What would you do if you suddenly lost everything? If the business you’ve put your heart and soul into is gone overnight? This question became a reality for many entrepreneurs whose businesses were destroyed during the looting of July 2021. Alef Meulenberg travelled into the heart of townships like Alexandra in Johannesburg and the deep rural settings of KwaZulu-Natal to follow ten entrepreneurs who built businesses from nothing, nurtured and grew them over the years, only to lose everything during this time.

‘The only thing in life that you have 100 per cent control over are the thoughts in your head. When your thoughts are centred around the very essence of your purpose, and the meaning of your life, you unleash immeasurable power.’ In 2016 Richard Wright was confronted with a diagnosis of rare pituitary cancer – a disease about which little is known, other than that it is almost invariably terminal. In attempting to deal with this bleak knowledge Richard defined what mattered most in his life – his true purpose – which was ensuring that his two young daughters would not have to grow up without their dad.

In 2011, the sharing economy was dubbed by Time magazine as one of the ‘Ten ideas that will change the world’ and it has been widely hailed as a major growth sector, by sources ranging from Fortune magazine, to the World Economic Forum, to former President Obama. The sharing economy is a new economic model that focuses on access to assets or resources, instead of ownership. It has exploded in popularity over recent years and has disrupted a significant number of mature industries such as accommodation, automotive, and entertainment. The total value of the global sharing economy is estimated to grow from $14 billion in 2014 to $335 billion by 2025.

We are all on the journey. The hero’s journey is for everyone, and we are the hero in our own story. Being on the journey is the most human thing we can do – humanity will cease to grow or evolve if we follow the status quo. We live in a world of social media, hyper-connectedness, and convenience, but we are becoming less human the further down the path we go. Stepping into our own journey and finding the guidance and lessons to grow as a person is our destiny.

Leadership is not a destination. Leadership is an odyssey. A voyage of discovery, marked by changes of fortune and circumstances, informed by successes and failures. Defined by how you behaved and who you have become. The Upside of Being Myself and Other Leadership Stories is a unique opportunity to catch a breath, step back, and take a long, hard, reflective look at who you are as a leader and where your odyssey will take you. Powered by experience, informed by the reality of operating in today’s harsh realities, and leveraging the insights gained from many leadership victories and defeats, each essay creates an opportunity for reflection, introspection and personal growth.

The Villager is essential reading for brand owners wishing to conquer new markets. When Feyi Olubodun, CEO of Insight Publicis Nigeria, one of West Africa’s leading creative agencies, witnessed one too many cases of brands failing in the African marketplace he began to ask himself questions: Why did brands, both global and local, so often fail to connect with the African consumer? What was it about the African market that brand owners were not seeing? He began to reflect on his own marketing experiences and out of this emerged the framework for The Villager.