Shuttleworth Foundation from Blink Tower on Vimeo.

Sent from my iPod

Sent from my iPod

Tomorrow I am going to Orange Farm township in Soweto to deliver & install some equipment at an Internet Cafe! Group of amazing South African geeks/entrepreneurs have been contributing computers (Dial-a-Nerd), wireless backhaul (Internet Solutions), Anti-Virus (ESET Southern Africa) and asked me if Skyrove could provide a billing system (Currently the owner, Lennox, has to write down the times people start & stop using the computers and then charge them afterwards) 

I was privileged to have breakfast with Raymond Ackerman and a small
group of Cape Town entrepreneurs last weekend.

Here are some of the things he shared:

- Remain positive!

- 90% guts, 10% capital

- Follow your personal feelings (he was fired from Greatermans
in part because they said he was "too emotional")

- Don’t squash ideas

- See people (always)

- Do everything – get involved/show interest in everything

- Always look for opportunities

- ”LISTEN” – and shake hands with everyone (I see RA is very
good at remembering names)

- Keep an open mind

- Foundation = 4 legs of the table: 1) Good admin , 2) great
service, 3) Sales/promo/social responsibility (‘give back’), 4) People
(promote from within, pay well, recognize etc)

- Main aim of a business is not to make money but to make the
‘customer sovereign’

- Pick n Pay expects a big fight with Walmart and have a plan
mapped out for the coming years

- Prediction – tough times for 3 or 4 months then a good 2012

- Be positive (intelligently) and read (like Mandela did for 27
years) - spoke about Viktor Frankl’s stores on how Holocaust survivors
had almst irrational hope

- Constitution must be defended – ‘free enterprise is
essential’ + ‘government can’t run business’

- ‘Head in the sky with feet on the ground’

- Always innovate

- Be positive (repeat)

Sent from my iPod