comments on life

Client service perspective : Absa

2011-11-02T06:06:00.000-07:00

How do you measure your bank ?

It is no secret that I think the service level of South African banks are very low. In fact I think it stinks .

Would you rate the following as being part of customer service ?

1. Price

2. Ease of operations?

3. Quality of advice received?

4. Truthfulness and transparency in negotiations?

Of course you would !

So let us have a look at one of them : In this case Absa.

1. They have just been judged the most expensive bank amongst the top 5 in South Africa . They have all sorts of excuses. Whatever, none of it makes sense.

2. In a recent survey of brokerage divisions Absa was ranked as follows :

(Out of the top 10 )

a) They were the cheapest. (you pay for what you get ?)

b) The quality of their service was ranked at nr 10 out of 10

c) The quality of their advice was ranked at nr 10 out of 10

d) The quality of their trading platform was ranked 9 out of 10.

3. A client (full details available on request) made arrangements with the bank about arrears on his account. The arrangements were confirmed in the presence of the clients’ lawyers during which time the client also changed his domicilium address with the bank. The client kept to his side of the arrangement but the bank immediately had summons issued at the old address ( this off course so that the client would not know about this)

And then proceeded to obtain judgement ( again with the client being clueless about this)

I can go on about this bank’s service but for now – you be the judge and decide whether you want to carry on doing business with them. And of course the question is which one is now really better ?

What South Africans really want

2011-08-14T04:50:00.000-07:00

I joined a facebook group called precisely that : What South Africans really want. When starting off on the journey I thought this might be an interesting group to get involved in. I am still open to a decision on this.

Some of the normal things that happens on facebook happens here: Commentators try to highjack your point in stead of making their own point. Some commentators have no clue what the debate in that point is all about and goes off on a tangent.

One commentator asked me what alternatives I have to (I presume) BEE and Affirmative action.

Here is my viewpoint : Black economic empowerment is part of government policy now for some 16-17 years. The fact is it is trying to force White South Africa to stand back and let Black South Africa get the goodies. This is fine with us. It is not fine with them when they see that this doing nothing to White South Africa. They are trying to right past wrongs with another wrong. One of the nicest scapecoats there are is "Apartheid"

So what is an alternative ? So called solutions that have been implemented and is not working : Major money has been spent on buying up farms and giving it to previously disadvantaged individuals without making sure that they know how to farm. It is expected from White farmers to get involved but no service agreement has been forthcoming. Training is the name of the game and I will personally get involved and set up a management team of Subject specialists of all sorts and we will have these farms up and running in a year. Why is this not happening? The same government that now give tenders to the President's family of Billions of Rands starts heckling with us the moment they have to pay for such a project team. This is how I see BEE in action and not insisting on Shareholderships and all that nonsens in existing White owned firms.

This is like going to war and the other side asking you to please sharpen their swords for them so they can use it against you.

I am prepared to wager anyone who is interested that should BEE be dropped in total this country would be so far ahead in 5 years time that the past 17 years would look like it never even existed.

We are a group of business people with the business acumen and human resources to set up such project teams at a moment's notice. We will just not do it at our expense. You want our expertise, you pay for it.

We are fed up with government looking for scapecoats and people like Desmond Tutu expecting whites to keep on saying sorry. Ok here it is : Sorry but it is not going to happen. We will help but as equal partners.

Affirmative action ?

See my post on the 10th of June on this blogspot about the subject.

Dogmatix and other pet hates or loves

2011-08-03T07:57:00.000-07:00

What are your likes and dislikes ? Some people are very outspoken about likes and dislikes and will defend their views vehemently. Others do have views but will quite easily be swayed. Then there are those that will belief anything as long as it sounds plausable. I content that the latter suffer from a deadly disease called Gullabilation. It is incurable.

Point I am making : What do you like and what don't you like :

To begin with I will give you a few of mine : (O yes of course there are those that you really hate)

What I like :

I like people that can debate intelligently without getting angry at you because of a difference in viewpoint.

Fanatics about anything cannot do this. I like to "kuier" with friends and family. I enjoy a good red wine and a very good 12 year single malt whisky. (Americans cannot make whisky-It is ONLY made in Scotland)

And off course a rare braaied (South African version of Barbequed) rump steak. My garden. Spring and Summe. Local pubs (don't go their very often but I like it) Scotland.

What I don't like : Watching sport of any kind on the TV. Dogmatic preachers (very near to the point that I can say I hate them but not really so bad (yet) ) Perchance on Sunday evening I swithed on the tv and there was this woman preacher with her finger in the air proclaiming hell and damnation if you should dare drink wine!. I was sure other falsifications were forthcoming so I switched the tv off again. Some people that might also not like Dogmas will keep their mouth shut and let it go. This is the point I am trying to make: If you do not like a thing be prepared to say so and to defend your viewpoint. Do not be a crowd follower or pleaser. More dislikes : Racism of any kind ( Bee is racist), smartasses, people called Julius, (they remind me of one smartass called Malema). Winter (it is an awful time) Small cars, slow cars , farmers with hats on in bakkies. American beer.

If you like something say so ! If it is wine, chocolates, rare meat(sorry Vegans - us other normal people do eat meat) Because you are (might be) a bit overweight does not mean you do not have to like chocolates anymore!

Come on readers : Humour me - add to the lists : Likes and Dislikes !?

Tunnel vision

2011-06-30T22:02:00.000-07:00

Facebook is a facinating personality study ground. Ever thought what do you want from your interaction on social media. Per se what do you want from any interaction ?

I detest tunnel vision. These are people that can only talk about one thing and that thing is a lot of times themselves. Just read the comments and postings on facebook.

Because of this line of thought of mine I am now embarking on a "find like minded" friends. I am adding friendships at an alarming (to me anyway) rate for the simple reason that I intend to hit 300 and then dumping the ones with tunnel vision. I am drafting a scale and will publish it on my wall on facebook and would like some feedback from friends and whoever is interested.

It is very interesting to see who has "unfriended" me - I printed out a list a while back to keep track as apparently there is no other way to do this ?

Americanized junk

2011-06-16T22:06:00.000-07:00

In my social media and online marketing connections and activities I often come accross these "big name" online marketers, copy writers and so called gurus.   There are always something to learn from all of them. Some have really good stuff and know how to present it. Most of them have free stuff but a lot of stuff you have to buy. This of course is the normal supply and demand system that everyone know.

What I am on about is what I like to call "Americanization" These are the material in the form of emails and presentations that have the following in common :   They cannot get to the point - 15 pages of junk including 20+ so -called "testamonials" Marketing to right brainers like me you have to be able to tell your story in one or two pages and get to the punchline in those two pages if you want my attention.   Then they also have these "click here" links that require of you to register again using your email address so new junk and spam can be sent to you by their affiliates.   How corny can you get ? Do people actually fall for this stuff ? I don't.

I have not bought anything from any of these guys. "Money back guaranteed"   Yea right - Why would they guarantee your money back if the product is as good as they say.   "This will chance your life in 10 days - guaranteed" Ok then send me an invoice in 10 days and I will pay you if my life was actually changed - that is putting your money where your mouth is.

Lately I have been getting quite a few of these emails from guys claiming to have the ultimate answer to your marketing questions. The irony is that there are more free and good stuff on marketing on the internet that can boost your sales to a great extend if you only impliment some of it. The question is then : Why pay for more if no real proof exist as to the effectiveness of these products - Sorry guys - Testamonials does not do it for me - putting your money where mouth is does!

Affirmative action : a South African Perspective

2011-06-10T03:03:00.000-07:00

If you google "affirmative action" there you will find such a varied difference of opinion on the definitions that you might as well see it as an argument within an argument against or for itself. It does not make sense. It is a racially based (or gender or religeous or whatever creteria you want to add) system no matter how you want to explain the reasons or thinking behind it. It devides more than it bring together - full stop !

In a country like South Africa where we have gone from a total separist society to one of the most progressive in the world in a very (VERY) short period of time and where the elimination of any form of discrimination is priority nr 1 this ugly system is having its innings and is deviding black and white in exactly that colour : There are no greys - only black and white - literally and figuratively speaking

This quote sums it up perfectly :

"South Africa is the only country in the world where affirmative action is in the favour of the majority who has complete political control. The fact that the political majority requires affirmative action to protect them against a 9% minority group is testament to a complete failure on their part to build their own wealth making structures, such that their only solution is to take it from others."

Question : Where on earth did the South African definition of "Affirmative action" meaning "employment in relation to the % of the population came from ?
The actual phrase "affirmative action" was first used in President John F. Kennedy's 1961 Executive Order 10925 which requires federal contractors to "take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed, and that employees are treated during employment, without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin

Afrikanerskap - Is ek of is ek nie ?

2011-06-09T00:36:00.000-07:00

Blankes wat Afrikaans praat noem hulle self graag Afrikaners. Dis die eerste "Afrikanerskap" Kriteria. Ek het geen probleem daarmee nie en in daardie konteks is ek ook 'n "Afrikaner". Dan begin die mutasies van die definisie: Politiek kruip in. Rassisme kruip in. Nou het jy 'n "regse Afrikaner" , 'n "boere Afrikaner" ens ens.
Kom ons praat 'n bietjie oor die verlede van die "trotse Afrikaners" Niemand was nog ooit in hierdie land so volledig onderdruk soos die Afrikaner na die Tweede Vryheidsoorlog nie.
Ons voorouers wat die oorlog en die konsentrasiekampe oorleef het, het na die doodse leegheid van vernietigde plase teruggekeer - uitgehonger, hartseer en verpletter. Maar hulle het nie geroof en gemoor en gesteel nie. Hulle het met harde werk, deursettingsvermoë en swaarkry so presteer dat hulle weldra nie net hulleself nie, maar ook hulle huidige onderdukkers, goed kon versorg.

Kan jy hiermee identifiseer of kan jy identifiseer met die gesiglose "Afrikaners" wat daagliks in die koerante se kommentaar kolomme smerige, neerhalende rassistiese opmerkings maak asof dit enigiets gaan doen aan die uitdagings wat ons in die gesig staar? Diegene wat oenskynlik "oplossings" het wat hulle gladnie weet hoe om te implimenteer nie.

Ek was nou maar net vanoggend lus vir so 'n bietjie keelskoonmaak nadat ek weer so 'n sinnelose rassistiese idiotiese ( byvoeglike naamwoorde kan 'n bladsy vol maak)kommentare na een van Beeld se berigte gelees het. Lees net 'n bietjie van hierdie kommentare as jy die gees van "Rusbank gesiglose Afrikaners" wil waarneem.

Hierna verwys ek na myself as 'n Suid Afrikaner - Punt !

The politics of politics

2011-05-16T02:53:00.000-07:00

We are two days away from major voting. This morning somehow some debate on the political issue crept up on me via facebook. Now I still say that facebook is not a place for politics or religion and a few other arguments should be kept out of it. This said I found some of the arguments very interesting.
There were black voters that still feel that the Whites are the enemy. There are those that feel they will follow the ANC blindly. Then there are feelings that all parties have skeletons and the brotherly thing is abundant in all of them. This is also one of my opinions, just for the record.
I will be voting for the DA. Not because I hate the ANC. I think they are doing a great job. Sometimes and not enough times. They are a colour conscious party. If you differ from me prove me wrong. I am only interested in your opinion if you can prove me wrong. I am a 63 year old White male and frankly my dear I full blue all for BEE. We will in spite of BEE do our thing, survive and grow.
Another concern is the ANC (and of course the country) President, the hon Mr Zuma. His lifestyle does not
give me any confidence. His beliefs is beyond belief and foolishness. (See the definition of fool before you critisize what I am saying).
Then in some of these arguments there are very wise words written by blacks. I am not going to quote them. I am just saying that it confirms my belief that we are a great country in spite of some fools around us.
Fools called Julius and Steve. Need I say more ? I am a South African , will always be one and will be here to the end. I have committed myself to make a difference. I have started a business at 63 that will uplift, train and educate some of the vast majority that did not have the opportunity in the past. I am not seeking help from government, I am seeking it from the rightminded citizens of this country.

