Vusi Thembekwayo makes history as the first African speaker at the International Leadership Summit

thank you so much for the opportunity there is nothing extraordinary about me except that I was raised to believe I'm extraordinary 32-year-old self-made millionaire entrepreneur and Global business speaker v m so the real question is what is wealth really everybody wants the outcome of the success it's the difficulty to get there that's the hard part it has to be our generational mission to not just empower the self but to empower others the most exciting day of being an entrepreneur I'm going to tell you now is the day you decide to start your business I want

to belong to a generation that inspires young people to imagine a different future I grew up without I suffered I was told I'm worthless now that I have it I'm going to show everybody [Music] [Music] too many of us are too married to what we're good at not what we need to get good at we want to make it clear that this is your game that you're not to be messed with so we need to create a culture that says start start badly start Scrappy make mistakes fail start again whatever you do just start I

have so much to share so little time and so I hope that you will be patient with me over the next few minutes as we go through what it is that I've got for us to go through there are three fundamental elements to what I hope to cover first this is a Leadership Summit and so to the extent possible I'll try and talk about leadership second this conversation about timing and so I'll go into this season and this moment that we find ourselves over the years one of the things I've been asking myself is when

human beings know what it is we need to do why don't we do it so we come to a conference like this we meet We Gather we take the notes we shoot the videos we feel inspired and we leave and yet when We Gather a year later we have not made sufficient material progress and what I learned over the years was this that we don't do things not because we don't have the desire but often because we don't have the tools and the emotional skill there has been a lot of work being done over the

past day or so and there will be more done by speakers with whom I have the incredible privilege to just share this platform here what I'm hoping to do with our time today is to do more of the how and not so much of the what I really want to get into the mechanics of how so when we leave here VY what are the things we need to do I have the emotion I've got the inspiration I've got the motivation I've got that I've got it but on Monday what changes what are things I need

to do and what my own leadership Journey has taught me is where I have been stuck it was not but for a lack of Desire often it was for a lack of the knowledge systems tools and skills and so what we do as human beings is we force our way through the lack of knowledge using emotion now if you're a leader this works to a season what happens is the force that you use elevates you until you reach a place where you occupy a space where your Force has no residency suddenly you find yourself in

a room of peers people you can't dictate to and because you've not learned the softest skill of how to cocreate not coers you find yourself defaulting to the level you've come from rather than ascending to the level you're called to does that make sense yeah I was was so deep I should tweet that where's my phone yeah so so how do we push Beyond this now recognize where are my people from Africa Africa where are you yeah all five of you I see you I see you so what I'm hoping to do is to get

really into how do we push Beyond knowing the what it's the how it's the how first statement second statement before I make the second statement I I have a a side equp what is it with the people in Texas I mean what's the average height here 610 please understand where I come from I'm considered a big guy I'm aund 12 kg I'm 6'2 I can hold my own until I arrived in Texas and suddenly I'm walking into rooms and I am looking up at people let me just tell you this is very unsettling so whatever's

in the food you all cut that out I went out to one of the restaurants and I saw the portions I was like ah I understand I understand and I said to the lady I said is this a supersized portion she said no this is just Southern Hospitality I'm learning about the southern hospitality so we're going to push beyond the what we're going to try and get into that how first second my grandfather had businesses when I was younger and when my grandfather died his business has died I suspect that this is the case for

some of us in this room and so when I started going into business I wanted to answer a simple question why was it that the people who didn't look like me who came from a different part of town had parents and forefathers who created these businesses that would outlive them but my people didn't without casting judgment I wanted the insight and so it'll led me down this journey of trying to understand how do we make things multi-generational and so what I hope to share is the how for multi-generational planning and thinking I want to double

click on that our problems as a community no matter where we are are so vast our challenges are so substantial it's my humble submission that it is Criminal for us to be leaders in particular black and brown people and not think scale I don't know about you but I'm tired of being told about my people and and and the subtle side reference is that if it's black or brown it's small it almost doesn't need to be said but that's what's in the in the under text we've got this we've got this Dei program what they

really mean is we've got this opportunity for a thousand of you small but we're going to focus on a thousand of you small and I'm trying to figure out how do we create our own not small because let's be clear we are consumer we are culture in almost every single part of the world the trends we follow the culture that is manifest and the people influencing how people live as us so on the one end we're on this end of the creative uh uh creation and on the other end we're not capturing the economic value

