Ayanda Kunene, Khawuleza-Ndzawuse and Thulani Ngwenya are three great examples of successful entrepreneurs who strived from nothing to build their small empire after realizing that playing the victim out of a situation won’t get them anywhere.
What these three people have in common is that, instead of relying on the government to do something about their situation (unemployment), they decided to take things into their own hands. These people are not the next Steve Jobs or Bill Gates or an upcoming Nelson Mandela, but I think these people’s stories and efforts demand as much value and praise as that any legendary figure.
After spending years into job searching, which has for sure, not been an easy task given the lasting unemployment crisis in South Africa, Ayanda Kunene, decided to create his work to earn a living. He decided to set up his own car wash business with his partner, which enabled him to provide enough for his family and to send his children to school. After gaining considerable success, he did not sit back to enjoy the ride, Ayanda went on to set future goals for his business, that is to save r5 per day to build proper infrastructures for his business and to buy essential equipment to improve the quality of his service to attract more clients.
From security guard to a successful pig farmer, Noncedo Khawuleza-Ndzawuse believes that to be successful, one has to love what he does. After spending some year working tirelessly as a security guard, Noncedo realized that her work was not bringing enough to support her family and that she was missing out on her kids’ upbringing, so she decided to launch her own business, that is to farm pigs. She started with three pigs and has now 30 pigs on her farm and surprisingly targets one of the biggest clients in the region.
Thulani Ngwenya has been unemployed since 2016, instead of sitting back and waiting for help he began giving township tours through Gugulethu, charging R100 per couple to earn a living while actively pursuing a better job. In his free time, he accesses the local library’s free internet access to browse job adverts and continuously apply to different companies with the hope to find a better job. Thulani considers himself unemployed but says that he’s a hustler and that he never gives up on opportunities.
Since examples of great and legendary entrepreneurs appear to be far-fetched and too big to even consider, I have talked about lesser known people with similar success stories from South Africa for you to understand that success is not about achieving big and becoming a billionaire, everybody has their definition of success. These three people’s stories show that you don’t need a Harvard degree to become successful, but a pulsating desire for change.
Success is not about accumulating wealth, but about driving your most profound passion into a purpose to serve. And as a result of that, you make money. Look at all the successful people around you, Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, they all lead billion dollar companies, but their initial goal was not to accumulate wealth. Their initial goal was to put their passion into a purpose to serve the community, and this is what led them to success.
The key to getting out of this turmoil is not to wait for the government to do something about unemployment, it is not to press on the government to create jobs, but it is up to you to create opportunities for you and your community. You need to think about how your idea or passion can improve your immediate community, city, village or surrounding. Bring change to your situation and that of the others by creating jobs and can eventually turn into micro-economies.
All of you might be thinking, oh right, but it’s easier said than done. However, the truth is that it’s not, people around you have done it gloriously, they’ve stepped out of their comfort zone and decided to take the risk. They’ve realized that they have nothing more to lose so why not give it a try. It is better to attempt to put out the fire with little success than to sit back and perish right?
“ The only thing standing between you and your goal is the bullshit story you keep telling yourself as to why you can’t achieve it.” – Jordan Belfort
