Self motivation, articles and advice

In Australia time was against me and I was forced to sell that investment to cover my activities in South Africa. Ironically that business is still successful. Shortly after this the stock market meltdown began. I had anticipated this so there were minimal losses but I had educational commitments and other amounts to close out. Any spare capital was placed in a lawyer's trust account. A massive embezzlement fraud of R 290 million was discovered in the lawyer's trust fund and all my funds were lost. After closing out all debts, paying educational bills and clearing the decks I was left with a few thousand Rand in the bank! Fortunately our home had been fully paid up so I decided to sell our only last asset of value, the BMW M3 car. On the way to deliver the car I unexpectedly came upon a drain flooding across the road. Unable to stop, the vehicle spun out of control and was badly damaged. At this stage in the midst of all these disasters, the broker who had by arrangement agreed to pay me a percentage income from the large block of portfolios I had handed over turned on me, knowing that I was penniless and refused to pay the agreed amount! All ventures had failed.

However, I had friends. One person, who had asked me to invest a small amount of money which I had managed to multiply by almost five times, sent me a grubstake to help me start. With this small startup capital, we managed to launch a small vending business selling pre-paid airtime for cell phones from vending machines placed in supermarkets. 18 months later I had built up this business to a turnover of almost R800 000 a month. Fortunately, I had taken every cent profit and used it pay for the machines which I had financed on credit. In the very month that we completed the final payments, South Africa's two leading cell phone service providers announced a drop in commissions to vendors, from 16% down to about 6%! The business could just not be operated on such a small margin so we were forced to close that down with the loss of more than half the capital.

Remember that I live in small town with very few employment opportunities and at the age of almost seventy with no capital you are considered a basket case. I took a very poorly part time job on a dairy farm using my old skills. I sold fronds from valuable ferns that we discovered in our garden. My wife took a job working for the local car hire firm. Then out of the blue I was offered work as the general manager of a local business. This has not only turned out to be a huge stroke of luck but I find that I have enjoyed the most active, successful and fulfilling two years of my life. My life skills were the perfect background for this work. The fact that we had no debt on our home, no outstanding accounts and always paid cash for personal needs, saved the day.

No one will contest our success in those ventures that succeeded but the allegation might be made that I was imprudent in venturing into the other ventures. My reply is that I avoided the stock market meltdown using my skills. The collapse of the bank was due to fraud. The demise of the partner in the Chicago venture was the problem. My partner in the pub venture had established 60 restaurants in South Africa and I am sure would have succeeded. The Australian venture is problematic as I could be accused of backing the wrong enterprise. How could I have foreseen the embezzlement in the lawyer's office?

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