of that one of the things I've learned is this the money the money is always backstage the money is is always backstage the money is in the engine room and so we are so fixated on who is the driver in the car standing at the front getting the Acclaim we're not asking the question but who made the engine who made the tires who made the components because that's where the money is one of the difficulties I've had as a leader is the minute I started recrui recruiting people hands up if you've ever experienced this rather

than augment my skill set they try to replace me by being me and I'm like wait a minute wait a minute when God gave me the call it was not a conference call I was called on this path and it's very difficult in this generation especially in today's generation where it's about how many followers do you have to be a follower did you catch that yeah how many followers do you have and be a follower and so the challenge we've got if we are really going to scale really going to build multi-generational Enterprises and really

going to lead this generation so the Next Generation can look back at this season and go they had the template our chief challenge is this it's going to be taking off the clo of ego and putting on the clothes of impact my ego says I should be main stage but you know where impact is needed right now impact is needed in production and so that's where I'm going to go and that's where I'm going to focus so we have sufficient number to cover are you ready for us to get going are we ready okay good

can I get a hand up if you're excited excellent can I get a hand up if your hand is not going to go up no matter what I say about three or four in the room there we got one right there okay great thank you so much thank you so much okay good so let's get going the first thing I want to share then we started the conversation by saying we have to move beyond what and we have to start focusing on how how actually matters how actually matters there's a something I've been musing about

it's really been bothering me and um I I I am fairly uh shallow in the waters of scripture I know Psalm 91 and and you know once or twice when I'm in conversation with somebody I'll you know it's not by Spirit nor it's not by power nor by might but by my spirit sayith the Lord I know just enough to say sitting in the business class Lounge that I get away with being Christian don't act like it's just me you guys know what I'm talking about so H uh I need I need your permission to

go personal um and uh and uh uh I need your permission to be imperfect is that okay my entire life my entire life I was raised by an incredible woman and an amazing mother my father was the sensei in the dojo my father was a second deegree black belt in a style of martial arts called kyokushin Gan which emanates from the masutatsu oyama people in the island of ok Na and so when I was growing up my father got me into the dojo and then as my dad understood that I had a bit of musical

Talent he got me to start playing the violin then got me into the choir and so I lived this incredibly regimented life discipline every single day doing the small things that didn't look like they were going to make a difference but that's where genius is genius is in the iteration and application of what looks immaterial at the time so when I'm stood here speaking to you it's the over 20 years that has taken me to walk up that stage perfect then my father passed and my mother raised us as a single mom incredible woman amazing

there are not there are not enough words in the length and breadth of the entire English language that I can use to explain and describe my mother to you I I spoke to her uh this morning actually we hadn't spoken in a while our relationship has been going through a very interesting period And I spoke to her this morning and I said Mom I need a word and she said look smart sound intelligent don't embarrass me I was like no I need a word from the Bible that's not so my mother raised me to look

smart sound intelligent and don't embarrass her and I was the perfect model of this everything I touched by God's grace turned to Gold the problem with being a winner your entire life is you have no emotional residue for losing so when losing hits you and believe me it will hit you it hits you so hard that you begin to question everything about yourself and you forget the things that God has carried you through now that's one thing listen losing is one thing try and lose publicly woo and let me tell you there's nothing worse there

is nothing worse than a lesser man having an opinion about a man whose path he cannot understand we live in an era where people have YouTube pages to discuss other people's lives I'm trying to figure out where the hell this come from your entire YouTube page is talking about me wow let's call YouTube in my era when I was growing up journalists did journalism they wrote about things that mattered you read about stuff that advanced you now who's arguing with who who says what over who who's talking about who on what podcast is the news

and I'm going wait a minute wait a minute wait a minute wait a minute how is this advancing us and in this crazy Kingdom of Darkness pulling people down is currency suddenly suddenly you become famous for who you can pull down your entire claim to fame is who can I destroy oh I want to Trend today let me get so and so to come and talk about so and so guys I don't know about you but where I'm from we shunned that stuff what' your mother tell you don't tell Tales perfect my entire life Bishop

