Vusi Thembekwayo | Entrepreneurship Masterclass in Tanzania

[Music] and really excited that you guys are here so my name is Vanessa as I introduced myself before I work at Sahara ventures the Sahara stocks team lead I'm gonna see a little bit and this is my colleague his name is Lee gimmick today okay lady he's from fern marketing I'm gonna give a little bit background about Sahara ventures and he's gonna give a little bit of background about fern and we're gonna have main man come in perfect great so Sahara ventures is a group of companies with three companies first its main mission is building stable innovation ecosystem in Africa so we do this by connecting different dots and we started by dealing with Sahara consulting which is a project for impact project management firm and then we have another dot that we're currently working on which is a Sahara accelerator which we actually work with startups help them to be invest early and invest in some of the startups and then we have event management we which is a corporate event management wing and our flagship event which will be in this October in Sahara spec's themed African the fourth Industrial Revolution and I'm looking at all these faces I see you interested so I'm looking forward to seeing you this October please Thank You Vanessa pleasure to be here Ricky don't struggle to call me full name from fan marketing so fan marketing we deal with 360 marketing communication from strategy execution evaluation and go on and on and we also do event management so we're really excited to have booth and have one of his master class session with us I think you guys are going to enjoy it and Vanessa do you alright thank you so so once should they start okay so I was going through his bio and getting to know him more and I know what word should I start with first and for almost he's a serial entrepreneur a global speaker that actually his career started taking shape from the age of 17 that's so impressive and above all he's regarded as one of the most disruptive forces in the venture capital in Africa so if you're an intrapreneur here you should you know stay closer [Applause] he's the best-selling author but my most favorite is a family man so I'm just gonna take this opportunity because it's me ask him his first question how he's able to balance all that and being a family man so that is would see them acquire and you have the best audience the best entertainers from Tanzania Jambo do I need this I don't think I need it but I don't know about the guys were shooting on camera because there's care I need somebody to hold my sunglasses Sean come get these thank you sure I'll tell you how this masterclass happened actually so I landed in fact before we left I said to my team back home they said to me okay so we're going to Tanzania and I said to them great when's the master class there's no there's no master class we're going to Tanzania for Vodacom I said no I don't go anywhere without there being a master class because my whole thing is that I think actually what holds a lot of us entrepreneurs back is that we think in our own little local places and the knowledge that we a must we don't share with each other because knowledge has a premium you go to business school do you pay a lot of money to get an MBA or some sort of chartered qualification so the idea that you're gonna give it away and share it freely is kind of ridiculous so my team says well there's no master classes we'll see get on the plane we take off we land we're in the car driving with ningún the first thing I said to him was when's the master class he says well you know I don't know what the master class don't have enough time I said excuse me we're here there's time yeah we have a management meeting at the office that's actually happening today and I was supposed to be at the meeting and I said to them all you guys have the meeting without being because I'm not going into Tanzania and not speaking with entrepreneurs it's it's for me this conversation is lifeblood it's literally how I get inspiration it's sharing with you and you share with me and then and then and then and then they sit here okay so we'll do a master class and they wouldn't come back to me with the details they made one big mistake yeah they forgot that I was meeting with the CEO of Vodacom so in the evening I met with him and I certainly shall when is the master class he says what master class I said tell your people to tell your people to make sure that there's a master class so that's how we all got yeah yeah so here's the here's the format of how these these go I'll tell you actually why I started doing the master classes is because I really think that money in the Entrepreneurship ecosystem in the content of Africa goes to the wrong places we we spend more plane booking really fancy events have an amazing deck whole streets pay speakers a lot of money and that money would probably be better used and have a higher multiplier if we pulled it out of pulling events and actually put it into the entrepreneurs yeah because kind of what what's really happened is the ecosystem that supports entrepreneurs today is worth more than entrepreneurs collectively put together and that's what's wrong so I've thought to myself well this is a problem but I'm not gonna fix it by standing on the sidelines and complaining it was a Wednesday I'll never forget and I was on my drive to the office and I got on my phone I did a AG live video and I said I'm having a master class at my office for free anybody wants to come just come which is why those of you who are hitting me up on social media some of you were going how do we register sit just calm what are they gonna do chase your way come was it was at you you're like how do we register what's the cost it's free come right I have this thing about just show up and people are not gonna chase you out like they really feel bad if they tell you well it's kind of full no it's not this face you can sit on the floor you can stand in the back this ample space this ample space right so I say - I did a live video and I said to entrepreneurs just rock up anybody who wants to come just come I didn't at the time kind of anticipate what would have happened since then because now we've had probably about eight of these master classes we've done one in Namibia we're doing this one and doing one and buts wanna have been asked to come to one in Nigeria in Guinea Conakry in all over the place requests are coming up and I only have one ask it has to be free for the entrepreneurs however we do it however we pay for it the entrepreneur in the room pays nothing because if we focus on making sure that it's free for the people in the room guess what happens there's enough of us that can make it all we need is 1% of us to really build amazing businesses and then all of us are going to have amazing economies right one last thought that I want to get started so if you if you ever have the opportunity to visit my office in Joburg kind of what we've done is of what currencies in fact a sword in the picture yeah see that in the frame there this is how we this is one of our very first masterclass so you see all the entrepreneurs sitting on the floor and the reason we did that was because we were like well we were gonna get the cost for the furniture I said just let them sit on the floor anybody wants to bring a check and bring a chair and a couple of people brought a chair right one lady brought a yoga mat she then left it in my office now it's my yoga mat see how that works it's a perfect ecosystem of give and take but if you come to my office we've got currencies hanging all over the office actually we've got I think the one the one I've got behind me in my office is ten trillion a note from Zimbabwe but of what currencies from your country and I've got a few yesterday and then I've got currencies from all over the continent in my main boardroom I've got three currencies that hang it's the Zin dollar the American dollar and the UK pound and it's important why I want to tell you this so the tree that died to be turned into pulp which became the paper on which we created that note didn't get to choose the value of its death the tree died but depending on whether or not the leaders of those countries knew what they were doing entrepreneurs were given space to innovate and businesses were given space to create value you end up with either the most disabused currency in the world as Zimbabwean dollar the most used currency in the world the American dollar are the most valuable currency in the world the British Pound all three of them could literally be made from the same tree of pub what this means then is that the input is clearly not the tree that creates value the input is us we are the multiplier any of you here who employ people will know what I'm talking about people are a multiplier if you hire the wrong people you will multiply bad energy bad attitude you hire good people you'll multiply in kind the same but people are the multiplier so formats in terms of how this works there are three very simple rules the first one is there's no such thing as a stupid question so whatever the question ask it the second one is to please have fun that's important and the third one is even if I'm wrong I'm right great so how I like to do these is rather than teach kind of off the bat let's take a few questions and the question could be about anything I'll I'll tell you very quickly what I'm doing with my firm so 5 what is it about four years ago I sold my business just over 4 years ago and I took the proceeds of my business and I created our VC firm and what it is I'm doing is I want to build the largest venture capital firms south of the Sahara Desert yeah so we're we've spent we've set ourselves want to spend the first five years making sure we understand the southern Africa story we've just started the license process now to get into East Africa because we're setting up in Kenya on Mombasa Road I've actually been there one to see the offices that we'd get into and we also want to get into Nigeria the challenge we have with our continent and I'm so glad that the African Union are passed the Africa free trade act is that there's no free movement of goods that's really the major challenge see in the US if JZ makes an album in New York he can sell it in Los Angeles and not pay import/export duties yeah when Apple creates a product is Silicon Valley they can sell the same product in Michigan or Denver anywhere else without paying any