It's all about Character...

There is a great sense of accomplishment that one feels when you begin to see the fruit of you labour come to life. There is personal satisfaction in knowing that every personal sacrifice that one has made has been worth the pain, anxiety and grey hairs that have come with them. It is equally heart warming to know that all of that energy was not wasted on seamlessly small and mundane task...that each action no matter how small was the contributing factor that has helped reach this pinnacle of achievement. 

I don’t think the reward would be as great or would feel quite as satisfying if the journey were easy. Whoever gained great sense of satisfaction from doing something that was effortless? What would life be if we were not challenged in some way that allowed us to grow, build our strength and character? 

Richard Reeves says “"Character is a word that seems to define almost all human activity and then some...Power is what you do and character is what you are...All leaders must face some crisis where their own strength of character is the enemy." So I say embrace the curve balls, look past the challenges and see the potential that they posses and the glory that lives on the other side.

  

Can integrity & honesty in business exist?

Honesty and Integrity is something you hear a lot about in business...Its either something that organisations are aspiring to or something that is lacking. My question is this, in a world where each is trying to protect their own best interest is it possible to act with complete honesty and integrity without fear that someone/a business partner/business associate, whoever really ...in their attempt to act in their own best interest may sabotage your interest. 

John Nash’s theory of equilibrium suggests that if each player has chosen a strategy and no player can benefit by changing his or her strategy while the other players keep theirs unchanged, then the current set of strategy choices and the corresponding payoffs constituted reach equilibrium.

If this is true then, surely if everyone lay’s their plans out on the table honestly in the effort of integrity, with the interests of trying to achieve what is best for the collective rather than the individual then surely business would thrive and flourish.  So then, why would it seem that in business the individual acts only for himself at the expense of the collective and should someone be interested in acting for collective in the hopes that the best efforts for the collective will result in the best efforts for himself, would succeed! 

I am in business for the love of what I do, yes naive but ultimately very true...by virtue of having to make a living and needing the business to grow I have to make some kind of profit. If the opportunity to achieve something of significance for the industry, the music industry to be specific, by working with others in that industry for the greater good, am all for it. However it would seem and the music industry does not stand in isolation...I think it’s with all business, it is each man for himself and that cats are among the wolves and may the strongest survive.

Is it even possible to contemplate the romantic notion that I as a business person can approach someone else in a similar business, lay my plans on the table with honesty and hope that the other person will act with integrity and not use the information I have provided as a way to further their own interest? Dare I dream that I can collaborate with like minded people who want nothing more than to do the work for the love of it, for wanting to be part of something, for believing in the cause or is this just a fictitious fantasy that exists only in movies???

I live in hope that the cause will outweigh the commercial benefits that can be achieved, that love and not greed will ultimately be our driving force...I'm a romantic!

Thuli signing out...

Finding the illusive Titanic

In starting up I’ve read quite a few books on how to start and run a business. All of these books with fountains of knowledge and information, that on paper make perfect sense...have a plan; define how it will be executed and then execute it! It all seems very logical only for one thing, life doesn’t go according to any script, planned or otherwise! 

A well thought out idea is a good plan...no one ever went into battle without at least considering whether they might win or lose, but in the same breath we can plan our lives away, putting together business plans, marketing strategies and communication plans, etc, etc... In the end creativity and brilliant ideas are seldom ever laid out on paper beforehand. They are often situations that arise in the spur of the moment, the challenge lies in being able to determine whether or not that situation will benefit or hinder your business.  There is never a guarantee that even the most well thought out plans or the best executed plans will work. It is all about taking a risk, throwing caution to the wind and working really hard to make it succeed. 

For me, business is risky stuff, not for the faint hearted, you have to be open to ideas, shift gears when you need to and if an opportunity that you hadn’t considered comes your way that has the potential for success, take it. No one ever became good at what they did by doing the smart thing all the time.  If Steve Jobs had listened to all his critics, would we have the Ipod, Itunes, the Ipad or Iphone. The greatest business leaders of our time Jeff Bezos ,  Richard Branson or Sergey Brin & Larry Page, Li Ka Shing, in some way or another have broken the rules and taken a risk that at the time may not have been the wisest option, but has paid them dividend in the end. 

So what risks have I taken you ask ... well I’m only getting started at this point so for now my biggest risk, spending my life savings on this little venture of mine, it’s a well thought idea, with some planning involved but I certainly haven’t got it all figured out!

