In a world of newsletters, who will survive?

For the last six months, I have gravitated to old-school reading. Picking up the paper in the shop and the odd magazine. I like the fact that it's absolute. No evolving creature changing shape as you scroll down, subtly changing the ads and popping in links that might lure you down some rabbit hole with deep fakes and the next big crypto move by Elon Musk. Newspaper reading puts the decision back in your hands. Then there is the aesthetics; it's nice to hold a paper or to complain because the person who read it before you mixed up the pages and didn't fold it properly.

Admittedly, I use the Kindle app, and there are great tools you can integrate, like Notion and Instapaper, and looking up a word is faster than taking the old Heinemann dictionary, which smells a bit funky, off the shelf. But it is more romantic.

Newsletters die in my inbox if they don't entertain. One can also argue value, but it's Monday morning, and nobody wants to use the word value before at least 1pm. On multiple scrolls, I have seen people announcing to the world that they have unsubscribed from all the newsletters because it's too much, and they just cannot find the time.

How ironic it is that we have changed how we engage with media. Because everyone is a journalist, we read short snippets and watch videos to save time. Neglect our long reading, of which the inverse is a gazillion reels. The latter is easier, but unfortunately, it is littered with reality TV stimuli and the next iteration of Crocs or, in my case, baby prams. They know.

Our baby pram is quite the vehicle, with three wheels with off-road ability, an extension here, and a thingy there that can unclip and reclip. You get the point. Why didn't I listen to my doctor when he told me to buy the cheapest pram you can throw in the back. I guess it's probably a reel with a side dish of Capetonian social pressure. A friendly old lady, however, did compliment me over December while showing off the pram on a solo dad and babe walk; she wasn't impressed with the pram but said that I was the third dad with a pram, she had seen on her morning walk, and it looks like times have changed.

Newsletters die because they are not written with readers in mind. Often, the writer gets more benefit, straightening out their thoughts. Although there isn't a better way to discover your thoughts, we unsubscribe because they don't entertain.

And the recipe for entertaining with pen and paper has been around for a long time - the hero's journey. The hero embarks on adventure, fights the dragon, and is reborn as a transformed self.

We know the ending, but the journey is the differentiator that entertains. The manner. How does the writer deliver the ending to you?

Tech has not just changed how we shop but also the delivery of our story to ourselves. In today's world, like we have said, for I don't know, forever? There is just no time. And we are very creative when coming up with new manners, that cause our beloved I don't have the time. The latest is the technology that connects us and makes everyone's lives easier.

Times have changed, so entertain someone in person, even by showing off your new overpriced pram.

Photo by Roman Kraft on Unsplash

More winning. Tyla traveled to Los Angeles to pick up her Grammy, the first win in the category of African performance. I am listening to her single Water as I write this. It's one of those that make your shoulders rhythm. The host, Trevor Noah, also won the Emmy for The Daily Show three weeks ago.

Now it's on Bafana Bafana to beat Nigeria tomorrow night at 7pm.

What I like about the Apple Music app is that it automatically selects the next song in the same genre. I am on Drake's Nice For What now. It's not my personal preference, but my shoulders are still rhythming.

Nice for what? Perhaps similar thoughts are going through the minds of the youths playing pretend at Wilgenhof. I remember reading about the initiation at Paarl Boys' High in Corné Krige's autobiography. Writing that he had his first experience with authority placed in the wrong hands in high school, paraphrasing. A taste of the dragon when you're still young can be constructive.

"The sovereign individual, awake and attending to his or her conscience, is the force that prevents the group, as the necessary structure guiding normative social relations, from becoming blind and deadly." Beyond Order 12, more rules for life. Rule V, do not do what you hate.

The best initiation experience I had was in the week before inter-schools. The ritual wasn't exclusive and brought our team together. Given it was handled by 19-year-olds, it could've gone wrong quickly. If done right, it becomes an experience you will never forget. Done wrong, it unfortunately rings identity politics. Which is the most useless product politics has given us in recent years. It is as unproductive as a first-year student on a Thursday morning. Reading all the online opinions of old boys and the university's management reminds me of the US election using identity politics as a shield to hide from the challenges of a polarized, woke nation.

Initiation coupled with dogmatic beliefs breeds exclusivity, especially between young, confused men. And old confused men.

Nations were formed based on culture and to separate us from them. Norms, language, customs, and religion form our cultures, but patriotism involves compromise, and nationalism and authoritarianism don't.

Nice for what?

Because can you imagine how windgat Zizi Kodwa will be if Bafana Bafana wins? Our best dressed Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture.

Ending this off with Tina Turner's way of the world.

GO BAFANA!

Photo by diana kereselidze on Unsplash

From mixed martial arts to the benches of the international court, there has been a lot of winning done by South Africans.

The live entertainment this past Sunday was different, though. The Hadeda ibis is one of the many birds around our house. He/she, or they, and our Weimaraner Louis XIV were the entertainment this week. While I was trying to feed our 10-month-old by making swooshing airplane sounds, his attention was held by Louis's focus and calculated steps, almost mimicking Mufasa when teaching Simba how to hunt in The Lion King. As these guys were occupied, my mind went to Hakuna Matata. There are no troubles, no worries, my brother. Another saying I have heard way too much is "pole pole," meaning slowly-slowly. After a couple of years of living in Zanzibar, I dreaded these words. They're just not what you want to hear when time is of the essence.

In the spirit of slowly, this past Sunday morning, I decided not to rush the oat blitzkrieg, make another cup of tea, and read the news.

Our SA legal team won their case against Israel in The Hague, Netherlands. The international court decided that SA has a "prima facie" case, meaning the charges of genocide have merit. What the win means depends on the same variables controlling the petrol price. It starts with a few logical points: the cost of crude oil, supply, and improvement in extraction technology. Then, in the end, economists will throw in something like the intruder ants in East Africa.