import duties you create a product here and you want to get it into my country before you leave your country there's a duty and by the time you land in my country there more duties and so it really inhibits our ability to create fast-growing entrepreneurship ecosystems is that rather than think as a whole of a billion entrepreneurs we think of ourselves a small little countries of a couple of million people in then our middle class in each of our countries is not big enough to sustain all of us as entrepreneurs guys the power of the US which is now the power of China is the size of its middle class it's 300 million people in the US 200 million of them are middle class which means if you create a product two phone a computer a watch a ring shirt you have a potential market of 200 million people that's almost collectively the buying power of order the middle class of all of our continent so what all of us should be lobbying for rather than our own individual interests in our own individual countries we should all be loving for the ability to be able to work together so in my mind even though we run an accelerator program I don't see so her event is running an accelerator as a competitor because I recognize that if they get it right here and I get it right where I am all of us collectively create as the Spanish say the rising seas which elevate all ships if the seas don't rise it doesn't matter what ship you're in you're going nowhere anyway we are gonna have to learn that and disabuse ourselves of probably the one thing that holds all of our parents as prisoners today this thing called Borders all of our parents suffer from it yours and mine both we think in nation-state idea we use this thing called a documented ID or the passport to give us a sense of identity until we learn to disabuse ourselves of that we're going to battle your middle class guys isn't big enough to sustain your business which is why I've spoken to some of the entrepreneurs here most of you are building businesses that are enterprise facing your largest customers are big businesses so if you're in the software business you're building a software as a service for big business if you're in the consumer business you're building a consumer platform that has some a way to unlock a big business why because you recognize that the big business can give you a big purchase order and can spend money and pay your money inadvertently that works the other way around and developed economies in developed economies you build the business and you want to get it into the homes of millions of people that's what we have to do we've got to figure out a way of getting all the little traders I saw when I was driving here this morning the ones that I saw yesterday you got to figure out a way of getting those people into the formalized economy and yet in the formalized economy as big as possible so that we can create a middle class as big as possible we don't do that I promise you now in 40 years time in a place similar to this yours and my children will be sitting around talking about how do we build an entrepreneurship ecosystem in Africa we're just gonna have to disabuse ourselves of the things that hold us back great okay let's have some fun let's start with a few questions any questions pens I have here so usually what happens at this point is people go my question I have one is either not a smart one and then what we need is we need three people to ask really brave questions up front and then the floodgates open as it were so any questions in the room any question could be tech related finance related yes sir we met yesterday yeah good man a yeah we met yesterday my name when we met we spoke about you mentioned that you are currently raising correct yeah and so I wanted to know on your opinion what is what are the top five big no knows when it comes to raising funds for your business yeah for that you've learned that you picked up the top five big no knows that disease shouldn't do when you were raising oh yeah yeah that's a great question look I mean I can tell you so we spent the first first four five years of our business when I started my business and this is a good on a great question by the way sir your name Albert luck Fat Albert right so I think one of the major areas entrepreneurs make is you guys raised too early and I know that's not a popular point of view and I think you raised too early because that's the narrative that comes from Silicon Valley right there's guys there's a disease going around now where entrepreneurs build businesses for the purpose of raising more money not for the matrix of delivering value I know this because we're sitting with a tech investment in Cape Town that I've been trying to disinvest in for the past two years and it's been proving impossible but the main challenge we've got is every single time there's a new funding round there's a valuation that goes up but the matrices that drive the valuation going up don't make sense and are not you know and are not unit standard every time so the one time the valuation goes up because there's more users the other time the valuation goes up because each use spending more money another time the valuation goes up because now we're in more geographies and I keep saying to my co investment partners I don't care what the unit is just make make it so that it I understand it and it makes sense so the question you ask is what are the top five mistakes the first is you you raise too early too early and what you and and the reason you raised too early is because you want somebody to pay youth to follow your dreams look if you have an idea that's your idea would you agree do you think I have ideas yeah so why would I take my money to fund yours I don't have fun mine this has been created not only by the idea that people are raising in Silicon Valley too early but eight agencies are actually just duplicity in this because they have money that they want to disperse to as many entrepreneurs as possible it's not a problem we've just got to agree the stage you've got to get your business to before your business can deploy capital otherwise what happens as entrepreneurs are raising money to iterate a business model until they find the business model that works I'm sorry if you need money to iterate a business model until you find a lot of that works you are not an entrepreneur you're a well-paid manager who works for themselves and has the illusion of entrepreneurship you want to Instagram videos for likes and comments in my books how you earn being an entrepreneur sleepless nights no money in the bank no food fridge no friends no disposable income no credit and you're still doing it anyway and that's what I mean by raising too early because I've seen guys walk spreadsheet this is how much money I need this runway yeah but I met yourself why am i running it run it yourself I want to see you take your full pension and invested in the business then I want to see you take your house and mortgage it investing in a business I wanna see you sell your big car and buy a Bora Bora use that to get to work and invest that in your business yeah I want to see your wife leave you for the guy she left him for you and go back to him but because because in my mind in my mind guys it only becomes real when you have been through so much and you've given so much for the little you have if I make it too easy for you actually it's it's a bit like a child who's trying to walk and I and I won't let them fall it's no good you've got a lot of in us to fail for me that's ecosystem of how it works makes sense we've got out so the fun it's too early okay and what is what mr. Earley means race you early simply means you you raised before you've iteratively proved to yourself that you can do it by your own guys I'm busy let's not make a noise here you iteratively prove to yourself that you can do it for yourself without anybody helping you that's when you know that it's time to raise so first five I didn't raise anybody's money I took my own life tip of what we're going to using this I came up with a hypothesis of what we're going to do I grew up to the one piece of paper paper pieces and we did it plus five years mine so every bit of money I've lost guess who fooled me now busy raising 150 million USD what do you think that means I have a conversation with a potential limited partners about investing in our fund it's not an Academical I can tell them what works and what doesn't because I've done it with my money too early that's the thing we're making we're making the second mistake I think I think a lot of entrepreneurs make is you're not clear about what the story is so ask yourself this question if you were to summarize the business you're in in one paragraph that was three there was three sentences long with three lines long how would you write the story of your business what is the story of your business yeah most of us are just not clear on what that story is we pre supposed to know but we don't and we pre supposed to know how we could get there but we also don't so the second thing is get the story right the third is probably the most important as I think about them which is what is the problem that you're solving and it's the problem big enough that you can scale it yeah because if you can't scale on the problem then you're either solving a problem for a niche market which means you're gonna get a few customers and they must collectively be able to pay you a lot of money to sustain your business or you're gonna get a few customers who can't afford your product anyway and a lot of businesses fail by getting a few customers who can't afford what they offering the third big African problem right now is where a ping everything everything is an app app app app Jesus guys I'm sorry we live in a we live in a continent where there are people today who will not have food you really think the biggest problem is your app really because we're watching too much Netflix that's what we're doing so the feeder of the intelligence we're using is wrong we're using that feeder of intelligence to build our businesses but you're building a business for a place you're not in I was wondering about this I was like cuz how come nobody I remember the first time I went to Uganda was 11 years ago so the first time I went to in a border border was 11 years ago and nobody needs to say anything about the safety records of what about us so I'm in my mind I'm wondering how come nobody but nobody has thought about how do you integrate the