People often ask me, “To what do you attribute your success as a serial entrepreneur?”

It is an interesting question. My husband and I have six companies/collaborative ventures between us. We are both serial entrepreneurs. And along the tumultuous road of the past 26 years, we have both learnt massive lessons.

But the three things that I attribute most to the success of some of our companies, alongside the hard-learned failures of joint ventures, are these: 

Firstly, my background as an entrepreneur was unusual. I was a political activist in different shapes and forms, as a media organiser, journalist and as a trade unionist for almost 20 years. That background formed the foundation for what I call “Conscious Entrepreneurship”.

 I have never regarded myself as a capitalist. Material gain did not ever motivate me. My motivation was to make a difference in the world, to serve and to live a life of contribution. 

Those values were steeped in some ways by my family background, but they deepened in practice in the years in which I participated in “The Struggle”, the movement against Apartheid.  

The first thing which defined my values going forward was that in the struggle, we had a work ethic that knew no hours. We worked until the job was done. We worked weekends, we worked nights. There was no off button. It was a calling beyond any notion of office hours. It was a calling which, for some, cost them their lives.

It was a calling to serve a transcendent purpose, to make the world a better place. It was a calling for a more just world, a world in which the label of your complexion would not deny someone the right to vote. Or the right to sit on a bench at a railway station or enter a lavoratory. This was the shocking world I lived through in the apartheid era. An era which those “born free” never knew, but whose residue still lives on in the challenges that we have to build a more democratic and economically stable country.

 And so, when I became an entrepreneur, all I knew was that work ethic. It is the work ethic I still uphold today, to work until we’re done – in pursuit of excellence, not perfection, but in pursuit of something higher than individualism. 

The second element that prepared me for my unusual serial entrepreneur life was the fact that my background was steeped in collaboration. Everything we did, from the formation of 33 unions to become COSATU, was steeped in a series of Unity Talks. Coming together to find a common way forward as the economic muscle of the country.

A higher cause, a cause beyond our own individual unions, a call to be a national movement pulled together us. And so, my life was built on collaboration and a work ethic. It was those two elements that really gave me the grit and the resilience of becoming a serial entrepreneur.  

And finally, the crucial element I learnt as a serial entrepreneur over many years was the critical role of financial discipline. 

The failed joint ventures that we embarked on and failed to take forward were all due to a misalignment of exactly those values, a lack of work ethic, a lack of collaborative thinking and a lack of financial discipline. 

As 2024 draws to an end, I can celebrate the remarkable journey of this year.

I can honestly attribute this expansive year to the teams and tribes that got me here. Just as I always attribute my entrepreneurial awards to all the teams that got us here over 26 years. 

This year, I could not have achieved what I did, travelling to 10 countries and four continents whilst spreading the message of Belonging and Identity Intelligence, without the mentors, teams and tribes that have curated my courage, my curiosity, my collaboration and my contribution.

My teams at home continued to drive forward with initiative, passion and the brilliance of their own leadership momentum. 

I could not be without them. I could not do without them. I could not envision this life without my inner team, who are an extension of my spirit. They get the very essence of my journey, my vision and my global message. To share the joy of that journey with them every day is my greatest gift.

And so today I want to pay tribute to all the teams that got me here, to this point, to this platform, to this moment of time. I am because of you.

 What are the critical values that you uphold as an entrepreneur?