"The court ruled that Israel must do all it can to prevent genocide, including refraining from harming or killing Palestinians. It also ruled that Israel must urgently get basic aid to Gaza and that the country should punish any incitement to genocide, among other measures". Other measures, right at the end.

Back to the ants. It is estimated that 15 years ago, intruder ants somehow ended up in the plains of Laikipia, Kenya. The ants, seemingly from an island in the Indian Ocean, have taken shelter in whistling thorn acacia trees and killed the native ants, leaving the trees vulnerable to herbivores like elephants.

The trees, being without their native biting ant army, are being grounded by the elephants, forcing lions to hunt without their element of surprise. Luckily, there is no evidence that the island ants have negatively influenced the lion's population.

The lions changed their strategy from camouflaging under trees to hunting in larger groups for larger prey.

Pole pole, an island ant, probably intoxicated when arriving in Kenya, has caused a dietary change for the king of the jungle.

Louis didn't catch the bird but lives to fight another day.

Photo by Mikell Darling on Unsplash

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During one of his original comedy specials Trevor Noah, South Africa's export comedian, reflected on his excitement after passing his driving test and finally getting his driver licence. For him, it meant freedom, especially in a country where public transport has struggled with numerous complex historical city and town planning challenges. 

Along with private car ownership affording this freedom to all South Africans has been a daunting task for our national government. 

Globally, and in South Africa, ever-expanding cities have forced national and local authorities to implement solutions ensuring citizens' mobility while balancing their livability.

The UN predicts 68% of the global population will reside in urban areas by 2050. Urbanisation has caused yet another noun to be added to the buzz phrase "as a service." Mobility as a Service (MaaS). Originally Software as a Service (SaaS) was coined in the early 2000s. Today we have XaaS, Anything as a Service. The original as a service is synonymous with "on-demand," meaning the service is available whenever the user requests without any long-term contracts.

As venture capital firms and governments deploy funds to address mobility issues, the Netflix model is one of the various service business models used as an example of the flexibility required in innovative problem-solving. However, the transport economics of data delivery via fibre optic underwater cables to a digital screen offers significant operational leverage. In contrast, MaaS businesses face low operating leverage in mobility. Data delivery is highly scalable because the delivery unit is minute compared to the demands of human mobility. Variables in mobility include extreme fluctuations in traffic due to events, frequency of travel, time of travel, and population growth.

Apart from the growth problem South Africa shares with the rest of the world and mobility start-ups probing various shared economy solutions for the first and last mile, the backbone of the county's public transport system requires more than venture capital. 

Road networks are struggling to deal with growth as building more roads has diminishing returns in that more roads would bring more drivers. Population growth, urban crawl, and urbanisation are the size variables all modes of transport need to address, not just in mobility but logistics as well, as they share public resources. Initially, road networks dealt with population growth well while addressing the last- and first-mile issues with taxis and today with bicycle or scooter-sharing platforms and e-hail providers, including Uber and Lyft. The areas in which the private sector can make a difference, with mainlines in rail and bus rapid transport being capital-intensive public resources. 

Regarding mainlines, Prasa and the Metrorail have historical city and town planning to overcome to improve rail operations with incompatibility of existing city infrastructure developed for private and semi-public transport use. The national and local governments must work together effectively to overcome the historic, energy, labour, fiscal, and corruption challenges that pose continuous threats to the mobility of South Africans. 

When Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis launched his feasibility study of Cape Town's railway system, he called for "functional federalism." Where local government and municipalities have the capacity, they should be involved in the national government's functions. Even though load-shedding brought the rail operations to a standstill, the national government met the mayor's request with resistance. However, Prasa, under new leadership, recently shared their excitement about new collaborations with the City of Cape Town. National resistance can hinder local digitisation projects and hiring skilled labour to implement digital ticketing, scheduling, and live alerts. 

Fiscally, the combination of a trade deficit of over R23 billion and the greylisting by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in February will affect the availability and cost of capital. Putting the national treasury under pressure to allocate funds to the public enterprises that need it most. Transaction fees on foreign direct investment will increase, with other countries having additional due diligence measures to trade and invest in South Africa. More red tape linked to our complex foreign exchange regulations will further stress the private sector capital availability. 

High inflation and a high-interest cycle after the C19 pandemic have affected maintenance efforts across all shared services infrastructure and will continue to do so with another rate increase in the first quester of 2023. Making working capital finance expensive for new transport infrastructure development. 

Unfortunately, in South Africa, no list of challenges related to public transport is complete without including violence. 

If not managed carefully, the trade deficit can result in job losses, leading to destructive and violent protests. Taxi unions continuously put pressure on fees due to fuel price increases, and protests have often been the careless means to an end. And with organised crime units linked to the extortion of construction sites, law enforcement faces another challenge to ensure our cities keep up with new departure points to get to commercial hubs. 

To give Mzansi's citizens the freedom of mobility, our national- and local governments must ensure the backbone of our public transport network is safe, reliable, and digital for the private sector to bring first and last-mile solutions. 

Photo by averie woodard on Unsplash

Every day I listen to Dawie Roodt's take on the economy on RSG, followed by the news at 8 am. The Phala Phala updates and Julius El Capitan's next mission to disrupt. If I catch the morning show a bit earlier, there is usually a discussion about something interesting, like smuggling succulents and exotic animals to Asian countries.

This morning it was about the aardvark found on Milnerton beach and over one million succulents smuggled out of the Northern Cape.

Other topics include Eskom, the demise of our education, and young professionals leaving the country.