perfect everywhere I go if I touch it turns to Gold if I move it's intentional it's deliberate I have I have a PR team for my PR team you get it like my finance team has a finance team that advises my finance team about the work of the other Finance team I've got investment companies all over the world this is a true story I fly into a country and the president of that country will ask for me me to come and visit this is a true story I will get picked up at the airport by

an entire Entourage perfect the problem is it's also manufactured did you get that yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah in other words I am walking not where I am LED yeah but I am walking where I believe is the perfect place to walk and so it is my eye that I'm using to see where I'm walking it is not me but he that should be lyrical but I'm not going where he's telling me I'm going with Russy wants to go all right so we're going to do that business with that person and take that opportunity and

go over here because it's going to work out perfectly for brand VY and my brand people say perfect my PR people amazing my sales team love it my investors you're the guy my finance people keep going and the biggest problem with this help me somebody is I'm now so important in my own life that I am blind to myself I I start to think that I am what I wrote about me in the pr deck did you hear what I just said so I don't even know who I am anymore you ask me who I

am I go wait let me check paragraph 3 I am oh yeah yeah I I am so I am now not authentic in how I show up I want to be clear please don't judge me this is not an Insidious deliberate thing it started because I was manufactured and taught to move that way when the teaching that got me to a place no longer serves the place I'm going to that teach teaching that said get ready for this season do the work be in it be intentional that teaching suddenly doesn't work cuz I'm moving in

a space where the only way I can have an impact on the next life is if I drop the guard of being perfect and just be human I I didn't have the wisdom at the time to understand what I've have now understood which was this the Reason God removed that veneer of perfection was so that I could learn how to have the grace for imperfect people wow because I was the guy who was saying unless it's absolutely perfect we don't do the deal now I've learned to say but how did you arrive at this position

in the first place and how do we reconcile where you are with where you want to go leaders hear me and hear me now you're not ready to lead until you don't have the capacity to avenge yeah you see you see I grew up in what you guys call the hood you come for me I'm coming twice you don't have to invite me send me the GPS I'll come address you all I need is a postal code and I will find you but you see hold on I I'm at the stage and God is trying

to take me to a stage and he's saying listen listen listen you know this thing about punching back fighting back talking back speaking back always having the clap back needing to be the last one to say the last word yeah that doesn't work for where I'm taking you so what you're going to do is you're going to shut up and let me do the talking for you you just show up be in the room and deliver and the most incredible Grace I have had is all of a sudden when I see other people and I

see them under attack I go bro I get it and not only do I say I get it I go bro let's be friends because far be it for us imperfect people to judge other imperfect people yeah but my marriage fell apart all good I get it yeah but my business went under it's all good I get it yeah but I used to have a drug problem listen it's all good I get it let's be friends do you want to know why because we are exactly the people he uses to elevate the kingdom how on

Earth can we begin to move in spaces of Darkness if we constantly want to exude light maybe what we need to do is learn to have the grace the patience and the dimming ability to softly introduce ourselves into the quarters of people who are not yet Warriors of the kingdom and then slowly turn them so that they become amongst what we are if you are perfect I don't want you as my friend because I can't go to war with perfect people if you have never had a blemish I don't want you as my friend because

the place I'm going people are going to throw a couple of things at me I need to know you have got some scars I need to know you have been cut I need to know you have been wounded it's not the perfect Warrior I'm after it's the warrior with the perfect heart listen I don't know about this God you all serve I'm tired of this guy sometimes I'm just I just want to be like but God why just keep it simple don't you sometimes wish you could have that Sunday school God remember the Sunday School

God Father Abraham son son so I don't like this adult God there's too many there's too many just there's too many spaces of gray there's too many places where I'm try and I'm just like I'm just like God I don't I don't I don't know that I am ready for this one see I stand here today an imperfect man all I have is the air in my lungs I believe that there is a calling on my life I think I carry an anointing but I have learned this neither the air in my lungs nor the

light of my anointing exempts me from the attacks of the enemy in fact it's exactly what draws him I said to a pastor friend of mine I was said listen listen listen you said to me you said it's a true story pastor friend of mine Pastor Reverend Julian in Kenya I said you said to me you said surrender and submit yourself to the Lord Lord your God I did that you didn't tell me that would be the beginning of my problems because if you'd have told me that I might have gone give me a week

