We are promoting the course called “Become A Great Entrepreneur” on https://tedsf.org/learn/courses/mgli-035-entrepreneurship-101 – We are offering an #AffiliateMarketing opportunity where we pay 45% of course price for every successful sale. – Simply register and login, Generate unique url and start selling.
Zimbabwean born mathematician and author, Edzai Conilias Zvobwo, affectionately known as “The MathsGenius” has been selected as one of the 1 250 entrepreneurs to attend the prestigious Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) programme.
Zvobwo made the cut out of 150 000 applicants from 114 countries globally who had applied for the 4th cycle of The Tony Elumelu Foundation’s TEF Entrepreneurship Programme.
Zvobwo is entitled to $10 000 and has opportunities and stand a chance to qualify for venture capital amounting to $300 000.
”This is a great opportunity for me and I am very excited to be part of this prestigious programme. I take the selection as a validation of the social enterprise that I am doing. At times during my discharge of duty, I meet challenges and naturally may get a little disappointed but it is recognition like these that makes me believe I am on the right track towards growing the enterprise and empowering communities to be able to scientifically and mathematically address social ills,” said Zvobwo.
Zvobwo is running a social enterprise with a focus on educational technology.
“I am also grateful that I will now be part of a network of more than 4 000 entrepreneurs who have gone through the programme. I will be able to continuously share best business practices within the network towards honing my skills and enhancing my knowlege” said Zvobwo.
Tony O Elumelu, a Nigerian business tycoon has committed to empowering African small business people through his ideology called Africapitalism.
Africapitalism is an economic philosophy that is predicated on the belief that Africa’s private sector can and must play a leading role in the continent’s development.
The list of those selcted can be found here.
Johannesburg, South Africa 25/12/2017
Everyone knows something that the next person doesn’t thus it is important that everyone shares their experiences with the world. Spurred by a deep yearning for freedom of expression and for the African story to be told from the African perspective, Edzai Zvobwo, founder of NdiribhoTV set out to create a video hosting and distribution platform primarily geared for Africans to share their knowledge with world and stand a better chance at optimally monetizing their video assets
Coming from Zimbabwe, a country that has seen its ruling elites trample upon basic liberties like freedom of speech and association, Edzai sought to correct the wrongs that have been committed by politicians in the country and the continent of Africa as a whole by facilitating p2p knowledge transfer through video. The name NdiribhoTV came out of need to proclaim that even as the people’s rights have been denied, people are still fine and live another day to fight for justice and development of the continent. “Ndiribho” is a Shona statement that translates to “I am fine”.
Video reference: https://ndiribho.tv/video/ashish-thakkar-africa-s-youngest-billionaire-sabc5a3e75dc0929b
NdiribhoTV currently has offices in Johannesburg and will be opening up feeder offices across Sub-Saharan Africa during the course of 2018. The feeder offices will serve as client liaison centers for content developers. NdiribhoTV will strive to sign up all the influencers in the video content development space as anchor creators whilst also harnessing the power of the ordinary African citizen. As long as an African has a device with a camera then they are welcome onto the NdiribhoTV platform.
The platform is a user generated vehicle that connects video content creators and consumers by providing an easy to use live streaming and video on demand platform.
NdiribhoTV lets anyone with a channel broadcast live videos and upload videos straight from their camera device. This allows African people to share or watch in real-time when news is breaking, visiting a new place, or meeting people and sharing interests – all in real-time.
NdiribhoTV seeks to add value to Africans and differentiate itself from YouTube by:
NdiribhoTV is currently in talks with several established platforms like Kwese play to help distribute content across the continent. 31 January 2018 is the date that NdiribhoTV will officially launch. “Once we solve the speed and latency issues with a reputable CDN and finalised our algorithms for our reccommender systems then it is a done deal”, said Edzai Zvobwo.
Currently there is a beta version on https://ndiribho.tv which you can test out and give feedback.
