by Thembe Khumalo

It is a beautiful thing when a personal brand lives out its own manifesto. It fills me with awe and wonder to watch someone else unleash the full force of their fabulosity on the world. In case you’re wondering, yes fabulosity is a real word, made famous by fashion mogul Kimora Lee Simmons.

This week I spent many hours in Maputo with some of Africa’s brightest start-ups. They are using technology to create innovations that solve social problems. Beyond the brilliance of their ideas and the incredible energy they exude, what struck me most is the overwhelming audacity of many of their endeavours. These are people who could literally change our world.

Here is a girl in Mozambique who provides a healthy, environmentally friendly and socially conscious menstrual hygiene solution that helps girls stay in school. More than this, she leads the development of a micro franchising model to support female entrepreneurship. Only at the end of our conversation do I realize that she is not manufacturing her reusable pads in Mozambique, she is importing them from China. Does this attract a lot of criticism? Undoubtedly! Should she care what the critics say? Perhaps, but more importantly she should focus on the fact that she is solving a number of serious problems for the local community; doing it affordably; and doing much more than most of the people who pass idle criticism.

Here is a 45-year-old accountant who has ventured into the tech space. Together with his younger business partner, they are developing an app to help small businesses manage their accounts — in Portuguese. Is he uncomfortable competing with twenty-year-old digital natives? Yes of course, but he believes in his idea more than he cares about being an odd man out.

And then there is young Vusa, a delightful boy from Bulawayo who runs an outfit called My Runner. It’s a ticketing app that takes the agro out of booking and paying for your long-haul bus tickets. By collaborating with bus operators, he dares to envision an improved quality of experience for people travelling by bus — imagine a different Renkini, and a Roadport without the drama.

All of this got me thinking about the role and importance of audacity in entrepreneurship. It is the person who dares to think that he can do something which has not been done before who makes the greatest impact. I think of the Wright brothers daring to believe in controlled sustained flight for humans — it was so audacious that it was almost laughable. Of Kwame Nkrumah daring to resist imperialism and to believe in Pan-Africanism — an idea that remains almost inconceivable in its audacity. Of Emeline Pankhurst and the suffragette movement, daring to demand that women should get the vote — audacious enough to be considered scandalous.

Audacity is a willingness to be bold, to take risks, and to do so in the face of social pressure. Audacious people typically face widespread resistance of some description, but they act on their beliefs anyway. It is not only entrepreneurs who must carry a measure of audacity for success in their endeavours. It is all and any leaders who want to make an impact, and to do so with poise.

Can one train for audacity? I don’t know, but I tend to think not. While courage can be exercised, strengthened, and eventually become part of a leader’s skill set, audacity demands a little more than that. Audacity carries an element of charisma which i suspect you may have to be born with. You may be familiar with the words of Malcolm X, who said, “Nobody can give you freedom. Nobody can give you equality or justice or anything. If you’re a man, you take it.” That is audacity!

Thembe Khumalo is one of Zimbabwe’s leading voices when it comes to brand-building, business growth and personal development. A winner of multiple awards both at home and in the region, she is the founder and Managing Director of Brandbuilder, a high-performance brand strategy firm that helps entrepreneurial leaders and SMEs achieve visibility and growth through comprehensive brand strategy, creative execution and social media content strategies. Known for her clarity and courage, Thembe Khumalo’s leadership track record includes board positions in listed, unlisted and not-for-profit entities. With more than 20 years in the media and communication industry, she delivers a network of high-level relationships across many industries in several African countries. | thembekhumalo.com | www.brandtobuild.co | askus@brandtobuild.co