Ghanaian-UK entrepreneur and founder of Konnected Minds Podcast, Derrick Abaitey, says many musicians struggle financially because they lack the financial management skills needed to sustain and grow their earnings.
Speaking on The Career Trail on Joy Learning TV and JoyNews, Derrick said his experience in the music industry exposed him to a recurring trend where artistes who achieved major success later faced financial difficulties.
“I figured out that a lot of musicians were going broke after getting their big hits,” he observed.
According to him, the challenge is often not the ability to make money but the inability to manage and invest those earnings wisely.
“The skill to make money and the skill to keep money working are two different things,” he explained.
Derrick noted that the same situation applies to professionals in various fields who earn significant incomes but fail to build sustainable wealth beyond their active careers.
“You can be employed and make so much money from your paycheck, but once that employment is taken away, you can go broke again because the money was only coming from one source,” he said.
He cited footballers and politicians as examples of people who may earn substantial incomes but can face financial difficulties if they fail to develop proper money management skills.
“You can have a great footballer earning a lot of money, but if there’s no financial management, once football is taken away, the person can go broke again,” he stated.
“Even a lot of politicians come into power, get all the money they get, but when they leave office, they lose money again. It’s because the skill to keep money working and the skill to make money are two different things,” he added.
For Derrick Abaitey, sustainable wealth is achieved when talent is combined with sound financial decisions.
“When talent mixes with financial management, that’s when wealth is made,” he stressed.
He encouraged creatives and other professionals to develop business and financial management skills or seek guidance from people with expertise in those areas.
“I would advise anybody to take the path they need to take. However, you have to have business acumen. If you don’t have it, hire people who do and, more importantly, listen to them,” he advised.
The Konnected Minds founder also cautioned against the practice of hiring experts without taking their advice seriously.
“Most people hire people they don’t listen to. They bring them onto the team, but they don’t take their advice. That’s one of the reasons people make money and still lose it,” he concluded.
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