Dutch-Ghanaian entrepreneur Ellen Mannaert, 47, has reinvented herself more times than most people change jobs. She turned discarded Italian fabric into a textile redistribution business in Western Africa and Europe. She sold that company, built a hospitality empire in the Caribbean, watched Covid dismantle it and then finally took some time to decide on her next steps.
Today, Ms Mannaert splits her time between Amsterdam and Dubai, invests heavily in real estate across both markets, and is preparing to launch a 90-day online course called The Architecture of Who You Are, aimed at helping people – particularly women – understand the patterns and traumas that drive their decisions. Her monthly income runs between €100,000 ($116,000) and €150,000, she tells The National.
“I was always manifesting a better life,” she says. “Looking back, I actually got what I was daydreaming of. But it did cost me something. It cost me a lot of myself.”
How did money feature in your childhood?
I didn't come from money. I came from a very toxic background – a mother who abused us, who was an alcoholic, and a father who left. There was never safety, there was never peace, there was never a grounding moment. As soon as I turned a certain age, I left all of that behind. I didn't even want to think about it any more because of the shame.
We had days in our household when we didn't even have food. We would just eat white bread and drink tap water, and go to bed hungry. So I always knew that I needed to work for my money and be intentional with it. But I didn't know, for a long time, that I was working out of trauma, out of a toxic pattern.
What was your first job? What did you earn?
When I was 16, I worked in a clothing shop in Amsterdam. One of my colleagues sold paintings in her free time – she'd go door to door with artists' works and sell them for huge prices. She told me, “If you want to earn extra money, you can come along with me.” So I did. I was earning around $1,000 a week going out four nights and working on commission.
Then I took that money and knocked on factory doors in Italy. The high-end fashion manufacturers – producing for Gucci, Versace – had warehouses full of fabrics with small mistakes they were going to destroy. I asked if I could buy them, or take them, on the condition that I'd outsource them out of Italy entirely. So I signed contracts and brought the textiles to Africa and Eastern Europe – into stores, markets, small designers. I started at 17.
How much do you earn now?
More than seven figures. It's something I've built across decades. In real estate, I started accumulating when I was not even 18 years old, kept properties for 10 or 15 years, sold with huge profit, flipped houses in between. I'm very comfortable. But the scarcity mindset from my childhood – the fear of not having money – it will always push me forward.
What money challenges have you had?
After 15 years in textiles, I sold the company. My husband and I took our children to the Caribbean for what was meant to be a one-year sabbatical – I needed time to figure out who I was behind all the business. We ended up staying for seven years. I built a hospitality business there: restaurants, excursion companies. Then Covid hit, and everything stopped.
When we returned to the Netherlands, I finally saw the pattern. I was always jumping into the next adventure, putting all my energy into something new – just so I didn't have to sit still with myself and deal with my childhood. I started getting sick. Anxiety, burnout, hypertension. My doctors couldn't find the cause, but it was still there. It was only then that I really started to work on myself.
How do you grow your wealth?
Real estate – holding it, flipping it, renting it out. I've also sold companies for significant sums, but if we're talking about millions, it's real estate.
I'm also investing heavily in the Dubai market now, though I'd caution people who don't have experience as investors. I see a lot of people coming here and needing to pull out early because they're losing money – especially with off-plan, they can't maintain the payment plan. When I came to Dubai, even with enough money in the bank, I rented for a year first. I wanted to know the culture, the agencies, the builders, the market. If you just go with the hype, you can make mistakes.
Are you a spender or a saver?
Both. I don't spend what I don't have – but what I have, I like to spend. I spend a lot on travel, on myself, on health care, on my home, on living well. I don't care much about cars. But travel has always been where I've spent most freely, and I think that's the biggest blessing I could give my children – the privilege of showing them the world when they were younger.
What's been your best investment?
Real estate, without question.
But investing in myself has been just as important. I created my online course, The Architecture of Who You Are, because I saw a pattern in other women that mirrored what I went through: performing for decades without knowing it, making decisions based on trauma or the need for approval, and then wondering why success still didn't feel like enough.
What financial advice would you give your younger self?
Because of my childhood, I was so afraid of not having money that I was too cautious, and I missed a few opportunities because of it.
What I've learnt is that money is not the problem, and it's not even the solution. The problem is usually the person behind the money – and how they think and go about with money. You can inherit a fortune and lose it in a year if your mindset isn't right.
That's what I tell my children too. And the more comfortable you are with earning money, having money, and spending money when you earn it, the more you'll earn.
Money needs to flow. It's not something you just keep on the bank and stare at.
