In the past week I have been reflecting on the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic and what it means for us going forward as individuals, families, employees, business owners, entire economies and the world. What I have come to know is that I have very little understanding of this impact. I think few do. There is just so much I can’t answer, and I probably don’t even know what the right questions are to be asking.
What I share below is my perception of the immediate effect and some thoughts I have on the situation we’re in.

The term force majeure is often only raised in a business context, but I believe it is relevant across the board right now. Your personal view of the world will determine if you see this as a disaster or as a blessing. It will determine if you see it as an obstacle to what you were going to achieve or as a catalyst to achieve your goals. It will determine if you see this as a threat to how you planned to do things or an opportunity to redefine them.

Whether this came from bats, a laboratory, an act of nature, God stepping in or 5G – none of that matters. It is here now, that is all that matters.
This force majeure is upon us. But what is a force majeure? Continue reading → Force Majeure: COVID-19 The Catalyst?

If you’re South African, you are quite accustomed to seeing people begging at street corners and traffic lights. In fact, it is quite sad that most of us, South Africans, are actually desensitised to this. It is almost ‘normal’ already. As a South African or someone that has visited SA, you may also be familiar with car guards and many other types of people you might be enticed to give money to on your way to work, to a friend’s house or the shops.
The reason I decided to write a blog about this was because I have been wondering about the value exchange when transacting with a beggar, juggler, dancer, window washer or car guard.

Continue reading → My Wish For The Beggar

It’s the day of national elections in South Africa as I write this. I am on a plane descending, about an hour away from OR Tambo (Johannesburg) International Airport. After I land, I will grab an Uber, go say hi to my mom and then go home to drop off my bags before I head to the voting station. It’s an important election year in South Africa (SA) because it is our first since our previous president left office. He almost crippled our country because his [ruling] party let him get away with things a president should not even be involved in. The damage he did in nine years will take at least two decades to undo if all goes well. Will we see change after this election? Will the voice of the people be recorded on their ballot papers to show their dissatisfaction with our current state of affairs in SA? Or will we see more of the same? The next few months will tell. It’s an important time for me as I return to South Africa from Canada – having experienced everything SA can be, I hope this election will produce change in the country I love so much.

For those who haven’t been to Canada before, I wanted to share this. Previous visits have been holiday mode and more focussed on just having fun, but this time around I decided to record some of the things I find interesting, peculiar, funny, frustrating or great about Canada in comparison to SA. Some of it is inconsequential and I put it here just because it might be interesting, but other things matter a lot when I think about how much better SA could be if we implemented or adopted some of them… Continue reading → Canada and South Africa – Some Cool and Some Important Differences

Have you ever felt like you or what you do has reached the sell-by date? Like it is time to move on, -up, -out?

I am not referring to feeling pissed off at your boss because she leaves earlier than you or when you want to throw a stapler at Pete in Accounts because your expense claim hasn’t been approved.

I mean when you actually feel like there is nothing more for you to do here, nothing more to learn, nothing more to contribute or to extract. When you feel you have come to a metaphorical cross-road and have the urge to change direction. Maybe you are there now, maybe you’re looking ahead, you see the cross-road coming. It is not a feeling that just popped up because your co-workers or spouse have been irritating you. It’s not made up of emotional spikes and dips – it is more of a progressive realisation that Continue reading → Time to Pivot

I almost feel like I need to reintroduce myself. I haven’t posted a blog in months. For those of you that enjoy getting my blogs, I apologise for the silence. The last few months have been full of rewarding and challenging events. There have been some big decisions within our business and I have also had to do a lot of introspection. I have been asking myself things like what am I doing? Am I doing things with my time that make me happy or just pays my bills? What do I need to improve? What do I need to change? And within the business we have been evaluating how we do things to take it to that next level. At a personal finance level Continue reading → 4-Hour Workweeks, Empires and Employees

What I have drafted below is an extract from something I am writing. I am not sure if it will turn into a book, a chaptered blog, a guide, I have no idea. But in short, it will be centred around good business practices and lessons I have learned. This piece comes from a chapter about money; where I address beliefs around money and all the things I was taught and had to unlearn, in fact, things I am still unlearning. These are ‘lessons’ I was taught as a young person growing up. For example, that money is a scarce resource and that you could only make a lot of it with a high level of formal education, that money was the root of all evil, the list goes on.

How do these beliefs carry over into adulthood and business? To answer this question, I am going to share a discussion I would have with a younger version of myself. Knowing what I do now, I would give myself the following information and advice to put the school system in context for how it will impact the rest of my life and my beliefs around money and how it is accumulated. In this hypothetical scenario, let us assume younger me is questioning the need to learn, to get good grades or even why he should pitch up at school and how school plays a part in becoming wealthy.

Dear Younger Me,

To start, understand that school is your childhood job where your responsibility is to learn. It’s probably the only time in your life that you will be able to spend time with your friends while at work. Appreciate the things that I am about to say because school doesn’t last long, and you will reminisce someday over the time when your workday ended at 2pm and you had time for sport, hobbies and sleeping in the afternoon. The reason school is important is that it will teach you things which you will need when you enter the adult world; see school as a framework for the following lessons: Continue reading → A Lesson on Money for Younger Me

Advice worth taking

This week I would just like to show appreciation for words I grew up looking at. This poem hung in my late grandmother’s flat and I have always cherished its words. Desiderata is a prose poem, written by Max Ehrmann in 1927. The poem was written about 44 years before it became well known. Morgan Freeman has expressed how Desiderata has played a role in shaping his life. The Chainsmokers have transcribed it in one of their music videos. The list of people, bands, TV series, artists etc. that have referenced it goes on to show the impact these words have had on the world. Enjoy…

Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.  Continue reading → Desiderata