I’ve often wondered whether anyone else considered why I would be involved with a charity such as The Rockstar Foundation, as perhaps the business / entrepreneur persona versus the charitable / giving persona weren’t as obviously aligned. So I figured that I’d share a few reasons for my (personal) involvement in the Foundation…

1. I have an absolute passion for kids and helping out kids that are talented, are willing to work extremely hard & as a result have the ability to become the leaders & game-changers of tomorrow.
2. Every time I get to see Mariana & Okuhle (this doesn’t happen often), my faith & investment in the Foundation gets confirmed. I love these two, amazing girls to bits and since joining the Foundation they’ve done incredible work.
3. South Africa is an amazing place, but the country needs every little bit of help it can get to eradicate the not-so-great things. I believe that education is a great way of enabling a better future for all South Africans, which is why we are targeting such talented girls to be history makers going forward.
4. I’ve been incredibly blessed as an entrepreneur & as an individual. I have so many great things going for me in my life (on all levels) and the Foundation is a way of giving back and saying thanks for all the privileges that I have been allowed thus far.
5. I also share the exact same passion, ambition & drive for the Foundation as I do with my business ventures. For me, the Foundation also represents a challenge & a massive learning curve; both which I love embracing as I continue to evolve & develop as an individual & entrepreneur.

After reading this article about Airbnb’s success, there was one bit from the article that really got me thinking:

“…a company that creates immensely more value than it extracts from customers…”

Reading & re-reading that phrase really got me thinking about how other business models work in terms of the margin between value created & value extracted.

I’ve not read Tony Hsieh’s Delivery Happiness yet either, but I kinda suspect that it’s gonna come down to the same principle: create & offer more value than you are necessarily being paid.

This doesn’t mean you should cut profit margins or stop earning a profit all-together, but you should consider adding non-financial value to whatever it is you are offering clients. So how can you do that in your business?

I wanted to elaborate on my thoughts about creating a business model by firstly solving a problem for yourself. Whilst this is an incredible way of building a business, there’s a few thoughts that I’d like to share on the matter:

• If you are solving a problem, it is likely that someone else may have that problem as well (and subsequently they may opt for your solution). If your problem is however very unique to yourself, the likelihood of widespread adoption of your solution becomes much less likely.
• The bigger and more generic your problem; the more potential profit & significance your business may have.
• The problem you’re solving may be more unique / niche / specific, but your solution needs to be simpler and more generic.
• Your idea has a greater chance of success if you are being sincere in solving the problem i.e. solve the problem first & foremost and then figure out whether it’s possible to commoditize & monetize that solution.

I’ve been watching the video of my recent presentation at NetProphet, in an attempt of improving my speaking skills going forward. So whilst there’s quite a few things that I will be looking to tweak going forward, I wanted to confirm one thing from the talk: the Adii on that video, is 100% me.

The way I think, talk & interact in that presentation is the same idea you’re gonna get when you meet me in person. I do this to make my presentations as conversational as possible.

This approach most definitely isn’t perfect, but it’s me.

In the past couple of weeks, I’ve spoken at some local & international conferences and have EECI2010 in San Francisco coming up in a few days time.

Now I don’t consider myself to be a professional speaker and as a result I don’t need to get paid to speak at amazing events; instead I’m just honoured that there’s an audience willing to listen to what I have to say. But everyone has water & lights to pay for and as a result I do need my expenses covered to enable me to speak at these conferences.

So I’ve decided to take a bit of a hard line on asking for my costs to be covered when I’m asked to speak at a conference. I don’t do this to be a little diva, but speaking at a conference shouldn’t cost me anything other than the “working time” that I sacrifice to be there.

What do you think? Does this make me a little bitch?