Exceptional Features: Sizwe Msimango – Faith in God, Discipline and Opportunistic make me who I am

Exceptional
/ɪkˈsɛpʃ(ə)n(ə)l,ɛkˈsɛpʃ(ə)n(ə)l/

adjective
adjective: exceptional

“unusually good; outstanding” and/or “unusual; not typical”

At Young and Exceptional, we believe success is relative and significantly based on the level one has achieved on their journey in life. This belief is rooted in an inherent understanding of the basic needs of humanity and admiration that is drawn from those who seek to also achieve one’s progress in life. We also believe in celebrating everyday victories, hence the vision of the Blog.

Sizwe, you were the team leader of Team IVY from IVY Academy in The CFO Junior Case Study Competition 2017 and took your team to the national semi-finals in a fantastic Top 6 finish against over 200 other teams from all over South Africa. That was an awesome achievement! Thanks for speaking to us today.

Q: How old are you?
A: I am a day away from turning 19. Haha…

Q: How did you get the leadership role of Team IVY in The CFO Junior Case Study Competition?
A: As the team, we decided to nominate one of us as the leader. I had my own preference in mind (Yaakov Brill), however the ultimate verdict was that I steer the ship. This was how I fortunately became the leader of Team Ivy.

Q: What other leadership roles have you held?
A: I have a very vivid memory of when I was in grade 2. My class teacher (Miss Hunter) used to hand out this special package every term: a trophy and a medal to a certain type of student who best fits her whatsoever criteria (I assume one had to be a well-behaved student in her eyes and ‘a teacher’s pet’ in students’ eyes). The special package automatically made one the class captain. Fortunately, at some point, Miss Hunter felt that I deserved the package. That I believe was my very first leadership role amongst others which followed in Primary. The most prestigious and valuable leadership role that I have held was in the year 2017 as executive of my High School, Ivy Academy.

Q: What are some of the challenges you faced as a leader and how did you overcome them?
A: Hpew! I have faced various challenges in numerous forms. In Primary, the one and most common challenge that comes to mind was having to report my friends whenever I was responsible to monitor my class. The solution to this was to report them and whenever the teacher asked me if she should punish them, I would suggest that she should not. Secondary to this I would simply excuse myself from the responsibility of monitoring my class at times. One other challenge I faced in Primary was conflict of age. My fellow students would question why they should listen and take instructions from their age mate and would be defiant at most. As a solution, I simply gave them a chance to speak and be heard whenever they wanted to and I considered every idea that they brought to the table and ensured that they feel part of the leadership. In High School, I faced a couple of challenges – in summary, I faced the very same challenges that I faced in Primary, the difference was in the maturity of the challenges. From getting the leadership panel together, getting them to find common ground, getting them to accept an idea to getting the whole school to cooperate with and abide by the school rules was the mix of the challenges. The solution once again was to listen to everyone and consider everything that each and everyone said. As for the leadership panel, I simply reminded us of why we were elected as the leaders of the school whenever challenges arose and surprisingly, this worked like a charm.

As for the challenges in the CFO competition -if you go back to watch Team Ivy’s progress, you will notice a certain transition. That transition was one of the toughest challenges I encountered in the competition. I just always kept my cool and, in many ways, transferred that same energy onto my team. However, keeping calm was not the only solution because we had competition from five other teams! So what I did, was that I worked beyond my best and I encouraged my team to do so too. Furthermore, I had private chats with each individual where I motivated and inspired them to work extra hard – that it would all pay off.

Q: What are the top 3 qualities you believe have made you who you are today?
A: God
The most important quality that I believe speaks to who I am today is my faith in and my relationship with God. God is unnegotia(bly), indisputably, unebate(bly) the reason I stand today. You know, there are so many feats that I have by His grace achieved and I just cannot tell, I cannot fathom how they came about. I cannot tell it but say it is God and divinity. I believe that this is where other qualities like patience, optimism and integrity come from having a spiritual foundation.

Discipline
My late History teacher, Mr. Karp always used to tell me that discipline will open any and every door for you. Tell you what, Mr. Karp was 100% and his words I will never forget! You know, one can have a Microsoft-like, Apple-like, Amazon-like, Tesla-like idea but without discipline there is no destination – there will be no growth whatsoever. Discipline is what keeps me grounded most of the times; the ability to control myself, accept correction, take time seriously, meet deadlines way before the deadline amongst others are the recipes of discipline. These truly speak to the makings of who I am today.

Opportunistic
(This sounds funny to me too) What I mean by this term is simply, taking and making the very best of all challenges and opportunities presented (sometimes not presented, you sometimes have to look for them). This is what I term as ‘opportunistic’ – making the best use of opportunities and challenges or the desire and hunger for challenges and opportunities. This desire is not for any other agenda but for the chance, the platform to grow, develop and improve. I have personally seen rapid and valuable growth from taking opportunities and engaging in challenges

Q: What’s the one thing you’d advise aspiring young people to do in order to achieve what you have at such a young age?
A: Well have I really achieved so much? I do not think so. I think that the best is yet to start and this I humbly say. As a matter of advice, the one thing for me that almost makes every other quality redundant, is faith in God.

My advice to the youth and other aspiring great minds is this: In whatever you do – give it your ultimate best and do it only if there is purpose, drive and if it will impact the world.

Q: Where will you be in the next 10 years?
A: I remember the last time I answered that question was back in High School in an L.O activity and this was my answer “I will be seated on my armchair in my office drafting and planning a surprise engagement for my future wife.” It is on paper so It’s bound to happen. (Haha). 10 years from now I hope to shake the world through ‘revitalize realize’ and ‘SOAR TUITIONS’. Revitalize Realize is a private company that has been under development and thought processing since 2012. It is now (2018) a formal company which I aim to grow into a corporate group in the coming years. SOAR TUITIONS is a tuitions services company that I co-found in. I see myself employing hundreds of thousands of workers and changing families’ lives. I see myself establishing the foundation that will set me on the right platform of contributing to the development and change of the world. The very platform that will allow me to make uber impact like and above what Bill Gates is doing.

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