border border network into a sophisticated computer platform that you can tell network availability price and safety record of the rider how come nobody's done that but we're all building apps for stuff that's easy to do the reason we're not doing it is cuz it's hard to do right I mean they've informal many of them today he does it tomorrow he doesn't one does it he doesn't have a license here's the thing about building businesses of value they're more difficult the problem usually the more money there isn't filled in fixing it so actually where you should go is to the most difficult thing to do that's where you should go because that's where there's real value yeah and then the third about the final one about about what we're doing thank you very much for the coffee by the way the final one about about kind of the mistakes we make is we are not patient enough with ourselves I think and maybe I don't know if you guys feel it too but I think that there is an impatience that's come with this thing called entrepreneurship now right it is in part because guys were lying to each other if I ask any of you in this room husband is what's the first thing you gonna say good it's month-end you don't even know how you're gonna pay yourself let alone how you're gonna pay your stuff you don't have enough money to make your texts your tax payments yeah it's not good but you're not gonna say you know who man I'm this close you know say because we're lying to each other we deny each other the opportunity to learn from each other I'm just all about being authentic be genuine be honest I told the guys yesterday Vodacom a year ago I almost lost my business me completely lost my business you know it's it's not easy guys it's hard and we've got to have be able to have the conversations this is hard tell the truth half the time you don't even know what you're doing am i right yeah have you ever I don't know if this ever had have you ever sat in a meeting and people are talking when you go why am I here you know is this what my life has come to is this yeah does that ever happened to you you ever sat in a meeting and people are talking but there's too much noise in your head you're thinking I really need to send that email and then and then what I've got to do is I've got to drop that to-do list and then and then I've got to use that ever happen to you most of us have no clue what we're doing you hope you're doing the right thing but you don't know for sure yeah and guess what that's okay because being an entrepreneur is lonely and we have that conversation like this is a lonely thing I was talking to someone about a very different amount I was talking about this yesterday how many of you here have that moment it happens to me once every month once every month but how many of you here have that moment where you wonder are you doing the right thing in other words could have done something else with your life yeah if you've left corporate you know what I'm talking about because you're seeing your friends in corporate get bigger checks bigger jobs nicer offices better air conditioning good credit yeah so half the time it goes just in your mind you go am I wasting my time am I wasting my talent should I be doing something else is this what my life is because it's lonely being an entrepreneur is lonely I honestly believe that the most important thing we can do is lower the fences of our pretense and just be more authentic be more authentic own your story one of the things I've found is that if you're more authentic life will meet you halfway but you have to be authentic if you just tell the truth about where you are you'll be very surprised who's in the room you'll be very surprised who's listening and how much father they can take you yeah next question yes sir I recognize you just become brave just peek all right my name is Mickey daddy and all right my name is Mickey daddy and my questions falls on value propositions in intrapreneurs ecosystem as we see her in most of African context the gap between middle class and low class and high class is very big now when you're creating value for for low class or middle class people what should be the considerations on value propositions so that you can tap this market and change that tradition you'll say that we go for bigger company to serve bigger company so that we can just get more checks and create the values for these people considering the issue of materials and technology we have in Africa that's my question so I just want to make sure I understand this so you're kind of you're kind of doing this right and the question you're asking is how do I build the business so that it adds value to the base of pyramid yeah exactly yeah the value yeah value proposition to that bottom look I can tell you for free that you don't even need me to answer that question that question has been answered so many times there's so many companies today that thrive at the base of pyramid right the challenge of our thriving at the base of pyramid is the way you think about the architecture of your business model has to be different this market is typically price sensitive it also makes frequent purchases of small quantities I'll say it again price centers if frequent purchases small quantities it's the inverse to what happens at the top year I'm gonna use cars as an example I overuse cars just cuz I love cars I race v12 so that's why I use cars a lot but the person who buys a Bentley doesn't buy a Bentley as often as the person who buys a Toyota Bentley doesn't release Bentley's as often as Toyota releases new Corollas so the iteration of product at base of pyramid is faster than iteration of product at the top of the pyramid which means the release cycle is typically in shorter periods of time you'll also notice that the innovation jumped from one product to the next to the next to the next is not quite as big a quantum leap as what happens at the top here you're iterating here consistently over and over but you're making very small adjustments so if I'm a Unilever for instance pour lose this deliver CEO of Unilever is a good friend of mine and one of the things they started doing they had a strategy for South America Africa India and China and actually their whole strategy was about how do they take the quantity of the product that they sell from say one kilogram of washing powder to a hundred milli whatever of washing powder right because if they can if they can make it a tenth of the unit then the person who doesn't who can't afford the kilogram can buy the tenth of the unit every week and collectively it means that they can buy overtime more make sense so that I think and it's a great question I tell you how we're trying to do it in the venture capital space and everybody else in my space thinks I'm crazy but I've said to them rather than give entrepreneurs say because if you capital-raising then any of you here who've done it will not I'm talking about first you go through a huge process of coming up with your pitch then meeting with the investors then they do a due diligence then they give you a term sheet that process takes anything between three to six months but that's because you're raising a million dollars saying yeah so why don't we rather than give a million dollars why don't we give $50,000 why don't we take the term sheet with this document written by lawyers yeah we want to pay them a lot of money to do it why don't we take that term sheet and condense it into an a4 document that I and the entrepreneur can collectively agree on what are the terms what am I getting what are you giving and what are the what are the covenants that we've all both got to make sure that we meet because if we can standardize the term sheet we can make the loan amount smaller then rather than you wait three years before you raise in funding for your business you can start raising six months or a year into your business and every three months you can collectively raise and I can give you gateways to meet every three months when you came to see me you had five thousand users get to five thousand five hundred I'll give you another five thousand dollars right that I think is kind of how we need to do it but the the iteration process is what we need to change the the iteration process of what happens at base of the pyramid is very very different and then you go to you really got to worry about price this is a market share play it's not a profit play that's kind of why the US is scared of one way right its market share not profit you know the Chinese guys when I tell you something about the Chinese that fascinates me I've been studying them for some time now did you know it took the Chinese 72 dynasties to build the Great Wall of China seventy two dynasties over five thousand years to build one one just the one Trump hasn't started yet so just to be clear the Chinese understand long term that's why when they started invent investing in ports yeah in much of East Africa fifteen years ago everybody thought they were crazy they knew exactly what they were doing now they kind of run ports in East Africa you can't land goods in East Africa without the Chinese having something to do with it which means that they've got a feeder market for their secondhand goods they want to move something from Shan province right into East Africa they just do it they run the ports you know the biggest sea nation fighting Somali pirates is the Chinese Navy of course they are there McCann Tillis nation that's how they move their goods yeah how many of you here using a phone or piece of technology by the Chinese so this is my whole thing about think long term as you're writing that business plan you better ask yourself what is what is this business look like in 50 years time I'm not saying you're gonna be there in 50 years time god forbid I don't want to be running my business in 50 years time but in 50 years time what does it look like yeah think long term cool next question yes sir Leslie yeah nobody beatbox for you you wanna give us a huh my name is Leslie I wanted to ask you mentioned something but what this lecture do York University just keep going on the one thing you say is in America they tolerate failure yeah oh yeah very many interpreters because you'll fail try again fail again something else and but in China they don't they don't really tolerate failure so you only have one goal I wanted to ask at what is your failure threshold number one when it comes to venture when you're doing the venture capital when you're investing in