I've never considered leaving the country permanently, but I was a bit down after watching De Ruyter's full interview. South African people know we have corruption at most levels of government. However, after De Ruyter's account, I briefly considered packing my bags until I saw the French riots and heard we still believe in South Africa from a friend when asked if he has considered leaving.

Why do we still believe in Mzansi? 

I stayed in Zanzibar for three years and experienced Kenya, Tanzania, and the north of Mozambique from an employee perspective. When friends asked me about the holiday vibe in Zanzibar, I told them, jokingly, I was not the right person to ask because I haven't holidayed in Zanzibar yet. I stopped saying it because it could come across as a tad obnoxious. Of course, there was a lot of truth in it. 

A travel excursion and moving somewhere for work are different. 

Yes, the exposure is the same, but not your relationship to what you see. When you travel to Zanzibar and explore the local villages, you will see no supermarkets and small spaza-like shops all selling Pringles and cookies from the middle east. There is no public cold chain. When orientating yourself in a new country where you get your food, suddenly rank high on things to figure out. Back to basics. Where can I get food? What is the right price for something? Do I pay cash, Mpesa, or will they have a card machine? 

My wife bought a baby record book, in which we wrote down prices of things, who were the stars of the day, and one of the more profound questions was our wishes for him. He can then read it when he is older. Not disregarding travel or holidaying, one of my wishes is that he experiences a new country through the lens of moving there.

"However, researchers have recently discovered that new genes in the central nervous system turn themselves on when an organism is placed (or places itself) in a new situation. These genes code for new proteins. These proteins are the building blocks for new structures in the brain. This means that a lot of you is still nascent, in the most physical of senses, and will not be called forth by stasis. You have to say something, go somewhere and do things to get turned on. And, if not...you remain incomplete, and life is too hard for anyone incomplete. If you say no to your boss, or your spouse, or your mother, when it needs to be said, then you transform yourself into someone who can say no when it needs to be said. If you say yes when no needs to be said, however, you transform yourself into someone who can only say yes, even when it is very clearly time to say no. If you ever wonder how perfectly ordinary, decent people could find themselves doing the terrible things in the gulag camp guards did, you now have your answer." Page 212, 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos. 

Enter Rassie Erasmus. In 2018, after a short run through Nungwi, Zanzibar north, I listened to one of the first interviews after Rassie took over as Springbok coach in 2018. The talk was about scrapping the 30 cap rule of 2017 and their new plans. 

I have loved everything from his first interviews to winning the world cup, the Lions series, and his Twitter voice note to Nick Mallet. 

"Just don't be boring." The advice Barry Diller (Expedia Group Chairman) gave Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber CEO, when he took over. "Dara, when you're on stage, it's not your job to inform. It's your job to entertain. Just don't be boring."

Rassie returned, brought new knowledge and more experience, and used it to improve a big love of South Africans, our rugby. Last year I had to google how our rugby competitions work, don't ask me to explain it. Some are upset about the Bulls and Stormers playing in a European competition, which doesn't make it European anymore, but that is how small the world has become. 

People returning with a new take is why I still believe in SA. 

Enjoy the new week!

Photo by Jacques Nel on Unsplash

“I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened.” - Mark Twain. 

One month sober.

I’ve never had a particular drink of preference. Growing up in the Winelands, I love a nice red or a gin and tonic works on a hot Boland summer day. 

However, my last drink was on the 18th of February, as I decided to do Lent this year and give something up until the 6th of April. Disclaimer: I will not give you any health advice, nor will I quit red wine, possibly ever. When my wife got pregnant last year, I told her perhaps this would also motivate me to live healthier and dial down on the biertje here and biertje there. It was a false alarm. I enjoyed the post-surf cool-down too much this past December.

My sleeping, however, became a bit troubled, and I am typically not a morning person and get irritated fast with too much twitter before daybreak. Knowing I would be a father soon and being an avid Jordan Peterson follower and supporter, the time came to change something. 

Yes, calling yourself an entrepreneur with no stable income also plays a role. “Jy wil mos” are the Afrikaans words that come to mind.

Okay, so after a couple of podcasts, some more radical than others, on the effects of alcohol on sleep, I decided to give it a stab.  

One month later, I reflect on “fear setting” and the last four weeks of prenatal classes every Tuesday and Thursday 7 pm - 9 pm at “Tannie Mariana Symington,” aka the baby whisperer of Paarl.

As I don’t know anything about raising a child, I told Lindsay we should go. Reluctantly listening to all the compliments and good reviews, I decided to keep an open mind. I can’t remember the last time I was in a class setting. Still, it took me back, and I enjoyed every minute of the wisdom tornado from heartburn, hemorrhoids, nipple cream, what to pack, medical aid kits, postnatal depression, and poop. 

Fear setting is a tool to prepare for something you might enjoy too much, page 474 in Tools of Titans by Tim Ferris.

A book I often refer to lives on my desk. Ferris splits his learnings from the best athletes, entertainers, and entrepreneurs into health, wealth, and wisdom. 

“Our life is frittered away by detail....Simplify, simplify.... A man is rich in proposition to the number of things which he can afford to let alone.” - Henry David Thoreau, Walden.

Quitting the Friday night beer laughs was daunting. I was scared of how it would affect my relationships. Fear setting is an exercise that defines your scares and what steps you can take to repair possible damage if required.

Yesterday I poured a lively crowd some wine at a surprise birthday party and enjoyed my coffee. I had two.

And it’s probably best to be sober while taking notes on the colour and consistency of le poop. 

P.S. Thank you, Tannie Mariana

Photo by Joshua Earle on Unsplash

I am changing names.

The ZA Entrepreneur title no longer reflects my writing. I started the blog in 2021 with five extended essays about taking Easemile, a last-mile delivery concept, through a design thinking course at LaunchLab in Stellenbosch. Writing helps you think; writing some how-to articles helped me process the information I gathered through my interviews.