Why am I voting DA? They are the least of 2 evils. The other small groups cannot even be considered , they are the worst of the evils. Just opportunists trying to feed on the crumbs.

The opinions here are mine - this is my blog and my feelings. If you do not like it write your own.

Attributes of the Youx

2011-03-18T04:25:00.000-07:00

In our search for the illusive Youx I though it imminent to give a few pointers as to what attributes you will find in the animal should you be so fortunate as to come accross one.

In the presence of the animal you will feel totally comfortable due to its friendly nature and the obvious liking towards you. It will do everything in its power to serve you and to give you confidence in it. You will immediately be impressed with its knowledge of how it is able to serve you. It impresses you with its loyalty towards you and the understanding it shows of what you require of it. You will get the feeling that it will respond to your precise requirements and that you can call on it at any time should you want to follow up on the encounter.

Looking back on the past few articles on the Youx one can start to understand why it is so difficult to find it.
And then again it is not so difficult as most of the attributes can be compared to humans when having to serve
one another in certain circumstances.

The next article will reveal why it is so rare and what it can be compared to.

The Youx's ongoing saga

2011-03-16T06:17:00.000-07:00

Following my previous post on this blog here is the continuance of the saga of the Youx, the most elusive animal in the world!

Right through this week I have searched for the Youx. I cannot believe that it is nowhere to be found. I searched for it at the local grocer , the Tyre shop, the bank, the local fish restaurant , the local municipality, the petrol station and quite a few other businesses. You see it is rumored that the Youx could be hiding in such places. It is said that it could be found where there is interaction between people. Maybe, just maybe it could be found at a local school or even the church. The church ? Not much interaction there is there?

Well the hunt continues. In the next edition I will start describing the looks and attributes of the Youx and maybe some of my readers can help me look for it ?

The hunt for the YOUX

2011-03-14T10:49:00.001-07:00

The YOUX (spelled Ucs) is an animal. It is out there (like the truth )but is so elusive that if you were able to catch it the world will beat a path to your door do see it. It will give people such a delight to actually have seen and touched it. No one before you have been able to catch it. Some has caught a glimps of it whilst others might have thought they have seen it and then just to find out it was never what they thought it was. Is it at all possible to really get hold of this animal and foster it to your heart and give other people delight in it ? It is so rare that even being able to see part of its true colours is to give delight as if you actually have found heaven on earth. Your whole being will tingle with an inner joy you never thought was possible from any one experience.

There is a theory that although nearly extinct there are actually some of them still alive in the wild but someone having caught one and tamed it is has not been recorded yet.

I have set myself the task of hunting one down and catching and rearing it to enable people to delight in the qualities of this rare beast.

As I go about trying to find and catch the elusive YOUX I will keep you guys and gals posted. This is going to be very exiting and you do not want to miss this for anything !

Matric rewrite : Options

2011-03-13T23:54:00.000-07:00

We have successfully sourced scholarships for deserving students wanting to study for a specific skill.
This is an option if you do not have the funding to rewrite your matric subjects !
We are looking to fund students who are interested in the Hospitality trades and Tourism. Other skills courses available are the Beauty industry: Nails, Hair , Massaging etc etc. New skills courses are added on a daily basis.

Requirements : Send us a CV and latest report card details to fax number : 0865049180

It is payback time!

2011-03-11T05:53:00.000-08:00

Do not mess with Anonymous ! a video about the Guys that brought the big guys down - Master card etc !

Also see the video at the bottom of this page !

The positive vs the negative

2011-03-06T09:02:00.000-08:00

As a South African in the white community one is subjected to all sorts of negativeness amongst once's friends and others, nowadays even from the black community. This is partly driven by the negativeness in the press, especially the Afrikaans Press. My previous post about the "bomb" was done purely to make this point.
We do not read wide enough. Most international newspapers are available on the internet. If you were asked today:"what is going on in the Middle East?" What would be your referal framework ? The SA newspapers. I am prepared to take anyone on in a bet that will prove that you do not know.

The Washington Post for example has an interactive map of the region - telling you exactly what is going on when you click on any country there. This just enables one to be up to date on what is happening - It is not the next thing that will happen over here ! ( I am not punting the Washington Post )

For goodness sake ! Get your mindset right before you go for the negative thoughts ! If you plan to leave why are you still here ? If you plan to stay I have news for you : This is a great country ! I am staying and it is not that I do not have a choice. I just chose right !

South Africa: Only a matter of time before the bomb explodes

2011-02-25T02:19:00.000-08:00

by Moeletsi Mbeki: Author, political commentator and entrepreneur.

I can predict when SA’s "Tunisia Day" will arrive. Tunisia Day is when the masses rise against the powers that be, as happened recently in Tunisia. The year will be 2020, give or take a couple of years. The year 2020 is when China estimates that its current minerals-intensive industrialisation phase will be concluded.

For SA, this will mean the African National Congress (ANC) government will have to cut back on social grants, which it uses to placate the black poor and to get their votes. China’s current industrialisation phase has forced up the prices of SA’s minerals, which has enabled the government to finance social welfare programmes.

The ANC inherited a flawed, complex society it barely understood; its tinkerings with it are turning it into an explosive cocktail. The ANC leaders are like a group of children playing with a hand grenade. One day one of them will figure out how to pull out the pin and everyone will be killed.

A famous African liberation movement, the National Liberation Front of Algeria, after tinkering for 30 years, pulled the grenade pin by cancelling an election in 1991 that was won by the opposition Islamic Salvation Front. In the civil war that ensued, 200000 people were killed.

The former British prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, once commented that whoever thought that the ANC could rule SA was living in Cloud Cuckoo Land. Why was Thatcher right? In the 16 years of ANC rule, all the symptoms of a government out of its depth have grown worse.

Life expectancy has declined from 65 years to 53 years since the ANC came to power;

In 2007, SA became a net food importer for the first time in its history;

The elimination of agricultural subsidies by the government led to the loss of 600000 farm workers’ jobs and the eviction from the commercial farming sector of about 2,4-million people between 1997 and 2007; and

The ANC stopped controlling the borders, leading to a flood of poor people into SA, which has led to conflicts between SA’s poor and foreign African migrants.

What should the ANC have done, or be doing?

The answer is quite straightforward. When they took control of the government in 1994, ANC leaders should have: identified what SA’s strengths were; identified what SA’s weaknesses were; and decided how to use the strengths to minimise and/or rectify the weaknesses.

A wise government would have persuaded the skilled white and Indian population to devote some of their time — even an hour a week — to train the black and coloured population to raise their skill levels.

What the ANC did instead when it came to power was to identify what its leaders and supporters wanted. It then used SA’s strengths to satisfy the short-term consumption demands of its supporters. In essence, this is what is called black economic empowerment (BEE).

BEE promotes a number of extremely negative socioeconomic trends in our country. It promotes a class of politicians dependent on big business and therefore promotes big business’s interests in the upper echelons of government. Second, BEE promotes an anti-entrepreneurial culture among the black middle class by legitimising an environment of entitlement. Third, affirmative action, a subset of BEE, promotes incompetence and corruption in the public sector by using ruling party allegiance and connections as the criteria for entry and promotion in the public service, instead of having tough public service entry examinations.

Let’s see where BEE, as we know it today, actually comes from. I first came across the concept of BEE from a company, which no longer exists, called Sankor. Sankor was the industrial division of Sanlam and it invented the concept of BEE.
The first purpose of BEE was to create a buffer group among the black political class that would become an ally of big business in SA. This buffer group would use its newfound power as controllers of the government to protect the assets of big business.

The buffer group would also protect the modus operandi of big business and thereby maintain the status quo in which South African business operates. That was the design of the big conglomerates.

Sanlam was soon followed by Anglo American. Sanlam established BEE vehicle Nail; Anglo established Real Africa, Johnnic and so forth. The conglomerates took their marginal assets, and gave them to politically influential black people, with the purpose, in my view, not to transform the economy but to create a black political class that is in alliance with the conglomerates and therefore wants to maintain the status quo of our economy and the way in which it operates.

But what is wrong with protecting SA’s conglomerates?

Well, there are many things wrong with how conglomerates operate and how they have structured our economy.

The economy has a strong built-in dependence on cheap labour;

It has a strong built-in dependence on the exploitation of primary resources;

It is strongly unfavourable to the development of skills in our general population;

It has a strong bias towards importing technology and economic solutions; and

It promotes inequality between citizens by creating a large, marginalised underclass.

Conglomerates are a vehicle, not for creating development in SA but for exploiting natural resources without creating in-depth, inclusive social and economic development, which is what SA needs. That is what is wrong with protecting conglomerates.

The second problem with the formula of BEE is that it does not create entrepreneurs. You are taking political leaders and politically connected people and giving them assets which, in the first instance, they don’t know how to manage. So you are not adding value. You are faced with the threat of undermining value by taking assets from people who were managing them and giving them to people who cannot manage them. BEE thus creates a class of idle rich ANC politicos.

My quarrel with BEE is that what the conglomerates are doing is developing a new culture in SA — not a culture of entrepreneurship, but an entitlement culture, whereby black people who want to go into business think that they should acquire assets free, and that somebody is there to make them rich, rather than that they should build enterprises from the ground.

But we cannot build black companies if what black entrepreneurs look forward to is the distribution of already existing assets from the conglomerates in return for becoming lobbyists for the conglomerates.

The third worrying trend is that the ANC-controlled state has now internalised the BEE model. We are now seeing the state trying to implement the same model that the conglomerates developed.

What is the state distributing? It is distributing jobs to party faithful and social welfare to the poor. This is a recipe for incompetence and corruption, both of which are endemic in SA. This is what explains the service delivery upheavals that are becoming a normal part of our environment.

So what is the correct road SA should be travelling?

We all accept that a socialist model, along the lines of the Soviet Union, is not workable for SA today. The creation of a state-owned economy is not a formula that is an option for SA or for many parts of the world. Therefore, if we want to develop SA instead of shuffling pre-existing wealth, we have to create new entrepreneurs, and we need to support existing entrepreneurs to diversify into new economic sectors.

Mbeki is the author of Architects of Poverty: Why African Capitalism Needs Changing. This article forms part of a series on transformation supplied by the Centre for Development and Enterprise.

Filling empty spaces with Nothingness

2011-02-16T23:14:00.000-08:00

The first time I saw the phrase was in one of Steve Petzer's facebook posts and it made me think quite a lot about what it actually says. It is so applicable to South African life and the lots of young people out there in all sorts of stages of learning (or not).
Yesterday I had an inteview with a potential student wanting to further her studies and here in short is her story which is probably the story of thousands of other young people in this lovely country of ours.
She found us on the internet on her phone and send me an email: She had failed matric and on various occasions tried to rewrite what she failed. She was scammed by unregistered or uncaring training institutions to the extend that she is now 21 and still nothing has happened.
During the interview it became clear that a sort of discouraged/lost feeling is prevalent in these young people.She lives in a township on the outskirts of Pretoria with her Grandmother who does not have any income. She approached us in desperation: she needs to get out of the rut and study to become something.

What does she do with her time ? Nothing because there is nothing to do. Everyday is the same : The battle for survival, the urgent need to learn something to be able to do something . FIlling empty spaces with nothingness.

This is the ideal opportunity for any corporate entity to get involved in education. Start a sponsorship program for these kids/students. We are now actively hunting for a sponsor for her books (cost around
R 4000 for the year. We will be sponsoring her class fees for the year - yes all of it)

Here is the actual email she send me after her visit to us yesterday :
I would like to thank u and ur wife for taking ur time in mentoring me.i also apologise for being so emotional i promise it does not happen everyday.Mr Brandow u said something about me writing like a man.Well thats how i carry myself most of the time strong,fearless and unemotional and u saw right through me and broke the man in me down.And there i was and u spoke to me,u listend,u related but most importantly u gave me ur time and for that i thank u...

To vote or not to vote : That is the question

2011-01-30T10:08:00.001-08:00

A recent short discussion on the facebook forum " No beating about the bush club" about the rights of prisoners to vote made me think a bit. There are two answers to this : Yes allow it and no do not allow it. Both are just opinions. No one is right or wrong. No matter how you debate this there cannot be a right or wrong answer here.

