iaan

It was with great excitement, optimism and chills down my spine that i listened to the annual Budget speech of the DTI (Department of Trade and Industry) delivered by Deputy Minister Bongi Maria Ntuli to the National Assembly of parliament on Tuesday 4th May 2010.

I managed to obtain a copy of the speech from her office and would like to share parts of it here. This might seem like a boring political transcript, but i trust that you will share in the optimism, hope & opportunity as presented in these excerpts. I am more than ever convinced that South Africa is the place to be for anybody with a hint of entrepreneurship inside of them - in South Africa, opportunity is everywhere!

“Honourable Chairperson, at the Seventh Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture in 2009 Professor Muhammad Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank said, “The responsibility of the State is to create opportunities for people, support them, so that they can stand up for themselves’. I have every reason to agree with Professor Yunus and this is why.

On Friday past together with the Minister of Home Affairs, Minister Dlamini-Zuma, I was in Kokstad in Kwa Zulu Natal. I had the privilege of visiting a bakery run from a container by five enthusiastic young men. Led by Thembelani this group is called the Sakhakulunge Co-op Bakery.

An opportunity was created for them by the Greater Kokstad Municipality, the container was equipped but the energy and the passion to run the operation had to come from the group. The leader of the group explained, that if it was not for this opportunity, all of them may have found themselves as repeat offenders with lengthy jail terms.

Ladies and gentlemen, initiatives such as these need further support from government. The challenge facing this Co-op is what many other similar micro enterprises face. The challenge of increasing market share, the challenge of increasing capacity and the challenge of making this a sustainable enterprise.

None of the Co-op members expressed the wish that this business should make them millionaires, they wanted to use the business as a vehicle to provide their families with an education and improve their own skills, provide a healthy product, prevent other young people from doing crime by being gainfully employed, contribute to the development of this rural area and be economically active.

Ladies and gentlemen, these five young people have expressed more eloquently than any policy could, the five priorities, identified as national priorities, by our government and in our ruling party’s elections manifesto. (These priorities are: decent work, education, health,fight against crime and rural development)

Chairperson, in our pursuit not only to meet but exceed the expectations of the five priorities of government, our department has looked at methods that together with our colleagues at Provincial and to an extent local level, we can initiate during this financial year. I have also had discussions with various people from academic institutions to the private sector who are offering to assist us in meeting our developmental goals.

Ladies and gentleman I started with the story of the bakery co-operative, I said that they still have some challenges. They have received a ‘hand-up’ from the local municipality. What stops us as the DTI, pooling our resources with the Province and other agencies and even the private sector to assist Co-ops such as these and others who need often minimal assistance for example bridging funds to expand and flourish.

As a believer, it is my conviction that the development of our people, no matter how daunting the task may be, can be realized. I believe that our country has the potential we need to eradicate poverty. All we need is a leadership that is ready and capable and equal to the task to respond to the aspirations of the people. We can create a world class economy working together with everyone willing to do this.

Honourable Members, as a popular song goes, “We must make the circle bigger”, we have to broaden economic participation. We have a generation of young people out of work. We have numbers of women who are in informal business who if not provided with opportunities will never enter the economic mainstream. I am inviting young people and women to come to the fore, I am also appealing to Honourable Members to direct us to communities where we can offer support for economic activities.

Twenty years ago when former President Mandela was released from prison he re-iterated the words he said from the dock when convicted and sent to prison, “I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities”. We need to provide those equal opportunities, we need to act faster, we need to act with “Umlilo”, a greater sense of urgency and passion. We have had sixteen years to practice, we now need to get it right.”

If you are thinking to yourself that this is just nice words and words don’t mean much, i want to congratulate you!

You (as the Deputy Minister knows) just realized that the government ultimately will not change South Africa.

It is up to visionary, optimistically tenacious entrepreneurs who accepts the world as it is, as an opportunity to create the world as it should be.

entrepreneuradvocate:

Someone asked me earlier today what advice I would give to a new or would be entrepreneur. I couldn’t pick just one so I listed six:

1. Don’t listen to haters. If they don’t get it, they don’t get it. You don’t need them to validate your vision. 

2. An idea is just an idea:  Pride yourself on execution.

3. Support entrepreneurs and they will support you back. 

4. If you don’t love every second of it. Give up now.

5. Put more into it than you expect to get out. 

6. Find your own narrative and own it. 

Top of my head. I’d love hear to all your own personal “rules.”

I love this post! I would add the following “rules” of my own:

1. It’s not about the money.
2. Relationships are more important than ideas.
3. Make sure your definition of success allows you to be happy once you achieve it.
4. Solving problems qualify you to achieve greatness.
5. It’s never “only business”.
6. Surround yourself with people who inspire and encourage you.
7. It’s easy to be negative - challenge yourself to always find the positive.
8. Never not do something because no one has tried it before.
9. Never not do something because someone has done it before and failed.
10. The “ends” or the “means” don’t justify each other. The “means” x time = “ends”

Please leave some comments or questions if you agree or don’t.

I have the privilege of being involved with a world-changing business called RiseUp. I am so excited about this, so I would like to tell you more about it. (The website is under construction, but in the near future more info will be available at http://www.rise-up.co.za

I am going to save the history, about us etc for the website. I want to tell you about the awesomeness of this project here.

RiseUp establishes sustainable small businesses (bakeries) in remote and under-privileged communities and takes responsibility for long-term skills training, business mentoring and management.

We believe businesses are the vehicles to significantly change the lives of people involved. Owning a business and working for profit produces ownership, self-worth, responsibility, hope and purpose. Not to mention the hard skills of operating a business like marketing, management, cash-flow, inventory etc.

Hand-outs and charity are selfless acts that mend the scars of poverty and discrimination. But only through the sustainable empowering of individuals (like establishing businesses) can the root of poverty be adressed.

RiseUp might seem like a drop in the ocean, but the ripple effect is very interesting.

• When a business is established in a community, the money spent at the business remains in the community and does not leave to the accounts of a corporate entity only interested in the sale and not the business.

• If one member of a family can make a living, the lives of the rest of the family will be influenced accordingly. Many South Africans understand “community” and “family” much better than anyone else in the world. This is known as “Ubuntu” or the understanding that “I am because we are”. A purely self-seeking growth is meaningless. Everyone must grow together.

• We are currently establishing bakeries, but our purpose is to establish other sustainable businesses that will build on the progress made by RiseUp Bakeries

Expect to hear loads more about RiseUp in the very near future. To stay updated, follow RiseUp Bakeries on twitter

What do you think of our business cards promoting the sharing of ideas, opportunity, and bread? A slice of bread gets shared with people we meet when handing out a card. Thanks to Erwin Bindeman (www.erwin.co.za) for the design.