Power, Wealth or Impact: What Drives You?

I had a great discussion with my friend Greg Durst the other night about what drives people.

Greg has a Harvard MBA, worked at Bain, McKinsey, Chase Manhattan and in South Africa was the MD of the joint venture between DiData and Tata Consulting. He has an incredible network of big cheeses worldwide and is one of the most energetic and passionate businessmen I know. He could work anywhere in the world and demand enormous pay packages.

Currently Greg heads up Endeavor, a Non-Profit Entrepreneur network that provides support to high-impact entrepreneurs identified through a rigorous selection process.

So I asked Greg during candle-lit dinner (it wasn't romantic, the power was out again) why he chose to stay in South Africa, with it's crime, a corrupt government and constant blackouts?

Greg told me that there are 3 'primal drive' factors (once you have a roof over your head and food in your stomach): Power, Wealth and (often unacknowledged) Impact.

I live my life by a simple (& selfish) philosophy of "Change The World, So That I Have a Better Place to Live In". However, I never realised that the motto by which I lived my life was perhaps a more primal instinct, rather than an intellectually motivated altruistic philosophy!

The fact is, Greg said, in South Africa he can have a much higher Impact! There is so much that could be fixed and improved if we set our minds to it. In many ways, South Africa is a frontier country. It is possible for individuals like you and me to have a significant and lasting impact if we simply decide to do so! Our actions today can make a big difference to the future of this country!

And of course, just like on any frontier, it doesn't hurt if we become Wealthy while we're at it...

Here's to Sheldon Cohen

It was with great sadness that I read about Sheldon's murder this week. The Times quite rightly had an article titled "Sheldon was a Legend"

My wife and I met Sheldon at last year's Endeavor panels, where he's been helping high impact entrepreneurs to make an even bigger impact on the South African landscape. On the first night we sat at a table with Sheldon, and spoke about appliances, sports, children and all sorts. Over the next few days we had a few drinks together and he regaled me with wisdom learned from both good and bad experiences.

It struck me how incredibly down to earth he was and the respectful way he treated me, even though I'm just a small upstart entrepreneur and he's been running a listed business with a R500 million market cap!

Since then every time I saw one of AMAP's products on a store shelf, I remembered Sheldon and the amazing impression he made on me within a few short days.

Sheldon, I will never forget you. You have achieved immortality in my mind. And I'm sure you'd have a good chuckle about the fact that I'll be reminded of you every time I switch on our Russell Hobbes kettle for a cup of tea.

South African Web 2.0 Startup Gets 35 Million Rand

I'm really stoked to see that my friend and Skyrove shareholder, Vinny Lingham, has just raised $5 million venture capital for Synthasite!

To put that in context: $5 million is almost R35 million.

This is by far the biggest Web 2.0 investment in South Africa to date and is even more significant considering that SynthaSite only launched into Beta two weeks ago.

The greatest thing about this is that it proves that anyone with a great idea and a lot of energy can launch a multimillion Rand business right here in South Africa. So if you have anything up your sleeve and happen to be graduating this year, say "no" to McKinsey/Accenture/Deloitte and start your own business!

Blogging from ISPA iWeek - Day 1

I'm blogging from iWeek. Some excellent speakers so far and interesting chats with some of the thought leaders in the South African Internet space.

Njeri Rionge, CEO of Ignite and founder of Wananchi, one of Kenya's largest ISPs, gave a talk about the face of the internet in Africa at the moment. Only 4% of Africa's population has access to the internet. She posed the question: "What do we as Africans want from Africa?"

Bill Manning gave a surprisingly interesting talk about IP version 6, and how Telcos are creating barriers to implementation. He made the strong statement that the 'internet is on its last legs' using the current IPv4 system.

Niall Murphy from TheCloud spoke about their very successful WiFi business with more than 10,000 hotspots in Europe. He spoke about the opportunities for service providers as long as they realise that the future is in mobile devices. I met Niall a bit more than a year ago when he was in South Africa. He gave me some good advice, but being young(er) and cocky(ier), and perhaps a tad too idealistic, I didn't listen to him. Needless to say, I learnt the lessons the hard way (or stupid way, depending how you look at it. In essence Niall put the point across that it's dangerous to build large public outdoor Wi-Fi networks, as the penetration into buildings is very low and Wi-Fi enabled mobile devices are not everywhere, yet.

Rael Lissoos from Magnolia Wireless gave a very entertaining presentation about how they've been delivering Triple Play (Voice, Data, Video) in the townships. They started by connecting schools to each other, which then progressed into a whole host of other services at much lower rates than our incumbent telcos are charging.

More after lunch!

Are You A Psychopath?

In my last post I talked about my recent experiences with 'Snakes in Suits'.

But how do you identify a psychopath?

"Likeable," "Charming," "Intelligent," "Alert," "Impressive," "Confidence-inspiring," and "A great success with the ladies": These are the sorts of descriptions repeatedly used by Cleckley in his famous case-studies of psychopaths. They are also, of course, "irresponsible," "self-destructive," and the like. These descriptions highlight the great frustrations and puzzles that surround the study of psychopathy.

