Good day Vusi

Ian from Men’s Health here. Thanks for offering your advice, it would be great to have your opinion in the story.
The story will be for an upcoming business issue and will be centred on overcoming the “stuck in a rut” situations by inspiring more creative perspectives and approaches to the challenges of work. I would appreciate it if you could answer these five questions for me.

Q:Getting an opportunistic entrepreneur’s mindset is difficult when stuck in a rut. What mental adjustments do people have to make to break out from the rut of the daily grind?

A: Have a moment of nothing for yourself. The challenge with us men, is we are so consumed with fulfilling the various roles we play (fathers, sons, professionals) we rarely take the time to disconnect. Disconnect from the world and its pressures, disconnect from society and its expectations and just be with ourselves. Our relationship with ourselves is not dissimilar to our relationship with our work or our partners: the more spent nurturing it, the better. So spend time with yourself.

Second: set targets. What is a target? They must be Tangible, Achievable, Realistic, Get up & go stuff (it must get you excited), Expansive (they must be comprehensive so that you can get your teeth into them, wide-ranging so that you are excited by the how big and different each of the targets is), and Tough (it must be difficult so you can test yourself. Entrepreneurship is more a battle in the mind than in the real world: you must test yourself so that you can prove to yourself that you have what it takes to get what you want!)

Just like a wild animal having its first taste of blood, entrepreneurship is about getting your first BIG success. So go for the BIG targets to build confidence. The best tool to getting your mind right is to win!

Q: As an entrepreneur, you’ve made your own calculated risks. What is your approach to “risky” decisions?

A: My decision have not always been calculated (chuckling to self); but calculating risk is more instinct that spreadsheet. In-fact, unless you’re a bank, spreadsheets are the worst risk calculators because they don’t tell you what happens in the real world and can’t forecast the biggest success driver, human behaviour.
The best way to develop this instinct is to exercise it: take small risks with small rewards and watch the outcome. In time you become better at sifting through the nonsense, getting to the crux of the matter and calculating risk. That’s why seasoned business people can tell an opportunity from a mouse trap in minutes. They’ve had the time to practice that skill.

My approach to risk is simple: don’t bet what you’re not willing to lose, to gain what you don’t have to have!

Q: In the descriptions of your talks on your website, you describe the business strategies of the foreign township shop owner as shrewd, simple and clear. Why are they so successful and what can we learn from them?

A: They do three key things:

Culture: they immerse themselves in their customer’s culture. If they are from Bangkok and operate a business in Lebowakgomo, they will learn, understand & speak better sePedi than the locals. For them, understanding a customers’ culture & operating a business that caters to him are 2-sides of the same coin. They learn you before they serve you!

Instinct: they don’t have the capital to invest in complex IT systems so they have to develop an amazing instinct for what will work and for which market. In Limpopo, they keep and trade Maupane worms like clockwork. Even selling it at a premium. Why? Because their market sees it as a delicacy. In Bloemfontein, they sell White Star maize meal not Iwisa because that market believes White Star is superior. In the Eastern Cape they issue week-long credit to their customers because not repaying your credit is a deeply shameful act in rural South Africa. They count on social pressure for risk management.

They have their finger on the pulse: they know what the other guys are selling, where their buying the stock from and at what prices. They are anal about market intel and use it to out-manouvre their immediate competition. When it comes to competition they don’t guess, they research, research & research!

Q: How do you stay motivated and positive in these challenging economic times?

A: Consistent motivation is difficult to achieve. What is more possible is consistent will, and will drives motivation. To build will you need to have targets that are larger than just you and your immediate circumstance. They must address some business gap OR societal need. The easiest way to stay motivated is to know that need and be clear about how you are intending to cater for it.

You speak about people who see opportunity and prosperity as black sheep. What changes in perspectives do people have to make to become a black sheep?

Passion is not enough: the people that change the world are not passionate. The businesses that have outlived their competitors are not driven by passion. They are obsessed! They don’t sleep at night thinking about the next day, the next task, the next mission, the next frontier, the next … They’re obsessed with the next!