Serial entrepreneur, Edzai Zvobwo has embarked on a journey into the video hosting and sharing space. He is adamant that he will succeed with his new offering on https://ndiribho.tv
Ndiribho TV is a space for everyone to share their knowledge and experiences with a view to profit and in the process change lives.
Check out the platform and login to upload content or do a live stream.
Source: All Videos
You can catch me at this year’s Digital education Show as I present my topic entitled The transformation of learning with technology which is based on a paper written by Michael D. Bush and Jonathan D. Mott.
I take this opportunity to thank the authors of this paper and promise to derive as much value from it as possible for the sake of my audience.
Speaker: Edzai C. Zvobwo
Topic : The transformation of learning with technology
Date: DAY 1 – Tuesday, 18 October
Time: 15:30 PM
Location: Sandton Convention Centre, Digital Education Seminar Floor, Level 0.
#SouthAfrican Political Parties’ #WebsiteValue #Ranking – what can we conclude? http://mathsgenius.co.za/qa/6345/%23SOUTHAFRICAN-POLITICAL-PARTIES-RANKING-OURWEBSITEVALUE
Party Website OurWebsiteValue.com Appraisal (US$)
azapo.org.za 3258.66
ucdp.org.za 251.76
mf.org.za 132.54
theapc.org.za 280.16
pac.org.za 660.96
aic.org.za 49.59
acdp.org.za 787.08
congressofthepeople.org.za 681.22
udm.org.za 4923.37
nfp.org.za 92.5
ifp.org.za 22135.56
effighters.org.za 23794.77
anc.org.za 135775.07
da.org.za 91431.06
Every website has a section entitled “Useful Links”. How useful are these links for a user or is just another ploy by website owners to market products by giving a false perception of utility value?
I have gone over a lot of websites and realized that “Useful Links” are usually less than what they are supposed to be.
The idea of having a “Useful Links” section is equivalent to PlayBuzz and all the other viral marketing gimmicks to bait users to click on the background of false and sensational headlines.
So to continue with my experiment I went ahead and created a “Useful Links” section below this article and see if it is going to be useful to you the reader.
Please give feedback on your rating of this section:
Please help me with this research by answering the few questions below, thank you.
Source: South Africa’s most hated party
Please help me with this research by answering the few questions below, thank you.
Many of you are probably familiar how lotto works. Lotto is a game where a smaller group of numbers is chosen from a larger group. If you bet on the right combination, you win the jackpot prize, which is usually staggering.
Although there is a common concept about lotto, there are variations in different places or countries. In this post, I will use ours as an example. In South Africa, as of this writing, we have 6/49. Yes, you guessed it right, 6/49 means 6 numbers are randomly chosen from a set of numbers from 1 through 49. We use the 6/49 lotto in the following discussion.
In our country, the process of choosing numbers in a lotto is shown on television. First, balls of the same weight numbered from 1 through 49 are placed in a machine-operated transparent container. Next, the balls are mixed using a blower located at the bottom of the container. These balls are light enough to be floated by the air from the blower. Finally to determine the winning combination, a button is pushed to eject 6 balls, one after the other plus a bonus ball.
Now, suppose we bought a ticket of the 6/49 lotto, what is our chance of winning? Is there a way that we can win for sure?
We will answer the first question later. For the second question, yes, there is a way and, in principle, it’s simple. Just bet on all the possible number combinations.
Okay, so you’re not a maths genius and you do not know what I am talking about. Well, let me explain it in plain language. Suppose a mini-lotto has 5 numbers, say 1 through 5, and two numbers are drawn to determine the winner. The pair, {1,2} is a possible bet as well as {4,3}. It is clear that the order of the numbers chosen does not matter, so betting on {5,2} is the same as betting on {2,5}.
Finding all the possible pairs or combinations in the 2/5 mini-lottery is a bit easy. As we can see from the table, if we choose two numbers from 5 choices, we have 10 possible combinations or pairs (see red text). The pairs in black texts are just the reverse of those in red. We did not also include the pair having the same number, say (2,2), because in a lotto draw, drawn balls are not returned back into the container before drawing the next ball.