Psychopaths seem to have in abundance the very traits most desired by normal persons. The untroubled self-confidence of the psychopath seems almost like an impossible dream and is generally what "normal" people seek to acquire when they attend assertiveness training classes. In many instances, the magnetic attraction of the psychopath for members of the opposite sex seems almost supernatural.

Cleckley's seminal hypothesis concerning the psychopath is that he suffers from a very real mental illness indeed: a profound and incurable affective deficit. If he really feels anything at all, they are emotions of only the shallowest kind. He does bizarre and self-destructive things because consequences that would fill the ordinary man with shame, self-loathing, and embarrassment simply do not affect the psychopath at all. What to others would be a disaster is to him merely a fleeting inconvenience.

(Ray, J. J. and J. A. B. Ray, 'Some apparent advantages of Subclinical Psychopathy', The Journal of Social Psychology, 1982, 117, 135-142. Thanks to the commenter for pointing out the correct source)
Also have a look at Kubrick's Psychopaths.

Here's the really scary part: 4% of the adult population suffer from psychopathy...

More in my next post on how these individuals drain our relationships, our bank accounts, our accomplishments, our self-esteem, our very peace on earth. And what to do about it.

Snakes in Suits

I've had the great misfortune the last few months to deal with some unbelievably unethical 'businessmen'.

I really struggled to understand the motivation for why otherwise intelligent beings would lie, steal and cheat when this clearly was not to their own longterm benefit.

Today I started reading Paul Babiak and Robert Hare's 'Snakes in Suits - When Psychopaths Go to Work'. Here's an excerpt that already goes a long way to explain it:

Most workers are honest, loyal, law-abiding citizens, concerned with making a living, contributing to society, and raising a family in a fair and just world. Others, though, are more selfish, concerned only about themselves with little regard for fairness and equity.

...

Some who have faltered may have experienced a weakened moral sense of "right" in the face of excessive temptation and easy access to power. Others may feel justified in reaping the rewards in proportion to the size of the organization they lead, arguing that their extravagances seem excessive only to those who have little hope of being so rewarded. Still others have embraced the self-serving mantras that "greed is good" and that success at any cost to others is justifiable and even desirable.

But another group exists, one whose behaviors and attitudes are potentially much more destructive to the organization and its employees than those noted above who are motivated by greed or big egos. This group, the subject of this book, displays a personality disorder rooted in lying, manipulation, deceit, egocentricity, callousness, and other potentially destructive traits. This personality disorder, one of the first to be described in the psychiatric literature, is psychopathy.

...

Some people with psychopathic personalities are in prison because of their crimes against people and property. Others are in prison for committing economic or white-collar crimes, such as fraud, embezzlement, or stock manipulation.

...

In addition to the problems their abusive behaviors cause to spouses, friends, and family members, individuals with a heavy dose of psychopathic traits are potentially harmful to professional relationships. For example, their grandiosity, sense of entitlement, and lack of personal insight lead to conflict and rivalry with bosses and coworkers, and their impulsivity and "live in the moment" philosophy lead them to keep repeating these and other dysfunctional, antisocial behaviors, despite performance appraisals and training programs.

The key here is that "most" people are honest and law-abiding. I think it's crucial for good, honest and law-abiding people to team up against the psychopaths.

As Edmund Burke said: "The Only Thing Necessary For Evil To Triumph Is For Good Men To Do Nothing".

Yeah!Fi Mate of the Week - Free Music!

At last week's 27dinner I had the pleasure to meet Galen Hossack, who together with Daryn Smith is the co-founder of LoadTheShow.

Here's how 'LoadTheShow' works:

You register as a user. You download free music. The artist receives R2 every time you download their songs. This is paid for by advertisers.

Now that's a simple yet clever business model!

It does raise some sustainability questions. Overseas the typical rate per 1000 impressions is $25 or R175, so every song that gets downloaded needs to provide about 12 impressions. In South Africa, advertisers probably pay a bit more, but it could still equate to a lot of advertising noise. In the short term, LoadTheShow has a daily limit of 50 downloads, on a first come first serve basis.

LoadTheShow has attracted sponsorship from Levi Jeans, and is about to launch a new website soon (the current one is very 'early stage' and somewhat too verbose)

Galen has a solid background in the music industry, as a band member, owner of a recording studio and as a partner in a music publisher. This has helped the site to "sign" 75 artists since launching in April.

If they keep adding artists and advertisers and can figure out how to make 1000s of downloads available daily, LoadTheShow could well be another great South African success story!

Speed Dating for VCs & Entrepreneurs

The 3rd Open Coffee Club (OCC) Cape Town is happening this Wednesday.

If you are an entrepreneur, a VC, or someone clever looking for some 'Entrepreneur Porn' this is the perfect place to meet some like-minded folks with smart ideas and/or cash to invest in the next killer app!

From their website:

The Open Coffee Club was started to encourage entrepreneurs, developers and investors to organise real-world informal meetups to chat, network and grow. Read the blog post that started the ball rolling.