let me think about it the hardest thing about leading in today's season is imperfect people want to give themselves the jurist prudence to elect perfect leaders in a world where none of us are and so perhaps then the grace we need as human beings is to go not is my leader perfect but is this leader called for this season I can worry about their Perfections later I just need to know are they the person called for this season because if they're called for this season then I'm not looking under the mattress to see what's hiding

there all I'm looking to see is do they understand the calling and are they God L that's all I'm trying to see do they understand the calling and are they God L I knew about God I really did I knew about him I went to Sunday school you know I was in the I was in the choir I grew up a Roman Catholic I was an alter server I'm a confirmed Catholic I knew about God he was very nice this God that I knew very nice he was there rescuing samon I'm like this is the

god I need I knew about him help help me say this but I I only met him on the way down yeah I knew about him on the way up no no no I knew about him on the way up I knew about him I was like people are like hey VY congratulations you won an award I said Thank You God's grace I knew about him on the way up but I only met him I only fell the measure of his breath I only saw his face clip slly I only but experienced him a little

bit on the way down and in this moment of isolation first I went Inward and then I I Heard a Voice I I heard I heard a voice and the voice the voice said it said something like this see the voice said this is tuition yeah you want to go to the school of leadership this is your tuition you say you want to lead listen VY I get it you're smart guy you've studied this you've got an MBA you've LED organizations you've LED businesses young man you've not been leading you've been managing I'm teaching you

how to lead and the cost of leadership the tuition fee for leadership is being isolated misunderstood maligned your character questioned and even then standing still and saying but by the grace of God forward I march here I will go call to that place I will not turn and I will not change direction because it is he that leads me how am I doing how am I doing how we doing so you know Lincoln the hardest thing for me as I'm stood here is looking at luminaries I follow all over social media and and they are

standing looking at me I almost wish my dad was here just for this moment just for this moment I want to say all of us in this room if you truly believe of yourself called to be a leader get ready to pay your tuition get ready to pay your tuition and so we spoke about the what to do that's why the how is difficult the how is difficult because the first part of the how is I've got to be willing to pay my tuition and the tuition fee for this place of leadership is isolation the

tuition fee for this place of leadership is being misunderstood the tuition fee for this place of leadership is being maligned lied about spoken about and Still Loving those people enough to lead them as well my uh my uh a reverend brother of mine said was talking to me about the life of Jesus Christ and the Leadership Lessons we draw from the life of Jesus Christ he says to me you recognize that on that cross in the mountain of Calvary when Jesus lost his life he died not only for those who loved him that's right but

for those who did not as well I must be honest reever there was a part of me that wanted to say to him but I'm Not Jesus now I read the Bible I'm not there you come for me I'll come back so how do we lead first pay the tuition fee pay the tuition fee leaders here is the second how where we get lost in our leadership Journeys is we don't take those we have around us with us on the pathway now I'm not a perfect man I admit in fact I am an addict to

hard work I am addicted to enslaving myself to my business it's one of these things especially entrepreneurs you'll know what I'm talking about we love this idea that I need to die at the altar of Enterprise and it's all over social media now all you've got to do is follow one of these Instagram channels and they'll say things like you must have the ability not sleep for seven days don't eat for 2 weeks and completely close yourself from the world to be a success ful entrepreneur but what I've learned and realized is that actually that's

not true you can completely lead you can completely Ascend you can completely grow and you can hyperscale and take your business to the next level without compromising and sacrificing your life and the people who love you this is completely and entirely possible but it requires a mindset shift from us the first part of that mindset sh shift is recognized that it's about integration not competition so you integrate parts of your life into the part of your life in the path that you are walking you make them work together not work against each other so we

got to take those we lead with us take those we lead with us this is a a fundamental part of how we lead to next take those we lead with us how do we do that first make sure they understand why you're doing what you're doing why are you doing what you're doing why are you in Enterprise why are you in leadership why are you in management why are you so driven why second and a lot of us missed this next step give them equity in the outcome see I'm an investment guy right this is

what I do I buy and scale businesses but I've learned over the years that even if we buy an incredibly well-run business with a very talented entrepreneur or founder unless they have equity in the upside they will not help us deliver that upside and so in our leadership Journey what a lot of us lack is the inability or the ability rather to give Equity to those in our lives about what the upside looks like and as it says in scripture paint the picture and make it plain exactly what does it mean Daddy when we get

