There’s nothing more melancholy in our days than growing up in a third world country. You find out that life is bitter-sweet; poverty is an everyday topic. Children out there frequently sleep with empty stomachs due to nutriment deficiency.

Meet Lucky, an 18-year old boy raised by a single parent. Lucky lost his father in a fatal car homicide on his way home from work. His mother had to sacrifice her job, and had to look out for her one and only son. Bear in mind that, during the time of The Struggle, women weren’t entitled to work. Only men had to work, since they were considered patriarchs and bread-winners. At that time, women merely opted to do house chores, such as cooking, laundry, dishes and so on.

Eventually, Lucky had to drop out of school to seek a job and help put food on the table. Paradigm: an 18-year old gallivanting the streets of Cape Town looking for a job; under a government of white supremacy. Did he think it would be that easy to get a job?

After some time searching, he lost hope on the run. He thought to himself: It’s time-consuming to look out for something onerous, so he rather quit before he started to go insane.

A couple of weeks after he gave up on the job-hunting issue, he decided to go back to school, hoping he would study hard and pass with good grades, but things went the opposite way. His classmates made a mockery of him: that he would never be successful in life – he should continue hunting for a job and forget about school because it wasn’t for dummies like him.

All those gags about him being dumb and unsuccessful went through his heart so that he burst into tears of sadness. Lucky hurriedly ran to the school’s toilet and locked himself in there. In the back of his mind, he had vast questions ringing numerous times; why am I patronized like this? Why do people look down on me? Why? Am I an open book?

A few hours passed and Lucky was still there, locked in the school’s toilet. Whilst he was sitting there, he took a pen and piece of paper out of his trousers. He thought of drafting a business plan or other plans to make quick cash. After an hour of thinking where to start with his business plan, he didn’t know where to start so he threw that paper away.

He went home before school was out. When he arrived, Lucky asked his mother to lend him some money, around the amount of R300.

The following day, he went to a supermarket and bought some products, products that he utilized to start his business. On his first day of business he made a big profit, but had to pay his mother back first.

In the blink of an eye, his business had become enormous. He served the whole community where he resided and it was unnecessary for them to go to town or the mall anymore. The funny part is that those who mocked him that he would never be successful were the very ones to come and ask if he had any vacancies!

Because he was sympathetic, he hired them without having second thoughts, but he reminded them about this very true idiom: “Don’t judge a book by its cover”.

Every time he reminded them, they would stay quiet and never utter a single word. Some would beg for forgiveness and admit that they shouldn’t have made him a laughing stock at all.