ANYONE CAN START SOMETHING. YOUR CHANCE OF FAILURE IS ALMOST GUARANTEED. MOST PEOPLE WON’T LEARN. ALMOST NO ONE DOES IT AGAIN. Are you bored and baffled by spin doctors telling you how to succeed, how to make $1 000 000 or how to build the best business in just 30 days? Everyone claims to have the next best short cut or hack to help you along the path of entrepreneurship. It’s all bullshit. In his business autobiography, DO. FAIL. LEARN. REPEAT. Nicholas Haralambous discusses the truth about the last 15 years of his entrepreneurial journey.

When it comes to making great decisions, the way you think about things is usually a lot more influential than what you actually think. If you ever hired a person who ‘looks the part’, dated someone who ‘gives you a good feeling’, voted for the party that ‘speaks the most sense’ or got into an investment that ‘cannot be missed’, only to realise you made a horrible mistake, you might have wondered how you ever talked yourself into it. Yet, still bearing the bruises, you’re likely to make exactly the same decision the next time.

‘Intellectual property is everywhere around us and impacts our lives. For entrepreneurs and businesses alike, intellectual property is about value creation – it is the insurance you need for when you succeed.’ Footprints is a captivating story about intellectual property (IP). It speaks to its role in society, trade, industry, and economy and expounds on the actual meaning of IP. The book lays a solid foundation for innovators, entrepreneurs, businesses, and nations to realise their full potential through IP policy, legislation, use and practices.McLean Sibanda shares his personal story, together with stories and testimonies of fellow travellers, taking us through their journey into the field of IP. He meticulously recounts South Africa’s path in transforming the management of IP emanating from publicly financed research and development (R&D), development of critical human capital and other infrastructure to ensure effective IP commercialisation and technology transfer.

African leadership is in crisis. The legacy of colonialism has prevailed, while novel challenges such as the pandemic, substantial developmental setbacks, the scourge of corruption and troughs in growth have challenged the ‘Africa Rising’ narrative that once dominated. In a deeply fragmented and uncertain world, one might ask: ‘What is the source of inspiration for leadership?’ As leaders are faced with the seemingly insurmountable task of rebuilding Africa’s economies, structures and systems, there is an argument to be made that leadership approaches should be uniquely and distinctly African.

Today, building your personal brand is no longer an option – it’s a necessity. It used to be all about corporate branding or institutional branding. That’s all changed. Nowadays, life as we know it is all about YOUR name, your image, your digital footprint, and being the President of your personal brand. Fortunately, with today’s technology and social media, creating your brand is easier than ever before – and it’s crucial that you take control and manage the direction of your brand before someone else does. “What I do may be relatively simple, but how I got here, how I built my brand, has been a long story over many countries and cultures. It is a story of ambition and balance, of achievement and disappointment, of untimely disruption and spontaneous opportunity, of happiness and tears. How did I get here? Now there’s a question worth answering that just might inspire a few ‘wows’ and laughs along the way. To tell it chronologically, however, would be selfish of me. It would be my story, amusing to hear, but purely vicarious in its appeal. And let’s face it, the Jen Su brand has a wonderful story behind it, but it’s not the stuff of legends.

The world is rightly obsessed with the incredible power of a good story. Unfortunately too many of us take that to mean that it is our own story that’s important. It’s not. The magic happens not when we tell our customers the story of our past, but when we sell them a new story of their future. One in which we play a part. As a salesperson (and make no mistake, you are a salesperson) you have two jobs. Job No. 2 of the storyseller is to help your clients and customers slay their dragon. Job No. 1 of the storyseller is to help them see their dragon. You are in the dragon hunting business, but dragon hunting ain’t easy – there’s work to be done. In this short and highly practical book, renowned speaker Richard Mulholland shares with you how to use powerful stories to change minds, drive sales, and solve problems.