But, it became boring fast.

What writing about the same recipe and design thinking over and over has taught me is listening is vital.

To who?

In my previous post, Donkeys and Cocktails, I shared my aversion to networking events. Enter Dunbar's number.

Anthropologist Robin Dunbar said we have a limit of 100 to 250 stable relationships. His extensive research started with looking at primates and their social grooming needs, leading him to an average group size of 148 for humans. The following paragraph is from Social Chemistry: Decoding the patterns of human connection, page 37.

"While the average user has several hundred Facebook friends, a massive study of Facebook found that less than 5 percent of users had contacted more than a hundred people through the platform. Similarly, a study of 1.7 million Twitter users found that users maintain between a hundred and two hundred stable relationships. People who spend more time on social media have larger social media networks but do not have larger offline networks; they also do not feel emotionally closer to the people in their network. Social media hasn't expanded the number of friends we have or made us feel closer to them. It has simply changed our ability to keep track of the outermost layer of former acquaintances. It has become our equivalent of Rockefeller's Rolodex." - Marissa King.

The new name, then, is to share my observations in business and life with a lighter tone and make a joke or two along the way.

King splits human networks into conveners, brokers, and expansionists.

Conveners typically prefer smaller networks. Brokers move between circles and expansionists. Self-explanatory have more extensive networks but often fewer quality relationships. For expansionists, expanding and getting to know people takes time, focus, and work. Considering LinkedIn, I need to count the number of cold emails and requests I have sent. It has helped me do research and ask for advice. However, for those people to get into the 150 circle is unlikely.

The chances of building a meaningful relationship are slim, simply because it takes a lot of energy from both sides, no matter the introvert or extrovert personality.

Networking, like suntanning, needs a lot of factor for short-lived vanity, which can end in sunburn.

However, asking for help is different. I remember a Sarie article my grandfather shared with me in high school about self-made men more than fifteen years ago. Bill Gates was one of the interviewees, and when asked for advice, he said most people he asked for help said yes, so ask for help. Still requiring effort from both sides, asking for help makes the connection specific.

If you're a broker who moves between circles, the risk can cause trust issues in convener networks. Transparency is vital when asking others for help. I am not saying sit back, relax, and expect people to do everything for you. Instead, human connection and stable relationships need trust, and trust needs vulnerability. Childhood relationships often share a past of teenage embarrassment and hurt.

My closest circle still consists of men I met as a boy in boarding school. There is nowhere to hide in boarding school, so vulnerability is a given.

Welcome to Life by Polony!

I am excited to share some weird “stuff” with you in this new chapter.

Now and again, I glance through my diary. I use the Day One Journal app. It’s a great tool to keep everything in one place, photos, videos, and scribbles. My first entry was a brief account of desk shopping that turned into buying two books, Jordan Peterson’s Beyond Order and The Chanel Sisters by Judith Little, for my wife.

I had one thing to do.

I have argued that it is a sign that patience is required to get the desired result when I don’t do the one thing I was supposed to do. We ended up using, or should I say reusing, two other tables by just putting them together to get the desk width we needed. My attention deficit saved money and, with that, a pledge to the circular degrowth economy.

Scrolling further, past all the million dollar ideas and the dodgy businezz men I have met over the last eight years, I get to one of my favorite quotes and the most relevant on what I have aimed to do the previous, well, while.

“Don’t be a donkey.” Based on an ancient fable - Buridan’s ass. A donkey stands between water and a bale of hay, torn by the decision to make. He dies of hunger and thirst.

I love this quote because it reminds me that I must

look at what distractions I’ve added to my life. Leading me to “networking.” I ended my cocktails distraction in a jilting fashion in mid-2022. I like meeting new people, but there is something awkward about meeting people to meet people.

It’s like going on a blind date with a robot. You have a problem that the person is not a person, but somehow you’ve asked, so what is good here?

The point is that the donkey needs help to think long-term and plan and prioritize. Single-tasking is better than multitasking, as illustrated by Jean Buridan in the 14th century. So why have we tried to reinvent the wheel? I think because distractions like networking (I have nothing against blind dates) kill time and aid blindness to the things that require our focus.

I experienced a tough career setback in 2019 and didn’t have much to turn to when I realized my ambition had become my only identity. It took me a while to act, leave a distraction position, and choose the long-term view.

To me, a career break to explore living without fighting for something. Ironically, exploring one thing at a time created the capacity for more, exploring a startup idea, working with an incubator, consulting, and learning new sports.

And new cocktail recipes, of course.

Photo by Daniel Fazio on Unsplash

ICU is not an acronym any of us want to hear. With the power to hit to wind out of you every time.

Driving back from a slow weekend in Montagu, I told my wife let’s have a late lunch at Pink Valley wine estate before we pick up Louis, our Weim. A leisurely Sunday in the land of wine.

Sunday afternoon has always had the potential to keep me in two minds about stretching the weekend or hitting the gym hard on a Monday morning.

I had just put our dusty cooler box on the counter when a brother phoned from Ireland.

Initially, I thought it was a celebratory call, celebrating a race finished. Instead, “Dirkie het geval.” He passed out and fell and hurt his head. Something about potassium and electrolytes. What?

He is in the ICU.

No longer in two minds, I paced around the house, watering a wet garden, stretching a half-a-bottle-of-rosé body, and going to bed exhausted, wondering how a mother and a brother would sleep tonight.

Two days later, I saw a post, “Ons is almal op ons kniee.”

Stretching.

So much so that I started doing yoga the next day. In a house from a previous chapter where we shared memories a many.

Thousands of prayers and 19 days later. Home.

For a brother’s rest.

Make the time.