companies what's finger now at zero because it's my money now in terms of yeah and number two can this story change along the way you say this story is very important but can the story start as something else and end up something else yeah what towards today the percentage is not be like allowed or something like this the great question so the question you're asking is about pivots right and and stories should change because the material conditions under which we trade are changing all the time you know I I don't want to get into the politics but I was in your country for the first time four and a half years ago a lots changed since then a lot a lot all right I mean so so so if I was operating in this environment my story might have changed materially the story has to change you know it's like a seedling it's like a movie man there's chapters to this thing and depending on whether the good guy the bad guys winning you know here's how I think about my journey in entrepreneurship this is a true story I think of myself as rocky so at the beginning there's a nice opening scene then there's a bad guy then I meet the bad guy then the bad guy beats me then I go in train then I come back and beat the bad guy for five Rocky movies the format is exactly the same and then somewhere in the middle goes 10 10 to the 10 to the dent ant ant ant ant at the 10th at the tan tan-tan it's a rocky fan there yeah but so the story absolutely can change the question you're asking about failure is actually very interesting one for me I don't think the question is whether or not you're failing I think the question is whether or not you're improving so even if you fail are you failing forward right so in my business I've spent the past four years failing because if I look at the balance sheet of my firm today and the balance sheet of where we were five years four years ago we've regressed you've gone backwards I just took my own money and invested it and some of it come back and the money that will come back in return the businesses were invested in are showing a growth valuation but not a real but it's not a growth in cash holdings which means from an accounting perspective unless I mark to market the value of that investment I can't recognize hope consistently in my balance sheet I recognize the investment on the price of entry not the current valuation which is the smart thing to do because if I revalue the aspect to pay more tax it's worth more money now make sense so when an outside person looks at my benefit they've gone what are you doing you eroding value you're losing money yeah what I know is I'm getting smarter much smarter I'm learning about the trigger points of businesses I'm learning at the stages at which were good an interesting question by the way when you approach VC funds you've got to know what are they good at what stage of investment are they good at because some guys a phenomenal at startup I am terrible at startup I don't have the patience for startups I will smack you for not seeing stuff I was like just do it but what I am great at is a growth business well you were two or three customers you want to get to 30 customers that's my game that I'm good at that right at a conceptualization I have an idea I'm starting up stage I'm just I don't have the patience for it yeah my wife says to me we have three kids my wife and I my wife will tell you that she has four kids because I'm one of them and the reason she says that is because I don't see my kids as kids I want to play with them yeah to me I'm like I want to have fun with it and that's kind of the same mindset I have for startups I can't I can't get to a point where there is something about which weekend ever meaty conversation then I'm happy to get it then I'm happy to help then I'm happy to just take it to the next direction right so this thing about failing as long as you are documenting for yourself where you are so I'm gonna give you some homework all of you do any of you here have crucibles who practices crucibles no one No yeah you don't know what crucibles is it's a great it's a it's a great new like thing in the startup ecosystem is actually a diary that's being sold by chilled cow in New York but crucibles is the idea that you keep a diary and you write the diary at the end of every single month and the format of the diary goes the following yeah at the beginning of the month where were you in the month what did you find during the month what did you fix and at the end of the month where are you now and then at the end of it you got to make three commitments to yourself it follows exactly that format the reason it's called crucibles is because it allows you to your point to keep the story consistent about what you're doing and sometimes as often happens at the end of a year you go back 12 months and you go wow we've done a lot so when I say are you failing the question should be I'm learning yeah that's really so rather than I'm not really failing I'm learning I'm learning you know it's imagine you're a sportsman right I mean it's you know Usain Bolt didn't run a ninety five eight the first time he got on the track but he ran it at the Olympics you were to think about yourself in the same way you have the potential to run a nine five eight you're just not gonna run it the first time you get on the track so iteratively every single day when you show up at the track and you practice your goal is to move closer towards that target okay ooh now the questions are coming we're firing up give it to the chap at the back because you're close to him as it is yeah let's get a financial question as well yeah my name is Gabriel Gabriel yes the Archangel Gabriel laning yes in everything in life in other aspects of life yes yes what has been your strategy in leaning of maybe you want to grow you want to expand your business you create more clients customers I find it very tricky not only in business but in other thing but for this mother and intrapreneurship activity so what is what has been my what learning strategy on how you can navigate through challenges or opportunities ahead yeah okay I mean I'll answer it's a it's a quick one and then I want to show you guys something but I'll answer that kind of actually very simple so any of you have mentors hands of you have a mentor yeah fire them I'm B hey find me too then so I'll tell you why right because I think it's this thing about mentors for me I find fascinating because I think actually the reason we have mentors is because we don't want to take ultimate accountability of our decisions so we want to defer because it's lonely so if I'm talking to me and I'm reasoning with me and versus here then I can ask Lucy the thing and I feel better about the decision I'm about to make but the problem is if I get it wrong then I don't take full accountability yeah I don't have mentors this will this will this is the craziest thing you know I have no mentors what I do have are maps and mirrors works for me I hope it works for you maps are people I consult with usually once every four months and I give them a sense of where I'm trying to go and their job is just to tell me from using the right navigation system they don't even know they doing it I'll tell you one of them is a guy South African guy who runs a bank very successful very cool guy actually quite young he's like in his early 40s but he's a banking executive so often I'll meet with him and I'll tell him about the capital strategy of what we're doing yeah I'll just say let's have coffee what doesn't he know that as I tell him about my strategy I know what he does for a living so I know he's gonna look and go now you're gonna take a wrong turn on about the third on just as you get to the third corner you're gonna turn right you need to turn left there he doesn't even know he's doing it so if I go to him and say be my mentor now it's a formal thing now he must give me time we know he doesn't have the time to do that nor do I want him to yeah see if you put if you put it in this way then what you can do is you can have more than one person fulfill each role map skies are people who are subject matter experts that the thing you're doing or have been through the path that you are about to go on but but they don't then are gonna give you their time cuz they're busy so what do you want to do you just want they access you just want their time you want to ask them one question and then just get a sense of what they think about what you're thinking and to test it rather than have a mentor you want to have about five Maps ask them the same question and see what they think this makes sense yeah I'm really I'm earning my standing ovation here I'm killing it then mirrors mirrors are people who are who are going to connect to the human you very important so my rabbi is a mirror not Jewish I observe but I don't practice I'm Catholic actually but I have a rabbi who's very important in my life because even though I don't practice the same religious priest scripts he does there are very few people I know who have the level of wisdom he does he has the ability to sit with me in 20 minutes and tell me from talking rubbish because remember guys if I spend my time in entrepreneurs you guys know what I'm talking about if you have a team that you manage what is the first thing you're doing when you're an entrepreneur you're motivating you're inspiring right you're giving direction yeah but you can't do it to yourself because you're going to lie to yourself like not when people work people are terrible at working in uncertainty right I mean you see when a company goes through a trenchless what's the first thing that drops productivity cuz people start worrying about do I need to fix my CV so if you're an entrepreneur the very first thing you're doing is creating a sense of certainty for your people we're going to be okay you don't even know if you're gonna get paid month-end but you just guys we're gonna be fine well great the world is fantastic hoorah you know that's what you're doing but you can't do that for yourself that you've got to learn how to turn that that switch off and switch on the real voice that goes okay so what are we doing now and for me my merits are fantastic at this true story so there's a big deal that were invited to participating and as a limited partner who was who was looking to invest in a couple they were fond of funds and they were looking to invest in a couple of VCS and we bid and they were looking to invest 50 million USD in each of the VCS we're