My question about this is where do you draw the line about freedom of an individual. If you take the Americans for example : They are totally irrational with a lot of their ways of doing things. Just because they do not allow Prisoners to vote does not mean the rest of the world must follow ?

IF you argue for instance in favour of their right to vote will you allow this for all prisoners irrespective of why they are in jail ? If not where will you draw the line ? The guy that was caught speeding and could not pay the fine and ended up in jail – should he be allowed to vote ? Now we are getting to the very interesting part of all this : Why is monetary value the only thing that stands between him and his right to vote? So if I do not have money in this instance I am not allowed to vote ? How stupid can we get ?

The next question here is the right of anyone to vote. If I pay tax I have the right to vote. Period.

No argument. If I end up in jail (as in the above example) for a period of say 30 days over the voting period and I am still a taxpayer during that period why is my right to vote taken away from me? Can I now withold my money to the government because I did not have a say in electing them? Funny questions hey?

The purpose of this is just to make you think before you take sides on a matter like this !

Consistency vs excellence

2011-01-27T06:09:00.000-08:00

A lot has been written about loyalty when business comes to mind. I have always contented that if you want loyalty get the most loyal animal on the planet : A dog. Your bank manager is not a dog therefor he will not be loyal to you. Easy British logic, isn’t it ? If one and one is two then one and three is not two. Simple, hey ?

Sorry mister bankers I am picking on you again but you are unfortunately not keeping up with the times. Customer expectations are increasing exponentially. They will not tolerate anything less than Amazing !

Competitors are trying their utmost best to constantly raise customer expectations .

Banks are inwardly focussed and cost cutting is everywhere. Barclays just decided to get rid onf inhouse financial advisors because the bank got fined a huge amount of money for giving the wrong advice. So ? Just get rid of the advisors and cut down on service levels. Good solution !

They are living in a fools paradise. If I was in banking I would now cultivate this move to my advantage.

We often make the mistake of accepting that consistency and excellence are one and the same concept. You can be consistant in your bad service and this has nothing to do with excellence, unless you can claim that you are actually excellent in delivering consistently bad service.

Consistency at least (probably) might meet customer expectations. But it does not leave room for the extra mile or Amazement Why would you want to go the extra mile when your customer is happy with your consistency ? Think again ! The decade of the customer is upon you Mr Business man. Unless you find that special sparkle to lighten up your service you might shortly find that your receptionist might say to you : Sir there is someone out here that says he is a customer, what do we do with him..........?

A question for Change

2011-01-16T05:48:00.000-08:00

Why would you want to change anything. " If you keep on doing the same things and expect different results = that is the definition of madness !" The original of this quote is attributed to Albert Enstein.
This implies only one thing that must happen if you expect different results : Change. South Africans know the meaning of change (If you are not an ostrich with your head in the sand) It is what life is all about.
Without going into the necessity of change in more detail let us assume that One (you) (me) (whoever)
have decided to do something that needed change then the rest of this article will apply:

The 3 pillars of change (This is not the change cycle- It is to get the process going to facilitate the change)
1 Clarity of what you want to change - What is it that you want to change ? Your lifestyle or the car?
   Get rid of the dog or the smell ?
2. The tools you need to effect the change -   You want to buy a new car - cash or finance ?
     Who is going to do what - Arrange a test drive - what car are you looking at. It is no use phoning the Mercedes Benz dealer if you want to buy a BMW.

3. Probably the most important pillar is the inner conflicts that needs to be addressed

Inner conflicts are controlled by by few very strong emotions and beliefs:
1. The conspiracy theories, Dogmas call it what you want
There are all sorts of people with all sorts of weird ideas out there: The internet is the devil
Facebook is bad for you. In the near future you will have to have matric to be able to vote. The Illuminati will rule the world. The government wants to keep us in debt. And THOUSANDS more
There might be some truth in some of them but by far the most can be described by a very nice English
description called BS   Bullsh**. Get these things out of your life - they influence your capability to change and hence your capability to grow.

2. The conditioning :    Everyone of us have been conditioned to the nth degree in our lives. Everyone of us have thrown off some of those conditionings but most of us are clinging to some of them for dear life. The result : If you have to change something that is in conflict with that conditioning you can bet your life you will have a problem. You cannot differ with your pastor - Says who? You cannot swim after eating - Yea great ! ( great BS that is) You should start drafting a list of these and other conditions that are holding you back in life !

3.   The bad clan : (Probably part of the conditioning - but yet a bit different - You belief this because some influential people are saying and believing it - and you are afraid to differ )
Here are some of the examples:
"Money and wealth is bad for you"
" Work on Sunday is bad"
" Butter is bad for you"
" Vegetarianism is the only healthy lifestyle- meat is bad"

Next time you hear someone saying that something is bad for you just ask a one word question: Why?
I do, but I never stay to hear the answer because I do belief in BS when I see it.

Here's to happy changing = Change your thinking and change your life.

South Africans managed to stage one of the best World cup soccer tournaments ever in the history of the game. Yet we are seen as the most crime ridden country in the world. Crime was nowhere in sight during the games - Why ?   Because we (South Africa as whole) decided to change for that period.
So what is holding us back to let go of all our Nonsense and become the greatest nation on earth.?
Only one thing is holding us back : Our inability and unwillingness to CHANGE!

RSA Animate - Smile or Die

2011-01-12T21:27:00.000-08:00

The parable of the cauliflower

2011-01-11T06:53:00.000-08:00

I think a lot of people can relate to this. You have been trying to get some business up and running and nothing seems to be working. You put in massive actions and efforts and still nothing happens. People will tell you what you sow you will reap. Yea right ! Of course you have to plant or sow to get fruits or veggies.
It will not just come up if there are no seeds in the ground . Nice Metaphores. It works for some people and somehow it does not do for others.

This happened to us the past year. Every thing we try just does not seem to work. And I mean we were sowing. Putting in effort. Marketing. You name it and we did it. Ok the economy got the blame. And then some!

A few months ago my son gave me a pallet of cabbage plants. They looked a bit pathetic. He had it for a while and did not get around to planting it. So I took it and after about a week I thought I might just put this in the ground. Initially it looked liked it is not going to make it. Then the rains came and suddenly a lot of leaves grew like mad. We starting harvesting the leaves and using it in salads and cooking them. It actually tastes quite nice. But no cabbage - just very nice leaves.

About Sunday last I was as usually walking around admiring the garden and the cabbage leaves. And then
I saw it: One of these"cabbages" had actually produced a cauliflower. Small but it was there. And it is growing as if is getting paid!. None of the others have followed suit. Just one single cauliflower!

This is the parable : You cannot keep on sowing and planting and then nothing will happen. For me this was the answer: Do not give up - something big will soon happen - and it has started happening !

Keep watching this post !

The New Year

2010-12-30T23:39:00.000-08:00

With only a few hours to go to 2011 there will be a lot of New Years resolutions and decisions be made. Whether they will be kept is totally irrelevant as it makes the person making it feel great about what he or she is planning (or just thinking about).
The challenge of any plan,resolution, decision, call it what you will is it is of no consequence if you do not activate it. This will only be effective if you put it in writing, put timelines on it and give it a champion. Someone who looks over your shoulder and to whom you make yourself accountable to monitor your success.

Here are a few challenges I would like to put to the readers of this little piece:

Take the challenge in 2011 to:

1. Be original.   Be the author of what you send out via email. Do not send someone else's BS on. Write your own and send it on. (Try not to write BS) Become the one other people will quote. It is not that difficult.

2. Start your own blog. It only takes 15 minutes to set up and it is great fun. (http://www.blogger.com/   and it is totally free!.

3. Get going on facebook. It is really rewarding if you know how, and totally safe if you know how.
    ( if you do not know how , ask me )

4. Learn a new skill - it can be a hobby or it can make you money !

5. Do something for the first time !. Go Bungee jumping, Go skydiving, Learn to fly a microlight, Challenge
     a friend or family member to do it with you ( Challenge me if you dare)

6. Decide to stop growing old - Growing old is in the mind - the body does it's own thing anyway!

7. Arrange a massive party for all your friends. It is easy : Just call it a Picnic - do not do it at your home.
    Sorry to hear about the one who forgot a chair or a knife or the butter. It is a picnic for crying out loud!

Come one people - come up with some new ideas ! Are you 63 years YOUNG or 36 years OLD ?   I know a lot of the latter and very few of the young ones.

2011 for starters

2010-12-26T23:34:00.000-08:00

I opened "Beeld" (an Afrikaans newspaper for the English amongst us) this morning on the Internet. The First 6 articles was all about death and destruction. It could have been published the same day last year and probably the last 20 years or so. Nothing new.
I do not think the public is really into this anymore. Is this a foreboding of what Newspapers is going to publish in 2011? Don't they realise that positive and interesting news will also sell ?

Lets tour the world for something more interesting
Lets see Hollywood Moves Away From Middlebrow ( New York Times)

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/27/business/media/27movies.html?_r=1&hp
Midhurst's community heroes rewarded.

http://www.chichester.co.uk/news/local/midhurst_s_community_heroes_rewarded_1_2203004
(what a nice positive story) Where are our community heroes?

Some more positive news : The poll at Times Live asks the question : will 2011 be better than 2010?
The vote ? 67% said yes (275 votes) not bad hey?

Do some playing around on the internet on the world's newspaper headlines. It is really a challenge to find the positiveness out there and still it looks like common folks like you and me are more positive than what we think !

2010-12-13T03:48:00.000-08:00

Tis the time to be Merry - (and not so mild )

This time of year it everything seems to start going slower than normal. Going on holiday early and coming back on the 3rd of December doesn't work. I am supposed to be rested and ready for the new year, but I am not. I know it is probably only in the mind but the whole month of December lies ahead of us and everyone else is only now going on holiday. So now I know it is a mistake to do it so early. I think I will just take it slooooower and have an extended holiday at home. Anyone not in agreement ? See if I care !

Taking a chance

2010-11-12T22:12:00.000-08:00

It is what keeps me young. Only this week I heard someone say that you are far better off being 63 years young than 45 years old. It is all in the perception.
Taking a calculated (and sometime not so calculated) risk is what keeps me going and giving me the challenges that I thrive on. During a marriage enrichment weekend last week I made the comment that I like a good fight. Take on the dogma around you. Do not take nonsense from no-body (Ok maybe from your wife - you have to if you want to stay married for 40 years - I will be next year)

It is just the challenges of things I am on about. I (we - my wife and I ) have started with this idea to start a private school around 6 months ago. And now it is a reality. This morning we are having our first open day and still planning to get it up and running in January ( even if it has only 5 learners for a start)

All initial planning indicated that we will need funds we did not have and we would be looking for an investor.
As I am writing this now we have not enlisted the help of an investor and so far indications are that we will not be needing ANY money.
Now this is what taking a chance is all about. I like calling it investing in Faith !

You can follow us at this blogspot: (http://centuriongrowthacademy.blogspot.com/) and talk to me if you ever thought of taking a chance. One of the footwear companies (Nike) has the slogan : Just do it! That is fine, I just like their competitors(I think it is Adidas) slogan more : Impossible is nothing !
" Impossible " and "No" are just opinions - it is not answers.

WMM45+

2010-10-31T10:51:00.000-07:00

Are you WMM45+ (White, Male, Married and older than 45 ) Very conservative, take no nonsense from no one , including the government ?   Would you think this guy would ideally be living in South Africa ?
Think again. These are the descriptions (short and sweet ) of the Tea Party members in the USA. Comprising about 18% of the voters according to some sources.   They are most likely supporters of the Republican party in the USA ( Obama is a Democrat)   They are more wealthy than the average American and might well become the biggest problem Obama will face during the next election.
My only question at this stage is who is going to be their ideal candidate ?   Standing against a populist president like Obama is not in everyones shorts. Then again Sarah Palin is WFMM45+ (White, female Married , 45+ ) and a Tea Party Icon and does not wear shorts.
What does the Americans say ?    If you invite Obama to tea do you think he will accept ?

Maybe we should have a Pretoria Tea Party (Like the Boston one) all non racial of course. The lack of black would be purely incidental.

