Local Consequence

This is one of those perspectives that I suspect I can exclusively have in hindsight and this season of my life.

At any other point in my journey, I prioritised other things to the extent that I neglected even considering this perspective. Therein probably lies some of the sentiment I attach to this today because I wish I had clearer thoughts about this sooner.

In this moment, I'm energised, inspired and ready to ambitiously pursue building something in South Africa, for South Africa. I want to contribute to something that benefits a greater community/society beyond the direct stakeholders or shareholders of the project.

When I look back though, WooCommerce could've been that in many ways especially considering how the platform has grown since Automattic's acquisition.

I wonder what would've happened had WooCommerce stayed independent and importantly stayed a South African corporation.

Instead of jumping on the remote working and distributed work trends so quickly, I wonder what impact we could've had if we prioritised training and hiring South Africans.

I wonder what could've happened had we helped independent retailers and small businesses in South Africa with free software and services so that they could jump into ecommerce sooner. Would we have seen some local DTC brands use that momentum to grow into multinational empires?

So many positive second-order effects could've occurred had we decided on a more South Africa-first mission.

There are many ifs, buts and maybes in all of this, and the level of my speculation here makes this a personal thought experiment only.

I don't have any regrets, and as I think about building in South Africa, for South Africa in the future, revisiting some personal experiences helps crystallise what could be possible if specific perspectives get enough oxygen at the very start of the journey.