Shark Tank SA has been one of my most anticipated shows of 2016 so I'm thrilled that it's starting this Sunday (2 October). It premieres on M-Net at 18h00 and will also be available on all DStv bouquets at the same time. M-Net opens up to all bouquets on Sundays between 18h00 and 19h00 so it falls into this window.
The series was launched at a shindig at uShaka in Durbs recently where I got to see clips from the first episode and swim with the Sharks.
My first impressions on what I saw: it looks hotttt. I was pleased to see how authentic it is to the American version because the style is a crucial component. The five Shark investors have the right edge that they need for a feeding frenzy in the tank and the entrepreneurs and their businesses are very entertaining.
In between boozing it up at uShaka, I caught up with the Sharks to ask a question I always wonder about people who've made millions. What is the
one,
most important, secret to their success? They're each mega wealthy in their own right so if you put their secrets together you can end up five times as rich as them!
Here's what they had to say (with links to their profiles afterwards):
Vinny Lingham
Tech entrepreneur who lives in Silicon Valley. He was too busy wheeling and dealing in the Valley to be at the launch so he Skyped instead.
"The biggest secret to my success is that I have a super human amount of perseverance coupled with a very high learning curve. Failing and learning is fine. Giving up is not. Learn to take the knocks as lessons, never stop working damn hard, and you’ll triumph."
Vinny's profile
Marnus Broodryk
CEO of the accounting firm The Beancounter who made his first million by the age of 24. He's 31.
"It's been hard work throughout. I've always said that I would out-work anyone. I might not have the resources, I might not have the talent, I might not have whatever they've got but I'll always out-work anyone else so it's been real hard work and more hard work. Putting in long hours but also working smart.
Starting my business back at the age of 22, I dreamt, slept, ate my business - everything was about my business and still, today, after a lot of success, we still dream, eat and sleep our business.
I think a lot people want to go out there but you're not going to make a big business by just working eight hours a day. You need to put in the time. There's so much happening out in the world and your competitors, they're going to work 12 hours and you can't expect to beat them working six hours."
Marnus' profile
Dawn Nathan-Jones
Former CEO of Europcar
"I would say my intuition and my instinct and trusting my gut and going with how I feel. Your gut tells you how you feel. I believe in a woman's intuition. Intuition is about a number of things: your feeling about people, whether or not you trust people.
I think in any business venture, it's about the people first and foremost so feeling that you can trust in that person or invest in that person or that the person is a leader. I've always trusted my instinct and I'd say 99% of the time it's been right.
I think there's a difference between trusting your instinct and being impulsive. Instinctively saying, "ah, let's just go for it!" - one needs to be cautious so you don't just shoot from the hip - that's not what I'm talking about but just trusting your gut. Your gut really is about what goes on in the filing cabinet of your mind of stuff that you've stored up over the years.
I believe in the power of mind, body and soul - I'm quite a spiritual person. I'm quite fortunate in that I can switch off. I can come home from work after a very stressful day and I can switch off and be a mom and then I can switch back into the business role. I think I've managed to achieve this through meditation and being in control of my mind and having some sort of spiritual connection."
Dawn's profile
Romeo Kumalo
Former Executive Commercial Director of Vodacom SA and current CEO of investment company Washirika (Pty) Limited. (Also: Bassie's hubby)
"I think the most important thing was just never taking no for an answer. For me, besides hard work and determination and passion and everything else, never take no for an answer. Never. Ever.
That for me, even as an 18/19-year-old - I used to call CEOs of company's at 19 and I used to go through to the PA and find myself sitting in front of the CEOs at 20. If I were to think of everything else I've done, even today, it applies. I'm involved in a mega project now, a multi billion rand project and people think I'm crazy but I'm not taking no for answer."
Romeo's profile
Gil Oved
Advertising entrepreneur and venture capitalist who sold his business The Creative Counsel for an eight-figure digit in 2015.
"I've got this mantra that I live by, I call it "passion-filled-optimism". The logic behind it is as follows: any good entrepreneur needs a mix of passion-filled-optimism. Why?
Optimism because I think that entrepreneurs make for very bad realists. My dad is a realist, he's an engineer by profession, and whenever I came up with my crazy ideas, he'd always give me a million and one reasons why it wouldn't work and he was always right.
Realistically The Creative Council should never have worked so entrepreneurs are optimists - they see things brighter and more colourful than they really are and then, when they hit that trough, they find ways around it because they're already thiking about the next thing so I think optimism is a very good quality.
And passion is the other side of it. I think a lot of things are forgiven if you have passion. There are lots of work-arounds with passion. Clients are attracted to you, staff want to work with you, suppliers trust you if you show passion. Even if you lack other skills and qualities, very often passion makes up for it so I call it passion-fuelled-optimism."
Gil's profile
For more about the series, see:
TVSA's Shark Tank SA Show Page