Action is not enough: simply taking action is no-longer enough. To believe you must just do, just take action & that’s enough is common fallacy. Black Sheep believe in mastery. They want to be best at their trade, the best at their game, the most innovative in their industry. Black Sheep don’t act, they master.

Success is not enough: Black Sheep understand that the only true form of success is significance! You, your product or your offering must matter and be irreplaceable to your market. You must have something that your competitors cannot copy and deliver something your customers cannot do without. Do that & you become significant!

Excerpt from my input to Mens Health Magazing, March 2012.

Or are we?

Are we not destined for greatness? Are we not destined to challenge the status quo? Are we not intended to redefine definitions? Are we not good enough? Just because we are black, from extremely poor backgrounds and have no connections they would have us believe that we are not good enough; that we cannot change the way the world works; that we are just to resign ourselves to the inherent hopelessness of our lives.

Who are they you ask. The agency.

No matter what your dreams, every journey has its “agencies”. One or more groups of people that would have you believe that they know that which you don’t, have access to doors that cant imagine and control relationships and resources you’ve only read about.

This piece I dedicate to telling the truth, “THEY ARE LYING!” They are grossly misrepresenting themselves, their sphere of influence and the impact of their work. In a recent letter to the agency this is what I wrote:

Dear agency:

I am not your next run-of-the-mill, willing to let his career trickle along, ordinary speaker. I am not interested in what you think will or will not work. Frankly I have seen more, done more, achieved more and will become more precisely because I have not to-date and will not from this point forward take your advice. When I started you gave me all the reasons I couldnt achieve my wildest dreams. Everybody – even the now has-beens – was better than me, had more talent than me and most significantly destined for more than me.

When I told you I was starting a business you convinced yourself it wouldn’t work. You found the most amazing stories and angles of why I was not the one to make it work. You told me great stories about the other guys: the achievers destined for greater things. It seemed that no matter what I did, no matter how courageous my hustle you just couldn’t bring yourself to admit it. “I am black, beautiful, youth, strong” and most importantly “destined to change the world”.

The most effective way to deal with these near-do-wells is this 4-step process:

1. Get informed

Education doesn’t make you smart its just makes you educated. I attend at least course of study every-year and commit to reading about things that interest me and things that don’t interest me, to get informed.

2. Stop asking for permission

if you ask permission from people you will never get it. The truth is that most of the people walking this earth hate what they’ve become, hate that they didn’t live up to their potential and hate that you still have the opportunity to. If you ask them for permission, you’ll never get it!

3. Expect resistance

if you want a smooth ride then just go-along with those that go-along. But if you want significance, respect and reverence remember that you are going to make someone uncomfortable. Uncomfortable because you challenge their world order. Do it anyway.

4. Know your truth,

Be clear on what defines you. Answer the question “who am I?” and in answering it, don’t include the material things for which you long or the fame and notoriety you feel you deserve. When its all said and done and you stripped of your presumed identity, who are you?
My definition of self is this, “I am man. I am artist. I am orator. I am the epitome of potential in youth, absolute and extreme!”

What’s yours?

When I grew up school holidays were filled with the entire neighbourhood playing I’skopti and street against street soccer tournaments. Each street had its own “star”, an individual that played better than anyone else from that street. We even gave them cool international names like “Maradona wa-banna” and Dr. Khumalo. Contrary to the real Dr. Khumalo, ours had a skin complexion darker than a car security guard from Limpopo. He was dark, ugly and had the reddest (excuse the incorrect use of English, but its January) lips you ever saw, but give credit where it’s due; guy was a helluva’ soccerplayer. I wondered past his house the other day when I was visiting my mother and was told that he was in prison for some of other crime. Isn’t it funny how in every township, no matter how big or small there are more than enough of these stories: extremely talented individuals who achieved nothing with their talent. They threw it away for a ready supply of Carling Black Label, dating the local hot girl (who by the time they’d “shela’d” her, had been with more taxi drivers and Shuga-daddies than Brooke had had husbands on that God-awful daily soap) and a reputation for being the coolest loser amongst the losers.
Such great talent, wasted!

