Shatta Wale Urges UPSA Students To Be Themselves: “Don’t Copy My Lifestyle, Copy My Mindset”
The Kofi Ohene-Konadu Auditorium at UPSA was packed this afternoon for one of the most anticipated sessions of the UPSA 1000 & Ghana Entrepreneurship Conference.
Headlining the day was Ghanaian music icon and entrepreneur, Charles Nii Armah Mensah, popularly known as Shatta Wale. The theme for “A Day With Shatta Wale” was brand building, creativity and digital entrepreneurship — and Shatta Wale delivered it in his own unfiltered way.
Dressed simply in a Black t-shirt, a blue jeans, and a sneaker, and speaking directly to the students, the dancehall king had a clear message: authenticity is the real business strategy.
Shatta Wale told students he could have easily shown up to impress them with luxury.
“Don’t copy my lifestyle but copy my mindset. Once upon a time someone told me I’m unpredictable and I said yes. Me coming to UPSA, I could have wore a Versace suit, be in a Rolls Royce or Lamborghini. But that doesn’t come with the mindset of doing things.”
For him, showing up as himself was the lesson. The flamboyant outfits and cars are the result, not the formula.
“I just wanted to be me. The Shatta Wale you guys know, the guy on stage, the guy you watch on TikTok and laugh is the same person you’re seeing here. Just that, as I’m standing here, I’m standing here with a mindset and that’s what I want all of you to learn and be yourselves,” he said.
The students applauded after that line; a reminder that they have come to understand the power in being yourself.
