Johnson, brettjohnson.biz