still in the bid process but one of my one of my mirrors I was telling him about it and he looks at me he goes even if they give you that money I'm not sure you should accept it this is 50 million USD oh you stupid crazy oh man and he said to me because and it's his take I don't have to agree with it that's another thing about this you don't have to agree and he said to me because I know these guys and who you are going to have to be and how you are going to have to run your business is not you so you're gonna take that money but you're gonna have to give up who you are isn't that powerful that is huge yeah any of you here who work in spaces of big contracts government contracts tenders know exactly what I'm talking about yeah where there is the values and principles you have and then there's the person you have to be to thrive in that space so what do you do you sign up to church and you pay 10% full tithe just to hope the Lord forgive you for these things you're doing pay your 4/10 and full full 10% you don't even cheat the Lord you know so maps and mirrors really try that I do this guys and it's very very powerful and then the other thing about maps and mirrors is you change them all the time depending on where in your journey you are Vaynerchuk gary is uh I'd like to say I made a mine but I know him right I belong in his kind of as like VIP ecosystem we have an office in New York so every so often when I'm there I'll try and meet with him but Gary for me is an amazing map of how to build a brand online like people don't like Gary Vee but they follow him he not what he does is not what I do what he believes and is all what I believe in but I love looking at his methodology and going wow like you know he believes in content I believe in context very big difference he goes send as much content as possible I go well not really you just got to make sure that the content you put out shapes people's context every time you do it I'd far rather be rare and impactful than be everywhere but I'm happy to look at his model as a map of how to build a social media brand makes sense Maps and mirrors men very very powerful that list for me I promise you now probably changes every three months I wish I had my diary in fact I think I do come see me after this I think I do in my diary I'll show to you at the back so I'm not making this up every three months and I've got a list of names or people are right now go how we I need to get good at stakeholder engagement because we're busy raising capital and I need to talk to government officials and I'm going to be doing media interviews who's gonna help me with this oh I know so-and-so write their name down reach out hey so so are you for a coffee then I'm gonna have a conversation kind of this is what we're doing what do you think they're gonna give me three four bits that I would have paid to pay a lot of money for in a big media strategy from a media company to do they've just given it to me maps and mirrors man absolute MERIS I want to show you this quickly it tags on and I was thinking about it while we were doing this just kind of kind of get this done I want to show you this very quickly okay this is a model of how you build a story when you're looking for investors to pitch in your business it's just the way you want to kind of think about it okay so so and and the couple of things you've got to consider is this is kind of the journey map you want to follow anytime you're using a model to share with people what you're going to be sharing with them especially if you're looking to raise capital okay so the first thing you want to think about is you want to think about telling them what don't they know I'll explain these the second is why should they care yeah question mark we'll see the third I'll promise I'll explain this the third is what makes you the authority and the fourth is what must they do I can't claim this this is work of a Africa's largest design agency there so that could base the company called missing link they use this model really really good anytime you're building a story to pitch to people this is the format you want to follow okay so the first question you gotta ask yourself is what don't they know the person you're talking to what don't they know remember do your business all the time right but you're pitching it to someone either a new client yeah or somebody to invest in it or a friend yeah which means they I promise you now will not have the level of knowledge that you have they usually have what we call user interface knowledge any of you here on Facebook or Instagram have user interface knowledge the people working at Facebook or Instagram have levels of knowledge twelve twelve stairs lower than what you and I have that's their job yeah so if I'm going to stop thinking like a user and start thinking like an investor the things I don't know I need to know that make sense but the thing is don't be technical you can't tell me what I don't know using technical language you're gonna lose me gone out the window I can tell you how many pictures of set on where the invested starts going so it's written in Java but we also use C++ sharp sharp and then we also have not our G's is it written yes does it work yes that's all I need to know yeah is it responsive and Mobe yes that's all I need to know how the code connects with the API and then the plug-in and then there's a plug out in an eight I don't know just API IP oh I don't know yeah so what don't they know simplify it simplify it so in my game if I'm raising what don't they know they don't know the dynamics of Africa right so when I pitch to global investors what am I telling them market these are content now these are the stats size of potential market levels of education by region we go south east west north that's how we break up the story because no one's gonna listen to a story about fifty five different countries they will about four regions so I'll go size of market size of middle class what I mean by size of market levels of Education and it's important to show primary/secondary diversity levels of education yeah then I showed them that the stats from the World Economic Forum are about the entrepreneurial activity the TE a total entrepreneurship activity I showed them that levels of access to power because without power you can't produce economies proliferation of the financial system why because if I'm an investor putting money in I want to know I can get the money out those are the that's the story before I go anywhere I have instead of pitching why us yet I've just told them why that market ism what don't they know makes sense then I jump to the next level I'll go but why should you care I gotta mention this right so just imagine this summer person who works for an ad agency I sit in London somewhere you know on Covent Garden is my office downstairs a beautiful shopping district and here comes you see me to tell me to invest in a fund that invests in Africa how do I get that person to care and the only way to do this is you have to use a human story and usually journey mapping is important you've got to find a person a story an instance a moment and that's the story instance the moment that you use so the way I do it especially when I talk to guys in Europe is I take them back to Europe 100 years ago true story there's a foundation run by a friend of mine called Damien he and I did our MBA together really cool guy how do you know somebody did an MBA yeah they'll tell you yeah it's true story true story he and I did our MBA together she did it twice now and and Damien sits on a board I forget the name of this foundation but he sits on the board of this foundation started by a guy who was an entrepreneur he was trading out of London at the time he was to sell cotton or something like that and then when he died he bought two farms in London two farms the name of the farms were Chelsea and I think Arsenal something like that both of them today very very pricey pieces of real estate yeah so when I tell the story I go Africa today that entrepreneur right now who could build a business that does that and in a hundred years time creates an endowment fund that funds other entrepreneurs but if you don't invest we can't find that entrepreneur I've got to take them to the moment that matters for them yeah so the second thing is you want ask yourself is why should you care the third is why you okay so now I buy it okay so I get kind of what I don't know I get why it's important but why are you the best person to do the job yeah I think actually even when you're pitching to clients a lot of us fail at this stage because you you we tend to generally becoming us we tend to generally be self effacing how many of you here find it difficult to talk about yourself and tell people how amazing you are yeah get over it here is how you do it this is a true story actually they teach you this in public speaking do you know how you do it this is a true story look yourself in the mirror every day and tell yourself are fantastic you are you have to do it just look in the mirror you are fantastic you are amazing look at you girl they should write poems about you you are blazing and hot at the same time yeah get into the habit of telling yourself how fantastic you are because if you can't claim it is very difficult to tell the rest of the world okay and then the last thing is now that you've told them all of this what must they do what is the action you're hoping for at the end of the meeting okay so we've met these are the three action items I'm gonna send you a proposal about this thing when we're done this is what I'm expecting from you yeah I'm gonna leave you with my business card can we meet in very quickly we don't have a lot of time I want to give you guys some this is so important some sales tips never leave a meeting without a with other scheduled meeting to follow if you're in the meeting and you got that meeting don't leave until the next meeting is booked because I'm sitting in front of you right so it's okay so I'm gonna send you the proposal then I'm gonna ask you for another meeting now how about I send you the proposal now you ever look at your calendar tell me what it looks like can we meet in two weeks time bet it down while you in the room you ever had a first meeting and then it takes the person forever to come to commit to a second meeting then eventually you give up yeah they knew at the end of the first meeting the second meeting wasn't gonna happen which is fine you can also say to