Netflix's Chef's Table is one of my favourite shows, and I love everything about it. The Vivaldi L'inverno (Winter) intro music, the videography, and the chefs' inspiring tales of risking it all.

Inspiring stories can fire the urge to jump and take risks. In most of these chefs' worlds, that meant sticking to what they believed would work. Episode 3 Chef's Table: Pizza interviews Ann Kim. She risked putting kimchi on pizza, challenging the pepperoni and cheese status quo to the extreme. 

Beyond the romance of the beautiful scenery and the travel stories of the culinary world, it doesn't take long to realise these guys have worked extremely hard. 

Knowing cooking is their path, every chef still accepts they'll be on the search for the unknown for the rest of their lives.

Accept the search, a lesson taken from the food entrepreneurs. 

I often hear "I'm not going down," meaning not earning less or taking a lower position with a cheaper title. The search is not a linear graph up the slippery ladders. These pizza makers went down into the mud to go up, where you often find entrepreneurs.

In the mud where things are breaking, searching. 

In my 20's, I started projects to take the risk. I was often ticking only that one box, not spending enough time in the mud. 

Accepting the search means committing to the market you want to serve.

To focus.

Photo by Dan Burton on Unsplash

Every industry can now offer "as a service" with some embedded finance option as the kicker. 

One that I am most interested in, of course, is LaaS logistics as a service. "SaaS" is the tag for on-demand software that is open to use whenever needed. Some top SaaS companies include Xero, Shopify, and Salesforce. The value lies in flexibility. Users don't have to invest heavily in setting up native systems with dedicated hosting.

The SaaS company lays down the software infrastructure, almost like a macro infrastructure investment by the government. Open the tap, and there's water.

Unfortunately, transport economics doesn't have the same characteristics as software, mainly because LaaS needs real-world action.

The real-life logistics are not flexible, so I am not sold on LaaS yet.

In SaaS, the unit of delivery never changes. The pipes were laid and taps fixed.

Transport units vary in type, including size and volume. The operating leverage is low, not what you want in the "as a service" world. Transport units range between van, bike, refrigeration, flatbed, container 20ft or 40ft, reefer, air container, etc.

When we need more water, we keep the tap running. However, in logistics, if you go over the volume constraint of one unit, you need another. We are sticking to the water analogy, another tap.

For sea freight to be more "as a service," consider the following.

A macro approach, where private companies invest in operating even when the transport unit is only 10% full or empty. Or.

Physical unit flexibility, for example, if a container can change in size like a concertina, vessels can vary in size, and truck trailers can vary in size depending on the space demand. The supply chain can adapt, with the operating cost decreasing to reflect the smaller load. It seems far away.

There are exceptions where I would agree that road logistics has enough similarity to a pipeline in intra-city parcel delivery.

Uber.

Pipeline economics is one of high leverage. The operating costs are low with increased initial capital investment.

Similarly, what does it cost for Uber to offer an on-demand intra-city parcel service?

The capital layout here is the e-hail service. Logistics flexibility comes from an already viable base layer that pays for the unit of transport to be available, on-demand.

What can be the foundation layer in other game-changing logistics and mobility startups?

What do we build first? A hyperloop?

Photo by Quinten de Graaf on Unsplash

“We are prone to overestimate how much we understand about the world and to underestimate the role of chance in events. Overconfidence is fed by the illusory certainty of hindsight.” - Daniel Kahneman 

When I started writing to share my thoughts on LinkedIn and launch my newsletter, I aimed to record the challenges of a startup, share the bad news as it happened, and the daily highs and lows. Without having the shinny result of success or a reputation as an entrepreneur or writer.

Many business and how-to books are written after success, sharing insights on how people navigated their way in the business world and what tools and principles helped them, and with good reason. I don’t think how to authors would get much attention without some proof of legitimacy.

I believe we still read and write about entrepreneurship because it is an unsolvable equation. Once the results are in, it’s relatively easy to deduce why we are so successful with the clarity of hindsight. “I knew that would happen,” the words often spoken after something already happened. Ah yes. 

Hindsight bias is the term used to explain how we “knew” it was going to happen after an event unfolds. After observing the result, we deduce an explanation, molding the “how-to” part to fit a known outcome. 

My wife and I recently spent a few nights at Victoria Falls and on the Chobe River. The morning we left SA, I got the usual instruction of taking the passports out of the safe, replying, already done. I only felt my legs weaken when I realised the passport control officer was flipping through the old full passport that I was warned about back in 2019. Hot out of the gates, my vacation brownie points were in the red. Honestly, I also didn’t know how many border posts we would cross and how many stamps I would need space for in the days to come. Twelve. Out of South Africa, in Zimbabwe, out Zimbabwe, in Botswana, out Botswana, in Namibia, out Namibia, in Botswana, out Botswana, in Zimbabwe, out Zimbabwe, and in South Africa.

Every border crossing was a teary-eyed negotiation followed by a sense of achievement. Africa has a talent for producing this feeling of accomplishment. Apart from the full passport, past examples include disappearing into the traffic after ignoring a traffic officer and walking through customs with a suitcase full of biltong. 

I can go into the how part here, explaining how not to argue with any government official or put your bag on the scanner behind a large group of people to give yourself a good chance of slipping through unnoticed—choosing the accomplishment narrative. 

Or perhaps the official was a family man, and he didn’t want to hold up the rest of the group, or the person behind the scanner was having a no admin day. 

Hindsight is not always the best sight in success or failure because it is a story we tell ourselves. 

And in hindsight, I should have moved my old passport to a different location because I knew this would happen.

Failure has become such a cliché, so I don’t want to say that we have failed, but we’ve made a few mistakes. I am paraphrasing a comment made by an entrepreneur while introducing himself at the start of LaunchLab’s idea validation course in middle 2021. 