to the other side the sacrifice we are making what's my part in it and what do I gain at the other side of it I wish somebody had taught me this when I was younger I mistook and Mis understood that my children knew that if Daddy was flying or traveling or in meetings he was doing it for them they didn't they just saw daddy wasn't around and for them a lack of Daddy's absence meant a lack of Daddy's love and so it was always yes we're important but the business meeting is more important we're important

but dad's flights are more important we're important but dad's money is more important I just wish somebody had taught me give them equity in the upside equity in the upside the Third how is to recognize that work is distance multiplied by time so for any of you here who are uh inclined to find yourself in the gym you know know that the way you build the muscle is to strain it but you also know that the way to build the muscle even faster is to put the muscle under extreme tension for a longer period of

time in fact the personal trainers will tell you it's called time under tension so the amount of tension the muscle carries for a longer period of time is the function of work that the muscle has to do what I've learned is over our leadership Journeys if you're anything like me I was constantly looking for the way to end the pain and to end the work and so you're always looking for next next shortcut next way out next offramp not recognizing that actually the time under tension is what builds my leadership capacity and leadership ability so

what does this even mean VY what is this time under tension first when I was a younger investment professional I had a mentor I'll never forget Nile and he said to me if you took a potato and I had one too and both of us planted these potatoes in separate fields and I gave you twice the quantity of water to water your potato as I had he said even then your potato wouldn't grow grow at twice the rate because there is a natural rate at which the potato can grow so there is a natural rate

at which your leadership ability can grow and in the world today of instant instant gram instant real instant oats they even have instant grits now we need to pray about that that's that's that's wrong on so many levels but in the world today of so much instant we're constantly looking for the shortcut even at the stage at which we should actually stay exactly where we are and learn the things we need to learn so leaders that task that needs to be performed in your space of leadership is sometimes not for you to delegate is for

you to master so before we delegate we Master once we've mastered we document when we document we train and that's how you delegate but if you don't start at Mastery you can't document therefore can't train because you haven't spent the time learning it I invest in hyperscale businesses and I'm fascinated at how many ENT entrepreneurs we will meet and talk to who will tell you about a rate of growth they've had for 3 years and the first question I ask them is this where's your time under detention have you spent time in that call center

answering phone calls do you know what your clerks are doing in the administration function how much do you know about what your buying department is doing because the magic is in the things that are hidden so I'm going to need you before we talk about this investment I'm going to need you to take off the fancy suit to stop Flying business class and I'm going to need you to go back off house I'm going to need you to go into the engine room and I'm going to need you to master these skills that you're trying

to delegate to other people because if you try to delegate what you have in mastered you run the risk of your kingdom being pulled from underneath you you see this is why if even if I went to The Potter's House I couldn't do what the bishop does because he's had time under tension and so every time I experience his anointing and gift it is an amalgam of millions of hours in study hundreds of thousands of hours in delivery it is a level of Mastery reached where even the master is blind mind to their own Mastery

you see a samurai warrior doesn't wake up and go I'm a samurai he just is he doesn't know what he knows he just knows he doesn't have to be asked how to do it he just does it because he's had so much time under tension that the minute the tension is applied the skill is what comes up you see it so let me say it in a different way you're trying to learn the skill I'm saying time under tension is what amplifies the skill you want to get good at this thing get good at doing

it over and over every single time when nobody's looking when nobody's paying attention when there are no followers no likes no Instagrams no shares no YouTube channels when there are no investors when there's nothing like this when it's just you and the purpose and the calling and the work do it then do it in the Darkness do it when it's quiet do it when it's not fashionable do it when you're scared but just do it because I can assure you of this my ability by his grace to get on a stage and divorce myself from

the challenges I would be facing in my life and honor the calling of that moment and deliver was because I've had time under detention so when I'm under pressure my skill just naturally pops up and says don't worry we got you yeah yeah yeah you trained us for exactly this moment we got you you just show up you just show up you just go on stage VY Go on stage and trust us trust the thousands of hours in iteration and application time under tension this is not a fashionable message please I assure you this is

