Whispers of an entrepreneur

John Legend at the Citi Presents Evenings with Legends show on 29 January 2014 in New York. I went to my first concert  –   John Legend , not one to be swayed by popular culture, I was initially very apprehensive to go to this event. Largely to appease my beautiful wife  –  I decided to swallow my idiosyncratic tendencies and comply. Sitting there waiting for the show to start, I felt quite happy I had follow through on my plan to take a stiff dose of paracetamol   –  all the screaming was going to give me a massive migraine. Mr Legend entered the stage  –  about 8 mins behind schedule ( Sorry, I am anal about schedules ). From the first syllable the gent dropped,  –  I could " see " how the female undergarments of some of the ladies dropped too. They were elated by this maestro. During the show there were some moments where I wondered about my wife too.  I know I may be her black Adon...

In anything you do, to become a success you need to put in the time, energy and effort. In Malcolm Gladwell’s book – The Outliers, Gladwell examines the factors that contribute to high levels of success. Two Roads Diverged His hypothesis is rooted in the understanding that for any one person to be highly successful (s)he needs to put in at minimum 10 000 hours into her/his craft. Whether it be an athlete or an entrepreneur. Practice, research and practical application will all contribute to a great future of success. I have been thinking more and more of this subject of late – looking to understand my purpose on this earth and what I would like to be remembered for. I think this maybe as a result of my pending 30 th birthday in a month’s time. If you take this process, breakdown your weekly spend at your pursuit, as an entrepreneur of 8 hours a day and 5 days a week (this is typically very low) – it would theoretically take you well over 5 years to make a success o...

I recently read an article in the Financial Mail on Tito Mboweni and his take on black economic empowerment  as it stands today. Common Stock Certificate To a large extent, I fully agree with Mr Mboweni's stance on how BEE has come to be conducted, both bad black and white partners have made a noble concept very disingenuous.  Having read this article, I find myself feeling quite distraught. According to the article - Tito Mboweni, the ex central banker of South Africa was declined a number of funding requirements to start various businesses. This was unfortunately not the part that distressed me - his assertion that giving security or collateral for a business loan, where you put up personal wealth is a fools errand. "I said you can’t pledge private wealth for business. They are two separate things. What we have here is a radio licence; if it does not work, you take the business. "No-one will seize my private wealth. They think I am a fool," says...

I woke up this morning with a pair of interesting questions on my mind. Bent over the bathroom basin, brushing my teeth. All this after one of my power naps – well, this is all I can call them nowadays, my lack of sleep due to insomnia keeps me up till the strangest hours of the morning. I found it strange that at such an early hour, I am already thinking about life and the direction I am taking. Back to my big questions: “Where would I rather be right now” and “What would I rather be doing now” To the former, my answer was, “ Here and now ”, I am so excited about life – spring is in the air and I feel rejuvenated. Notwithstanding the horrid feeling I get with all the pollen in the air, this time of the year is my favourite. The latter question was more interesting – what would I rather being doing now, that is with regards to my life. “I am doing what I would like to do, and do for at least the next 10 years” One of the greatest pleasures has been finding my way in th...

Two weeks ago I undertook the almost painful but joyous challenge of learning French. Being fluent in 3 languages, I thought this would be a great addition, and empower me for when I finally get to do more business on the continent (Africa). With significant countries including Côte d’Ivoire, Mauritius and some parts of Nigeria. The primary reason however is and will always be my great desire to attend INSEAD . For an entrepreneur, this institution offers some interesting executive development courses to fast-track my personal development, management skills and consequently improve my ability to grow my organization to the heights I would like it to reach. Thinking of a far distant future, putting plans and goals in order makes life very interesting. It gives one a license to dream and a chance to go for your dreams. I sometimes wonder if I am too future oriented at the expense of the here and now. This could also be the impatience of youth talking. To my knowledge...

Since the emergence of the economic classes of black diamonds and black emeralds - a steady decline in the number of black sales professionals has emerged. These new economic classes have given rise to the constant desire, and mostly fool-hearty, understanding that - in order to be successful in life, one has to be a corporate/government executive. Sales and the art of selling was discarded for the new art of lobbying and rent seeking.  The common touch made so famous by entrepreneurial juggernauts such as Herman Mashaba, and many more - who started out as sales professionals. Going door-to-door to sell a consumer product. Gaining the necessary skills to propel them into consumer driven businesses. Reading a post on one if the social networks I am on, I was amazed, OK, maybe even taken aback by the author's debate; his greatest point was the question: "how many black-owned car dealerships are there in South Africa?" Seeing that...

The year was 1993, I, a wide eyed kid was one of 6 kids making up the first wave of black kids newly welcomed to the white schools in Cradock. This was still Apartheid South Africa - though Madiba was out of prison and negotiations well on the way for a democratic South Africa. A lot of preparation went into this 'unlikely integration' - the past two years a small group of us, through the foresight of our parents, had been attending afternoon classes in learning the English language. Having been at an Afrikaans medium school, from Crèche to now - I was able to get away with communication in Afrikaans. I was lucky enough to go across the N10 - which divided Cradock with blacks on the one side and coloured or brown people on the other; to better schools than what was available in the black township. A little known fact - Afrikaans is the most widely spoken language in South Africa, even today.  During these classes we learnt the command of the language our paren...