His comment has stuck with me ever since.

I’ve had my share of failure, shame, and disappointment, so I’ve enjoyed reading up on failure from Failing Forward by John C. Maxwell and the opposing thoughts of Peter Thiel “failure is overrated.” In the days that passed, I started to agree with his cliché sentiment. As with many self-help books, the transforming ideas turn into mere jargon if they are repeated enough without context or adoption in personal or business relations.

“This frantic, self-congratulatory busyness is a distinctly upscale affliction. Almost everyone I know is busy. They feel anxious and guilty when they aren’t working or doing something to promote their work. They schedule in time with their friends the way 4.0 students make sure to sign up for some extracurricular activities because they look good on college applications. I recently wrote to a friend asking if he wanted to do something this week, and he answered that he didn’t have a lot of time but if something was going on to let him know and maybe he could ditch work for a few hours. My question had not a preliminary heads-up to some future invitation: This was the invitation. I was hereby asking him to do something with me. But his busyness was like some vast churning noise through which he was shouting out at me, and I gave up trying to shout back over it. I recently learned a neologism that, like political correctness, man cave, and content-provider, I instantly recognized as heralding an ugly new turn in the culture: planshopping. That is, deferring committing to any one plan for an evening until you know what all your options are, and then picking one that’s most likely to be fun/advance your career/have the most girls at it - in other words, treating people like menu options or products in a catalog.” Tim Kreider 

The failure cliché made me think of the “self-congratulatory” I am busy line. Failure has unfortunately also been bastardised to become a lazy self-congratulatory introduction. 

You don’t have to look far for successful entrepreneurs who’ve had to dust themselves off and get back at it again. 

That is the entrepreneurial journey. However, failure is not the mark. 

When I was in grade 7, we played rugby in Stellenbosch. The team that scored the most tries would win the tournament, so it was all about getting the five-pointers and running the ball. Our coach said we had to score at least 15 tries in the three games to stand a chance during the warmup. If I recall correctly, we scored 13. I remember crying on our fly half’s 13-year-old shoulders shattered because we had lost the tournament. 

Arbitrary goals can motivate athletes, employees, and entrepreneurs to push and give everything.

When startups fail to become a business, there is no scoreboard like finite sports games have. Without the scoreboard, at what did the entrepreneur fail?

Without the aim to write a motivational piece, this is the lacking distinction. The founder is not the business. Busy is not productive.

Failing means nothing without learning. Learning is the word. I’ve found it extremely hard to learn from my own mistakes, which requires asking for help. 

Learning doesn’t require some grand failure. 

We won the tournament.

Photo by Romain Chollet on Unsplash

After a 6 am call with my mentor, I felt inspired to share more about my time in East Africa and three years based in Nungwi, Zanzibar.

I landed on June 6th, 2015, after politely asking the air hostess if I could sit in business class. She obliged, I felt like James Bond on a mission to paradise, incognito baby, and I am not going to spoil that by mentioning the airline. 

"What are you doing here?" I am on holiday. I didn't have a work visa yet, so I followed the instructions. You can sort out the work visa when you're there. Okay. Safely through to the second part of the mission, I collect my luggage and get a taxi [first checking if they have a taxi sticker on their car because I know what I am doing]. And head into Stone Town, where I should wait somewhere with wifi so I can let my employer know I have arrived. 

I sat down at Tembo hotel, intending to have lunch and maybe a cold one.

Sorry sir, we don't serve alcohol here. 

Mission failed.

My arrival describes not Africa but travel. I was a guest, ignorant I just saw people swimming and thought there was a vibe here.

Seeing another successful fundraising in Africa excites me because how long have people been saying Africa has enormous potential. 

All 54 countries?

I get why Africans and ex-pats who have spent some time in some African countries get annoyed when whoever refers to the continent as one country, with some nuance, but on the same mission.

"I am working in Africa" where? I get it.

But is taking the high ground not counterintuitive? Aren't we all ignorant travelers looking for similarity where ever we go? We all start somewhere. 

"TIA - this is Africa," an acronym often used as desensitised motivation. 

A couple of months into the Zanzibar project, their revenue authority announced that all items procured from the "mainland" Tanzania would be subject to a value-added import tax of 18% on top of the 18% charged when paying the mainland suppliers. In simple terms, an investor who is not yet operational pays two different receivers' taxes while only being registered at one of them. TIA.

By then, better versed in local dealings and the difference in culture between Zanzibar and Tanzania, the tax amendment surprised everyone. The odds are that when you hear "it works differently here," it probably does. 

"Interestingly, one of the initial impediments to open-mindedness is not ignorance but ideology. This is especially true in America, where (particularly in "progressive" circles) we have politicized open-mindedness to the point that it isn't so open-minded anymore. Indeed, regardless of whether your sympathies lean to the left or the right, you aren't going to learn anything new if you continually use politics as a lens through which to view the world. At home, political convictions are a tool for getting things done within your community; on the road, political convictions are a clumsy set of experiential blinders, compelling you to seek evidence for conclusions you've already drawn." - Rolf Potts, Vagabonding. 

If you aim to expand into Africa or build a pan-African solution to address a bigger market, open-mindedness is also a requirement in your pitch deck. Entrepreneurs fail at home for whatever reason, often not verifying their guesses. Building a product and looking for a problem can be a costly research exercise globally.

How many investors have failed in African countries by playing James Bond and not listening?

P.S. Photo was taken while having a red bull.

After baking the banana bread and opening the best bottle of red wine in the house during hard lockdown level five 2020, I decided to go for a career assessment. I resigned and reshuffled before the “great reshuffle” “great resignation” terms got coined. 

The assessment used was the 1984 ELM - Experiential Learning Model developed by David Kolb and the Myers-Briggs personality types. 