I have over the past few months been on a national roadshow with the premium mens’ lifestyle magazine, Destiny Man and Remy Martin talking to men of substance about substantive matters. During each presentation I raise the issue of talent. We talk entrepreneurship exclusively of talent in this country. Consider this, “where would the world be without Mark Zuckerberg’s contribution to it by way of facebook?” or “where would the employees of Capricorn FM be had Given Mkhari not taken his talent and passion for media and turned it into real economic enterprise?” Examples of people who have turned their talents into turnover are limitless. I have before made this point and will continue to insist on this, the real barrier to youth entrepreneurship development in South Africa is not access to capital, its rather that young people don’t understand the economic value of their God given talents. What separates the above examples is that they had the vision to see how their talent could change the world. Maybe Loocha magazine should coordinate a perfect storm: they fill the room with young, hungry and talented people and I deliver not only these motivational stories but also our business readiness methodology where we teach you not only how to monetize your talent but also how to manage it like a business. Just a thought.

But what we must all concede is that what separated timeless musicians like Billy Holiday, Ray Charles and Michael Jackson is that they understood the power of talent and used it to change the world. I have been to parts of the world where clubs play Brenda Fassie and Yvonne Chaka-Chaka and people (who have no knowledge of isiZulu) dance as if it were their last night out. What it is that makes their music this relevant? Why are they so iconic? Simple, they understood the power of their talents and used them.
This New Year can be a year of triumph or trial for you. It can be a year of joy or jealousy. It can be a year of life or loss. You choose.

Just remember: God tends to claim back his talents from those who don’t use them.

Before I continue, let me add my now famous disclaimer: I am not a prude! I, just like you, enjoy a good time. Ok ke.
What are the facts? Since the year 2000, more young people have died from alcohol related traffic accidents than from wars or civil restitution; and for every successful youth business created, sixteen young people are incarcerated for alcohol related offences. We could argue ad nausea about why this is, but my feeling is that we haven’t taken ownership of our generational destiny yet. We are still unclear about what we want our generation to achieve. We don’t know what contribution our generation will make to society and we don’t think about what our common future will look like.

Throughout history young people have been the force that’s pushed civilization forward. Young people started the civil disobedience campaign in America, young people started civil riots against the French slave masters in Cote d’Ivoire who tried to impose a head tax that would have seen a majority black citizenry finance the privileges of a minority white elite. Young people created the major technology firms whose products are so ubiquitous today, you’d swear you and I where born with a iPad in the one hand and an BlackBerry in the other. Yet, even with all these examples at our google fingertips, young people are still the most affected when it comes to unemployment, crime and sexual diseases. History – it seems – is not without a sense of irony.

I am not impressed by the young people we see demonstrating the lack of service delivery in the townships. I am not impressed by the noisemakers who are far too concerned with winning their political agenda than advancing youth issues.

As you attend the December festivals and celebrations, I want you ask yourself the question, what will it take? What will it take for our generation to meet, gather, discuss, debate & mobilise ourselves to solve our issues. For as long as we let the older generations set the agenda on youth matters we will continue to feel ignored, unattended and disenfranchised. In posing this question to many young people, the answer I always get is, “it aint cool to be conscious of the lasting impact of our current actions”. We feel like its better that less is said around issues that matter. How about we stage a street bash and instead of serving alcohol we serve knowledge, factual content and stories of what other young people are doing; instead of playing L’vovo Dirango’s latest hit, we play inspirational speeches by Steve Biko, Haile Silasie and Kwane Nkrumah & instead of partying until midnight, we argue ferociously on substantive issues. In essence, how about we stage a night vigil aimed at educating, sharing and inspiring all of us to take charge.

December is a time for relaxing, partying, connecting with old friends and family. Lets just remember to do it responsibly, after all as Morgan Freeman says in the 1989 hit movie Lean on Me, “Discipline is not the enemy of enthusiasm”.

Disclaimer: This article is for the mental consumption of a young person. The language that’s about to follow should be acceptable to many – albeit not all – of you.

How many times are people going to tell you what you can and cannot do just because you are young? I am sick of the “you are not ready yet” statements that are being hurled at young people daily. How many of our childhood friends are now confined to being cashiers at their local grocers or being interns at the same firm for months on end. I am less irritated that they are being undermined like this, but rather more perturbed that they are accepting it.

