Close to 200 students from the Durban University of Technology, including student entrepreneurs from the innobiz DUT Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, had the front row seat to an inspirational entrepreneurship and motivational session delivered by internationally renowned leadership consultant, motivational speaker, author and entrepreneur Dr. David Molapo.  

The session led by Dr. Molapo, founder of the I Can Leadership Institute Africa and CEO of I CAN 4IR, also saw his son Mr. Mosa Molapo recount his entrepreneurial journey while Mr. Sello Mbuli also spoke of his journey from Soweto, Johannesburg, to a systems engineer at Microsoft despite not having a university qualification.  

Student entrepreneurs from the innobiz DUT Centre, University’s entrepreneurship vehicle under the office of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research, Innovation, and Engagement came out in their numbers in anticipation of the eye-opening session.  

Before they were regaled by Dr. Molapo’s unique brand of inspiration and entrepreneurial education, Mr. Mbuli kicked off the DUT Entrepreneurship Engagement session with a moving talk on beating the odds even when they are stacked against you.  

Mr. Mbuli, Managing Director and founder of Global Computing and Telecoms, a Microsoft solutions partner, told the story of how he could not afford to go to university and instead would have his friends lend him their textbooks which he would read for understanding instead of being under pressure preparing for examinations.  

“Many of you have got books, you study them in preparation for the exams but you’re not gaining the knowledge that you want from the book. Basically, you’re cramming. Whenever I started a chapter I would meditate on that chapter until I got it,” Mr. Mbuli shared.  

“God gave me the wisdom to say ‘Sello, this is not the stream that I’m choosing for you, you’ll never go to university or technikon but go and ask people for their books and study them’. Just because I do not have a diploma, degree or PhD it does not necessarily mean I don’t have knowledge. I love reading, as the Bible says ‘My people suffer because of a lack of knowledge’,” Mr. Mbuli explained.  

He told the students that they all had the potential to be great, but they had to understand that the one of the secrets for success was investing in knowledge by reading books because lacking a desire to read would see them fall short.  

Mr. Mbuli, whose company has in the region of 170 employees, said that at the height of his business’s success when he had won several prestigious awards, including the Microsoft Managing Director’s Partner of the Year in 2020 and the Dell Technologies Excellence in Social Impact Award in 2021, he had several offers to sell his company but opted against selling his lifelong dream.  

“We won this award because we were doing the right things, God was with us. Immediately after winning this award another billionaire called me saying ‘Sello can I buy your company?’ and I refused. 

“I said no you can’t buy my dream, it’s impossible, yes I can see the amount of money you’re giving me but you can’t buy a dream. It’s like I would be selling my dream and God would punish me because I am not here for money, money is the end result. When you do the right thighs money will come,” Mr. Mbuli said, to the audience’s approval.  

Additionally, Mr. Mbuli emphasized to the students that they should be grateful for having the opportunity to study at DUT as there were millions of other youngsters in the country yearning for the opportunity to be at an institution of higher learning, but due to circumstances beyond their control they were unable to do so.  

In his presentation, Dr. Molapo had the bevy of students eating out of the palm of his hand with his engaging style of motivational speaking, centered around the importance of adopting and inculcating an entrepreneurial mindset in order to wrestle out of the clutches of unemployment and poverty.  

He spoke of the significance of putting in the hard yards including at least 10 000 hours of constant practice, and training in order to master a skill.  

“The Bible says money answers all things, I promise you young people once you begin to have money, you begin to understand the power of money because money has power. It can help you make a difference, first of all in your own life, in your home where you can help others.  

“I know what I am talking about, because when you are broke you can’t even pay attention. I want you to be angry at this thing of poverty in our minds and poverty in our hands, unfortunately most parents have killed a lot of students.  

“Some of you, with due respect, are not supposed to be at university, you should already be an entrepreneur making money. Innobiz is already here to say start thinking about creating entrepreneurial jobs for yourself, some of you are already doing that, we are going to take you to the next level,” Dr. Molapo said.  

He shared several motivational snippets on how on their entrepreneurial journey they would have several assignments that they needed to fulfill and that some of these assignments would be misunderstood by others, but they should not let this faze them and lead to them giving up on their dreams.  

“It’s your assignment, and when other people say it cannot be done it’s okay, don’t be hard on them because this thing is within you. Don’t kill that dream that is inside of you,” Dr. Molapo shared.  

He also encouraged the students, saying that their entrepreneurial assignments would attract the right people through destiny connectors whereby just one connection can transform an entrepreneur’s life.   

“People see greatness in you, more than you see in yourself. There are certain people who believe in you more than you believe in yourself. There are those who look at you not just as a DUT student, but they see greatness in you. Your assignment will attract destiny connectors. 

“Today, through innobiz, and don’t take it for granted, some of you God is working on you and saying you are not crazy, that idea is a multimillion-dollar idea, if others don’t understand it then it’s okay because rejection sometimes will bring direction,” Dr. Molapo said, encouraging the students.  

As his motivational session went on, Dr. Molapo also alerted the students that the road to success in their entrepreneurial journey would be under construction, littered with ups and downs, detours, bends but they should be mindful that the “bend on the road does not mean the end of the road”.   

“Failure is not final, failure is just a decision but today I pray that even when you stumble and you fall in your assignment don’t fall on your face fall on your because when you fall on your back you can look up, and when you can look up you can get up,” Dr. Molapo said.  

Vitally, he also emphasised the importance of generosity for entrepreneurship, saying that their entrepreneurial assignments should unlock their generosity.  

“When you are making money through entrepreneurship, when you begin to have money in your bank account it should begin to make you generous so that you can help other people. The problem with the youth is that when you have got money you want to spend it in one shot to impress people who don’t even like you,” Dr. Molapo said.  

Mr. Mosa Molapo, the CEO of Earth Manna, an agricultural company he says he named after the concept of Manna in the Bible and where he employs permaculture-centered solutions to address social and environmental problems.  

“We were given the earth to sustain us, we were everything that we already need and what we’re missing is the knowledge, the mindset, the know-how. At Earth Manna we exist at the intersection of agriculture, society and the environment.  

“These are the three areas that I service, all at the same time, when I service one I service the other two, I can’t be working for myself and it benefits myself. If I am not benefitting the communities that I am working in, what am I really doing? 

“I just can’t live, die, and leave all that money there, they must feel that I was there, when I am not there they must be grateful for what I was able to teach, that is my responsibility as someone who has got the knowledge, who has done the work, what am I leaving behind” Mr. Molapo said encouraging the students.  

He challenged the student entrepreneurs to ask themselves about the type of societal impact that they were having and what they would leave behind one day because they should work with three generations in mind so that what they have can outlast them and be impactful on at least three generations.  

Finally, Mr. Ntando Mpofana, innobiz DUT Centre Stakeholder Relations, Marketing and Communications Manager, encouraged members of the audience to take heed of the advice and motivation imparted upon them by Dr. Molapo, Mr. Mbuli and Mr. Molapo and use it meaningfully in their respective entrepreneurial journeys.  

“All the speeches, keynote addresses and testimonies provided by the guest speakers as much as they spoke about identifying gaps, resilience, motivation both intrinsic and extrinsic and goal setting, everything was underscored by work and everything necessitated work.  

“Dr. Molapo spoke about the 10 000 hours of work, practice, and training needed by any individual to master a skill and as the Bible also says in Proverbs 14 verse 23 ‘All hard work yields profit, but mere talks leads to poverty’,” Mr. Mpofana said in his equally inspirational closing remarks.