Between Thoughts -Intellectual Musings

On the occasion of his 60th birthday

Thebe Ikalafeng turned sixty this year, and celebrated with some of his many friends at The Signature Restaurant in Morningside, Sandton,  owned by the great Mr Desmond Mabuza. When his turn came to speak, reflecting on how he was carrying the milestone, he said:
“I am not perfect, but I am stitched with good intentions.“
It is a line that sits close to Augusten Burroughs’ own confession of being made entirely of flaws, stitched together with good intentions. Both versions carry the same instruction: our mistakes do not erase the purity of the heart behind them. Vulnerability is not the opposite of integrity. Sometimes it is the proof of it.

I love Thebe. Dr. Dr.  Chancellor Thebe Ikalafeng, Mrs Nunu Ntshingila-Njeke and Advocate Happy Ntshingila are my GOAT mountains, the ones I keep looking up to. They are my blueprint and my playbook on excellence, career pivots, business leadership, marketing, and brands in Africa. They set the standard. Thank you Thebe, Nunu and Happy.

A Citizen of the United States of Africa
Thebe holds two honorary doctorates. There is a joke that Africans suffer from PHD — Pull Him or Her Down syndrome. That we are not united. That we do not celebrate one another. Steve Biko named the deeper wound: the greatest weapon of the master is the mind of the oppressed. We are told we remain mentally and spiritually colonised.

Let me raise a calabash instead to a citizen of the United States of Africa, a man with two doctorates who does not suffer from PHD syndrome, who loves unity, and who celebrates others as a discipline, not a mood. He decolonised his mind many moons ago. He walks in freedom.

What I Continue to Learn from Thebe
1. Lift Self Up
You lift yourself up by knowing your worth and value. If you do not know your worth, you will always sell yourself cheap. Thebe carries that Nigerian, African-American, and South African confidence all at once, if confidence and self-worth were a person, it would be him.

2. Lift Others Up
Who you are is a gift from God. What you choose to become is your gift back  to God, to your bloodline, to your community. Thebe is communal, not communist. Filled with Ubuntu. He always remembers to reach ground level to lift others up with him. He has done that for me more times than I can count.

3. Lead Work
Get things done, and get them done well. Deliver work that lasts.
A great personal brand is built on winning plus strong values,  not on talking your way to the top, because talk might get you there but it will not keep you there. You will soon be found wanting. Thebe proves that competence and character are more sustainable, and carry more substance, than bluster.

Winning, in his playbook, is the sum of four Cs: Competent, Curious,  Consistent, and a Communicator.

And a warning worth carrying in your pocket: if the rate of change outside you exceeds the rate of change inside you, the end is near. Stay curious. Stay a student for life.

Thebe  is a Pan-Africanist and a citizen of the United States of Africa.
He is also a great storyteller, a communicator who makes visible what he has done,  because if you don’t tell your story, who will tell it for you? Yet he does not reveal everything. He understands that there are moments when the left hand should not know what the right hand is doing.

The Lesson I Am Still Learning
I am not naturally good at nurturing friendships and connections. Thebe is. Meaningful relationships keep us happy and healthy, and he checks in on people as a habit, not an obligation. He appeals to your interests specifically,  he wants to know how he can be useful to you and to the people around you. He will call or text simply to check in. It is a trait I still need to build in myself. I need to be better at nurturing relations. Nurture relationships before you need them.

Congratulations, Thebe, on all your achievements.
You are because We are. We are because You are.

You are  not a perfect canvas. Your edges are frayed and torn. But look closer at the seams,  every single stitch was made with the purest of intentions.

Love you, Thebe.
Not retirement. Just rewirement.
Continue being useful and helpful.
Continue with significance.
Immerse yourself in whatever months and years  are left.
The Maker is proud of Thebe,  he used everything the Maker gave him.

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Dr. Mzamo Masito

Between Thoughts – Intellectual Musings

Where the uncomfortable questions get a seat at the table.