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Journal

A taste for Life

by Sheila Afari December 8, 2019

I attended the All Africa Business Leaders Awards (AABLA) this past Thursday and it was truly an inspiring evening.

It’s been a busy week and I had a lot of work to do. Taking Thursday night off was not part of the plan, but I felt I needed to try attend more of the Forbes/CNBC events before they take me off their mailing list. I’ve been invited to the AABLAs for years but never attended.

I tried to tell myself maybe it would be good for networking, but these dinner situations never really are, unless you’re prepared to work the room… which I was not. So, I sat diligently at my table and made small talk with the people around me and just took the night in.

I was completely blown away. There are people doing phenomenal things on the continent. Each category was shortlisted to 3 finalists and they were all extremely worthy contenders, very tough competition.

I enjoyed seeing the founder of King Price as a finalist. He was one of the judges in my panel the Accenture Rising Star Awards, as well as seeing the co-founders of We Buy Cars who are brothers. I’ve sold a car through them and had the best experience. It was great to learn about their business, from how they started to what they’ve built today.

It was great seeing Phuti Mahanyele-Dabengwa walk away a winner as Business Woman of the Year – the only black female CEO of a JSE listed company. Representation matters and she’s had a phenomenal, inspiring business journey over the years.

As the programme seemed to come to an end and I thought I’m so glad I came, I can go home now… they announced the Lifetime Achievement recipient. Up came a man that looked like a Rockstar with his wavy long white hair, Mr Allen Ambor, the founder of Spur Corporation, and he completely stole the night! His electrifying energy which you could tell he definitely had in his 20s when he started the business, was something to aspire to. I literally thought to myself, I would love to still have that type of energy and passion about life and business in my 70s.

I managed to get a pic with him, and I would definitely like to attend one of his business talks in future. The Spur slogan is “A taste for life” and he is the absolute personification of it.

December 8, 2019 0 comment

Journal

Business evolution

by Sheila Afari October 16, 2019

I’m thrilled about the evolution of my business and the direction it’s taking. The business wasn’t really planned when I started it, but once I started, I had a clear vision as to where I would like to take it.

It’s been 7 long years with ups and downs and new learnings but I’m definitely on the right trajectory to growing it and moulding it to the vision I set out 7 years ago.

I’m in exam period at the moment and I don’t know why this always happens to me when I’m meant to be studying but I’ve just had a huge brain wave about some processes that I need to put in place to achieve certain things with a new division of my business. I’m tempted to spend the rest of the night mapping this out, but I’ll be disciplined and stay focused and deal with the tasks at hand.

Just thought I’d put 10 minutes aside to write this post to get it out of my system…

I wonder if “work” excites this many people… thinking out loud…

October 16, 2019 0 comment

Journal

Protecting My Mental Health

by Sheila Afari October 10, 2019

A few years ago I used to have a gratitude journal. Every night before I went to bed, I would jot down the things that I’m grateful for.

Today, I’ve felt the need to restart such a journal and intentionally focus my mind daily on the positives. Today being World Mental Health Day is fitting.

Over the past year, the importance of my mental health has really been a focal point for me. Towards the end of last year, I felt really burnt out and there was a lot that I was dealing with. I consciously made the decision to “take things easy” this year by not taking on too much work. I’ve declined 95% of new PR requests this year. I definitely feel like I’ve had a bit more “breathing space”, but I take what I do seriously (sometimes too seriously) and give 110% of myself, so mentally I do feel stretched in many ways.

Being in the service industry where you’re constantly dealing with people requires quite a lot of emotional management. Often meaning that I don’t really deal emotionally with certain things because I can’t afford to. I need to wake up, get out of bed and make things happen because I have responsibilities. There are many days that I wish I could just lie in bed all day and do nothing… but I also know that’s not healthy.

A gratitude dairy isn’t necessarily a “pick me up” key to my emotional health. I just feel that it will be beneficial to always have the good things going on in my life top of mind despite the challenges and frustrations that come with running a business.

I’ve recently started seeing a psychologist again. I’ve booked a recurring weekly appointment. It is a bit weird to go and not really have anything “purposeful” to discuss, but it’s something I’ve decided I need as part of protecting my mental health. I carry a lot myself – mentally, emotionally, financially… and it does take a toll. One of the reasons I decided to take things easy this year and not be completely burnt out is because without me there is no Sheila Afari Group. I’m an asset and I need to protect this asset at all costs.

October 10, 2019 0 comment

Journal

Think Week

by Sheila Afari September 27, 2019

Whilst watching the Bill Gates Netflix docuseries, I learnt that he takes “Think Weeks”.

That’s the best concept I’ve come across this week.

Taking a week off, to be alone, just to think… read and align your thoughts… brilliant!

