Entrepreneur, Youth Mentor and JASA Alumnus 2008

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I never saw myself as an entrepreneur but that all changed after my Junior Achievement experience!

In 2008 I was in Grade 11 when I participated in Junior Achievement South Africa’s Life Skills and Mentorship Programme, funded by First National Bank. The sessions were held at FNB Bank City in Johannesburg every Saturday. When I started my JASA journey I was doing science subjects at school and entrepreneurship seemed like a Greek word to me. All I wanted to do after matric was study information technology.

Our mini-company launched during the programme was called Synergy and we sold personalised bracelets and key rings. As the personalised bracelets sold better than the key rings and, as General Manager of our company, I made an educated decision to invest more money into the bracelets. Our mini-company was extremely profitable and after only five weeks of sales, we managed to make a net profit of over R11 000!

I never saw myself as an entrepreneur but that all changed after my Junior Achievement experience! The programme made me realise my love for business and it also taught me that anything is possible in life. What is important is that you believe in yourself and that you have the confidence that you will be able to achieve your goals. I also met my current business partner, Thabo Serame, during the JASA programme.

Growing up with so many dreams and goals, I am proud to say that today I am an entrepreneur and that one of my main aims in life is to create jobs. I am passionate about youth development, and having volunteered during the LSM programmes in 2010 and 2011, I realised the impact that the JASA programmes have in cultivating young entrepreneurs. I am now co-founder of TT Digital, a consulting and incubating company, along with my business partner. I also serve as project administrator for the Youth Leadership and Entrepreneurship Development Programme.

I would like to thank JASA for introducing me to entrepreneurship. If it wasn’t for the LSM Programme, I might have been stuck in a career I hated today.