If (and yes my Grade 10 English teacher did tell me never to start a sentence with a conjunction) the world will not give you want you want; you must take it. If the world doesn’t believe in you; your ambitions; ideas and perspective then fcuk the world.

I am inspired by the generation of Steve Jobs, Steve Biko and Kenoru Hampi ( the world youngest chess grandmaster at 15-years old). If you follow history, the people that have changed the norms of human sociology have always been young people. When Patrice Lumumba was imprisoned, he was all but a young man in 20s. Jobs (a college dropout) created the Apple business when he was 21years old and Steve Biko was more significant at 28 then many 65year-olds alive today.

Just to be clear, I am not saying that as young people we shouldn’t revere age, wisdom and experience but truthfully I think it is that very experience that is over-rated. The one thing all of the above people have in common is not education, race or background; it is rather they were all NAÏVE enough to think that they can do the most outrageous things. You see experience is, to coin an overused youth expression, “not all that”. Experience will tell you what you cannot do, what you should not do, what is social unacceptable to do. Fcuk that!

Our revolution today is about how we take our entire country forward, jointly as young people of all races. We need to be brave enough to challenge authority, to do what is unpopular and to cause trouble. We must be a “disruptive attack” on our societal norms. Imagine if Sydney Poitier in the now critically acclaimed 1967 movie “in the heat of the night” refused to slap-back Rod Steiger (a white man) because it might cause a stir. Where would we be?

I don’t want to be part of – as we are now called – a simple “party generation”. I want to be a part of a generation of troublemakers, rebel rousers and manufacturers of discomfort. I want to be part of a group of people more motivated by the difference we can make, than the economic benefits that come with keeping to the status quo.

I am 26 years old, arguably the most accomplished speaker in South Africa and yet nowhere near my peak. I have just returned from speaking to 40, 000 people at the Berkley stadium in the US. I have been ranked 3rd in the world and speak in 17 countries every-year. My competitors hate me because I cause them a great deal of discomfort: I LOVE THAT! I am not here to honour the status quo; I am here to let all young people know that anything is possible, if you are willing to cause a bit of trouble.

Lets us tell you what the Speakers Bootcamp is not: its another a workshop only for motivational speakers that want to better their business. Our Speakers Bootcamp is for anyone looking to improve their public speaking ability and turn themselves into a presentation rock star! Whether you’re an entrepreneur, a young professional, a manager or just someone wanting to better themselves and stand out from the crowd, the Speakers BootCamp is for you.

Convened by 2-time World Public Speaking Champion Vusi Thembekwayo, the Speakers BootCamp is a program designed to turn anyone into a public speaking genius.

How many times have you had to prepare & deliver a presentation for your team or work environment and then thought “that could have gone better”? Better still, are you the person that gets so nervous when given the task that you can barely cope with the pressure of expectations? Through the BootCamp we give you the tools to speak better, look better and do better. Our team of evangelists are experts at their particular trade. Whether its giving you the cutting-edge to do on designing presentations or latest and best tips on Personal Branding, these guys Rock!

Our program has been tailored and delivered to several corporate clients with rave reviews. Check the review section for some of that feedback. Book here for the next Speakers Bootcamp.

Speakers Bootcamp: what not to expect!

Fortunately our Speakers Bootcamp is a lot of fun. Everyone participates and everyone contributes to the content. We have an evangelist network that includes thought leaders and industry experts like Personal Brand philosopher Timothy Maurice Webster, visual communication guru Job Bakama and media expert Thato Mataboge amongst others. Their dynamic backgrounds contribute to the Speakers content, depth and variety to the Speakers Bootcamp.

So whether you want to be clearer about your personal brand essence or you want to shock your colleagues and friends with what can only be described a kick-ass presentations & a new you, the Speakers Bootcamp is where you should be.

Check the review section for some feedback to previous BootCamps.

Speakers Bootcamp: who should come and why.