We all know we need this but how many of us actually schedule time off to do this?

I think this is something that I need to implement in my life.

The past few weeks have been emotionally draining for me… spurred on by all the commotion that was happening in the country at the beginning of the month.

My mind was in overdrive and I didn’t want to fully engage with what was going on that it was almost stifling… I wasn’t giving myself a chance to really think through things, I wasn’t writing… I wasn’t in the best space (I was also recovering from having my wisdom teeth taken out and I was sick)… It took a toll on me.

I can definitely see how scheduling time aside to allow myself time to think can be beneficial. Sometimes I won’t think through important things or new work ideas because I need to focus on other pressing things and don’t want to indulge other thoughts that might side-track me.

I think I need to implement regular “think weekends” perhaps quarterly. I’m going into exam period now in October so this November would be a good time to start. A yearly “think week” is a must. I’d like to start my first one this December or in January. It would be good to either end or start the year having taken time out to myself to think about the year that was and more importantly the year that’s coming and what I would like to achieve, learn, implement…

September 27, 2019 0 comment

Journal

Inside Bill’s Brain: Decoding Bill Gates

by Sheila Afari September 23, 2019

I’ve just watched the Netflix 3-part docuseries on Bill Gates and I’m truly inspired.

There were so many aspects highlighted in the docuseries that moved me.

A young genius with enough self-belief was able to start up and build a multi-billion Dollar empire. It took immense passion, tremendous hard work and a lot of sacrifice – often the elements that go unnoticed when evaluating the success of a business.

Watching the docuseries also just reminded me that we all have the same 24 hours in a day; and it’s always the busiest people that make the best use of these 24 hours – time is a precious and valuable commodity.

The number of books that Bill reads… the vast knowledge that he consumes and his genuine interest to keep learning is truly remarkable.

His desire to keep innovating and pushing the boundaries as to how technology can be used to solve the world’s problems is commendable.

It was good to have insight into the family dynamics of his upbringing and his relationship with his wife Melinda, and the challenges that came with making their marriage work.

Bill’s (and Melinda’s) philanthropic works are mind blowing. What really got me is their desire to eradicate polio. The achievements they have made to date are phenomenal. It however brought about a sense of embarrassment as well – That the plight to fight polio on the African continent is being done by an American couple. When will Africans take ownership of solving our own problems and put money behind the solutions to make our continent a better place?

I then had to pose the question to myself… What am I doing, what can I do, what will I do to bring improvement on the African continent?

September 23, 2019 0 comment

Journal

Reflections

by Sheila Afari July 29, 2019

On Thursday I’ll be recognised as a Top 5 finalist at the Accenture Rising Star Awards. The process to getting here was quite a rigorous one and required a lot of reflection into my business operations over the past 7 years, my leadership/management style and where I’m taking the business to.

It had been quite a while since I really unpacked my journey from an assessment point of view and I’m still in awe that through my openness and honesty of my business challenges and where I want to take the business, a panel of experts and leaders consider me a “Rising Star”.

During my interview with the judges, there were some good take home points that they raised that I’m definitely going to implement in my business and will probably share in some future journal post. What hit home the most was a comment that “I’m playing it too safe and need to take more risks”.

Sheila, playing it safe?

It made me feel like I’ve lost my spark and vision. The young 22-year-old that left a lecture to go register a business in excitement… is this where I’ve ended up?

But after letting that sink in a bit, I decided to take the remark as a compliment. That someone recognised that there’s more in me to give and I must go for it.

This year I have purposely “held back”. a) I was burnt out at the end of 2018 and b) I was financially recovering from 2 years of bad business decisions/executions. I had a mandate at the beginning of the year to achieve certain things and didn’t want to come with all my exciting ideas and plans to put a spanner in the works of what needed to be achieved. This month I achieved the final and biggest goal on the list for the year, and I’ve been reflecting on the “what’s next”.

Coming out of the past two years felt like I was in an abusive relationship that I needed to recover from and now that I’m in a good space and should give another “relationship” a chance, I still recall the pain of the last one and I’m not quite ready to jump into a new one as yet.

The above analogy is my new interpretation on “I’m playing it too safe and need to take more risks”. I feel like I need to upscale my business again and expand but the memory of how that dismally failed the previous time is holding me back from embarking on that journey again. I do feel like I’m playing it safe and not taking the risk.

The itch has been there to make the jump again and I have the benefit of hindsight this time.

With all the reflection I’ve been doing lately, I feel like I’m ready to go back to the drawing board to see what the next 5 years look like and approach it with the same energy and excitement that I had when starting my first business.

I look forward to taking risks again (calculated risks) and making more of an impact not only as an entrepreneur but in the entertainment and media space.

July 29, 2019 1 comment