So I say have an idea think it through carefully and then go out there and make it work best for you! Take a risk, jump at the opportunity and swim in the deepest part of the ocean...you never know, you may just discover the Titanic while you’re out there.

And that’s just how Thuli sees it!

Thuli signing out...

Setting the Scene...

Ok so a few people have been asking me what the hell do you do...you’ve quit your job and spent your life savings on what exactly?

Ok so to put the record straight, technically I’ve started a design & merchandising company, well by virtue of the fact that we design and sell the merchandising but for me this is not what it’s all about...what we are really about is music, South African music to be exact!! 

I have the deepest love and the greatest passion for music in South Africa...and when I say music I’m talking classic contemporary South African music...Moses Molelekwa, Sipho Gumede, Caiphus Semenya, Busi Mhlongo to name just a few. These are musicians who have made and continue to make South African music, rooted in South Africa with South African rhythms and South African sounds. Music that has told South African stories about South African people. 

When I look around there is little to no evidence, other than in their music, that these musicians.  These musicians have contributed richly to our musical heritage. For reasons I fail to understand South African people have not taken it upon themselves keep the music alive. So here I am, my humble little self, taking on the task in my own small little way.  We want to create work that can be sold to those who share the same passion we have for music. This is the basis of what we do it's in our mission...“Through design we want to capture the memory of South African Music legends, remember their brilliance, celebrate their talent and pay tribute to the contribution they made to our musical heritage”

As for the design side of things, well I’ve always thought of myself as a creative person despite the fact that I can neither draw or design, I’ve left that to very capable team…my job is to inspire the idea, harness it and bring it to life.  When it comes to the designs our philosophy says it all…”To achieve the visual equivalent of the chord change that makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up” ambitious I know, but so were the Wright Brothers and they managed to make it work!

The merchandising, well it just seemed like the right fit for the industry and something yet to be explored in South Africa at least not at the levels I want to try and explore it. 

I work with a fantastically talented team of designers who share my philosophy and mission, and together we look to change the way South Africans see South African music. 

It’s perhaps not ground breaking like Google or Microsoft but it’s grounded in something I am passionate about and so for me it’s my baby and I love it!

This is Thuli signing out...

It all begins here...

It all started about 7 years ago; I had this brilliant idea...Music meets Design, meets merchandising...the perfect marriage! It seemed a lot easier said than done. However the time was not right and the ‘University of Life’ still had a few valuable lessons to teach me. Fast forward 6 years, and a year ago I decided it was now or never, I don’t know why I felt that way...after pondering on it for a few weeks I decided screw it, I’m throwing my balls to the wall and I’m going to do it! And so my journey began. Looking back I am glad I didn’t try starting this project 7 years ago, it would have been a disaster. 

It’s taken a year, 4 designers later and here we are on the precipice of printing our first set of designs. It is a triumphant feeling!

So I guess my very first lesson is that I have learned is it take sheer determination and guts to stand up and say I am going to start my own business. In the year that I have tried to get this baby off the ground I have approached a lot of people to assist in some way or another and very few of them have stood up to the plate. Now 1 year later the more people I tell about my little venture the more people want and are willing to help. It would have been easy to give up after the 5^th rejection, throw in the towel because no one else believed in what I did or believed in me the way I did. In the end it boils down to whether you have the determination to keep moving and the guts to carry on in the face of rejection, or do you whittle away at the prospects of what other people think? I’m certain that my days of rejection are not over, in fact I can guarantee that there will be many more along this path, but I think I have enough faith in my own ability to know that what others think is merely their own opinion and their opinion doesn’t necessarily make them right. Hey Robert Mugabe has an opinion after all and it doesn’t necessarily make him right!

Here is how I see it...I don't think I'm going to fail, but if I were to fail then all I can say is I was wrong, & the hardened realists who kept their feet on the ground were right. But at least I tried and my life is richer for it!

This blog is my journey, a chronically of doing business my way ...Business according to Thuli. Although I have yet to succeed in the conventional sense I know that with every lessoned learned along the way, good or bad, therein lies the success. This is going to be the wildest ride of my life. I have no doubt that it will be thrilling, exciting, nerve wrecking, exhausting, even terrifying at times...hopefully at the end of it all, I’ll have a great story to tell my grandchildren!

This is Thuli signing out!