If we buy 10 tickets and bet on all the 10 pairs on the table, surely, we will win. We will use the same principle in winning the 6/49 lotto draw.
Systematic Betting
It is very hard to use the strategy above if we have six numbers taken from 49. There is no easy way to tally our bets. However, we can use a computer in finding all the possible number combinations. The method below maybe done:
Exercise:
Another mini-lotto has 5 balls and 3 balls to be drawn. List all the possible combinations. How many tickets should we buy for a sure win?
Winning the 6/49 lotto
In the 2/5 mini-lotto example above, we have two numbers chosen from a group of 5 numbers. This is equivalent to the combination of 5 numbers taken 2 at time. We know that 5 taken 2 at a time is equal to 
The Difficulties of Winning
There are, however, several difficulties in getting our fortune and becoming a millionaire, although it is definitely possible. Some of them are enumerated below.
Now, you probably understand why many mathematicians do not bother to buy lotto tickets, despite the fact that they know how to win. The answer to our second question above is that the chance of winning is 1 in 13,983,816.
What does that mean?
That means that if you buy a single 6-49 ticket and bet randomly 13,983,816 times, it is likely that you will win only once (well technically, that is a bit wrong, but I cannot use a better analogy). And, if the chance is so small, why is there that there is always a winner in almost every draw?
The Chance of Winning
Millions of people bet on lotto in each draw, so it is likely, that one or more would win. If 3 million people bet different combinations in one draw, that is equivalent to one person betting 6 million times which results to about 42.91% probability of winning. That is the reason that most of the time, there are lotto winners.
It has been done
Despite the numerous constraints, in 1995, two computer scientists from United States flew to Australia just to bet on a lottery. They used a computer to systematically bet on all combinations. One employee from a lottery outlet was surprised when they told him that they were going to buy 100,000 tickets. The problem was they didn’t have enough tickets, so they had not bet on all possible number combinations.
They won anyway.
There is no secret to win a lottery.
There are websites that lure and convince people that they have apps or formulas that increase the chance of winning a lottery. These websites are definitely FAKE. Any high school student with good understanding of basic probability will tell you the same thing.
The only secret to increase your chance of winning is to buy more tickets. The more tickets you buy, the higher your chance of winning. In the 6-49 lotto above, if you are going to buy 6,991,908 tickets, then you have a 50% chance of winning. That means that in two bets, you are likely to win one jackpot prize.
Adapted from: http://mathandmultimedia.com/2010/09/20/using-mathematics-to-win-the-lottery/
The Mathematical Genius in You – American Corner , Pretoria
Richard Branson, businessman, investor, and founder of Virgin Group, has penned a letter to his 10 year-old self.
He says that Andrew Johnston from Massachusetts sent him a #ChallengeRichard on Twitter to write a letter to the 10, 25, 50, and 65 year old versions of himself.
“As each stage in life was so different, I decided to pen four separate letters. Here’s the first: My letter to 10 year old me.”
Dear Ricky,
I’m writing to you from 55 years in the future. You’re now 65 years old, and while you’ve lived a happy and healthy life with no regrets, I have some advice for you.
You know how you love to play outdoors and explore the world around you? Never stop doing that. Always seek adventure. Learn to swim, find your own way home, and climb trees with Lindy, Vanessa and your friends.
The spirit of adventure will keep you curious; open your mind to great opportunities; and steer you on a lifelong quest to prove that impossible is just a word. You will have many wonderful adventures in your life with the most incredible people – I won’t give away exactly what they are, as I don’t want to spoil the fun.
On the topic of imagination, never stop dreaming and creating. Children are too often told that they cannot do this, and they shouldn’t do that – ignore them. Don’t ever let anyone prevent you from going after your dreams. Balloons, trains, planes and spaceships – whatever comes into your imagination, continue to dream big.
Your imagination is one of your greatest gifts – this will become more and more apparent when you enter secondary school. You will face many challenges, and often feel like you don’t fit in and that you can’t always keep up. Don’t let this hold you back. Use your imagination to find inventive ways around it. Your ability to think differently will become one of your biggest advantages in life – taking you places where most straight-A students will never go.