the person now that we've met I've pictured to you are you interested in taking the conversation forward or would you rather take some time to think about it people who want to think about it I can tell you another person is not going to buy they're nodding yeah is this making sense I promise you now get good at doing this you are fundamentally going to change your success rates at how many and how your stories understood how your story is heard and how you get people to take action but the most important thing you have to be clear about what people must do at the end of every encounter at the end of every session the end of every meeting what must they do what's the action item what's next what are the three things I have to do phone me schedule another meeting introduce me to your board members can I come and pitch and get in if the person commits then can we book it now be forceful yeah I don't know if you guys do but do you guys have cappuccino meetings I call them cappuccino meetings yeah sweet over cappuccino yeah I don't do that I just I really just don't I don't I don't do it man the meetings of the Koppers you know no because if we're gonna talk business I'm either coming to your office or you're coming to mine I'm happy for us to watch Kenya beat Tanzania three two I'm just saying but then let's let's schedule it as a meeting where we're going to watch king of beach Tanzania let's let's say it's a business meeting over cappuccino it because we're not going to talk business let's just be honest about it you want to come over to your house and have a social conversation now come over to your house another social conversation that's cool but don't give me the idea that we're going to talk about something other than the thing we're going to talk about and nothing is going to come from it remember you asked the question what are the five mistakes entrepreneurs do I said you raise too early so what do you want to do you want to get as many people through this funneling system as possible as many people as possible this is a sales approach guys I've taught it to my own sales team this is how we approach all clients that we're talking to yeah at the end what are the action steps what must they do any of you here in your businesses have a template contractor sign on form an onboarding document anything like that get one at the end of the first meeting send a template contract discuss terms send a template contract we do it it's a fantastic way to weed out the rats from the mice so we met we've discussed I'm selling these pens we've met we discussed that I sell these pens for a dollar each you said you need 10 pens what I want to do is I'm going to send you a customer on take document it's gonna be one pager I just need you to commit that you're gonna buy 10 pens and when you're thinking about buying them but the reason I need the information is the customer so that I can give it to my salespeople and my marketing people so we can unload you onto the system so I can ask you for your banking information so we can unload your into the invoicing system so when the time is right I can invoice you without asking for the information but I'm gonna ask you that at the end of the first meeting I'm not gonna waste three four meetings with you telling me where is the pen blue is it red there's a drive does it not right is that a permanent marker is it no I don't have the time do you want the pen yes or no good then give me some sort of on take commitment that you want the pen once I've got that I am happy to talk about what color the pen is how long the pen is how light the pen is who uses the pen we can all those conversations but the very least I want to get some sort of commitment weed the rat from the mice man you're an entrepreneur you're not working on a corporate your check isn't guaranteed yeah I'm positive time can we do three more questions guys three more let's see how we doing oh wow yeah you had you had yours up first but we also haven't had and we had a lady before we we haven't so your turn yeah so my question is on your expansion strategy yes and what are the things that are you looking you expanding and that connects to you saying you having an office in Kenya Nigeria and why no Tanzania why not either country you know so that could be a man ooh this what time are you actually looking at low hanging fruit attempts when you are actually expanding or rather is it a sustainability part of it is it going with the grain you know all those things but mostly what are you looking for well you look you are expanding yeah great question three things top of mind I mean I've not actually considered that question quite as outwardly as you're proposing it I can tell you kind of three things right intuitively the first is distribution so why Kenya larger market than yours larger middle-class than yours higher levels of access to electricity than yours higher proliferation of banking infrastructure that's why as a person who loves this country I imagine you guys do too can't sometimes it's hard to hear that maybe not us you know it's it's a bit like asking a girl out and she goes well you're too short it's like cuz then you're like but I can't get taller you know if you tell me I'm too fat I can get smaller you tell me I'm too dark I can get light but I can't get taller as I you know what am I gonna do eat fertilizer I can't grow you know so so so distribution like is is the most important and for any of you who are thinking about expansionist strategy for your businesses distribution go where the market is you know it's it's it's a no-brainer don't go don't be an go don't be an outlier somewhere and hope the market will find you there right so that's kind of the first thing I think about from an expansion up a platform the second is talent talent talent talent man talent man people people people people are everything people are the MA I promise you now people are the multiplier I don't care what business you're in people are the multiplier the companies that achieve exponential growth it's linked to the people in the business I guarantee it that's why you've got to be careful who you bring in you got to be careful who you hire and once you bring them in you got to make sure that you develop them that you grow them my team will tell you if you work for me you are learning something all the time because I tell them all the time if I'm changing as a leader the market were in is changing and the business I run is changing and you're not guess what happens after a few years we're gonna have to stop dating you're gonna find yourself out of kilter with where we are doesn't make sense logically it makes sense if the instrument you're in if I'm playing for a soccer team and everybody in the soccer team is getting better at their part if they play and the teams were playing are getting better and FIFA's changing the rules and I don't sooner or later I'm gonna be the weak link in the team yeah talent so when you're thinking about expansion you want to think about where can I get the best people yeah oh no no I wouldn't say that I would I definitely wouldn't say that it's not about whether or not they have better people it's about whether or not I can find the quality of people I'm looking for some things in markets are parity everybody kind of has the same you know there's south guys but have better people than you know but are they good people here and there yes yeah and and then and then the third would probably be ease of doing business hey in you guys man it's rough but you know ease of doing businesses is important right and guys I want to tell you they're 55 countries in this continent none of us can boast about the ease of doing business all of us are getting it wrong all of us it's just I say this to the river near 30s all the time the problem with with much of the continent of Africa is that our our governing systems are built on first world model of governance in a third world environment too many times I've got to submit returns too many reports the labor relations are too rigid is it's too much you know Africa needs to play for where Africa is not way it hopes to be so powerful I should tweet it yes now yes the Kenyans are more informative than us even if or when you actually look at these fonts when they're being advertised all they're being put in their website for the people to apply you find most of the money go to Kenya and not to us so they're more proactive I'll say that the truth yes 100 100 yo can you disagree no it's cool even if actually he disagrees because Kenyans are aggressive but yeah III I don't wanna I don't want to anchor on this but suffice it to say that hold on hold on suffice it to say I I had a meeting with someone and the first thing they said to me said yeah you know we'll see so you gonna do your keynote it's gonna be so good evil and then and they said to me but I just want to talk to you a bit about there was the word they use to tone of voice and you know the people here really love it when you don't say I a lot they really love it I said I'm not gonna change mean for the people then I wouldn't be here yeah it's it's it's an interesting one actually how many of you here find it difficult to just naturally be aggressive to push yeah that's okay most of you the rest of you are just lying okay let me ask the question differently how many of you here do cold calls to clients you just get on the phone and you phone a person the rest of you all find it difficult to push what do you think a cold call is a cold call is a person who's not expecting you to call them but you found them and then you convince them that at that moment to stop whatever they were doing and do you not literally but to stop what they were doing and be concerned with what you're phoning about and then you want to get them to take action that's being forceful you're not doing that do you're right you you being you know you being soft and you can try it and nothing wrong with being soft because then many successful entrepreneurs who are not forceful they're quite soft but you just got to know what your PlayBook is I've got two more questions so we had one let's do two more have we had one from this side I don't think we have let's take this gentleman here how we doing we're still getting value good thank you so I'm ramesha you are ramesha our initial perfect as compared to let's say yourself where or someone who has experience with working in the corporate space where you learn a lot about organization structure