Interesting stuff

The wonder of special days

2010-10-27T12:39:00.000-07:00

There are only a few special days in everyone's life. These can be their birthday, their spouse's birthday, Christmas, Aniversaies y and one or two others. Political days does not do it for me. So called childrens day, womens day , mothers day , fathers day, Sundays, and other days ending with "Y" does not do it for me either.
I have just experienced a birthday and found that this in all probability is the one special day in the year that stands out for me and I think for most other people. Why would this be ?

Well for one it places the focus squarely on You / Me for that day. Some family, mostly friends make you feel special by phoning you, emailing you, make a note on your facebook wall or send you an SMS. I know her birthday makes my wife bloom. She will even phone some friends and say " Hi happy birthday to me"

Some people will make Christmas / Sundays/ some political days out to be their most precious days. I think they are just trying to impress someone with their "attempted holiness" or "Pretentious patriotism". You can say what you like but the only thing that really makes people bloom is the spotlight when it is on them.

Come on, be honest with yourself - Am I right or am I right.? You are welcome to differ from me but as I always say: Everyone has the right to his own opinion even if it is wrong !

Being able to relate

2010-10-21T11:18:00.000-07:00

A few articles in the newspapers made me think of the ability of people to communicate without offending other people. The story of Woolworths that planned to take all Christian litterature off their shelves had a backlash from Christians all over the country. Of course it is the right of a company like WW to do what they like and make business decisions in their own interests. What they off course failed to observe is that you do no mess with Customer's heads in that way. This little mistake of theirs will become an example in marketing training classrooms as how you should not take customers for granted and how corporate businesses should not place their own interests above those of their customers. Of course whatever they say and how they made a U-turn will not take away the perception by Christians that they are frowned upon by the group. And as we all know, facts does not have anything to do with it - it is only perceptions that count

The point I actually want to make is the comments in the newspaper of the happening. Christians re-acted out of character. Comments against the actions of the Christian group brought out the ugly in people calling them all sorts of names. Not being able to communicate properly a lot of people resort to name calling.
This is a symptom of a sick society. It happens whenever people feel strongly about something and get frustrated with other people differing from them. This is how all sorts of rages start. Road rage, shoppers rage, whatever.

This exact thing occured with the recent ABSA rugby affair. Absa messed with their client's heads. People are passionate about Rugby. Whether rugby is 99% supported by the White community is of no relevance here. The bank used a political angle to mess with their clients. The same thing happened in the comments in the newspaper. Total irrational name calling and some even slanderious comments were made. It makes me wonder who actually taught some of these people to write as some of the compositions and sayings are totally blase and downright common.

I have stopped commenting on the articles if I cannot be one of the first in the morning and at least I can then comment on the actual article and not on what other people wrote !

Marketing: It is all in the basics

2010-10-12T06:53:00.000-07:00

Basic stuff : Find out what people NEED & WANT and GIVE it to them :

Just understand the basics :
What is a need ?
It is something you have to have, something you can't do without. A good example is food. If you don't eat, you won't survive for long. Many people have gone days without eating, but they eventually ate a lot of food. You might not need a whole lot of food, but you do need to eat.

( So go into the NEEDS business and give the people what they need ) - see lesson one: Market research

What is a want ?
A want is something people would like to have. It is not absolutely necessary, but it would be a good thing to have. A good example is music. Now, some people might argue that music is a need because they think they can't do without it. But you don't need music to survive. You do need to eat.

These are general categories, of course. Some categories have both needs and wants. For instance, food could be a need or a want, depending on the type of food.

You need to eat protein, vitamins, and minerals. How you get them is up to you (and your family). You can eat meat, nuts, or soy products to get protein. You can get fruits and vegetables to get vitamins and minerals. You can eat yogurt or cheese to get other vitamins and minerals. You can eat bread to get still more vitamins and minerals. These basic kinds of foods are needs.

Ice cream is a want. You don't really need to eat ice cream to survive. You can eat it to get some vitamins and minerals, but other foods like cheese and yogurt give you more of those same vitamins and minerals without giving you the fat that ice cream does. Still, ice cream tastes good to many people. They like to eat it. They want it, but they don't need it. They like it, but they don't have to have it to survive.

(So go in the Wants business ) Again see lesson one : Do market research

Utilizing some of the possibilities of what I just wrote you should with a little effort find some business to start !

The actual meaning of words

2010-09-20T04:19:00.000-07:00

No Matter what wikipedia says this is the actual meaning of certain words when used by a woman:

“Fine”: This is the word women use to end an argument when they are right and you need to shut up.

“Five Minutes”: If she is getting dressed, this means a half an hour. Five minutes is only five minutes if you have just been given five more minutes to watch the game before helping around the house.

“Nothing”: This is the calm before the storm. This means something, and you should be on your toes. Arguments that begin with nothing usually end in fine.

“Go Ahead”: This is a dare, not permission. Don't Do It!

“Loud Sigh”: This is actually a word, but is a non-verbal statement often misunderstood by men. A loud sigh means she thinks you are an idiot and wonders why she is wasting her time standing here and arguing with you about nothing. (Refer back to # 3 for the meaning of nothing.)

“That's Okay”: This is one of the most dangerous statements a women can make to a man. That's okay means she wants to think long and hard before deciding how and when you will pay for your mistake.

“Thanks ‘: A woman is thanking you, do not question, or faint. Just say you're welcome. (I want to add in a clause here - This is true, unless she says 'Thanks a lot' - that is PURE sarcasm and she is not thanking you at all. DO NOT say 'you're welcome' - that will bring on a 'whatever').

“Whatever”: Is a woman's way of saying S^%$ you!

“Don't worry, I'll do it”: Another dangerous statement, meaning this is something that a woman has told a man to do several times, but is now doing herself. This will later result in a man asking 'What's wrong?' For the woman's response refer to # 3.

Thank you Paul Kruger - Moonstone for all these fine articles

Life after the world cup

2010-09-18T08:56:00.000-07:00

A lot has been written about the pros and cons of the world cup. Was it a good thing or a bad thing ?
And as I always content everyone has the right to his own opinion even though it might be wrong. Anyway here is some of my perspective:

We flew down to Cape Town, stayed a week and flew back to civilization - The republic of Centurion.

For one I was impressed with the obvious friendliness of the service staff all over the place - even the police walking around smiled ! The booking staff of Kulula really shined ! ( Maybe it was because it was Kulula ?)
The airport was as clean as you ever can imagine. The flight was incredible (Sorry about this but maybe it - was again the airline) We landed in Cape Town and by the time I got to the bagage retrieval our baggage was actually out - We were at the car hire within 10 minutes of landing. Now this has never happened before. Cape Town airport really sucked before the very obvious revamp.

Then the experience with the Car hire company. I was in our brand new car within 10 minutes after that.
A brand new Ford Figo - it had exactly 20 kilometers on the clock. (would have prefered a VW, but what the heck I really enjoyed this little car which I drove for just over 1200 kms during the week)

Then we booked in at the Strand Pavilion - and again - I have never had such a friendly reception anywhere at a timeshare resort. (and of course they could actually speak my home language - Afrikaans!) The service at this resort for the week was out of this world (I nearly said Out of Africa)

Why am I renting and raving about all this ? Well let me tell you if it took the world cup to make life so enjoyable they can have another one next year and I will not complain about tax payers money ever again !
One thing I am very sure about - all these improvements is not just accidental or by chance - South Africa actually stood up and said : We will be counted and the frase: Out of this world might just be changed to out of South Africa.

Debating and all that jazz

2010-09-08T21:54:00.000-07:00

I somehow landed on a contentious website the other day and had a look at some of the discussions there.
It was quite interesting to see people debating a point on this website while the owner does not respond or possibly is not even following the discussion. One thing that came out though is that some of the debaters
does not know the basic ethics of debating
As I always content : You have the right to your opinion even if it is wrong ( in my opinion ) And you have the right to state it. The present government with its blame shifting on Apartheid for everything is a good example

My basic Rule nr 1.

Debate the point - play the ball , not the man. If you do not like the other person's viewpoint don't get involved. DO NOT START CALLING THEM NAMES. Do not be defamatory. This actually places you at the lowest level in the argument. It tells the other person you are not worthy to debate with.

This happens a lot when people debate politics and religion. If you differ from the other person make your point. Do not be irrational - making points not proven is an example. Accepting so called facts where the evidence is not obvious is also a point in question. A recent article by a preacher on the creation in a newspaper is a very good example. He accepts the so-called evidence of certain scientists as absolute evidence. No questions asked. Even to the extent that he says : One cannot understand why people does not accept this ? Who is the one he is talking about. It is like talking to me and keep on asking the question:
"Of course you agree with me, don't you" This is irrational in my books.

Who are most prone to being irrational : Atheists, Some Christians, SomeVegetarians ,

Why do I say this ? They think they have a point but do not know what it is. They believe they are right without being able to say why or being prepared to listen - By the way you have 2 ears and one mouth.

You cannot get involved in a debate without being prepared to listen and to speak - Just make sense when you do.

Dare to move on

2010-09-01T09:15:00.000-07:00

When was the last time you did something for the first time ? As one gets older this question is not something you think of or like to be reminded of. We live our lives comfortably in our comfort zones. Change is not something most persons like. The change cycle is worse than mount Everest for most of us.

I drove behind a car this morning with the sticker : In Pretoria praat ons Afrikaans. The Gauteng coat of arms on his number plate was covered over by the old Transvaal flag. Everyone of course is entitled to his own opinion, but this told me something. A lot of people got stuck somewhere in the past and somehow cannot move forward. This is not a political argument and I respect this guy for his opinion.

I also speak Afrikaans. I also live in Pretoria (Not Tshwane, as it is officially still Pretoria where I live)
I also respect the old Boer republics and their flags. But that is history and part of our heritage, but that is all it is. The reality is that we need to move on as time moves on. One can only live towards the future and unless you help create that future you are going to have this problem with the change cycle. While most other persons have moved on and faced new challenges and are doing new things for the first time some got stuck in the perceived mud and do not even know that it has stopped raining and that all there is is dust. And the "stuck" is now only in their minds as the imaginary chain is around the circus elephants leg.

Enjoying life irrespective

2010-08-27T22:27:00.000-07:00

Irrespective of what ? I am using the word in the broadest possible meaing. Irrespective of anything !

So is this possible ?

Lets look at a few scenarios
In the first instance you need to change the way you look at things; Turn as many of the words in your vocabulary from the negative to the positive. It still has basically the same meaning but the attitude in the meaning has changed.
Now lets take the word : Problem
Definition :
A problem is an obstacle which makes it difficult to achieve a desired goal, objective or purpose. It refers to a situation, condition, or issue that is yet unresolved. In a broad sense, a problem exists when an individual becomes aware of a significant difference between what actually is and what is desired between one or more individual.

Now we change that word to "challenge"

A test of one's abilities or resources in a demanding but stimulating undertaking. A call to engage in a contest, fight, or competition:

The basic difference in the words are that a problem is stating a situation, an obstacle that exist preventing you from something. All definitions of challenge are action orientated. It implies you to do something !

If we now look at a "situation" where the word problem is used : I have a problem with my boss. This implies that the "problem" exist but I cannot do anything about it. When the sentence is changed to "challenge" it implies that I now have a call to engage the situation.

If this is applied every time you encounter a "Problem" you will suddenly find that it becomes that much easier if you engage the situation. Just remember when you do other smaller "problems" will suddenly appear and you must just do the same with these.

Now getting back to my "Enjoy life irrespective" If you go and look why you are not enjoying life you will find it has its roots in "problems" of some sort. Now haven't I given you a simple tool ?

Capice ?

Funny people and vegetarians

2010-07-29T11:42:00.000-07:00

It always amuses me when people that live alternative lifestyles find it necessary to make excuses for their preferences. Like Vegetarians and people that do not drink alcohol. Maybe it is a natural defense mechanism, like in attack before you get attacked.