Challenges will be a constant in your life. You will make a lot of mistakes and fail time and time again. But don’t let this discourage you. Failure teaches us life’s greatest lessons, and often shows us a better way of doing things.
Don’t ever let failure get you down. Everyone fails. Your biggest heroes – including Douglas Bader, Ernest Shackleton and Scott of the Antarctic (did you know you’re related?) – have all failed at some point; but look what they achieved in the end.
And when you do make mistakes, know that your parents will always be there for you. While you may get in trouble at times, they always have your best interest at heart and love you unconditionally. You will understand this better when you become a father yourself. Be nice to your family and listen to your mum and dad – they will guide you through life and be there for you at every turn. Remember to treat others as you would want to be treated.
Above all, always remember to have fun. As you grow older you will realise just how important it is to do what you love and love what you do. Don’t waste your time doing things that don’t excite you. Find your passions and go out there and grab at them with both hands. Life is for living and try to enjoy every day.
Good luck
Richard
Source: http://businesstech.co.za/news/general/107253/a-letter-by-a-billionaire-entrepreneur-to-his-10-year-old-self-2/
The recent fumbling of numbers by President Jacob Zuma has given internet trolls ammunition to dehumanise him and attack his person. The question is, should we be attacking him or addressing a much bigger cancerous situation in our society? Zuma’s body language at the ANC’s NGC was evidence enough of someone who is suffering from maths anxiety which is a disease that pervades the corridors of South African society. I believe that instead of mocking the President we should use this as an opportunity to fix the nationwide fear of mathematics which is a key driver of the nation’s poor performance on the world stage.
Internet trolls always have a field day when the President makes a mistake with his numbers. Below are a few troll comments that show how insensitive and misguided these men and women who hide behind the veil of technology and proliferate nonsensical and at times diabolical ideologies through ill-thought comments:
“Even Grade 6’s can do better, no excuse for old sleepy goats who should make way for fresh young dynamic intelligent people who understand Ubuntu and who are not driven by greed and eaten up by hate and blame. We need leaders, doers, thinkers – not puppets. We are going backwards and our beautiful country and its people deserve more than the rubbish we have to see leading this country.” – Tricia Sutherland
“Murray McGibbon You can’t blame the electorate who voted him in. They are just as brainless as he. Nice guy, on the surface? Just take a shower when you have sex with a HIV person and you will not get the virus according to him.” – Chris Joubert
“SA is @#^$&%* … things look gloomy …. he can’t read … he can’t count – how on earth is he going to lead a country … we continue to see repeated incompetence and lack of value and ethics in their government roles.” – Jerome Quentin Sullivan
“I don’t laugh at Zuma. I laugh at the black imbeciles who voted him and his party into power. What a bunch of idiots!” – Jackie Killian
“Number will make you shake. Thatha Mr President#” – Xolani Xaba
“Keep making excuses. He can’t read the number 1 200 000. You must be so proud. Is this the best you have? This is the person you choose to represent you. Do you really have no one better” – Jason Nolan
The different comments above do not serve to help anyone but are full of hate and cynicism. Why would these people who happen to be someone’s father, mother, sister or brother hide behind the internet and spread hate and racism? Most of the comments do not have bearing towards the maths illiteracy at hand but go on and attack the persona of the President and those who elected the ANC into power. I believe that those who are convinced that Zuma is bad for the country and go on and write the hogwash comments like the examples above then they too are not good enough to be South Africans and need help urgently.
Instead of looking for solutions they just steal and destroy the confidence of the President and the nation at large. I stand to blame Zuma’s speech writers who have not dealt with the issue adequately as it can be resolved by simply writing the numbers in words.