not a fashionable message especially today but it's a fundamental message for leaders fundamental message for leaders when I was 17 I had the incredible privilege of meeting the founding father of my country South Africa Nelson Mandela I had I just won the World Championship in public speaking and I arrived home and my mom was quite emotional she'd received a letter from the Mandela Foundation saying that I was invited to come for tea um you know South Africa before apartate it was a British colony so we still have a lot of the the kind of the

subtle British nuances and so you go for afternoon tea not coffee coffee is common you know tea so I'm invited for tea and and uh the day arrives and I I'm off to Nelson Mandela's um office and I grew up in a Township and and the township I grew up in and for context the South Africans in the room and the Africans will know what I'm speaking about but the way my country was designed was such that on the one end you'd have predominantly but not exclusively black African people and on the other end of

town you'd have white Europeans and next to the black African people you would have an industrial area factories say and next to the area where the white Europeans live you'd have the leafy suburbs or the CBD and between the industrial area and the CBD would be an army Barrack or a police station the reason was because the architects of apartate anticipated unrest and knew that if these people would ever rise up they would first have to Traverse through the industrial area and even then would be met by the brutal police this is why we celebrate

the 1976 for instance or rather don't celebrate but commemorate 1976 my birthday the 21st of March is our human rights day because in the history of my country there were people who marched for their freedom and were shot by the police at the back and over 60 of them died so I had to go from Township to town got to make this whole journey and eventually when I arrived at the part of town where I was going to meet Nelson Mandela the public transport system we have in South Africa doesn't go through the crevices of

the streets it drops you at the main road and then you walk from the main road to the house that you were headed and I remember I walked probably what must have been you guys talk in Miles here I'm not sure how long how much it is in miles but about 3 kilm say until that day my complexion was a bit like Drake's complexion but um no it's through no it's true I walked in the Sun and this is what happened couldn't afford sunscreen back in those days so sunscreen was just this that was good

right yeah so I arrived at the m Mandela Foundation office and um there was a lady there in my culture when you speak to Elders you never call them first by their name here you would say ma'am or Miss in my culture an elder female just by being Elder is your mother and so and so I went and I met and I said s bonan and I said my name is VY I'm here to meet MBA she went into the book looked for my name found the name asked me to sit at reception and I'm

sat at reception I imagine most of you here have worked in those companies where that reception chair so many people have sat in it that as you sit you can feel yourself sink into the abyss and your knees rise above your eyes and you're balancing trying to find your balance like so and whilst I'm sat she calls Mr Mandela's secretary Zelda and she rang Mr Mandela's secretary a huge leadership lesson there by the way and massive leadership lesson now sandela comes out of jail having been put in jail for 27 years 19 of those years

he spends in this island called Robin Island the details that are perhaps less understood is that they didn't spend those 19 years in jail just sat idle they were forced to do manual labor and so as Nelson Mandela Grew Older his eyes had problems because he would part of his manual labor was to break the rock face and it was a white rock face and the Sun would bounce against The Rock face and into his eyes and it damaged them as he Grew Older he had a problem with his Achilles tendon because of the amount

of walking and the amount of weight that they had to carry these rocks that they had to carry I don't know about you I think it takes something special for you to suffer that long for 20 years and not seek retribution so I'm sat waiting and when Mandela became the leader he makes this decision to hire a secretary the person closest to him who would look just like the people who incarcerated him and who came exactly from the culture of the people who incarcerated him this is the person closest to him understands his movements understands

his agenda has access to his person his Spirit his family his work and of all of the people he could have chosen he chooses this person a representation of his incarceration you are not ready to lead until you are ready to believe in the grace in the humanity of those who denied you [Music] yours see taking along people who are like you that's not leadership that's management thank so when I hear people say things like oh we grew up together I go great how's management going I can only work with people in my community great

how's management going you want to lead you go into the crevices of darkness and you Shine the Light it's easy to say it in 2024 people forget that at the time Nelson Mandel himself was called a traitor himself by his own people it's always your own people is it just me it always your own people there is a subculture and a narrative in South Africa even to this day that says Nelson Mandela sold out I'm sorry sold out what 27 years of not 27 years of not seeing your own children not burying your own son

not not being a husband to your own wife not being a member to your own Community losing your entire career as a lawyer 27 years of losing your wealth your wisdom your space and Community 27 years and you have the audacity the unmitigated tarity to call me a sellout isn't it interesting how the people who call him a sellout never did their 27 years do your 27 years first then come and tell me how I should lead at this place because maybe there is something I learned in this 27 years that showed me how to