In most of these cases you will also find that these persons will attack lifestyles that differ from theirs
(that is once they are comfortable with the fact that they have the upper hand by their initial excuses for not conforming.   Whoever told them they have to explain their preferences? I do not explain mine.
I have a saying that annoys some of these friends of mine : "I did not get to the top of the food chain by eating grass!"
Please note that I am calling them friends because I have never found it necessary in commenting on their preference of veggies and fruit - hell I even eat some of the stuff myself ! ( sometimes anyway when I run low on the meaty stuff. )

Why am I writing this / I beg of you to leave my milk, eggs and meat alone - I do not believe the world is going to end because of this ( I do think there is more chemicals and pesticides in veggies than what you will find in good red meat anyway)

Now we can get into the arguments if you wish. I am going to state some beliefs that I will defend to the ends of the earth and because of this stop trying to get me to belief otherwise !

1. Butter is better than margarine.
2. Good red meat is good for you.
3. Red wine is very good for you.
4. When you eat , enjoy it , do not count the calories - It is food not maths you are having
(quote from the bible : Eat your food and drink your wine with gusto)

Oh and by the way - more than 90% of people will agree with me - how do I know ?
This week we had a business breakfast. 34 attendees. 30 chose the farmhouse breakfast - 4 chose the so called health breakfast.   Farmhouse consisted of bacon, eggs, and boerewors. Health consisted of some fruit and Yogurt (by the way not vegetarian yogurt)

Let us leave the arguments and enjoy what you enjoy and leave the arguments to the scientists who think they know more.

The Mind block

2010-07-22T21:35:00.000-07:00

I am not a Pshycologist or any other shrink. I am just your average thinking human being,
But of late certain insights have hit me and as my friend Wayne would say " you can teach an old dog new tricks"   Actually you cannot. But he can learn it if he wants to.

What is the key here ? Choices - I can make the choice to learn new tricks - you can try as hard as you want to but if I am not interested you will get nowhere !

Ok, so what?   Any good shrink will tell you that more than 80% of your beliefs are governed by you subconscious mind. So if I decide to try something new and there are hidden beliefs that prevents me from having faith in the venture I am lost. Now this is in all probability the reason why so many ventures fail. It is because of these beliefs in our subconsious mind that prevents us from achieving success.

Simple isn't it ? Your shrink would have charged you around a thousand bucks to come to this point.

Ok but now I have stated the (shrinkwise) obvious. How do we change the scenario?
I am again stating this in laymans terms. I know I am going to get some smart replies, that is ok if it helps someone to understand this better. See ? I have made a statement that only Yesterday would not have been made as I believed that I am right and I really don't care what you think and I would have told you so ! What changed?    I will tell you and this is the key to the whole thing: I made a concerted effort to not see all critisism as destructive which is in my nature. Now this is going to need effort. Whatever I decide my subconsious mind is going to block me if it does not fit into my belief system. This is a universal law.

Again to get to this point a shrink would have cost a you a few bucks. Belief me.

Right , now we(I) found out what the problem is and where it is. Now I have to do something about it.
I have been given a little gift yesterday by a gentleman called Conray Labuschagne and I am going to try the
remedy for a month or so. Some of you might have heard of it , some not. It is an elastic band.

It works something like this : You put it on your wrist and everytime you conciously know or find out that your idea is being blocked by your subconsious mind you pull this out as far as you can and let go.
"bloody hell, that was sore" Your subconscious mind will start associating that blocking or negative thought with pain and it will eventually stop its nonsense.   Does it work ?   I don't know, I am going to try it "Eina dammit, that was sore !)   See the unconsious mind does not even like you messing with it. It is all in your beliefs.

Another few bucks to the Shrink.   To be continued......................

Personal targets

2010-07-15T11:01:00.000-07:00

This tedious task of setting targets has always been a difficult one for me. Let me explain. I do my planning in my head - most of the time. I do not like to make notes and when I do I very rarely read it again. I think it is this bigger picture thing - totally right brainer thing. Because of this I do not have any written goals or targets and I know it should be there. Now I have come to the conclusion that maybe, just maybe I should start looking at this thing. If I could be as successful as I have been for the past few years without doing any real physical planning, just imagine what I could do if I did start drafting a proper plan.

Now this piece of wisdom above relates to business. I am now on about personal targets. We (my wife and I) have had such a personal target about 4 years ago when we decided we are going to Scotland for my 60th birthday. Where were we on the 27th of October 2008 ? My sixtieth birthday ? We landed at Edinburgh airport in Sotland that morning !

So ? I know it can be done and that is exactly what I will be doing again - not Scotland - THE BIG PLAN

The biggest problem here is : Starting with the bloody thing............Tomorrow! Ok definitely next week.

The love of money................

2010-06-22T23:15:00.000-07:00

............is the root of all evil.

No matter how you argue the point everything revolves around Money. All sorts of alternative
economic systems have been investigated and implemented. All of them have the exact same
problems that money creates: One person's perception of value differs from the next. The bank charges you
15% interest on your loan. They think it is fair, you don't.

The supermarket offers you a bargain at a bargain price . Both of you think it is fair until you see the same
product somewhere else at a lesser price. Those bastards ! They wanted to screw me!

In Scotland there is a little town called "Aberfeldy" Scotlands first fair trade village , I think it said.
I will be doing a bit of research on this and write about it in a new post.

Why I quoted this is that this is exactly what we should be looking for in any trade-off: Fairness for all involved. This is a human thing - Governments and institutions will never get this right for the simple reason that there will always be money involved, and money breeds greed!

Unfortunately for now MONEY RULES (OK?)
There is one reason and one reason only why businesses fail :

They run out of money.

There is one reason and one reason only why good business plans do not get implemented:

The lack of money

There is one reason and one reason only why individuals are liquidated / loose their possessions /……………?

They ran out of money.

There is one reason and one reason only why there is greed in this world

Money

As an Entrepreneurial trainer one of the things I advocate is that your vision must be bigger than yourself and it also must not be Money. But going from zero to one unfortunately requires money. If you take money out of any commercial (or charity) equation it will fail. This is (unfortunately) the ultimate fact of life.

Trying to change the way the world thinks is in my opinion a total waste of time. Trying to change peoples views are easy : You do it exactly as you would trying to eat an elephant : Small piece by small piece. One person at a time. . And you must have a very good workable system to replace any existing (not so effective )principle.

People tend to follow a strong leader. Even those with stupid ideas. Hitler and Malema are good examples. So did the British with Winston Churchill who was a charismatic and stunning leader. So where does this leave us ? Work on your ideas and get it practically implementable. Draw charismatic leaders to yourself.

Sell your idea and get them to sell it. And you will find that in your immediate vicinity things might just start changing.

This brings me to the parable of the 12 apostles?

They took the Masters message and multiplied it and no one can challenge the outcome 2000 years later.

Recognition of Prior Learning

2010-06-06T21:49:00.000-07:00

These new buzz words : Recognition of prior learning might just be the key to your future success !

In the South African environment a lot has happened in the past 16 years since the new government came to power. A lot of it positive and a lot negative. This is not the forum to dwell on that.
What is important is that a lot of knowledge has gone down the drain. People that have been trained
in-house by big corporates or have studied somewhere and did not finish those studies are receiving no recognition for their knowledge and skills.

You might be an industry or subject specialist that can make money from that skill or knowledge.
If only you could get recognition for the skill or knowledge.

Now you can !

Through a process called recognition for prior learning you can now get INTERNATIONAL recognition.

Through our affiliation with SBM international you can undergo such a program and get international
credits and recognition for your knowledge. The system looks at every single piece of knowledge you acquired and you might even qualify for a degree.

You might be a subject specialist on something but no-one is interested as there is no official qualification or recognition ?

Send us an email to be invited to a Free presentation- It could change your life forever!
The email address is rpl@brandow.co.za

You might even be invited to be a facilitator on some of our courses - we have major opportunities in the training market !

Let the past be the past

2010-05-28T23:44:00.001-07:00

Two emails landed in my inbox simultaneously this morning: the asked the question: Is it time to change your focus ? and the other one had the heading : A new way of thinking. I will go into a bit of detail about both just now. My statement in this article is : The past is exactly that : History. You can learn from it , you can talk about it , You can have guilty consciences about it etc. etc. You cannot change it : It is History. You can change the future though - It is not there yet. You have the choices what to do with it,whether to plan for it or just accept it as it comes.

This brings me to the first email I received : Is it time to change your focus? What was this guy on about?
The message is clear : If you do what you have always done, how can you expect different results. These are such true words if only it gets applied. The keyword is : Change your input , change your focus , look for new ways to do things , new niche markets , new people , New ways to run your sales force (Less salary - Lots and Lots of more commission ) Surround yourself with like-minded people. Do not be afraid to try new things

This brings me to the second: A new way of thinking - this one had a christian undertone but so be it;
It started with this quote :And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine burst the wineskins and the new wine is lost.........

The message is clear : When you change your thinking get rid of the old holder where the old thinking was done and totally renew the mind to the new idea. Never use the old way of thinking again because you will find that suddenly you have filled the thinking holder with old and new ideas and it suddenly burst and nothing is left !

This is true in personal life and in business. If you do not change course you will end up where you were headed and that , my friend might not have been where you wanted to be !

We need to start thinking about new ideas in business - New partnerships , new products , new marketing methods and ways , new ways to connect and new ways to learn

to be continued .........

JOHN BRANDOW

So you want to leave this country ?

2010-04-19T09:36:00.000-07:00

Quick STATS for those who want to leave and those who have (sorry to hear) already left

"South Africa is probably the leading economy in the world." (CNBC Europe)
South Africa’s Rand is the second best-performing emerging market currency of the 26 monitored by Bloomberg in 2009
South Africa sold $1.8 billion worth of cars to the US last year, putting us ahead of Sweden and Italy as suppliers to the US market.
In 2009, the Springboks become the first international team to be World Champions in both 15-a-side and Sevens rugby.
The International Monetary Forum's World Economic Outlook ranks us in the top 10% of counties in respect of Real GDP Growth Projections for 2010.
In the Economist Intelligence Unit's Survey of Democratic Freedom we rank 31st of of 184 countries.
South Africa ranks second worldwide in terms of the transparency surrounding its budgets - just behind the United Kingdom, tie with France, and ahead of New Zealand and the United States - according to the Open Budget Index.
The number of 'dollar millionaires' in South Africa has increased from less than 25,000 in 2004 to over 55,000 in 2007, according to the World Wealth Report
According to the World Pay Report, South African managers are earning disposable incomes that are higher than those in many developed countries.
Johannesburg ranks 2nd among countries from Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa in dealing with urbanisation and environmental challenges, in the MasterCard Insights Report on Urbanisation and Environmental Challenges.
South Africa ranked 44th out of 131 countries in the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report 2007/8.
South Africa was ranked as the 18th most attractive destination for Foreign Direct Investment by global strategic management consulting firm AT Kearney.
Three South African cities were voted amongst the world's top 100 Most Liveable Cities in a study conducted by Mercer Human Resource Consulting. Cape Town was ranked in 85th place, Johannesburg 90th and Port Elizabeth 97th.
Since the 1940s, South African golfers have won more golf majors than any other nation, apart from the United States.
South Africa has been ranked 28th among 108 countries measured for responsible competitiveness, according to the global think tank AccountAbility.
Johannesburg has been ranked as the eighth cheapest city in the world for expatriates, according to the most recent Cost of Living Standards Survey from Mercer Human Resource Consulting.
South Africa is ranked 20th out of a total of 128 economies in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2007, ahead of many developed nations, including, the United States (31), Switzerland (40), Austria (27) and France (51).
South Africa ranks 57th out of 157 countries in the world in terms of economic freedom, ahead of Italy (64), Brazil (101), the United Arab Emirates (63), Greece (94th), India (104th) and China (126), according to the Index of Economic Freedom 2007
South Africa is ranked 35th out of 178 countries for ease of doing business - ahead of Spain, Brazil and India - according to Doing Business 2008, a joint publication of the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation.
Cape Town has the fifth-best blue sky in the world according to the UK's National Physical Laboratory
South African media ranks 26th out of 167 countries in the Worldwide Press Freedom Index 2007, higher than any country in Asia, the Middle East or South America, and ahead of Japan, Spain, Italy and the United States.
The Johannesburg Stock Exchange was the 7th best performing stock market in 2005, according to the World Federation of Exchanges
Pretoria has the second largest number of embassies in the world after Washington, D.C.
In 2005, interest rates were at a 25-year low
South Africa accounts for almost 45% of the GDP of the entire African continent, with an economy three times the size of the second biggest (Egypt)
Almost a quarter of South Africa’s non-interest budget is spent on education
The University of South Africa UNISA is a pioneer of tertiary distance education and is the largest correspondence university in the world with 250,000 students
In 1991, South Africa became the first country in the world to provide full protection status for the Great White shark within its jurisidictional waters. Countries including USA, Australia, Malta and Namibia follwed suit later.
Afrikaans is the youngest official language in the world
According to the Economic Freedom of the World 2005 Annual Report, South Africa ranks 38th out of 127 countries in terms of ecomomic freedom, tied with France and ahead of Israel, India, Italy, China, Brazil and Russia.
The rand, the world's most actively traded emerging market currency, has joined an elite club of 16 currencies - the Continuous Linked Settlement (CLS) - where forex transactions are settled immediately, lowering the risks of transacting across time zones. Standard Bank is the only African bank to be a shareholder partner of CLS.
The Singita Private Game Reserve in the Kruger National Park was voted the best hotel in the world by the readers of travel publication, Conde Nast Traveller
The South African Rand was the best performing currency against the US Dollar between 2002 and 2005, according to the Bloomberg's Currency Scorecard
South Africa's per capita GDP, corrected for purchasing power parity, positions the country as one of the 50 wealthiest in the world
Worldaudit.org ranks South Africa as the 40th most democratic country out of 150 nations
Stellenbosch University was the first university in the world to design and launch a microsatellite
South Africa is the 35th best place in the world to do e-business, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit's 2007 E-Readiness Report.
South Africa is the best-ranked country in terms of price stability, our fiscal policy is ranked 11th, our international trade competitiveness 21st, and we are the 28th most-attractive destination for foreign direct investment, according to the World Competiveness Yearbook 2005
South African business owners of mid-size companies are the second most optimistic worldwide about their economic prospects of the year ahead, according to the annual Grant Thornton International Business Owners Survey for 2005.
South Africa is the first, and to date only, country to build nuclear weapons and then voluntarily dismantle its entire nuclear weapons programme
The value of South African real estate improved by 30% over the past 5 years
Tax revenue in SA has increased by 220% over the past 10 years
In 2005, 10 million South Africans benefited from access to social grants
The number of tourists visiting South Africa has grown by 116% since 1994
Over the past 5 years, Consumer Confidence in SA has improved by 43%.
In the global measure of women in Parliament, South Africa ranks 8th in the world.
Of the 10 LSM levels ( LSM1=poorest; LSM10 wealthiest ), the average SA family located in LSM6
Source : South Africa: The Good News www.sagoodnews.co.za Full list available on their website