processes and procedure now as enterpreneur who you've started out thought that base you often find that you get straight on into the process finding what you're selling and just selling what you're selling process procedures doesn't really form part of the equation now as your business skills up and moves forward you know is that these things start catching up you didn't have the right metrics of measuring results let's say when you have a team you don't have the right metrics of establishing how much output do I want Lucy to bring to my team to my business let's say at what time so this whole idea of setting strategies plans goals these things are more or less gray and black and white they're not very clear no I should agree so how do you navigate that process because it comes to a point that is where you find now regulations come in you now get overwhelmed you start getting booked for liabilities that should you don't see them coming or they weren't there so how do you navigate that part I can't always think about it this way right so imagine this is revenue in my business and this is time right and so I I may be before I make this point one of the things I'm fascinated by is founders that run listed companies and I think it's actually booked up and I've been thinking about working on because the mentality of a founder is very different to the mentality of the guy that runs a listed company like there are a few in South Africa we've got a few I'm not I'm sure there are some here let me use an example Jeff Bezos fascinates me that's not because he built in a wealthy guy yeah yeah the guy went from thinking like a founder to thinking like a CEO very different mindset like what goes into an and a day in the life of a founder is very different to what goes into a day in the life of a CEO very different right and the question I ask myself is when did they know at what point that would need to make a transition make sense so in my mind I kind of have like this model right where go so first at a particular time in your business what you're going to have to learn to do is to manage yourself yeah then you have to get to a point where you learn to manage others yeah but it grows beyond that and you've got to get to a point where you learned how to manage managers yeah and if the business continues to grow and you're lucky well then you not only have to manage leaders but you're going to have to lead leaders and if it gets beyond that point then my friend you're going to have to learn to inspire generations these are very different people very different people that's why some names are immortal right like Steve Jobs immortal because even though he's not here he inspired generations yesterday Financial Times published Saturn if you guys saw it John I've just left Apple John I've inspired generations the entire user interface today of much of the mobile telecommunications world is cuz of John I've you think about it but these guys are very very different very different and the point is you've got to catch yourself at the different stages of your business the hard thing I don't know if you guys make the same mistake I do so this is what I do and I know it's a mistake but I make it anyway I give my team a task to do say we're here I think we're kind of where's our firm we'll probably somewhere here so I give my team a toss to doing the toss doesn't get done one do you think is the first thing I do I'll go there I'll do it myself it's called the 9/2 syndrome you guys ever met mr. Naidu nobody does it better than I do did you get that Miss Clara and I do nobody does it better than I do yeah and so and so but this denies your accountability because you you're not holding people accountable now yeah and often you'll do it because you're under pressure for business results or a client deadline or something like this you just got you know I'm just gonna get involved with myself yeah the trick is you've almost got to catch yourself and then most importantly is you got to know what turns you on you got to know where what's fun for you what do you enjoy you know I am an amazing leader I am I'm a manager I suck just the idea of signing somebody's leave form doesn't turn me on man doing a payroll reconciliation this is like you know it's doing a performance review did you perform yes no you didn't you're fired yeah but HR will tell you there's a few no there's a four-page form you gotta schedule it you know it's gonna be a 360 review I'm not but he knows he's not performing he can see he's not performing you know it makes sense because I naturally I love operating in this space here but when you start a business I recognize you've got to do this yeah any of you wait wait have you ever had this wait when you do stuff it's amazing then your business grows and you hire people then you start doing other stuff then six months you've come back to the stuff you used to do you go what the hell are they doing has that ever happened to you it's like I wouldn't have put the logo like that guys who put the logo like this yeah because you know because when you do it it's how you do it then there's the way your team does it and and I think that's there's a again there's a book their book about there's a fine line between giving people the freedom of expression at work and knowing what to say no it's enough now stop you know you know compliance and you know it's you know that's why banks just don't allow bank managers to give loans out anymore because they all ended up with bad loans so they kind of what they did is they centralize the risk system centralize the credit system when you go to the bank the bank manager literally meant as a bank he makes sure that people are there on time but the decisions get made by centralized credit team sitting at head office not the bank manager yeah and so as your business grows you're just gonna have to figure out for you where you are and what changes are that you need to make does that make sense what do you think you are now by the way remission I think I'm trying to be where you're at at the same time the reality of the situation is I have to be at the managers place really yeah why very sorry why why so management involves processes in very scientific thing yeah and I don't have a very good background in that actually don't have a background in that so I have to learn on the go now when you're learning on the go you don't really have the luxury of time yeah especially when each mistake that is done each thing that doesn't go right it's a cost to the business are you are you signed to the University of YouTube what happens at the University of YouTube you just go on YouTube and you YouTube a video but the thing you don't know and then you find as many expert I call it the University of YouTube it's the fastest growing University of the world hands off the University of YouTube faculty members hands up University of YouTube alumni hey we're all here we're all here like somebody at work mentioned something I go yeah I know what she's talking about now right - done University of YouTube guru coding in Java downloaded video I'm on the plane I'm like ah that's what they took its University of YouTube man so try it you know for me the University of YouTube is really really cool especially if there's something I'm uncertain about for you so if I was you I'd go and YouTube stuff like how do I make efficient how do i designing efficient management processes for a tech company you're gonna get like a thousand results just start finding the people who run a channel this is the trick don't find the guy that posts the video find the people who run a channel because people that run a channel are subject matter experts and the thing they're talking about and if you go down the extreme you're gonna find 15 other videos that build up to the knowledge that's what you want to get to you're not I mean like it's the great question by the way guys all of us in this room are battling with this am i right all of us like a real traditional conversation or what we're all somewhere here somewhere here I I am a doer I love doing like if I didn't do what I do I would be an actor in pornography I wouldn't make the pornography movies don't record this please yeah I wouldn't make the movies I wouldn't produce them I wouldn't be behind the scenes I wouldn't I would be acting I would because I'm I'll i really do i genuinely enjoy taking stuff and putting it together breaking it I love the process of that I've got the ladies with this reason like this guy's yeah but I love the process of it right but I also know that the thing about this is I have to figure out how to take my time and give my time higher return yeah that's why the coach usually gets paid more than the players not always but usually it's because his job is to stand off the field watch the configuration of play analyze what the competitors are doing see the results on the scoreboard and change the results by making a series of decisions so even if the striker isn't scoring the coach doesn't get the benefit of going let me go score he has to go what are the resource to I have and how do I change the resources to change the results sometimes the strike is not scoring because you're playing as you guys did a three five one configuration and he's going well maybe what I should do is change the configuration get more strikers up and then I'll get a better result makes sense so you've got to figure out that difference and it's a it's such a fine mix such a fine mix this my friend is the art of arts the guy who wins this game is the guy who changes everything last question then we're done now there's two questions do you mind if I'll take both of you is the same question this is one plus one okay great I start with a lady first then then take him and I'll just answer very close my name is juliana Metabo I want to know about my my growth fund I want to know about that yeah yeah how do we actually how can we raise our cool yeah vasya must I must really really acknowledge the fact that I'm extremely excited excited and delighted to be here I try to connect your Instagram DMS couple times but yeah he said I'm do you mail me yeah I sent you a couple couple messages there did you yeah I apologize true story about a hundred and forty thousand requests for connections on Instagram I can on LinkedIn rather so it's I can understand so my name is James send it again okay but after this no my name is James I'm a speaker author and consultant right just lucky you do I have three