lead at the level I am called not the level we come from but because you use the eyes of your understanding for where we come from you don't see where we are called and you miss the work your inability to discern is what results in you calling me a sellout it all it's always your own people it's like when somebody succeeds and somebody says they so their soul I asked somebody the other day I said where do they sell these Souls cuz I need to buy one does Costco have a sale on Souls it's these

people that go on social media and talk about so and so sold out to so and so you ever notice how the slave will call out the slave for selling out but won't tell us the slave master they sold out to I'm going sit here and just let you guys just just take that one in a person who looks like you goes out and says that you because you look like the way you look do not deserve the level of success you've had but for the fact that you sold out and you sold your soul

to them but they never have the courage to name them who is they which conference did they go to so I'm sat waiting to meet MBA I'm nervous Bishop nervous I'm so nervous my teeth are knocking against each other my knees are shaking and there was a little bit of sweat little bit coming from the back of my neck down my spine we don't need to talk about the Final Destination but it's it's back of my neck and down my spine I can feel it I can feel it too I feel it [Laughter] I can't

believe I said that I'm so sorry so I'm sat waiting and and Zelda comes to meet me she says in a very deep Africans accent she says I are you Mr V I said to her V she says yes are you him I said yes ma'am I am he and she says good let me take you to the study she takes me to his study allow me to wax lyrical for a bit we get to his study and at the entrance of the study is this beautiful golden arch door the handle was broken in so

the only way to open the door was to open both handles and push both doors in and as she opened the door the study was deep but narrow from the beginning of the study all the way to the end was this long running Persian carpet wooden cupboards with glass front on either end of the study from the floor to the ceiling behind the glass in the wooden cupboards a bit of light inside the cupboards encyclopedia it looked a bit like a lawyer's chamber and in the middle of the study was this quaint Oriental table with

three chairs around it I remember this vividly though cuz As you stood at the beginning of the study if you looked over you saw this French pan window and if you just stilted like so you could see a koi pond with koi fish in it it is said that on his most difficult days it is in this exact place medba would end his day sat next to the window listening to the Stillness and the Serene sounds of that Koi pond she says to me now Mr inquir can I get you something to drink I remember

my mother looks smart sound intelligent don't embarrass me I'm decided that I was invited for tea so I'm going to ask for tea cuz coffee is common so she says can I get you some tea I said yes ma'am I would like some tea and and then she said those words I don't know how it is here but in my country at the time coming from where I'm from we only had certain types of tea we could afford so she says to to me would you like Jasmine or alre and I said who's Jasmine she

went and fetched me tea I'm sat waiting and the tea is on the table and I pick up the tea to drink it my hand shakes and so a little bit of the tea spills on the saucer it's not a problem that's what the saucer is there for the problem though is I've got to set the tea back down which means the next time I pick it up when it starts to spill again it splatters on my shirt undecided I don't want the world's most iconic Statesman to come and meet a young man with a

stained shirt so what I'm rather going to do instead of pick up the teas I'm going to lean in and drink it like so uh hoping that he doesn't find me while I'm coward you ever you ever found your child stealing milk in the fridge and you're just like what's going on yeah it was a bit like this so there I am and I'm leaning in to drink and then whilst I'm leaning in to drink I heard where is he remember my knees my teeth and that sweat at the back yeah now start shaking Mr

tit he's in the study okay MBA was a big man I'm 6'2 MBA was 65 when I met him he was 66 when he was younger size 13 shoes she probably came from Texas might have played for the Cowboys nah but because of his injury to his tendon he didn't walk with the heel of his foot like most of us do he walked with the ball of his foot he had a very heavy walk when he walked toward you you heard him coming and so I hear this voice and then I hear go go go

gets to the door and the knock opens it takes two steps forward go go opens up his arms he looks at me and he says my son come here yeah my um nobody has called me my sorry sorry sorry nobody had called me my son until that day since my father's death and I remember so vividly when he said those words there was A Rush of emotion was a tingling in the belly then it tightened I felt my chest just close in on itself and my throat started to clog up and my face heated up

and I knew what was about to happen what was about to happen was sugar water was going to come running down my eyes and I'm decided this is not a good look and I was just about to start crying and I leapt up and I gave him a big hug he was so tall that at my height as I hugged him my face was on his sternum gave me this big be hug and he says right now sit and I sat for one hour with the world's most iconic leader in his generation I was um

