Backstory

What’s your one top tip for doing a deal? Align on incentives that point towards a mutually beneficial outcome.

What was your first job?

I borrowed my gran’s car to drive for Mr Delivery (now Mr D) in Pietermaritzburg during my first-year varsity holidays. I got lost on my second delivery, the car’s brakes failed and I was an hour late — a 10c tip resulted. I lasted one evening.

How much was your first pay cheque, and how did you spend it?

My first proper career pay cheque as a newly minted graduate was R8,000. Most of it went towards paying down debt I’d incurred fitting a sound system into my car and buying clothes for work.

If you could fix only one thing in SA, what would it be?

I think we’ve lost sight of the collective power we generate when pulling towards common goals as a nation.

What is the one thing you wish somebody had told you when you were starting out?

Don’t assume someone knows what they’re doing when they puff out their chest and state they’ve got 20 years’ experience; it sometimes means they’ve just been unthinkingly repeating the same grind for 20 years.

What’s the most interesting thing about you that people don’t know?

I’ve got more metal in the left side of my body than you’d find at a scrap merchant. Also, in the second month of my working career I ran out of money a week before payday; I bridged the gap by borrowing

R50 from a housemate, going to a poker game armed with apple juice in a whisky bottle and winning the late-night pot of R300 because everyone else couldn’t see straight. Folks from Pietermaritzburg are resourceful.

What is the one investment you wish you had made, or made earlier?

I wanted to buy Capitec shares not long after it listed but was still paying off the work clothes and speakers. I bought then sold them for what I thought was a nosebleed price about a decade ago, and I think they’ve gone up 12 times since then.

What is the hardest life lesson you’ve learnt? Failing is okay; the lessons from it should be embraced. But try to fail fast and infrequently.

If you were President Cyril Ramaphosa, what would you change, or do, tomorrow?

1. Invest every cent I could find into primary education: intellectual property is a key catalyst towards the collective prosperity we all desire. 2. Rack up some National Development Plan 2030 implementation wins. 3. Rewatch Chasing the Sun a couple of times; belief combined with action is a powerful cocktail.