Businessday 16 Apr 2010

2010-04-15T23:51:00.000-07:00

THAMI MAZWAI: Small business needs a tougher police force
THAMI MAZWAI	Published: 2010/04/16 07:31:23 AM

CLOSE to two years ago, the Small Business Project (SBP), a nongovernmental organisation specialising in small business research, pointed out that more than 40% of small businesses did not expand or employ more people because of the high levels of crime in inner- city areas, townships and informal settlements.

As a personal example, thugs once robbed my brother of the day’s takings, his wallet, jacket and everything moveable in his container telephone business in Soweto. The family rallied around him and he started again. Several weeks later, the same or another group of hooligans pistol-whipped him and, again, took everything. Just like about 30% of small business owners hit by crime, he threw in the towel. The SBP rightly maintains that the extent of crime in SA deters job creation and economic growth.

Criminals regularly attack small businesses . As these businesses do not have insurance, it is amen for many when these thugs strike. Obviously, these entrepreneurs need protection as the crimes are violent and brutal. Thus, today’s talk of “militarising” the police is music to the ears of the owners of small busiesses. The message is that the police will no longer smother criminals with hugs, kisses and brotherly love, assuring them of their rights under the law.

In any case, the murder of 3000 police officers since 1994 should inform us that a no-nonsense attitude is required.

Claims that militarising the police force will erode citizen rights are more of an interpretation than anything else. The repackaging and rebranding of the police, which is what Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa is talking about, must be differentiated from the actual fight against crime.

This “militarisation” creates an operational mind-set and is not an abandonment of the rules that protect civil society from heavy-handed police officers.

Private-sector organisations rebrand and reposition, and this reignites and reinvigorates their workforce. Why is it different when Mthethwa wants to achieve the same so that society is better protected?

To discuss this issue in a broader context, Gen Solly Mollo, previously of the South African National Defence Force, posits that during transformation the security apparatus weakens as the incumbents, fearful of the future, balk at and manipulate the system. We appear not to have considered this insecurity and that the incumbents would meddle with the processes.

Also, when we appointed police ministers, we appointed democrats rather than disciplinarians and crime- busters. The rot started seeping in. The best appointments were those of the late Steve Tshwete as minister of police, and the current commissioner Cele — both of them rough-and-tumble guys who can, or could, mix in with their men.

Mthethwa is doing some interesting things, but the jury is still out on how successful he will be. Pussyfooting around with nice terms, such as “criminals have human rights”, has unintended consequences — a soft approach to crime. I do not encourage authoritarianism, but the situation is bad.

SA is the only country I know of — perhaps the closest is Mexico — where the death of a police officer is regarded as just another death. We do not have infuriated citizens demanding to lynch the murderer. We even have all kinds of regulations making it impossible for the police just to defend themselves.

As much as I understand the concerns around the “shoot to kill” statement, my sympathies are with the police. No sight pleases me more than one in which five or six robbers lie dead on the ground and a police officer, gleeful, stands over the corpses ready to take on the next set of bandits.

My parting shot is that we need the ruthless apartheid police variety — as long as they focus on criminals and not on political activists. This way the small business people will start growing their enterprises, which grows the economy and provides people with jobs.

The most important human right is the right to a meal — we forget that at our peril.

- Dr Mazwai is director of the Centre for Small Business Development at the University of Johannesburg, Soweto campus.

Wake Up South Africa

2010-04-06T21:17:00.000-07:00

SAIRR Today : Press Release : Statement by the South African Institute of Race Relations on the ramifications of the killing of Eugène Terre'Blanche - 6th April 2010

The Institute desisted from issuing a formal statement in the immediate aftermath of the killing of Mr Terre'Blanche in order to first gauge the broader social, political, and international reaction to the killing. The Institute is now in a position to make the following points.

Racial tensions in the country appear to have increased significantly in recent weeks. This appears to be chiefly as a result of incitement by the ruling African National Congress to ‘shoot and kill’ the Afrikaner ethnic minority in the country. The anxiety around this incitement may well have influenced opinions across the broader white community. What appears to be the case is that much of the racial rapprochement that characterised the first 15 years of South Africa’s democracy is being undone. This rapprochement saw both black and white South Africans come to occupy a middle ground on race relations upon which the maintenance of future stable race relations depends.

Since 1994 the number of white farmers and their families murdered in South Africa is conservatively put at around 1 000. It may very well be much higher. There are currently an estimated 40 000 commercial farmers in the country. Over this same period in the region 250 000 South Africans out of a total current population of approximately 47 million have been murdered. Criminal violence can therefore be described as ‘rampant’ and has done considerable damage to the social fabric of the country. However, this is not to say that all murders in the country are a function of simple criminal banditry. In an environment where law and order has largely collapsed the consequences of incitement by political leaders to commit murder must be taken seriously.

Over the same period the policy measures put in place by the Government to raise the living standards of the black majority have failed to meet expectations. The key interventions of affirmative action and black economic empowerment have been exploited by the African National Congress to build a network of patronage that has made elements of its leadership extremely wealthy. The party also appears to have been so overwhelmed by corrupt tendencies that it is no longer able to act decisively against corrupt behaviour.

It has also through incompetence and poor policy been unable to address failures in the education system which are now the primary factor retarding the economic advancement of black South Africans.

At the same time the party is acutely aware that its support base of poor black South Africans has begun to turn against it. Violent protest action against the ruling party is now commonplace around the country.

In order to shore up support in the black community the ANC increasingly appears to be seeking to shift the blame for its delivery failures onto the small white ethnic minority, which today comprises well under 10% of the total population of South Africa. Here parallels may be read to the behaviour of Zanu-PF in Zimbabwe when that party realised that its political future was in peril. The ANC Youth League’s recent visit to Zanu-PF which saw it endorse that party’s ruinous polices are pertinent here.

In such an environment it is plausible to consider that the ANC’s exhortations to violence may be a contributing factor to the killing of Mr Terre'Blanche. Certainly the ANC’s protestations to the contrary seem ridiculous as the party is in effect saying that its followers pay no attention to what it says - this from a party that routinely claims that it is the manifestation of the will of all black South Africans. This is not to say that a labour dispute or some other matter could not have inflamed tensions on the Terre'Blanche farm. Rather it is to say that a number of different matters should be considered in determining the motivation for the crime.

Certainly the ANC’s exhortations to violence have created a context where the killings of white people will see a degree of suspicion falling around the party and its supporters.

It is of concern therefore that the police’s senior management are on record as saying that they will not consider a political motive or partial motive for the killing of Mr Terre'Blanche. This suggests an early effort to cover up the ANC’s possible culpability for inciting the crime.

Should any allegations of a political cover-up arise in the pending murder trial of the two young men accused of the Terre'Blanche murder the political consequences could be significant. Should evidence be led that the two young men acted with what they understood to be the tacit backing of the ANC, and a causal link between their actions and incitement by the ANC be established, then the possibility of charging the ANC’s senior leadership in connection to the murder arises. Equally plausible is that the Terre'Blanche family and the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging could bring a civil suit against the ANC and the Government.

It is possible that the killing of Mr Terre'Blanche will greatly strengthen the hand of a new hardened right wing in South Africa. In life Mr Terre'Blanche attracted a small, uninfluential, and extremist following. He will not be mourned for what he stood for. However, in death he may come to represent the experiences of scores of minority groups in the country who perceive themselves as being on the receiving end of racist and now also violent abuse from the ANC. In effect therefore Mr Terre'Blanche may be seen as having been martyred for a minority cause in the country.

The implications of a resurgent right wing will be numerous. It is most unlikely that this right wing will take the form of camouflage clad henchmen on horses in shows of force. The ANC has also often, wrongly, identified groups including the political opposition, Afriforum, agricultural unions, and even this Institute as ‘the right wing’. This silly ‘red under every bed’ attitude in the ANC saw it lose the trust of many civil society and political groups. These groups could all be defined first and foremost by the common belief that they had to act within the bounds of what the Constitution prescribed.

But the ANC belittled and undermined them. It also undermined parliament, the national prosecution service, and the various human rights and other organisations that were established under the Constitution. It may yet usurp the independence of the courts and the judiciary. The result was a shutting down of many of the democratic channels that were created for citizens in the country to make the Government aware of their concerns and circumstances.

The resurgence of a new political consciousness among minorities could drive an altogether different political force. Such a movement will draw its strength chiefly from a hardening attitudes in the white community but perhaps also in the Indian and coloured communities. These will be views that in the main have come to subscribe to some or all of the following points:

1.That the Government has corrupted and debilitated many of the country’s internal democratic processes for political or civil expression that were established under the Constitution

2.That cooperation with the current Government of South Africa is therefore fundamentally unfeasible and therefore futile

3.That the Government is unable to restore law and order in the country

4.That the Government is therefore unable protect its citizens

5.That the Government has a hostile agenda against minority groups

However it is equally, if not most likely, that many minorities who subscribe to the five points above may simply get so fed up that those who can will pack up and go. Here they may take the advice of President Zuma to remain calm as they pack up their businesses and their families and calmly board aircraft for Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the United States, and Great Britain. With the exodus will leave much of the tax and expertise base of the country.

Should the ANC, however, find itself facing increased political resistance it will in many respects have a tiger by the tail. Firstly, the ANC depends greatly on the tax income paid by white South Africans to balance South Africa’s books. Secondly, it depends entirely on the food produced by a small number of white farmers to feed the country. Thirdly, white South Africans still dominate the skills base of the country. Finally, and most importantly, much white opinion since the early 1990s has been moderate. White South Africa has been willing and often eager to cooperate with the Government in building an open, non-racial, and prosperous South Africa. Losing that cooperation will to an extent put an end to any serious chance that the ANC has of leading South Africa to become a successful and prosperous democracy.

While the ANC will be inclined to blame whites for this, and may even take drastic action to confiscate white commercial interests as they are currently doing in agriculture, these actions will be ruinous for the economy. The result of such ruin will be to drive a deeper wedge between the ANC and its traditional support base and thereby hasten the political decay of the party.

When General Constand Viljoen decided to throw his lot in with democracy in the early 1990s the right wing in South Africa was a spent force. So it should and could have remained. The ANC could have taken advantage of white expertise and tax revenue to realise their own vision of a better life for all. Things have however gone badly wrong for the party. Corruption has destroyed its ability to meet the demands of its constituents while racial bigotry has now seen it defending its image against what should have been an insignificant and dying neo-Nazi faction in the country.

The failure of sensible South Africans to take back the racial middle ground in the country will be serious. Polarisation will beget further racial conflict and a hardening of attitudes on all sides. This is perhaps the greatest leadership test that the current Government has faced and it is one that they cannot afford to fail.

http://www.sairr.org.za/sairr-today/sairr-today-press-release-statement-by-the-south-african-institute-of-race-relations-on-the-ramifications-of-the-killing-of-eugene-terreblanche-6th-april-2010/

- Frans Cronje

"Wake up and save the republic" by Dr Lucas Ntyintyane 28/3/2010

2010-04-01T11:06:00.003-07:00

London’s Daily Sun gave me a hernia. Thanks to their cheeky headline in response to British finance minister Alistair Darling’s budget speech “…Darling screwed more people than Woods, Terry and Ashley”. My tummy is still hurting.

It is a pity laughter has died in SA. Everything is gray. If we are not threatening racial wars and killings on social networks, we are numbed by corruption and crime. Our debates have been reduced to gutter level by infantile leaders. The Madiba jive is gone. We used to be so carefree. What happened to us?

As we begin one of the sacred weeks in the Christian calendar, it is appropriate to reflect on the type of people we have become. I do not like what I see. We are polarised. We are violent and destructive.

We are materialistic. We resemble a Stalinistic Russia. Freedom has brought pain. It unleashed greediness. What kind of people would rape and dismember an innocent 15-year-old girl? What type of leaders would steal from the poor?

Solomon Mahlangu did not die to advance this cruelty upon his people. Helen Joseph did not fight for sadism to thrive. Bram Fischer did not endure apartheid blows to promote a polarised society. The post-apartheid society is an insult to the ideals of Robert Sobukwe and Beyers Naude.

It is up to us to correct this anomaly. The leadership to better this country should come from all of us. It is through our words, writings and actions that we lay a foundation of a better nation. If we preach war, we will get war. If we are consumed by hatred, then racism will flourish. Corruption and violent crime are products of society. We created them; we can put a stop to them.

SA will only go to the dogs, if we allow it. Only the stupid never learn from their mistakes. Our silence gave the empty heads a right to polarise and plunder. How long can you keep silent as self-centred leaders rip your country apart? Each one of us has the power to make a difference. It does not matter if you are at school, in the mall, in the sports ground or in the taxi. History starts with one person influencing the rest.

As individuals, we are capable of creating little miracles in our surroundings. The Easter period is about miracles — the triumph of goodness over evil . The day the nation woke up and saved the republic.

We can make SA laugh again.

Dr Lucas Ntyintyane

Cape Town

The Afrikaners by Clem Sunter

2010-03-31T09:25:00.000-07:00

It is an ironic twist of fate that so far the real beneficiaries of the ending of apartheid are the people who were supposed to have benefited from it whilst it was in existence - the Afrikaners.

During the years of apartheid, there was a culture of entitlement among the volk. With a good education you could end up as a Cabinet minister, a top civil servant, head of a parastasal or a senior executive in an Afrikaans-owned business like the Trust Bank or Sanlam. If you weren't so privileged, you could get a job on the railways as an artisan, join the ranks of the army or police or work for a municipality.

After 1994, all these expectations came to an end. Suddenly Afrikaners were out of power. They had to take a leaf out of Steve Biko's book: you are on your own and you will have to fend for yourself. And they have done so - fantastically well. I was told the other day that the fastest growing element of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange are companies owned and run by Afrikaners. The whole coast north of Maputo in Mozambique is now a string of safari lodges and dive shops established by entrepreneurs from Pretoria. The list goes on and on all around South Africa, and increasingly north of the border and elsewhere in the world.

One could call this phenomenon the great trek into business. Adapt or die, John Vorster said. The Afrikaners voted for the first option individually and collectively. Rather like the Jews in America, the Pakistanis in London and the Chinese in Australia, Afrikaners have a collective consciousness which is the spiritual foundation of an effective commercial network. Language, religion, culture and a common outlook on life bind them into teams that are almost unbeatable when challenged by less cohesive competitors. This trait obviously extends into sport as well. It is a form of ubuntu: you help me and I will help you because together we can achieve more. It's just that you have to speak the taal!

This article was prompted by my wife and I staying one night last week at a brilliant place called Bergwaters Eco Lodge just outside Waterval Boven. It was a real pocket of excellence in the Elands Valley. Run by a young Afrikaans couple, it offered everything from a long, beautiful walk to great food to a comfortable bed. But it was the entrepreneurial spirit that impressed me. She wants to give every room the theme of a herb and he has just bought a local hardware store as a second business. Music to my ears. You should always want to improve, no matter what the current state of your business is.

This all goes to show that we need an entrepreneurial state in contrast to a developmental state. California is the sixth largest economy in the world with only 36 million people. There is no sense of entitlement there. Everybody follows the Steve Biko code: you make it yourself. It would be a real shame if, by replacing one entitlement culture with another, we undermine the truly entrepreneurial spirit that South Africa undoubtedly possesses in its population as a whole. The Afrikaners were liberated by creating a level playing field. Necessity is indeed the mother of invention. Entitlement shackles it.

I conclude with a question: why do you think Jews, Pakistanis and Chinese people perform so much better on other people's playing fields than on their home grounds? They know the result depends entirely on their own efforts. Afrikaners have managed to make this psychological adjustment without having to emigrate. Good for them. The next job is to liberate our black brothers and sisters in the same way.

a birds eyeview on government

2010-03-19T06:07:00.000-07:00

How on earth can these smart men have contemplated the actions of OUR government ?

I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle -- Winston Churchill

A government, which robs Peter to pay Paul, can always depend on the support of Paul -- George Bernard Shaw

Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner -- James Bovard, Civil Libertarian (1994)

Foreign aid might be defined as a transfer of money from poor people in rich countries, to rich people in poor countries. -- Douglas Casey, Classmate of Bill Clinton at Georgetown University

Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys -- P.J. O'Rourke, Civil Libertarian

Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it -- Ronald Reagan (1986)

If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free! -- P.J. O'Rourke (this is frighteningly true.)

In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other -- Voltaire (1764)

Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you! -- Pericles (430 B.C.)

The government is like a baby's alimentary canal, with a happy appetite at one end, and no responsibility at the other -- Ronald Reagan

The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings. The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of misery -- Winston Churchill

The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin -- Mark Twain

A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have -- Thomas Jefferson

Wild Mushroom

2010-03-13T23:17:00.000-08:00

I found this stunning large wild mushroom growing next to a dead pine tree - It is 20 cm in diameter.

Something is missing here !

2010-03-06T22:20:00.000-08:00

One of us is missing !

Ok Now where is the camera ?

Guard duty

2010-03-05T22:21:00.000-08:00

"I will stand guard while you sleep"

The reading

2010-03-01T07:32:00.000-08:00

I used to read a lot when I was younger , much younger. Untill I was about 24. I read anything: Storybooks, newspapers, magazines, you name it - I read it. Then the urge disappeared. I think it is the right brain that started kicking in. The bigger picture. Books bore me. I will read short articles and news worthy news. Nowadays I read the newspapers on the internet.
But then a few years ago my wife starting reading a book to me whenever we drive for longer than an hour
So it was that I "heard" "The language of God" A book about the human genome -stunning stuff - no dogmas here, just plain facts. And this weekend she started reading "The shack" to me. At first I found it quite boring but as she went on I really started to enjoy it.( It is not for the feint hearted) About half way through now and I am starting to think this is a must for everyone calling themselves Christians. It is about exactly that : Get rid of the dogmas you grew up with and start thinking for yourself.
One other quote I would like to repeat from the book " A bird was meant to fly , not to walk - they do not walk easily because their feet was not made for that purpose ! "
What were you made for ? Just think on that one - no more no less !

Are you in control?

2010-02-24T10:53:00.001-08:00

Where is your locus of control? Internal or external. Comments you read on external locus of control sometimes give the definition of this as blaming everyone except yourself for what happens to you.
This of course is not what it means : It means that you are not in control of you locus (locality,personal space , call it what you will ) You allow the control to be taken from you. You do not decide,you have to get some-ones opinion on the matter before you decide.You accept that some-one , something will make the decision for you.
And you allow it. You give away control – Most probably a belief that you grew up with. You parents made the important decisions for you. You never propertly learnt to think for yourself .
Locus of control is a term in psychology that refers to a person’s belief about what causes the good or bad results in his life, either in general or in a specific area such as health or academics. This is another definition of this. E.g. External locus is(could be) the acceptance that you are being punished for something you did beacuse you got ill or some other misfortune happened. This is especially true amongst some Christians and of course is totally untrue and disastrous thinking lines.
Take control of your life – Keep control of it and amazing things will happen.
You will not be walked over. People will listen to you when you speak. Take a view and stick to it ( like I am doing here – whether I am right or wrong – this is what I believe and I stick to it). Never be afraid to differ from people, it makes interesting conversations. Never be a Yes person.
You will suddenly find that people will not be making contentious statements in groups where you are present. And they will be unwittingly seek your approval for what they say. If just in the way they look at you when they do make a statement.

White squater camps

2010-02-20T03:55:00.000-08:00

Ever been to one ? a White squater camp. I spend some time there this morning and what I saw is a bit disturbing. The people living there are all white with no visible signs of income. The one "chalet"(see pictures)
had a dirt floor, one bed and nothing else visible - some old clothes were lying in the dirt. The whole place is very clean on the outside although it is all dirt area. No electricity to the shacks. A distinct smell of dagga was in the air in one corner of the settlement.

These people are down and out. Do no look you in the eye when you pass. Has hope foresaken them ? I don't know. The children seem quite happy running around all over the place. So does about 50 dogs (about one dog for ever 2 people there) , pigs , chicken, turkeys all happily running around. What is interesting that although some of the people I saw looks like they are underfed the dogs all look healthy.

I think normal day to day South Africans should make a day trip to one of these settlements and most probably they will stop complaining about life, crime , the government and a lot of unimportant things. Here it is evident that life is a day to day challenge.

Besigheidsgeleenthede en MLM

2010-02-16T21:02:00.000-08:00

n Vriend het my die week gevra na my opinie oor n besigheidsgeleentheid wat hy ondersoek by die MLM

(Multilevel marketing ) maatskappy Manatech. Hierdie was my antwoord :

Ek dink ek is die verkeerde ou om te vra vir ’n opinie oor MLM. Ek het eenvoudig te veel navorsing daaroor gedoen en ongelukkig is die negatiewe hier baie groter as die positiewe. Daar is nie een enkele MLM maatskappy waar meer as 10% van die verspreiders geld maak nie!

Soos jy waarskynlik agtergekom het, dink ek nie veel van MLM nie . Die Spesifieke maatskappy(Manatech) was al op my ondersoek lys en is daar vir my te veel onbe-antwoorde vrae. Hulle produkte het nie SABS merk nie – Na die debakel met Simply slim kan jy verwag dat die Mediesyne Raad op al hierdie tipe produkte gaan toeslaan. Daar is eenvoudig nie wetenskaplike bewyse vir dit wat hulle sê hulle produkte doen nie. Dit is ”Getuienis” gebasseer – en ons weet hoe maklik dit is om te fabriseer.

Die grootste probleem wat ek het met MLM as bemarkingsmetode is dat jy nie die vlak van kennis en opleiding van die downline kan beheer nie – Die oningeligtes leer die oningeligtes leer die oningeligtes ens ens. (Dit word ook genoem die verlies van inligting deur skakels) Indien ’n fout inkruip in die eerste ”laag” van die piramide sypel dit vinnig deur na die ander lae. Daar is werklik goeie besigheidsgeleenthede in die normale vraag en aanbod stelsel waar werklik geld gemaak kan word. Ons beplan binnekort ’n besigheidsgeleentheid skou waar ons hierdie geleenthede gaan bemark.

Wat betref die oudword proses kan jy gerus hierdie artikel gaan lees:

http://www.quackwatch.com/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/antiagingpp.html

Die webblad www.quackwatch.com het baie interesante leesstof oor allerhande middels en medisyne.

“But that is only one man’s opinion” soos my goeie vriend Wayne Bisset sal sê (http://www.mygenius.com)

Pro activeness

2010-02-14T07:47:00.000-08:00

Reading through some of the recent articles on farm attacks and other murders, attacks and burglaries it is evident that a lot of faith is put in burglar bars and alarms systems and nothing on early warning systems. We have started with research on what is available in the market and will probably commission an interested party in the high tech security field to develop a reasonably cheap hight tech early warning system.
One of the other major problems is awareness or rather the lack thereof. Police and other authorities stress the importance of good neighbourly-ness but when you talk to victims it is very evident that in most cases they do not even know the name of their neigbours.
Some form of an awareness campaign need to be driven from somewhere and we are looking at this at present

Anyone interested in getting involved is welcome to contact me : 0828051615 or john@brandow.co.za

When is enough enough ?

2010-02-11T21:14:00.001-08:00

If you intend reading this do it and respond asap. I am Gatvol , Mad and a few other unexpress-able words.
Normally when problems arise people tend to say :They must do something about it , Crime , roads , etc etc
The "They" are never defined. The government ? Nobody I know trust them to actually do anything ?
The municipality ? The Police ?
I think it is time that we start looking after ourselves. We are looking into the electronic security system
environment to come up with state of the art , kickass early warning systems . If you know of anyone or yourself
have technical knowledge of some state of the art systems please contact me with some info

We. are setting up meetings with policing forums , The TVL landbou unie, victims of crime and a few other interested parties
Watch the press - Talk to me - Come South Africa - wake up - let us become the "they" that does something

Simply (deadly) Slim

2010-02-06T22:15:00.000-08:00

Dit is darem ironies hoe mense eenvoudig nie die gevare in al hierdie snaakse produkte wil sien nie. Gister was daar n stormloop om Simply Slim produkte te koop terwyl dit potensieel dodelik vir mense kan wees. Daar is eenvoudig nie n "Simply easy" manier om gewig te verloor nie. n Oordentlike dieet en n oefen program is al wat op die ou einde help. Al hierdie foefies (jammer mense Simply slim was net n foefie ) werk eenvoudig net nie

"If it is too good to be true it most probably is"

The joburg metro police

2010-02-03T10:44:00.000-08:00

A very strange sight was observed on the Ben Schoeman this morning - a Joburg metro policeman actually doing his job !. An overcrowded taxi was stopped when we passed by. Reasonably normal . But then this metro cop came past us on the left hand side with quite a speed and pulled off an empty taxi about a 100 metres from us. Then we saw the overcrowded taxi following him and it was stopped right behind the empty one. Of course the freeway was a parking garage as usual so we had all the time in the world to observe this strange happening. He duly had passengers disembark from the one and embark onto the empty one! Wow this is amazing - Apart from the real sense in what he was doing he was actually doing something ! Really amazing !

Trials and tribulations (of the businessman in the street)

2010-02-02T09:46:00.000-08:00

Trials and tribulations is all part of the fun of life. Pagans , Christians and every conceivable religion on earth acknowledge this fact. The way you deal with these differ from person to person, group to group, country to country - you name it. This is now putting this bit of wisdom bluntly and in plain language. No big words, no big wisdom , no fuss , no fanfare.

Shit happens - it is the way you react to it that shows your real character. Me ? How do I deal with it
Here is my story about that : If you are the reason for the shit I might forgive you - but only once I have donnered you. If it was unintentional - well you are welcome to prove it to me afterwards and I will doctor your blue eye. ( at least I will get my wife to do that)

Now if it is something out of my control I will try at first to ignore it. Then I will investigate it, especially if the smell is a bit irritating. I will always look for the source - not always a good thing because this is where temper comes in and gets tested. I have a nerve that starts jumping under my eye and for this reason I have decided never to own a gun. ( I have never owned one - not interested)

I am now nearly getting to the point where I will tell you in a further episode what I think of South African banks. - I do not care if the world think they are great - I will tell you and prove it to you that most of their credit staff has not passed grade 7 ( standard 5 - vir die ou Suid Afrika) If they have the certificates it was most probably forged. The proof of the pudding is in the eating - The challenge is on

The questions to your answers

2010-02-01T04:04:00.000-08:00

In my previous post I asked a few questions that seems to made some people think
In future commentaries I will discuss a few of these questions and possible answers from my perspective

Facing your giants(With recognition to David vs Goliath)

(1) Confront the things that are threatening you. The Israelites were confronted by Goliath and for 40 years nobody stood up to him and they had to endure his challenges. Remember : The things you run away from will eventually catch up with you.

(2) Remember the lessons you learnt it the past : When confronted by Goliath David remembered that he once had to slay a lion and that he won that battle! This amongst others gave him the strength to stand up to the Giant !

(3) Use the enemy's weapons against him ! Learn from you enemies and use their strategies against them. Do not accept that he has been defeated just because he is down - make sure he is out for the count !

The questions to your answers

2010-01-31T01:49:00.001-08:00

Would you be interested in some questions to your answers? Would you be truthful in answering them? Shall I begin ?

Are you a happy chappie ? Is your life fulfilled? Are you truthful in that answer? Are you sometimes frustrated? Most of the time? Always? Do you know that frustration leads to stress? And that stress eventually leads to helplessness? So are you stressed ? Do you now why? Did you feel helpless recently ? Why was that ?

Do you think you have achieved anything in life ? something in life ? Don’t you think if the answer to the last 2 questions was no that you should actually give yourself credit for some achievements?

Are you satisfied with life? To what extend do your personal life intermingle with you business life? Are you happy with this mix? Do you have a personal goal in life? Do you have a vision? Do you even know what a vision is? If you do have a vision is it greater than yourself? Do you have a mission in life? Have you set yourself personal goals? Goals for your business? If you were pushed to do something radical that will change your life forever positively would you do it ? Why don’t you look for that something radical? Are you afraid of tomorrow? If so why are you afraid?

What is your self-worth? Do you measure this in material things? Do you love your family/wife/significant other? Do you love yourself? Do you even like yourself?

Are you going to be a big success story this year? If not why not? If yes do you know why it is yes?

Would you agree that by answering these questions truthfully it would have been like looking to yourself in a mirror and not lying to yourself ?

Have you noticed that I gave you no answers here – only questions ?

Our effective Police

2010-01-20T08:43:00.000-08:00

This afternoon a truck Jackknived on the M10 near the Waterkloof airforce base. The Que was about a kilometer long to get past. Once we got to the front we found about 10 uniformed policemen and 2 metro policemen standing around talking an laughing and looking at the stupid truck that blocked the way. There were 4 police vehicles, 1 Metro police vehicle and an unmarked BMW( probably some unmarked policemen were also around)

Now my big question: Are there no crime to keep them busy ? Was this a major crime scene ? Probably some dead bugs around they had to investigate ? No one was conducting traffic. (Maybe a big airshow was in progress ! - Stupid me hey ?)

The health revolution

2010-01-13T10:02:00.000-08:00

Reading my blogs can be contagious. It might not be worth catching though. I sometimes scratch where it is not itching!

The health revolution gets me uptight sometimes. Everyone nowadays buys bottled water. Suddenly someone took note of the fact that plastic leaks something into the water - google it - I don't know what it is but it seems not to be too good for human kind

Then came along a guy with something called "simply slim" and makes a fortune out of unsuspecting folks.
Then someone discovers not so good stuff in the pills. All sorts of things happened to all sorts of users
(See details on my blog on www.mygenius.co.za if you are interested)

Then there is the organic revolution. Just the other day I read that Woollies is not so hung up about it anymore

Getting back to around 1960 when I was still in school. We lived on a small holding in Benoni. No power, no lights , no municipal water or sewerage, absolutely not services of any sort. Milk was from the cow we milked in the morning , eggs was from the chicken in the coup , water was from a borehole, most veggies was produced ourselves using cow dung as manure and some 2.3.2 ( I think this is non -organic). We never used anything to sterilize anything. Our immune systems were built back then.

Today I am 62 years old with a blood pressure of averaging 130/75 , overweight (110kg) no illnesses whatsover , using no pills or medication whatsoever. Only op I ever had was about 20 years ago when my tonsils were removed for some reason. (Ok I have never smoked) but I do enjoy my drinks ever so often
(Red wine and whiskey and the odd Brandy and coke)

Now I would like to know from these healthy freaks who wants to take me on ? What can you offer me that will improve my health ? Simply slim ? Mary anns health foods ? She looks a bit thin and pale on her videos that my wive likes to watch.
As I say I am only commenting on the passing parade

Life in the cumfort lane

2009-12-14T07:19:00.000-08:00

As middle class South Africans( Mostly us whiteys) have a luxury that you do not easily find elsewhere in the world: Domestic workers. Those people (mostly women) that keep our homes sparkling clean, wash and iron our clothes and do all the dirty work around the house.
Most of these lucky ones (Mostly us whiteys) do not know what you will be missing when you do not have this luxury around you. Just ask our Australians (ex- South Africans) They like to talk about this. The lack thereof of course.

My question is : How do you see this ? Do you feel you are, well , contributing to the economy . That it is your right to this luxury ? That you can afford the small expense ?

That is precisely my point : How small is the expense ? Would you have worked for the amount you are paying ?

With the pressing economy and job losses why do we not see White South African males working along side the road , on construction sites, on building sites as workers or laborers? Is it because
they(we) see this as beneath our dignity ? It is their right to be given something better to do!
Like standing on the side of the road begging with a billboard in their hands ?

Come on, face it - we still have not moved on a lot !

To:	Subject:	From:

comments on life

Client service perspective : Absa

What South Africans really want

Dogmatix and other pet hates or loves

Tunnel vision

Americanized junk

Affirmative action : a South African Perspective

Afrikanerskap - Is ek of is ek nie ?

The politics of politics

Attributes of the Youx

The Youx's ongoing saga

The hunt for the YOUX

Matric rewrite : Options

It is payback time!

The positive vs the negative

South Africa: Only a matter of time before the bomb explodes

Filling empty spaces with Nothingness

To vote or not to vote : That is the question

Consistency vs excellence

A question for Change

RSA Animate - Smile or Die

The parable of the cauliflower

The New Year

2011 for starters

Taking a chance

WMM45+

The wonder of special days

Being able to relate

Marketing: It is all in the basics

The actual meaning of words

Life after the world cup

Debating and all that jazz

Dare to move on

Enjoying life irrespective

Funny people and vegetarians

The Mind block

Personal targets

The love of money................

Recognition of Prior Learning

Let the past be the past

So you want to leave this country ?

Businessday 16 Apr 2010

THAMI MAZWAI: Small business needs a tougher police force

Wake Up South Africa

"Wake up and save the republic" by Dr Lucas Ntyintyane 28/3/2010

The Afrikaners by Clem Sunter

a birds eyeview on government

Wild Mushroom

Something is missing here !

Guard duty

The reading

Are you in control?

White squater camps

Besigheidsgeleenthede en MLM

Pro activeness

When is enough enough ?

Simply (deadly) Slim

The joburg metro police

Trials and tribulations (of the businessman in the street)

The questions to your answers

The questions to your answers

Our effective Police

The health revolution

Life in the cumfort lane