questions I wonder if I can ask all of them short all right the first one is on knowledge base what kind of system do you have in place to ensure that you are constantly you know on the cutting edge of knowledge about businesses investments at a global level as you know because every time I hear you wherever you are you are really sharp at OnPoint secondly if you had a pool of say 500 interns that you inspired because I have a project with a bank that allowed me to speak to like 6,000 university students teaching them on work skills people skills and all of that how would you leverage on that say if you wanted to build a business in let's say tourism how would you make use of these guys and finally it's on your on your books and resources how do we get you know hold of your books here let me start with the first question I don't know I mean we there's a company called Nuria does co2 ke and it's actually run by an entrepreneur based in Kenya who bought my books on consignment and then he sells them in much of Kenya here Ethiopia and Rwanda as well I mean what we should do in terms of the question about the book is off this if any of you are interested let's kind of get some sort of database going I can get a few books sent to the guys here at Sahara and we can do the trade that way do you guys see what I mean about African borders it's a bloody book but now I must worry about sending it and paying custody it's ridiculous it frustrates the hell out of me it really really does like you know guys I tell you true story in the US where my books are sold I don't know which states they sold and all I know is that they sell and all I had to do was to get them to one place in the US and Amazon just did the distribution and the rest of it do you know this is this is why the EU is the EU it's a free trade market it's a free movement market that you can get your stuff in London all of a sudden it's gonna be everywhere well not anymore not off the breaks it you know so we we I promise you now if there's one thing we all of us must be united on we can differ in many things we must be united on two things both the Tanzanian and South African soccer teams are bad that's the first thing when you we must just agree we need to agree on this okay and then the second thing we need to agree on is that we all collectively as entrepreneurs have to start putting pressure on our leaders to pull down these borders men if I if I buy you know if I buy a mass I print shirt here for you it's just Maasai you know they're around the corner they're everywhere in my country they'll fly because that culture has a novelty same - if I sell Zulu beads here novelty my country is this the thing you know we I think we we we just got to tell the leaders that the colonizers did leave they left so you have the permission to do it differently I think they never got that memo so that so that was on the second question the middle question you asked the one about I have no idea I have no idea I don't know the interns one he asked the question about interns one thing about me is if the answer is I don't know I don't know and then the question about the knowledge base is so here's what I did in my game that differentiated me then and I continue to do it now I invest in getting people into the firm who's pure job is to give me market leading knowledge I have a full research team behind me most people who do what I do speak as a one-man shows I'm not I have a full outfit of people as we sit I'm not kidding I have an entire research team right now working on research mandates I know that's all each booth just research right because I understood the currency of knowledge I'm the most expensive speaker in the continent right so so you know so when clients bring me in they bring me in because I have to know something they don't know and in today's world with the University of YouTube that's hard so in a world of content what's my job context that's my job is I literally coming in a go you guys are looking at this completely the wrong way this is how you've got to look at it and I invest I mean I you know I will show you my wage bill these are well trained masters graduates honors graduates and they work full-time for me and their job is just research that's it that's all they do so everything I do is informed by empirical evidence and data because in my world if I'm if my data is incorrect I lose credibility remember the if my date is incorrect I lose credibility people won't trust me and Trust is the currency on which I operate okay so what I would say to you in fact here's a great idea you went and spoke at universities yeah what I do is I go to those same universities and say guys I'm looking for five interns who don't mind a half a day job on research and I bring those interns in and I've given different research mandates one of them for a month investigate for me what is going to be the impact of automation and robotics in the East African economy and then their full-time job is to read Wall Street Journal read the World Economic Forum read the Financial Times read robotics toward a I go and read all of those and put together for me a simple research document that's 30 pages long about what the impact is going to be they're going to spend 30 days doing it it's gonna take you four hours to read in four hours you're gonna get 30 days worth of knowledge and if you get if you get four or five people doing the same thing guess what happens every four hours you're getting 30 days worth of knowledge I tell you when I realized that I realized that when I when I was doing my book my first book the Magna Carta took me eight years to do it when we when I when we first wrote the book it was 800 pages in the printed format it's just over 250 I work deliberately to condense the book from 800 to 250 pages one because I hate reading long books I don't know if you guys are the same like if it's a Bible I don't even know where to start let's talk at the Book of Psalms - I'll go right to revelations where the world is ending do I start at Genesis like where do I start I at the time you know what is the message you know give me the Ten Commandments great just give me that chapter you know so so what I realized is I wanted to condense the knowledge so what I then did is I recognized it every author that's ever written a book has done the stat for me every author Think and Grow Rich Napoleon Hills book that book is the entire book on them on the the pursuit of excellence which was written I think a hundred years before and is about four times the size so I'm going to read that book because it condenses the idea if you're in sales read grand cardones 10x rule I just gave it to musicals in my team it's 30 years worth of video is worth of grandpa Don's life condensed into 300 pages if you want to learn about investing tony robbins this book is a very good book master the art of money he spent four years interviewing for five of the best investors in the US Ray Dalio Carl I can and three other guys and then what he did is he condensed the learnings of those people and he put them in a book you can read that in a week and it's four years of his life yeah because this is too much knowledge being generous so that's what I did and that's what I continue to do for me it's one thing I continue to invest in knowledge knowledge knowledge research research research make sure always that you are at the top of your game when it comes to what's development what's new what's next what's happening you've got to know yeah you've got to know last night then I'm done all of you have workers in your businesses start employing thinkers workers are great guys think has changed the game yeah and one of the one of the things you learn about thinkers is they're notoriously lazy you by the way you need a healthy mix of lazy people in your business you want to know why because they will find the most efficient way to get things done you know you say to a worker dig a hole he starts digging you know the lazy tacos can't I find the thing to dig the hole for me nah now he's innovating now you know so you gotta I promise you getting getting lazy people are lazy people are fantastic and then you take your most complex problem you give it to the laziest person with an amazing deadline and you watch as they change the world okay guys I hope you drew some value for this this for me was amazing this is kind of how I reconnect and refuel I'm really humbled that you've had me here to the guys at Sahara ventures you guys kick ass we should definitely exchange details see what else we can do together thank you so much everybody thank you so much for see have you guys enjoyed see ya see ya if you notice the logo it's a series of dots called my Growth Fund is one because with their growth we believe that the entrepreneur has to take an econ catalyze the system okay thank you perfect so I'm gonna welcome our grow CEO mr. human name team Balika to see ya thank you not and how's the day good afternoon good afternoon this is very exciting when it's a ways that book please bring it bro before anything please can you sign this for me for me and my daughter yeah yeah so so okay so as a cup of books you need this guy to sign because I have this copy of verses there's a black dragon no this mind yeah yeah for the records so thank you so much ladies and gentlemen for coming thank you so much Russia and your team thank you so much my brother I think you need to mention you Ricky yeah thank you so much Leakey and your team we highly appreciate coming here Lucy well I appreciate your time we know you had a very tight schedule but it's still hard to squeeze us in and this is a lesson for all of us as entrepreneurs you should always have time for the community because there's a lot of people are very sure you have transformed them here today I know there's a lot of guys who want and ladies who want to be amazing and successful motivational speaker that being said on behalf of Sahara ventures I would like to eat any for the time please visit our platform as an entrepreneur I need to promote this wwo Sahara ventures calm and let's keep connecting thank you [Music] thank you very much Germany okay guys thank you very much [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Sahara Ventures

Views: 180,395

Rating: 4.8749485 out of 5

Keywords: #Entrepreneurship, #Masterclass, #VusiThembekwayo, #SaharaVentures, #MyGrowthFund

Id: Q6a8hsAQuZ4

Length: 98min 37sec (5917 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 07 2019