I was listening to the bishop yesterday when you were in when you were uh interviewing the incredible Ambassador young and I I I felt that in my spirit this amazing ability to just dig into the wells of wisdom that goes so deep into the recesses of history that it has forgotten what we haven't learned do you recognize how rich yesterday's session was that we got to dig into a time we didn't have to experience to draw that wisdom that we can leave all of us here leaders and have that recess of information just unbelievable from

the hnic himself [Applause] sorry Michael sorry Michael's looking at me like is he supposed to say that he a that a so I'm set for one hour and I'm just I decided on my way to this meeting with MBA that the most judicious use of my time was not to make statements but to ask smart questions I flew all the way from Johannesburg to say this leaders are not those with answers they are those that know what questions to ask and so in this moment and in this season your job as the leader is to

know what are the question questions of this season questions like who are these people that are questioning the need for us to drive diversity equity and inclusion and what is it that is their agenda leave here hear me and hear me now your ability to advance as a leader is exponentially pronounced when you learn what questions to ask it's not what are we doing it's why are we doing it it's not where are we going it's why are we going there it's not who is leading it's is our leader called to lead I don't know

about the God you serve but the one I serve uses imperfect people and that's precisely what it is that makes them perfect because he's the only one who can make us perfect so one hour we're 58 minutes in I'm now a successful executive so I can tell you I've learned the cues and and I saw Zelda knock at the door open the door and Peak her head I know today Bishop that that's the sign for y'all wrap this up now Mandela by the way had this incredible ability to tell such deep stories he told me

that he's a royal Bondo person they're part of the cha Nation and when his son passed away whilst he was in prison listen to this whilst he was in prison in his custom if your son dies the father must bury the son if they don't Bishop the child never sees the Hereafter Mandela begged the warden of the prison and the aparted government to let him go home and bury his son and they said this they said if you renounce what you have said and you renounce your beliefs will let you go and bury your child

forced to choose between what he was believed and what he was called to do and what was convenient to do he chose what he believed and what he was called to do how many of us would make what decision if that moment came I don't know about you but as a father of three I'm not sure I would have stayed in that prison not see the Hereafter not meet our Lord and savior no sir that's not a decision I'm making I love y all but not that much we get to the end of the meeting

I said to him da but I have one last question this is the question I will leave with you I asked him what is it that is your dream for Our Generation and for mankind he said your people need a little bit of faith I asked him I said what is Faith he said young man faith is there the ability to believe in the impossible to see the invisible and to trust in the unknown ILS 2024 leaders of this moment and this season if we are to lead and to truly lead we're going to have

to learn to be people of Faith to go where we are called to make make the tough decisions to elevate those that try to destroy us and to save even those that don't know they need saving because I don't know about you and I don't know about the God you praise but the god I praise tells me he sends me into the place so that I can do the work he takes me from my place of comfort to the place of need so I can do the work there is somebody in this room here today

who was called and you've been sat back nervous waiting you've been sat back nervous waiting asking God the question me really me really this time that whisper that's not a mistake that's the intentional voice of God it is that whisper Bishop that saved me on those nights when I contemplated my own life it is that whisper Bishop that gave me strength when I didn't know where it would come from it is that whisper Bishop that sold me through the darkest times when friends were enemies and when my name was a joke Bishop Jakes the impact

of your life is immeasurable it truly is [Applause] [Music] [Applause] but if we ever were to try and put a speck on the measure of this man it wouldn't be what you've done it would be what those to whom you have done it have done millions of lives touched hundreds of millions more who found Faith and Hope Hallelujah Sundays when I would wake up in the darkest season of my life and tuning into The Potter's House was my place of [Applause] Grace I want to thank all of you for being in this room I don't

know why you came but I want to thank you for giving me the Incredible Gift of your audience I hope I have brought some value to your [Applause] conversations you leaders leave here and lead lead when it hurts lead when it's dark lead when it's unfashionable lead when they're quiet and when they speak lead because the true mileage of leadership can only be counted by us as Sarah said yesterday finishing strong thank you so much [Applause]