Aly-Khan Satchu’s story – My Escape from the Gilded Box

Aly-Khan Satchu’s story – My Escape from the Gilded Box

MARCH 25, 2014 – Aly-Khan Satchu was born in Mombasa and graduated from the University of Durham. His career history includes the Global Trading Desk at Credit Suisse First Boston, MD of Sumitomo Bank, Treasurer and Director at ANZ Investment Bank and Executive Director at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein.

In 2006, aged 40, he quit his blossoming London career and returned to Kenya. Why? To answer this Aly-Khan shared his inspiring homecoming journey, “My Escape from The Gilded Box”. What box was Aly-Khan referring to? The quote from Nasim Taleb gave some strong clues:

“ They are born, then put in a box; they go home to live in a box; they study by ticking boxes; they go to what is called “work” in a box, where they sit in their cubicle box; they drive to the grocery store in a box to buy food in a box; they go to the gym in a box to sit in a box; they talk about thinking “outside the box”; and when they die they are put in a box. All boxes, Euclidian, geometrically smooth boxes.

Despite all the achievements in his incredible career Aly-Khan was not satisfied with his career. He had to escape this box he was in. It was not just an ordinary box. It was a gilded box. A gilded box in the financial capital of the world, London! Aly-Khan’s biggest worry was how he would respond to his children when they asked him where he was when Africa was lifting off. Aly-Khan had seen the potential in Africa and felt that to take part in this new growth story he had to be on the continent. He was not going to be a distant observer, he would be a participant right in the middle of the action.

http://homecomingrevolution.com/blog/2014/03/25/aly-khan-satchus-story-escape-gilded-box/

---

Related: