In Sickness And In Health

I’ve been up and down with this weird bug that’s going around.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been fighting the H1N1 virus. For the non-initiated, that’s how doctors say ‘Swine Flu’. It’s been sweeping through South Africa faster than Jacob Zuma can say “Hehehe!”

Let’s just say I’m not a fan of bacon anymore. Anything swine-related currently reminds me of brain fog, debilitating headaches, chronic sinusitis and night sweats.

I’m a lot better now, but it occurred to me that I’m super lucky to have an awesome team in close support.

While I was haaking up loogies that could easily have turned the eye of Sauron upon me, the Heavy Chef engine has continued humming.

Mo, Louis, Yolandi, Randall, Bron, Xavier, Siya, Clive, Stanley, Marina, Marlen and the rest of our crew of volunteers and contractors have been kicking ass this past month.

This team has been furiously organising entrepreneur events and learning programmes across the country over the next few months.

Heavy Chef entrepreneur cohorts are popping up in every province (except the Northern Cape - don’t worry yo, we’re coming for you guys soon).

Applications for our learning programmes are open, so please send your interest to our Head of Community here.

Our dynamic duo Jade and Yolandi have been hard at work putting the final touches on our next Heavy Chef recipe book, Startups And Side Hustles. It’s launching soon and will be available at bookstores everywhere.

Having my health compromised reinforced how this thing of ‘team’ is so vital to success.

Jim Collins’ masterpiece, Beyond Entrepreneurship 2.0, made this point strongly,

After four decades of writing about top-performing companies, Collins summarises success into two tenets: 1) people and 2) culture.

Get those two things right and you have a pretty good shot at succeeding.

With that in mind, our guests at the next Heavy Chef Cape Town event, Shane Dryden and Andrew Smith, are world heavyweight champions at those two tenets.

Shane and Andrew are the co-founders of Brave Hardy, Moa Holdings, Edison Stone and, of course, Yuppiechef.

I last heard Andrew Smith speak in public at the SAICA Future Leaders event in 2023. The talk he presented was one of the most memorable I’ve ever witnessed. Andrew shared the Yuppiechef story, from garage to greatness.

In his hour slot, Andrew spent the first 45 minutes talking about the milestones Yuppiechef had achieved in Shane and Andrew’s 16 years of leading the company.

It was a glittering array of accomplishments. Seven ‘e-commerce company of the year’ awards. Local and international media recognition. Even a Loerie for a cheeky ransom threat aimed at Woolworths.

It was all impressive stuff.

Then suddenly, he flipped the script. Andrew gazumped the audience in the final 15 minutes with a ‘behind the scenes’ exposé of what running Yuppiechef was really like.

Andrew had the benefit of being able to draw upon the journal that he’d kept for the duration of that period.

An example: When Yuppiechef won top honours at the Sunday Times Food Awards, this was the entry from Andrew’s journal that same day.

"Life seems pretty hard at the moment. Jake is 1 and has seldom slept for more than 4 hours in a stretch. He was supposed to go to the paediatrician this week for his 1 year check-up, but our medical savings have run out and our budget doesn't allow for it. Everything has gotten so expensive this year. We have no luxuries like holidays, clothes, eating out, gadgets or even basic savings. Our house needs so much work but we're not putting anything aside for that."

I’m betting that many people reading this can relate to that feeling of helplessness.

In a remarkable bait-and-switch, Andrew continued to juxtapose all the amazing achievements over his career with the real story of what it’s like to be an entrepreneur.

At the end of his talk, the audience was stunned.

Personally, I was in a puddle of tears (which was a bit unfortunate, since I was the MC). I’d never heard an entrepreneur being so brutally honest, particularly given our propensity to rewrite history in the manner of, “Ja, I planned it exactly like that!”

This is the true-self, false-self divide in action. It keeps therapists in business.

Entrepreneurs are the victor ludorums of this divide.

My own partner Nicola is a mental health practitioner. She has a pioneering practice that focuses on healing through reconnection with nature. She has worked with a number of entrepreneurs in her career.

Nicola is in the meta position of both counselling entrepreneurs and being an entrepreneur herself.

Recently, she admitted her own struggles with this dichotomy to me. If Nicola is sick, then she cannot work and she loses money. She has no team to pick up the reins of the deeply personal journeys she facilitates.

“Building a practice can be a lonely journey,” Nicola confided to me.

This echoes the research we have conducted with entrepreneurs throughout South Africa at the Heavy Chef Foundation.

Our findings reveal that many of our community members suffer in isolation.

Business owners generally operate on their own, with no real support networks to speak of.

The staggering insight from our latest report is that the strongest predictor of entrepreneur success is the frequency and quality of interactions between entrepreneurs.

The truth is that most businesses in South Africa (68%) are single-person entities run by solopreneurs. Yet many of us project our messages in public forums like we’re living the dream.

We carry imposter syndrome like a stone in our pockets. We turn that stone anxiously in our hands while posting on social media, speaking in public and delivering sales pitches.

In short, we need to be in team. We need community.

If we’re not in community, we will likely fail.

I know this to be true. I have been both a lone wolf and a team player.

Now, fortunately, I’m part of a great team.

I’m surrounded by great people in a strong culture.

Having been headbutted in the face by a pig recently, I know the difference it makes.

We’re going to be talking about imposter syndrome, the power of a healthy team, community and small business strategy in our next community gathering, The Real Entrepreneur Story, with Shane and Andrew up on stage.

Tickets are flying, so book your seats quick before it’s sold out.

I’ll be MCing again.

This time, I’ll try not to cry - but I’m not promising anything.

See you there.

Peace -