Nightmare Waves

Early on in my entrepreneurial career I had a recurring nightmare.

It was during a particularly challenging time for me, the early 2000s.

I was in my twenties. My first business was struggling to take off. I had very little personal income. I had three young kids below the age of six. My co-founder Mike was living in the UK and my other partner Louis had not joined us yet.

During that period, I struggled to sleep well. Many nights, I dreamed that I was swimming out to sea. The waves were crashing against me. Then suddenly it turned violent and I started drowning, the riptide pulling me out to the ocean.

Every time I had that dream, I’d wake up in a cold sweat, anxious and unsettled.

I interpreted those waves as the waves of financial stress hitting me each day.

This past weekend, I visited Jeffreys Bay, one of the most famous surfing beaches in the world. I’m not a very good surfer, so I was wary to go out.

I’m part of a group called the ‘Kak Surfers Club’, which gives you an idea of my skill level.

My local beach is Muizenberg, which has a consistent, mellow, long-boarding wave.

Surfing at Muizenberg is like pillow fighting. Surfing at Jeffreys Bay is like being punched in the face by a tectonic plate.

On Sunday morning I met a young surfer dude called Luciano, who offered to teach me to surf J-Bay properly. We paddled out at Kitchen Windows, which is the most accessible wave in Luciano’s hood. The break a few hundred meters down the beach is called ‘Boneyards’.

I asked Luciano how big the swell was. He said cheerfully, “It’s only about 4 to 5 foot. But it’s picking up. We expect it to be around 8 to 10 foot later.”

I gulped. The biggest waves I’ve ever surfed have been around 3 to 4 feet high.

Thankfully I survived the session, mainly due to Luciano’s astute coaching. However, this morning, as I write this, my right wrist is in pain from one of the falls. My back is sore and my right hip has felt inflamed this whole week.

It was fun, but the experience at Jeffreys reminded me of the recurring nightmare from my twenties.

The trauma of those financial waves will never leave my consciousness.

The research from our sister organisation Heavy Chef Foundation (in collaboration with HC partner Xero) reveals that many of you are struggling with similar financial challenges.

Part of the mission of Heavy Chef is to be able to alleviate the trauma of financial pressure on startup entrepreneurs. There is no way to completely eradicate the stress, but we can help you ride the waves better.

This month, we’re going to be focusing on raising capital, financial management, cashflow and sales.

Importantly, we have a kickass event at the end of the month, with two incendiary-smart speakers.

Hope Ditlhakanyane is currently the Head of Venture Sourcing for Founders Factory Africa, one of the most active VCs in the African Tech ecosystem.

Keitumetse Lekaba is the Managing Director at I AM AN ENTREPRENEUR. In her current role, she directs and leads all business operations and manages the strategy,

development, and implementation of ESD Programmes for multi-national companies.

At Heavy Chef’s May gathering, we will aim to unlock the secret ingredients behind finding capital. Hope and Keitu are joining our amazing MC, Zinhle Novazi, on stage at Workshop17 Sandton.

If you’ve not booked your tickets yet, go here.

Remember: if you’re a Heavy Chef member you get free tickets to any of our community events. Email us and my colleagues will sort you out, nooooo problemo.

If you’re not a member, go here, sign up and experience the awesomeness of this crazy cool community.

Together, let’s ensure the unavoidable waves of entrepreneurial strife are more like Muizenberg and less like Jeffreys.

I hope to see you out in the water soon.

Peace -

p.s. Thanks to https://unsplash.com/@sincerelymedia for the pic (not me).