Apartheid was a diabolic system that excluded blacks from quality education and other means of economic emancipation and Jacob Zuma is one of the unfortunate people to be deprived of a good mathematics education. It is worth celebrating the fact that out of nothing he rose the ranks to become the President of the country and has done his best to self-educate. Privileged white people should not take this for granted; his inability to be sophisticated in the way you want is a direct consequence of white supremacy laws that were evil and trampled upon black lives.
Listening to the President saying out the numbers at the ANC’s NGC I saw the effects of mathematical anxiety which some of the trolls suffer from ( I wish to challenge those attacking Zuma to take a maths test and see what their results look like). This is a performance disease that can be found in any South African maths class. Maths anxiety is “a feeling of tension, apprehension, or fear that interferes with maths performance”. The comedic jig that the President did was compensatory behaviour to try and cope with the anxiety associated with reading large numbers. There was precedence of huge mistakes so the tension was high for him and this is only normal and proves the point that he needs a confidence boost of some sort.
I have seen mathematical anxiety in many situations around the country. One big example is daily commuters in taxis who are afraid of sitting in the front passenger seat as this entails collecting and counting all the passengers’ fares. The chances of the amounts not balancing are high thus commuters fear the effects of getting the fare mathematics wrong.
The reason why South Africa is rock bottom in maths and science rankings is as a result of a societal fear of mathematics. Across the racial divide, parents and siblings continually reinforce the difficulty of mathematics of mathematics and the media is also playing its part in making the subject look like a monster because they are so keen to report on poor performance but do not exert as much energy to celebrate successes.
It is the duty of everyone in the South Africa to know that mathematics is a subject that can be done but this calls for positive reinforcement from everyone and robust support structures are needed for both learners and parents (Zuma included) to overcome the effects of divisive legacies and sub-optimal policies in place.
Never should we spread maths anxiety through laughing and mocking those who make mistakes because mathematics can only be learnt by getting things wrong and correcting them.
Let he/she who has never got a maths problem wrong stand up and laugh at Zuma. I bet no-one will stand. So let us fly high above insensitive trolls who do not have better things to do with their lives but spread hate, racism and violence.
Mathematical anxiety is real, if you suspect that you suffer from it or your child does then get professional help.
Reference articles:
http://edzaizvobwo.me/2015/02/06/maths-anxiety-help-stop-the-pandemic/
http://mypr.co.za/south-africa-afflicted-maths-anxiety/14717/2015/02
http://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/498/124274.html
http://www.mathgoodies.com/articles/math_anxiety.html
When American education is in crisis, policy makers and thought leaders roll out the STEM argument, that the science, technology, engineering and math curriculum needs to be emphasized as the cornerstone of American competitiveness in a world where Chinese students do lightening drills on the periodic table of the elements at age 4 (lol).
There is certainly no question that STEM education and STEM skills are a vital part of this country’s edge, but many educators would argue that STEM is missing a key set of creativity-related components that are equally critical to fostering a competitive and innovative workforce, and those skills are summarized under the letter “A” for Arts.
Two years ago, the Conference Board and Americans for the Arts, in association with the American Association of School Administrators (AASA), conducted a survey of executives and school superintendents. The study, called Ready to Innovate, demonstrated that more and more companies are looking for skill sets in their new employees that are much more arts/creativity-related than science/math-related. Companies want workers who can brainstorm, problem-solve, collaborate creatively and contribute/communicate new ideas.
And, interestingly, the study shows that managers are finding a dearth of creative workers trained in these “A” skills. So why is this not part of the overall national debate?
STEM should be amended to STEAM, an idea that has been kicking around with many people in the creative industries for a few years now, and became a key discussion point of the Americans for the Arts 2007 National Policy Roundtable where the Ready to Innovate study was first unveiled.
When we look at America’s exports, while technology is a key aspect of what we do, creative culture is the sizzle that sells the steak. Where would Apple be without the killer visual design of their products, their attention-grabbing ad campaigns, the seductive ease of their interface design? Without the “A,” there would be no outlet for all the S,T,E or M.