ELM level one has four problem-solving categories. Shortly. 

Diverger is someone who asks “why” when they are learning/solving a problem. They look at the big picture and are creative with many ideas. 

Assimilator asks, “what.” Abstract conceptualisation and building theoretical models. Academically inclined. 

Converger asks, “how.” Practical implementation of ideas tends to specialise in a technical field like engineering or accounting. 

Accommodator asks, “when.” They prefer to put plans into motion now and think on their feet. Strong sales acumen.

Level two dives into the learning preference. The notion is that we all prefer to learn in these four different ways concrete experiences, reflective experiences, abstract conceptualisation, and active experimentation. 

There are many personality tests out there without actual scientific evidence. Still, I was somewhat intrigued by the work that has developed these theories, and further reading led me to the construal level theory (CLT).

“Construal level involves the degree of psychological distance people experience when making a decision (Trope & Liberman, 2010).”

The further away from an event, the more abstract people’s thoughts are at a higher construal level. As time passes, the construal level decrease, and more concrete ideas emerge about the event. 

We are starting a business and changing careers. 

When the idea hits, the construal level is high, abstract, conceptual. Sexy. As the research starts or building of the product concrete detail emergence. After the initial high, the emotional journey starts. The competition is more rigid than I thought, the learning curve is steep, they have a lot more money, people aren’t phoning me back, and the software needs maintenance. 

I think this is why the challenge of changing career fields is extreme. Everything is abstract when making the decision, and then the learning starts. Not impossible, of course, but learning how to learn and how you learn best will help.

The value I got from the experiential learning assessment was the ability to name my weaknesses, what I need to work on, what kind of help I need. And the things I suck at, who can do that?

Resigning is step one, and one can eat only that much banana bread.

Photo by Evangelina Silina on Unsplash

P.S. Doing some research for my next article and would appreciate pointers. How many successful startups have teams that formed at a previous business?

I recently got married, and as with most significant events, at least one big thing goes sideways. In our case, it was the date. The venue we booked sent us an email in November of last year saying they are so sorry, but they have a double booking for our date of February 26th. I thought this only happened in air travel.

With the wedding being three months out, you can imagine the shock. I was dumbstruck.

In the email, they gave us a few new date options. After emotions ran high, we got to work, chose February 12th, emailed all our service providers. It was one of those venues where you must bring in everything chairs, cutlery, lights, everything. By some miracle, everyone had the 12th open, which meant we wouldn't lose any of the deposits paid.

We got the news the Tuesday morning, and by Friday, we had a new date with most of the arrangements made, and I remember looking at the wedding countdown and seeing we've jumped from 96 to 78 days to the wedding in three days.

Strange how time bends when planning weddings.

All this and the search for a toast theme led me to time. When and where did it start, the keeping of time.

After the Google first page kind of stuff, music videos, etc., I went down quite the rabbit hole. Timekeeping started with the Egyptians 1500 B.C to Julius Caesar imposing the Julian calendar by adding January and February to the ten-month calendar that celebrated the new year on March 1st.

Then another shift in 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII to the Gregorian calendar to the 24 time zones the world adopted after the 1884 Prime Meridian Conference, Washington, D.C. The conference resulted from the industrial revolution. Railways, steamships, and telephones required synergetic timekeeping.

Unrest and riots followed as labourers in countries like India had to adapt and commute to work before dawn for the first time.

The world has become a well-oiled machine by minimising times kept globally, and time plays a significant role in improving technology and data analytics.

Amid wedding planning and working on a start-up, I received some advice, probably the best I have received as an entrepreneur, cultivate your advice network as you grow. That led me to a personal question that was hard to answer. How much of what I do, my beliefs come from taking immediate advice and not taking the time to cultivate.

The evolution of time is the foundation of the modern "SaaS" world we live in today.

And a shared calendar will ensure the chairs and cutlery arrive just in time.

Photo by Mike Enerio on Unsplash

For those unfamiliar with meditation, the two minds concept that originated in Buddhism splits the mind into thinking and observing. The aim is to follow the thinking mind and negative emotions as they come and go, a technique used to solve emotional problems.

Thinking and observing are different, something the design thinking process highlights in the entrepreneurial context.

The five steps recapped are empathise, define, ideate, prototype and test. The methodology is a constant interplay between thinking and observing, and it's exhausting and frustrating, perhaps just like starting to meditate.

1. Empathise. To put yourself in someone else's shoes require observation and listening

2. Define. To define the problem, think about your observations with potential clients

3. Ideate. Thinking of ways to solve the design challenge

4. Prototype. Figuring out how to put something in front of potential clients as fast and cheaply as possible

5. Test. Observe how potential clients or customers interact with your prototype

"Think different", the famous Apple slogan from 1997, has been adopted by many to promote "disruption" in their industries. A great marketing slogan but not a great tool without observation.

As entrepreneurs, I believe most of us are in one of these five steps when creating, solving a problem, or meeting a need. As the sole founder of Easemile, I find the value in knowing what part of the process I am in, not only from a business design perspective but also to deal with the mental challenges that come with entrepreneurship and building a business.

Design thinking is a meditation of innovation.

Step 5 testing

I founded Easemile this year to focus on the specific challenges SA's delivery companies experienced at access-controlled properties and joined the LaunchLab to take the perceived resource wasting problem through the design thinking process.

After confirming that Easemile could provide insurance for packages using CCTV and tracking software, I contacted various courier companies to validate how big the access control problem was and if they would pay to solve it. Most were willing to talk and confirmed that they would be willing to trial a solution to figure out the potential value of the service.

Next was the software. I found ERP software online developed for remote data collection. The Austrian developers helped me customise simple HTML files to launch a prototype at a residential estate in Noordhoek.