I will be giving a short (10 min max) presentation about some of the experiences (read: mistakes) I've had with trying to raise funding for Skyrove, as well as how the Open Coffee Club was integral to raising our latest round from Lingham Capital.

Check out Eric Edelstein's post for details.

Why Branson Really Succeeded

One of the most enjoyable biographies I've read is Richard Branson's 'Losing my Virginity: How I've Survived, Had Fun, and Made a Fortune Doing Business My Way'.

I greatly admire Richard Branson, not just for what he has achieved, but more so for how he has gone about it. His style is very different from most entrepreneurs' and it's a style that cannot easily be replicated.

When I first started reading his biography, I was somewhat disgusted to learn how he often opportunistically started businesses. He described in detail how the system of 'resale price maintenance' imposed unfair taxes on music records, and how he discovered that he could bypass this law by declaring records as export stock and doing a few spins in his van around the Dover harbour!

"It was a criminal plan, and I was breaking the law. But I had always got away with breaking rules before."

I wondered how someone could have become so succesful if this was his attitude to doing business!

Branson then went on to describe how he was eventually arrested and spent a night in a police cell.

"Incentives come in all shapes and sizes, ranging from a pat on the back to share options, but avoiding prison was the most persuasive incentive I've ever had."

A settlement was agreed the day after, and his mother had to re-mortgage the family home to help pay the settlement.

He vowed that he would never again do anything that could land him in jail or harm his integrity.

Throughout the rest of his life, Branson consistently keeps the moral high-ground, never accepts or offers bribes and refuses to stoop to BA's level by countering their 'dirty tricks' campaign.

And look how that worked out for him...

Tertia meets PayPal

Tertia has just raised $2000 on her blog for an impoverished family in less than 6 hours!

The only way she could possibly do this was to use PayPal. But she couldn't simply receive the money directly:

"The reason why I can't do it myself, is that PayPal wont allow South African account holders to receive payments, grrrrrr! Poor Boulder has to do it for me, then pay the money across to my brother in the UK, who then has to pay the money across to me in South Africa and I will draw the cash for Harrison. He doesn't have a bank account, he can't afford the bank charges. Bank charges are horrific in this country, making formalised banking inaccessible to the poor. Don't worry, I wont put him at risk by making him walk around with all the cash at once. I'll give it to him in amounts he feels safe carrying around."

So I decided to put another challenge to Tertia:

Is there any chance you could use your influence and large following to pressure PayPal into allowing South African account holders to RECEIVE money as well as sending it. If this happened, we will very quickly have TONS of township entrepreneurs selling beadwork etc etc etc to a GLOBAL marketplace!

This is one of those things that could be so phenomenally viral as well... As soon as a few township entrepreneurs start selling their goods online SIMPLY and EASILY, many many more will become computer literate and learn how to sell their goods on eBay etc.

Sheesh, imagine the interesting blogs that could be written by such entrepreneurs:

"Today I went to ask for a bank loan. I told them how I was going to sell my unique wire-art online on eBay. The woman just laughed at me. Probably because she saw that my Adidas shoes only had 2 stripes left"

Combine township entrepreneurship + township bloggers + Scandinavian buyers and voila! You suddenly have millions of Rands flowing into this country and going directly to the mini-entrepreneurs.

Before you know it there'll be no need to ask people for donations. Though even if you did, you wouldn't have to hop 3 bank accounts to get the money into the country.

See Also: It's Tips for Trevor Time Again

Entrepreneur Porn 2: Juice

I had a fabulous dinner with Greg Durst and Helio Machado from Endeavor this evening. Greg is the person who coined the term 'Entrepreneur Porn', and he's done his bit to hook up some of the voyeurs (Venture Capitalists) with the pornstars (i.e. Entrepreneurs).

Tonight Greg spoke about some Cheese & Wine evenings Endeavor has organised, where he brings together some great entrepreneurs, private equity investors, some wise folks and some rich folks with no particular agenda.

Greg: "The most amazing thing that happens if you combine smart and passionate people with cheese and wine, is the 'juice'."

I think he was referring to the ideas and the synergies being formed. I hope so in any case...

It's 'Tips for Trevor' time again.

Here's mine:

"Internet, internet, internet! South African micro-entrepreneurs can immediately start benefiting from accessing the global marketplace via the internet.

Yet Financial Legislation makes it impossible for the small entrepreneur to easily receive foreign currency. E.g. my 12 year old nephew in Holland is constantly trading goods on eBay and sends and receives money via email using a service called PayPal. We now have PayPal in South Africa, but it can only be used to SEND money, not receive it!

Larger companies are constantly finding ways around these regulations in either case, but small entrepreneurs are left behind and aren't able to easily sell their products on this massive international market.

Come on Mr Manual, show us that you know it's the 21st century and remove restrictions that stifles internet trade."

If you agree, please go to the Tips for Trevor website and leave a similar message! If enough people campaign for free internet trade it could dramatically change the South African economic landscape.