Forget what you do for a living, if you want to better arm yourself with a handy-bag of tools, tricks and abilities that will separate you from your peers then this is the space to be part of. The Speakers Bootcamp is best described by its tag line, speakers better: look better: do better. For young professional, managers and entrepreneurs though the impact is instant and hard-hitting. Think about this: your life’s most important career moments all have one common thread, public speaking. Whether its pitching for new business, presenting an innovation to your work team or inspiring your clients and staff, public speaking is always the skill required.

So frankly, come to the bootcamp if you want to get ahead!

check out the Speakers Bootcamp website on www.speakersbootcamp.co.za or call 011 513 3512

In my few years on this earth, I have been reading P&Ls; managing margins and firing people for as long as care to remember. Yet each of the people I have encountered and admired, like Steven Cohen; MD of Softline Pastel, have never flashed the titles or education at me. The fact that I know Steven is a CA is consequence of me meeting him at a SAICA event, it wasn’t on his business card or in his elevator speech.

Why am I making this point?

Simple, when we aspiring business people stop over-selling the illusion, cut the clutter and represent our truth we will truly begin to conquer. The BS and the clutter simply stands in the way of what can be and we spend our time trying to live to an illusion that neither we, nor our perceived victims believe. We must educate ourselves: you cannot be a CEO unless you have a board. So that the fact that many one-man-bands constituted as cc called themselves CEOs is frankly a reflection of their “lack of”. Lack of what? Lack of discipline to cut the clutter, get past the bullshit and just achieve. Lack of acquiring knowledge about the many buzzwords and concepts out there. Lacks of believing in the self! Lack of wanting to be seen as the guy behind the action. I still get involved in every transaction with every customer that my company services. This isn’t because we are small (even though we are); it is because I have systems in the business that tell me what is happening at any given time.

Just in case you were wondering, my business card reads Vusi Thembekwayo, Rock Star of speakers!

My appeal then is that we educate ourselves on what these concepts mean before we adopt and mutilate them!

Psychology? Yes, psychology!

In training and working as a professional speaker, what has without question propelled my career is understanding and mastering the psychological aspects of public speaking. I say aspects in plural because there are many. The problem with many of the books out there is that the focus is internal. It’s all about changing your behaviours and technique. And to the extent that there is a drive to foster understanding your audience, its simply statements like “know your audience”. Finish and klaar. That’s not enough!

Whether you’re a young professional, a manager or an entrepreneur/business owner, public speaking is one of the most critical skills you can ever have. A huge part of being successful rests on your ability to persuade others, and that’s all public speaking is, persuasion. If you cant connect with people, you cannot persuade them and if you cannot persuade, you will never be successful. I just read a tweet by Claire Mawisa saying that said not all good leaders are good public speakers & vice versa. What nonsense! Or actually … you’re right Claire, but all great leaders are decent public speakers.

In today’s society, public speaking is more important than ever. I have too much to share on this subject so my next few blogs will focus on this.

So let me leave with the proverbial 3-tips for public speaking:

1. Forget technique, the audience doesn’t care about your technique, they want to hear you. The authentic you. Your story & your perspective.

2. What the story?
People love stories so give them stories. Honest authentic stories that cannot be duplicated and make the delivery honest and heart-felt.

3. Don’t try and be funny. It never works. If you are funny, then great, if not then don’t manufacture a sense of humour – just do you.

What separates Wael Ghonim from that young person who lives as a victim of his circumstance in Swaziland? What separated Patrice Lumumba from all those that came before him that didn’t achieve what he did? What ever happened to MC Hammer?

You may think that these questions have nothing to do with each other but you couldn’t be further from the truth. Each of the above individuals – no matter their notoriety or achievements – have one thing in common: the moment! The moment is something we all have every single day. It’s that opportunity to start something great, to change something archaic or to challenge something unjust. The moment is that point at which we each make the decision that we are no longer satisfied with the prevailing status quo and then DARE to change it.  If you don’t know Wael Ghonim, he is the youth that ran revolution 2.0  – the Facebook and twitter campaign that ultimately toppled now former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. For his efforts he was detained for 10 days without charge. If you think about it, Wael was stupid enough to think that he can change the lives of everyone that lived in Egypt. Who or what was he? Nothing! Just another civilian.

(Watch this video for why he did what he did here!)