A Very Special Day

Yesterday - Women’s Day 2022 - was a particularly meaningful day for me.

It marked the sixth year to the day that my mom passed away. My mother was a very distinctive woman in her own way. She beat a unique rhythm in an era where women were expected to behave in a certain manner.

My mom was creative, funny, irreverent and expressive. She had a wicked sense of humour. She treated everyone the same, whether you were a street vendor or a Danish dignitary.

She was also vulnerable and susceptible to mood swings - impacted by the swings and roundabouts of the world at large.

Last night was also special, because my son Mikael and I had the honour of cooking for a household filled with women. Last night, my boy served up tasty lasagne and mac n’ cheese. Okay, so more accurately, he switched the oven on with ready-made meals inside. I concocted a salad of roasted nuts, blue cheese, blueberries and salad leaves from our garden.

My mom would be smiling. Not as much by the food, but more by the sense of community that was prevalent.

We had the fire roaring. I opened special wine and we scoffed chocolate Lindt balls (my mom loved those friggen things). We ate and laughed and shared stories remembering all the special women in our lives.

At one point, I asked my kids how we can empower more women in our society.

Helena my 15 year old, who is hellz feisty, said, “Dad, we need to have women-only courses, run by women for women!”

I asked her why. She replied, “If there are men in the course, they’ll just try to dominate everything.”

Hmm, not a great perception. Houston, we still have a problem.

We spoke of the march on Pretoria in 1956. We spoke of women we admire, that have truly made an impact in the world.

It was fitting to share memories of women of the past. However, it is the women - and the men - of the future that will change our lives for the better.

Alan Murray, editor of Fortune.com, shared something in the Fortune daily mailer yesterday that I believe is relevant: “People are today’s value drivers.”

Murray cites in his book Tomorrow’s Capitalist that 50 years ago, more than 80% of the value reflected on the balance sheets of the 500 biggest companies was physical stuff—plant, equipment, oil in the ground, inventory on the shelves.

Today, more than 85% of the value on the balance sheets of Fortune 500 companies is “intangibles”—intellectual property, brand value, and a host of things more closely tied to human capital than to physical and financial capital.

Reflect on this for a second. It quickly becomes clear how important it is that we do our bit - and more - to empower the women entrepreneurs amongst us.

Doing our bit will take a lot more than sending a few newsletters in August each year around Women’s Day. I reported last week that Heavy Chef, in collaboration with Xero and Workshop17, is gifting 249 memberships to the 249 women entrepreneurs on Faithful-to-Nature. This is just the start.

As Hope Dithlakanyana pointed out, there’s a lot of money left on the table. Women are 50% of the ‘value drivers’ that Murray refers to, yet only 1 out of 5 businesses registered in South Africa are founded by women.

Many of the Heavy Chefs on our platform have echoed Hope’s sentiments. There is work to be done - and it’s important work.

When asked how we can approach this, best-selling author of The Shining Girls and Zoo City, Lauren Beukes pulls no punches.

In her Heavy Chef recipe on storytelling, Lauren reminded us that we need empathy and action.

“If you’ve not lived inside a women’s body, you don’t understand what it is like.”

“The fact is, the world is changing in incredibly exciting ways, to recognise people and give people opportunities who’ve never had them before.”

Next week Thursday, we’ll be having some of these conversations in real life, in Sandton, at Workshop17. Our topic is e-commerce essentials, but as we’ve seen in recent events, the conversations often sway between practical and heart-felt. I’ll be MCing again. Nalisa Pillay, the dynamic female founder of KOODOO, and Warrick Kernes, founder of Insaka, will be teaching us how to scale our companies. If you’ve not yet done so, book your seats here.

On that note, we also have to remember to have fun.

I’ve noticed many peers, colleagues and friends taking strain recently. Like my mother, they’re impacted by the world at large. At the moment life is bloody hard. Entrepreneurship is even harder. Getting together in person is one way of letting loose, hence why we host the real life gatherings.

Next week Thursday, there will be great people in a world-class venue. There will be complimentary wine, courtesy of the amazing Backsberg. CBD Water courtesy of Goodleaf. Juices, smoothies and shots, courtesy of Sir Fruit.

There will also be tasty treats courtesy of Grumpy Snacks, founded by the incredible Cait Black and her partner Tim.

Come say hi. I’ll be the tall goofy guy by the bar, serving drinks.

As my mom would say, “Don’t forget to have a sense of humour about everything! The world is all too serious on its own. We don’t need to make it even more serious.”

God bless you mom.

Peace -