The goal was to observe how their security guards used the app and if it was fast enough. I received a phone call 5 minutes after the training.

They started using the app immediately but couldn't find a particular courier company's name in the dropdown list. I opted for a pre-determined list of courier companies for faster use. However, this was the final step in scanning a parcel "into" the gatehouse and not the first package, so I validated the app's user-friendliness.

Finally, would HOAs, trustees and property managers need or desire this new configuration as part of the reimagining of what a residential property can be? Many now have nursery schools, restaurants, and gymnasiums. Is a logistics partner imminent?

What is Easemile

Easemile is an aggregator platform aiming to increase first-time delivery success, decrease additional delivery attempts and reduce double handling for delivery companies.

By partnering with the access-controlled properties, the platform aggregates properties on behalf of delivery companies. Drivers can leave packages at the gatehouse knowing Easemile insures them. The property, in turn, can store the parcel without assuming liability.

Secondly, we aggregate drivers on behalf of the properties, sourcing drivers to collect packages from multiple depots destined for the same estates.

Law of diffusion of innovation

The law of diffusion of innovation is my favourite social theory because it reinforces why the cheapest fastest way is the best option every time. Developed by E.M Rogers in 1962, it explains how the market adopts innovation. He wrote the book, and there is ample material online, but I want to summarise it as focusing on innovators and early adopters.

Not to oversimplify, but these are the people who follow up, phone back or go through a bit of trouble to engage. People who act early do so because they like it, not because the prototype or solution is perfect.

They share the vision.

After a couple of months in Zanzibar, I shared the vision of the Zuri development, and I spent four years going through trouble with the team, observing, thinking, and testing solutions.

As Easemile founder, I have the vision that SA can solve this last mile access-control delivery problem with the same infrastructure that is causing it in the first place.

Now also mentoring at the LaunchLab, I share their vision of turning the seemingly impossible into world-shaping and personally believe that entrepreneurs will transform the African investment landscape to solve the many challenges of a diverse and fragmented continent.

Thank you,

for reading my articles, please get in touch if you have any comments, questions, or ideas.

Photo Wilbur-, Orville Wright and Dan Tate - The History Collection

"The best Founders intentionally build their advice networks, making it an unfair advantage for them and their company" – The NFX Team 

Organising my interview notes to find any theme or pattern that stood out, I discovered that liability is often an afterthought. Who is responsible if things go wrong?

Drivers cannot leave parcels on the doorstep nor at the gatehouse. Properties cannot take responsibility for any packages because they do not know the value and have no way to insure them. They cannot recover insurance premium charges from anyone in the delivery chain.

The above statement is my point of view. It is derived from steps 1 and 2, empathy and defining. A challenge that will act as a guide to what your potential customers need you to design.

After choosing an idea that best addresses the point of view, developing a prototype doesn't need to be expensive. MVP is the go-to term, minimum viable product. Put something in front of a potential client as cheaply and as fast as possible. At first, it can even be a question: will this be for you if we can do it? Avoid wasting time and money on a presentation, product development, and the perfection trap.

When building a prototype, the goal is to test assumptions about your MVP. For example, are they using it as we expected?

Idea

Before I started the design thinking process, I thought that security guards could deliver parcels to the estate residents seeing as the guards already use Android minicomputers to scan the car licences of visitors upon entry. This is the same device that last-mile drivers use for visibility on parcel movement and to add proof of delivery. The "your parcel is out for delivery" text message is triggered by one of these scans. This initial prototype idea led me back to the "define step" and eventually to the above point of view. Design thinking is not a linear process.

Assumptions and questions that need answering and validation

· How do we design a product or business to help drivers and security guards interact more efficiently without liability transferring to the property without frustrating receivers?

· We can use the existing CCTV infrastructure at the gatehouse to provide liability cover for handling parcels on behalf of delivery companies and residents?

· Will delivery companies save enough money and time by not entering the residential estates and/or having to go back to reattempt deliveries.

· Can delivery companies utilise resources more efficiently if we can provide the liability coverage so that they can drop parcels at the gatehouses?

· Would security guards use an Android app to scan parcels "into" the property gatehouse for tracking purposes?

Assume that you are wrong about everything and use prototyping to validate your solution.

In Zanzibar, we started with a modern building method using insulated wall panels that had never been used in Zanzibar before. Management had a full-scale mock-up built in Prague where investors, the project team, subcontractors, and designers could inspect and potentially identify snags and approve the idea. However, we assumed we could train labourers on-site in Zanzibar to resize and cut conduit channels.

We ended up using bricks.

Keep the prototype as "lean" as possible. If potential customers or partners ask for changes or other features, does it mean they will pay?

Item 7*, taking advice is a skill. Take time to cultivate your advice network. Knowing what business you're in, innovative or conventional, ask people who have done it before.

Realising my MVP for the last mile delivery and access-controlled properties is taking the form of a platform, I researched platforms and looked for advice on how they work.

Five types with some examples:

1. Innovation platforms, app stores

2. Transactional platforms, marketplaces

3. User-generated content platforms, Youtube and Instagram

4. Aggregators, Booking.com

5. Hybrid, a combination of the above, Google and Apple

One of the problems aggregators solve is giving users a central place to compare products and services. They build up the supply and own the relationship between supply and demand. Property platforms aggregate realtors that sometimes advertise the same property. It's become a go-to for realtor advertising even though they are competing.

The chicken-egg problem, which of the two things happened first? Realtors that wouldn't traditionally work together now together give the platform credibility.

Can a platform combining existing infrastructure and resources between delivery companies and properties improve processes on both sides?

5 of 5 how I aim to test the above and the law of diffusion of innovation.

* https://www.nfx.com/post/mental-models-part-one/

Photo by Justin Lim on Unsplash