Letter to My Younger Self

Dare to be different, Dudu. Don’t be afraid to live this life your way. I am not saying that the journey will be easy. But every moment will certainly be worth it. The joys and the sorrows will make you the person you look forward to going to bed with every night and to waking up to every morning. You have never fitted any stereotype that goes with your sex, accent, age, race and culture. This has been a cause of some pain and unpleasantness since you were a young child. You will come across people that struggle to fit you neatly into a box. And as a result give you the impression that something is wrong with you. You may be tempted to try and fit in instead of asserting your individual character in the world. I encourage you not to ever be afraid to follow your gut of not seeing things as purely black or white because that gives you the commendable quality of compassion for human frailty. Continue to look beyond the surface of things and seeing life as more intricate. There will be people who will find comfort in you suspending your judgement and embracing who they are and thus being inspired to become the best persons they can be. And when you fall short of this ideal, do acknowledge when you are wrong or do something that is unacceptable. Always strive to follow your inner compass. Your name “Dudu” given by grandma Moloi in tribute to you being her comforter will hold true for many others as well. The essence of you is essentially to give comfort and bring joy to every human being you meet. 

Treat everyone you meet with dignity and respect and live by the motto of being ‘careful the toes you step on, may be attached to the feet you kiss tomorrow’. Don’t ever forget to laugh a lot. There may be times when that may be difficult for you when tragedy touches your life in losing your sibling and father. In love you may also encounter many challenges that will test your convictions about whether to live a ‘lie’ in order to be in a relationship motivated by the belief of a fairy tale and that men complete us, as women. Your path may be very different from that.

Build relationships of substance throughout your life because they will form significant support and be your ambassadors when you establish your company Busara Leadership Partners. Ensure that throughout your life you develop lasting and enriching connections that are as diverse as possible across geographies, race, culture, disciplines and across as many dimensions as you can. Diversity is definitely the key to the quality of your thinking, creativity and innovation. It will not be a walk in the park to create a strategic advisory firm in a world that favours global brands. Africans will not be renowned as inventors and creators of the solutions who can export knowledge, tools, methodologies and expertise and not just be recipients of the best practice from the developed world for a while yet. Persevere regardless. Above all, strive to realise your vision to live with passion, integrity and ecstasy so that every day can be the last with no regrets and no fear.