A lot has been written and said of the passing of Prof Russell Botman. Some things were in my view fair and richly gave credit where it was due. Other things were utterly unjust and insensitive given the bereavement of the family. The latest headline I read was:” who killed Prof Botman.” I have been very lucky to have had numerous interactions with Prof Russell, from structured chats to meeting each other in the street to catch up. At all times, I found him to be a man serving his vision and taking it steady step at a time. For nothing ever worth going for takes a day, Prof Russell was well aware of the mountain he was trying to conquer and the personalities and minority factions that were opposed. Last week when we attended his funeral, I was impressed by a few points during the whole service. As big as the funeral was, it was quite intimate – where most if not everyone felt that they were welcome and appreciated for showing support. The VIP mourners and guests were...

I recently watched a Multichoice advert on 20 years of freedom , about a gentleman called Johnny Bada, who over a 20 year period has risen from a mere Multichoice installer to become a business owner with 3 DSTV agencies and a staff component of 65 individuals. Though I cannot attest to the legitimacy and truthfulness of this story, it did capture me – proving again that business and success takes time. As I have mentioned before, an overnight success takes 14 years. Us, young entrepreneurs hardly take the time to learn our craft, to master it and be regarded as an industry expert. We tend to expect quick turnarounds in business and life. Our culture of “Now” hampers the growth and development of many aspiring, talented entrepreneurs. The desire to be a Hollywood entrepreneur sometimes clouds our judgement in finding the right opportunity and gradually growing it into a multibillion enterprise. However, not all entrepreneurs will be billionaires or even millionaires (Ra...

Lately I have been having a tough time, after setting up my goals for the 6 months to June, I was very fortunate to achieve them, with varying degrees of success. After the whole period and goals achieved, I felt empty and without purpose – I was happy of the achievement and the progress made, but the ability to pursue no longer existed. Katberg Mountains - Eastern Cape, South Africa   As a friend recently commented, “maybe you should set bigger goals next time round” – I set up these goals on a biannual basis as to keep myself going and motivated with strict and clear results to be achieved. Challenging myself but also ensuring that I am realistic in my approach. Goal setting is arguably one of the most difficult things to do - to sit down and pen commitments to yourself that you are accountable for and have to evaluate your progress on yourself. A sort of personal KPIs without the whip or carrot of a manager. Annually people lay simple to complex goals - from los...

As the 1960's song, MONEY by Barret Strong goes – “the best things in life are free, you can give it to the birds and the bees, I need money, that’s what I want” Combination briefcase used to store my cash on hand I have always been interested in money, acquiring it, accumulating it and more importantly viewing or counting it. As a boy, I used to go the bank once a month, so during the time, I was conducting my various entrepreneurial activities, I would have my money safely locked up in my briefcase – hidden at the back of my clothes in the cupboard. Like any obsessed (well, more like – highly motivated) child, I would occasionally go to my room, close the door, open the cupboard, and move all the clothes out the way and grab my black leather briefcase. I would put in the combination of the lock (for the life of me, I do not remember the combination) and take out my bank bag. Inside there would be other smaller plastic bank bags, with 1c, 2c, 5c, 10c, 20c, 50c, a...

Surmounting your own Everest Most of us dream of living in that big house, driving a car that costs more than most homes in South Africa and get the opportunity to travel the world at your leisure and be financially protected and safe well beyond your grave. These are great aspirations and there is nothing wrong with them – these are some of the aspirations I have for my life. Consequently, my aspirations have a bearing on my family; for better or worse. One of the most significant things seldom discussed or delved into in entrepreneurial education and development is the effect that being an entrepreneur has on relationships in your life. Relationships with family (parents, spouses and siblings), friends and your children. We all view the great strides that the mega-super stars among our entrepreneurial fraternity – creating mega businesses with turnovers that rival the GDP of small African countries. We look at these individuals that over a short a time as 5 years have be...

Mobile Communication - Apps run the world With 900 million mobile subscribers in India, over 600 million in Africa and just over 1 billion in China, there are more mobiles in the developing world than any other devices for communication. This brings a treasure trove of opportunities for builders of mobile applications. Applications or better known as Apps – essentially pieces of software that can be purchased as stand-alone modular products according to the requirements of the user, are revolutionising the way in which we consumer software products. When you think back, all software used to come from the big software companies, you had operating systems, antivirus software and business software packs. The Netscape guys are one of the pioneers of what we today view as the App revolution and the App market. Taking nothing from Apple and its iTunes Store, they well and truly made software a wide appealing consumer product. The folks from Netscape gave us a free browser tha...

You really have to be quite crazy to leave the cushy and plush working environment of an established corporate or government department to become an entrepreneur. To go against conventional wisdom and advice to start something with no certainty of a future – let alone income potential to sustain you; where people actively and to your face wonder about your sanity. “How can such a promising person be so stupid” or “How can you be so foolish” or many other similar statements. When I took the leap, I was well on my way to rising within the Department of Science and Technology in Pretoria. They had offered me the position of Assistant Director (No idea, about the title) at the tender age of 26. I still have the letter to decline this offer – I must admit over the years when things got more than I can bare, I sometimes wondered about that letter and how life could have been had I not sent it and just reported to my new designation. With only FAITH as your north star and a drea...

We have had the elections and the results have been tallied, the African National Congress (ANC) has won – no surprise there. The Democratic Alliance (DA) has progressed and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) has become a formidable player and second contender to the leadership/rule of South Africa – who would have thought. I have mentioned before, I have great admiration for Juju , et al. as a functioning business; though I may not agree with their strategies and vision, I do admire their tenacity and entrepreneurial spirit. The most noteworthy thing for me was the rapid decline and apparent irrelevance, at least according to the voting stats, of political parties like Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) , Congress Of the People (COPE) and the United Democratic Movement (UDM) . Looking at it from a corporate outlook, this poses some interesting food for thought. If we take these three political as struggling companies, clearly with blood in the water, it would be time t...