Since my school days (last century), I have always told it like it is. When I was a teenager, this often did not turn out well for me. As a young professional, some (definitely not all) more senior members of my profession would chastise me for speaking out of turn or would simply disregard what I had to say.
And yes, there were times where I censored what I wanted to say in favour of being politically correct, or to keep the peace, or because what I wanted to say was simply not said. Even now, those times make me itch, and I sometimes catch myself replaying those moments in my head with a new script, where I said what I should have said and made a grand exit, like they do in the movies.
But as I got older (and some would say, wiser), my ability to call a spade, a spade is becoming unapologetically my default position. I do not offer unsolicited opinions or advice, and I do not set out to hurt people, or their feelings, but I will not pander to them either. If you want my opinion, you should be brave enough to hear it. You don’t have to like it, but at least HEAR it.
A few weeks ago I was catching up with an old friend, Kath Pietersen (https://www.instagram.com/kath.pietersen), and she asked me to pick one word that would best describe me. I picked REAL. I meant it in the context of “what you see is what you get”, but with Kath being an Entrepreneur Coach, she started scribbling on a much-used, many-times-folded, piece of paper and came up with an Acrostic poem: Real Entrepreneurs Authentically Lead.
I had one of those A-HA moments.
At THAT moment, I realised something that I think is going to change my path. You see, I practice law, so I have always seen myself as a lawyer. I acknowledge that I have been running my own practice for almost 20 years, and that makes me a business owner. I employ people, so that makes me an employer. But I have never seen myself as an entrepreneur.
To me, entrepreneurs were like unicorns – mythological creatures who poop glitter and sprinkle rainbow dust wherever they go. They just DID stuff, and THINGS happened – products were invented, services perfected, and money made.
NOTHING could be further from the truth.
REAL Entrepreneurs are the get-your-hands-dirty, stride-knee-deep-into-the-sewage, make-miracles-happen-against-all-odds, don’t-take-no-for-an-answer people that keeps our economy ticking.
We are not bogged down by politics, policies, forms-in-triplicate, ask-the-higher-ups approaches to doing what we do. We do things that count, when they count, and take accountability for every decision we make.
We take miniscule budgets and use very cent three times over to achieve those BIG HAIRY AUDACIOUS GOALS. Even when getting payment from a client means the difference between getting a salary or not, and that client (inevitably an entrepreneur himself) asks for more time, we say “yes” and make plan, because we’ve been there, and will inevitably be there again.
We do not steal from our employees, our clients, our suppliers, our bankers. We do not ask for bribes or take kickbacks.
We do not sleep. We work through crumbling infrastructure, failing government departments, and yes, even pandemics.
We worry constantly.
One of my favourite movies is “The American President” starring Michael Douglas and Annette Benning. Right at the end of the movie, in one of those grand speeches I often wished I had given, Douglas, in the role of President Andrew Shepherd, says: “America is advanced citizenship. You’ve gotta want it bad, ‘cause its gonna put up a fight”
ENTREPRENEURSHIP is advanced citizenship. REAL entrepreneurs HAVE to want it bad, because it absolutely puts up a fight.
With apologies to Simon Sinek, whom I follow and adore, it isn’t enough to ask “What is your WHY”. Make no mistake, knowing why you are doing what you are doing is vital, but so is knowing HOW and with WHAT, and for WHOM and by WHOM and WHEN and WHERE.
Answering those questions, over and over again, every day, is what makes an entrepreneur. Answering those questions honestly, unapologetically and authentically is what makes a REAL entrepreneur.
We’ve all heard it: “it’s lonely at the top”. REAL Entrepreneurs don’t know what the “top” feels like because they’re too busy getting their hands dirty in the day-to-day grind of their businesses. But I can attest that entrepreneurship is lonely – it’s isolating in a way that only other entrepreneurs can understand.
But a word of caution: we are so focused on getting the work done, keeping clients happy and building our businesses that we forget about the unglamourous, unseen and underestimated administration that has to happen behind the scenes to keep us legally compliant and structurally viable. It’s the stuff no-one makes movies about: compliance, business structures, contracts, employee policies, POPI – the list seems to get longer every day.
These are the potholes of business: the ones we don’t see until its’ too late. Take it from someone who split a tyre driving into one of those potholes just a few weeks ago – it’s not just about the tyre and the inconvenience, and the cost, and the rage one feels when you stop to think about why the pothole is there in the first place. Driving into a pothole, at its core, simply stops forward momentum.
We lawyers experienced one such pothole at the end of February when we were told in no uncertain terms that we had to file our Risk Management and Compliance Policy by 12 March 2025 in compliance with the latest directive from the Financial Intelligence Centre, or risk massive fines for non-compliance. ALL work stopped and lawyers across the land were furiously trying to get to grips with what this policy was all about. Although I have no evidence to support the following statement, I will bet an exceptional bottle of wine that the “big” firms were not the ones scrambling. No, it was the ”little guys” – the ones who do not have compliance departments at their fingertips, the ones who have been so focused on servicing their clients (and let’s be honest, survival) that they have let their own compliance slip. You know… the entrepreneurs.
Make the time to ensure the foundations of your business are as strong as they can be. Ensure your shareholders’ agreements and MOIs don’t contradict each other. Make sure your terms and conditions comply with the Consumer Protection Act (and is there a reservation of ownership clause? And a suretyship clause?). Are your beneficial ownership disclosures filed? Are you administering your trusts correctly? Have you updated your will? Have you even got a will?
You HAVE to mitigate the risks these potholes represent to your business. If you do, there is no doubt that you CAN sprinkle rainbow dust wherever you go with abandon and absolute peace of mind.
Natalie Lubbe
Director
082 920 9628
natalie@NLAteam.com
