“Before every great action, was a great thought.” – Elton Plaatjes
VENTURES AFRICA – After lots of research around some great thought leaders, I found great action. So I coined the term and quote above. It makes sense when we think about it. For so long we have regurgitated leadership, sports, management and other quotes as inspiration to others, not considering that behind those thoughts, are also great actions.
If you ever wished to go back in time to converse with a great mind like Einstein, forget it, unless you are clairaudient. The alternative is we have plenty ‘in the living’ great minds who we may glean from.
The more we study the brain, how it works, how we make decisions, how we perceive things or what makes great leaders, the reality remains – there is always great action after a great thought.
How about we take a look at the first thoughts, we would consider insignificant (that were great as fundamental to their success), but led to action and led to success.
Warren Buffet
“Rule No.1: Never lose money. Rule No.2: Never forget rule No.1.”
Simply he loved to make and save money. Without saving money he we not be able to make any business decisions. As a junior Warren Buffet sold chewing gum, Coca-Cola, weekly magazines and newspapers going door to door, was selling golf balls, stamps and detailing cars. His second great thought that led to his second great action – for his first income tax return in 1944, at the age of 14 years, he took a $35 deduction for the use of his bicycle and watch on his paper route. One year later as a high school sophomore, Buffet and a friend spent $25 to purchase a used pinball machine, placing it in a local barber shop and within months, they owned several machines in different barber shops.
Andy Grove
“You have to pretend you’re 100 percent sure. You have to take action; you can’t hesitate or hedge your bets. Anything less will condemn your efforts to failure.”
Fondly known in the industry as “guy who drove the growth phase” of Silicon Valley. Born to András István Gróf, to a middle-class Jewish family in Budapest, Hungary at the age of four, Andy (as he is known today) contracted scarlet fever, which was nearly fatal and caused partial hearing loss. His first great thought was simply to leave Hungry. So, when he was 20, he left his home and family, escaping across the border into Austria and making his way to the United States in 1957. His next action was to complete his studies and becoming a pioneer in the semiconductor industry and then leading Intel Corporation as the CEO.
Cyril Ramaphosa
“No action is too small when it comes to changing the world… I’m inspired every time I meet an entrepreneur who is succeeding against all odds.”
Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa was born in Soweto (a place created by the Apartheid government in South Africa at the time) Johannesburg, on 17 November 1952. He is the second of the three children. Ramaphosa’s first great action was complete his matric in a ‘Buntu’ education system in South Africa. His second great action was to enrol for a Law degree that pulled him into the political affiliations while at university. His third great action was to follow the cause for freedom. As a former prisoner of the fight for freedom, Ramaphosa today is a distinguished businessman with interests across sectors, including financial services and food retail chain, McDonalds and now the Deputy-President of the Republic of South Africa.
Patrice Motsepe
“One has to set high standards… I can never be happy with mediocre performance.”
Working for his father in their grocery store that later became a restuarant, Patrice Motsepe was exposed to entrepreneurship from the get go. At this tender age, he was exposed to what is his main business passions today; business, mining (miners from Hammanskraal frequented the shop) and soccer. He took the decision to pursue a career in Law that led to him becoming the first black law partner at Bowman Gilfillan. This led him to found African Rainbow Minerals (ARM). Today is he is worth more than $2 billion in net value and listed on the JSE.
Tony Elumelu
“Nobody is going to develop Africa except us”
Elumelu’s point of action was to grab his chances at securing his two degrees in economics. He then actioned his abilities as a banker by securing the largest merger in the banking sector in Sub-Saharan Africa to acquire United Bank for Africa (UBA). His quote lends to Africans will and can be the only ones to action the great thoughts of transforming Africa into the potential world economic leaders it could be. Elumelu, along the way has earned numerous accolades from government and industry. Once again such leader’s actions are affirming Africa’s ability to lead.
Aliko Dangote
“If you don’t have ambition, you shouldn’t be alive”
From the time he was just a lad, Dangote was fascinated with business. He said, “I can remember when I was in primary school, I would go and buy cartons of sweets [sugar boxes] and I would start selling them just to make money. I was so interested in business, even at that time.” He decided to study business and completed his business studies at the Al-Azhar University in Cairo in Egypt returning to Nigeria to borrow money, ₦500,000 (Naira, NGN) from his uncle who then at 21 years old started his small business.
Strive Masiyiwa
“The opportunity is in the problem. The moment I see a problem, I immediately begin to think about the opportunities that can be created by trying to solve it.”
When Strive was just 7, his family fled Zimbabwe as Ian Smith’s government began to disintegrate, settling in Kitwe, a city in north central Zambia known for its copper mines. His mother was an entrepreneur with exposure in retail sales, small-scale farming, and transportation and his dad worked at first in one of the nearby mines but later joined the family business.
By 12 years of age his parents could afford to provide and send him for the coveted European education. They sent him to private school in Edinburgh, Scotland. Obtaining his degree in Electrical and Electronic (Cum Laude) at the University of Wales and working fleetingly in the computer industry in Cambridge, he returned to Zimbabwe in 1984 joining the Zimbabwe Posts and Telecommunications Corporation as a Senior Engineer. It was here that he rose through the ranks to become the principle engineer. He left the PTC in 1988 starting his own business, Retrofit Engineering which he established into a household name. as they say, ‘the rest is history’.
Behind every thought was an action. Not too long ago we did an article on not watching leaders and their lifestyles, but digging into their thoughts. The simplest decisions in the comparison light of business, illustrates the compounding effects of actions that follow thought.
