My Mind Speaks....Billionaires Club

 “I wanna be a billionaire so freaking bad. Buy all of the things I never had. Uh, I wanna be on the cover of Forbes magazine. Smiling next to Oprah and the Queen"

Welcome to the Billionaires club. Just a few days ago I read an article that suggested that Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest man is set to become the first ever trillionaire by 2026. My first reaction was “Yikes this guy is going to be really rich”, I mean up to this point in my life I have only known governments to be the only institutions that deal with trillions. Now if Jeff Bezos becomes a trillionaire (its strange to even write this word), does this mean he can afford to buy governments? Thinking about this made me understand why Americans lost their minds on twitter because the truth of the matter is that money comes with a lot of power and power comes with responsibility. We also know that humans are not known to handle power too well.

Amid all the twitter meltdown I couldn’t help but reminisce about lessons learned from Bidvest’s incoming CEO, Mpumi Madisa. Mpumi is set to become the only black female CEO in the top 40 JSE listed companies. She was only 39 when I met her. Let’s rewind back to when I met Mpumi and her husband so that we can get to how she’s relevant to this story. At church we used to have a tribe called Next Generation Leaders, this tribe was established by the senior pastor of the church to inspire young leaders to greatness by exposing them to people that have done great in this country. It was quite a great initiative, shout out to Pastor Ken. The tribe used to meet once a month on a Friday and apparently everyone in the tribe was handpicked by Pastor Ken with me being the exception lol I invited myself and that’s how I got to be part of this group. The theme of each meeting was that each guest would have to discuss their personal life (marriage, children etc), their Spiritual life, Financial and their careers and then answer questions from the floor on each of these categories.

The Madisas were invited on one of the monthly meetings. I think I took Kholo with that day. Yes, I invited myself then invited a plus one…I’m hood like that. I remember thinking they looked an ordinary couple; they were not dressed like a “power couple” nor did they look like the typical couple goals. Just two ordinary people, the husband even spoke S’pitori. They looked like they had nothing else to prove. I could write a book about the many lessons I learned in that 2-hour meeting that evening but for the sake of time let’s just focus on the parts related to this article. One thing that was discussed under financial was that the couple had a financial goal. Their philosophy was that they don’t just collect wealth to infinity because that could lead to greed. According to Mpumi they have calculated how much would be enough for them to live comfortably for the rest of their lives considering their needs and the needs of those around them and got to a number. Although they did not mention the exact number, but this number is what they wake up and work towards, once this number is attained the couple plans to retire and enjoy the simple life. Mpumi’s husband owns a plant maintenance company and shared a story about how he was once offered a contract which was well over their wealth target. He went on to mention that they declined the contract because it did not make sense or fit into their personal and financial goals.

Estimated Bidvest CEO salary =34million.

Mpumi secured the bag.

I could truly relate to this philosophy, although I currently do not have a similar goal, I do understand the importance of having it as a guiding moral campus. Wealth collection is great but if it’s not controlled it can have disastrous effects on the person. After all greed is listed as one of the 7 deadly sins.

Going from rags to riches is everyone’s dream or at least most people want that. Whether it happens by way of a better paying job or winning the lottery, some studies suggest that money can change your behavior and not always for the better. Of course, there are plenty of charitable, helpful, and giving wealthy people. However, results from some studies have proven that they may be the exception, rather than the rule. Those who are conscious of money typically strive to be more self-sufficient than those for whom money isn’t a priority well at least that’s what a 2009 Yale School of Management study found.

While money doesn’t exactly shape your belief system, it can influence the way you think and act towards others. From your relationship to the way you view yourself, cash can have a serious bearing on your beliefs. Thus, I strongly believe that gaining a better understanding of the sway that money or the lack of it may have on your behavior can make you more aware of when it might be pulling your strings, and hopefully stay on top of it. I wanna be a billionaire so freaking bad...


“Oh, every time I close my eyes (what ya see, what you see brah?)

I see my name in shining lights (uh huh, uh huh, what else?)

A different city every night, oh I, I swear the world better prepare (for what?)

For when I'm a billionaire (yeah, sing it)

Oh oooh oh oooh when I'm a billionaire

Oh oooh oh oooh”

My Mind Sings….

TSHELEDE