The Chief Executive Officer of the KAMA Group of companies says one of the biggest secrets of success in life is to be reliable.

While acknowledging the need to be honest at all times Dr Michael Agyekum Addo maintains honesty without reliability is ordinary.

Quoting portions of his book “The seven principles of success and wealth creation” in an interview with Myjoyonline.com, Dr Agyekum Addo said “because of the certainty associated with reliability more than honesty, the first principle I have realized as key to success and wealth creation is to practice reliability more.”

“A reliable person is automatically honest but not the other way round” he emphasized.

The accomplished entrepreneur who tasted poverty at some point of his life but now swims in riches lamented how Ghanaians have made an industry out of living an unreliable life.

He said it is fashionable for people to miss appointments; deliberately issue dud cheques, borrow money from people with a promise of paying at an appointed time and reneging on that promise and making several other promises they know they will never keep.

Dr Agyekum said one may have been honest in paying a debt a year after an agreed repayment date; or may have turned up for a meeting several hours later than originally scheduled but those people are not reliable and cannot be said to be trustworthy.

He said such people cloth their dysfunctional lives with very appealing words or phrases  such as “unfortunately”, “Ghana Time”,  “I forgot”, “there was heavy traffic”, “it rained all morning,” etc. all in the hope of getting sympathy from the victims of their wayward lifestyles.

The KAMA CEO said what follows such behaviors is non performance, and that leads to failure and subsequently poverty.

“Wealth creation has a lot to do with being reliable, with no excuses in whatever endeavor we find ourselves in,” he pointed out.

Apart from being reliable, the philanthropist outlined six other principles underlining the success story of the KAMA group of companies. 

He named, savings, investment, being guided by history, a God fearing attitude and patience as the path to changing the fortunes of many Ghanaians.