“A” skills in the 21st century actually apply to a larger, broader segment of the workforce than STEM skills. America’s competitiveness is equally distinguished by its creative industry productivity and exports, from movies, TV and games (traditionally the highest-ratio export business in the nation) to architecture (Bilbao Guggenheim, anyone?) to the myriad of leading writers, designers, graphic artists and others who use their imagination to create new products and services — and the infrastructure of creative enterprise managers (producers, editors, financiers, marketers) that support and run their businesses. This cadre, that sociologist Richard Florida defined in 2002 as the Creative Class, represents approximately 30 percent of the United States workforce. In contrast, a quick look at NSF statistics indicates that science and engineering makes up approximately 10 to12 percent of the United States workforce.
In my experience as an executive and entrepreneur sitting on both sides of the creative/technology fence, I need to hire technologists who know how to collaborate in teams, express themselves coherently, engagingly and persuasively, understand how to take and apply constructive criticism, and how to tell a good story. I don’t find these kids sitting alone at a lab table or buried in an algorithm. I find them taking art classes to understand how color and light really work, I find them in writing classes learning how to express themselves, I find them in cultural studies and critical theory classes learning about the world at large.
We need both sides of this equation. If we can do this: marry the technical with the creative — we are golden: competitive, innovative, and ahead of the curve. So let’s not forget the “A.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-tarnoff/stem-to-steam-recognizing_b_756519.html
The rapid change of technology has facilitated the vast mutation of business models of companies around the globe. Business as a platform has always existed but companies like Uber, Facebook, AirBnb and Google have taken the business model to greater heights.
This morning I got an email from Sangeet Paul Choudary, author of the Amazon bestseller entitled Platform Scale. Whenever I get his email I am excited as I know that he will have lots of insights into Platform thinking business models. Sangeet is truly the world’s leading Platform Thinking strategist and has worked with leading minds and companies in all industries. I had the privilege of meeting him and the other two platform strategy gurus namely, Geoffrey Parker and Marshall Van Alstyne (co-authors of Platform Revolution) earlier on this year at the 2015 MIT Platform Strategy Summit.
The special thing about this morning’s email is that he delivered 16 principles for digital transformation adapted from his life’s work especially the book, Platform Scale. The Platform Manifesto is a collection of principles that succinctly defines how different aspects of business transform in a world of platforms. The principles as outlined by Sangeet are as follows:
Quotes by Sangeet:
“Pipes have long served as the dominant business design for the industrial economy. Firms build products or craft services, push them out, and sell them to customers. Value is produced upstream and consumed downstream, creating a linear flow of value, much like water flowing through a pipe. In effect, pipes were designed to enable the flow of value in a straight line.
Pipes appear in nearly every area of modern industry. The traditional manufacturing supply chain runs on a pipe model. Every consumer good that finds its way into our hands comes down a pipe that constantly adds value to the product. Our service organizations work like pipes; they aggregate the resources for service provision and deliver those services to clients. Traditional media – television, radio, and newspapers – are pipes pushing content to us. Our education system often works like a pipe where teachers push “knowledge” to receptive students. There is a linear movement of value from a producer to one or many consumers in all examples of pipe businesses.”
“We are in the midst of trans-formative shift in business design as business models move from pipes to platforms.
Three forces today – increasing connectedness, decentralized production, and the rise of artificial intelligence – are driving a whole new design for business.
The emerging design of business is that of a platform. Some of the fastest-scaling businesses of the last decade – Google, Face- book, Apple, Uber, and Airbnb – leverage the platform business model. These businesses create a plug-and-play infrastructure that enables producers and consumers of value to connect and interact with each other in a manner that wasn’t possible in the past. Facebook provides an infra- structure for users to connect with each other and enables interactions between them. Uber coordinates drivers and passengers toward economic exchanges. Many businesses today act as platforms enabling interactions among their participants.
Platforms allow participants to co-create and exchange value with each other. External developers can extend platform functionality using its APIs and contribute back to the very infrastructure of the business. Platform users who act as producers can create value on the platform for other users to consume.
This changes the very design of the business model. While pipes created and pushed value out to consumers, platforms allow external producers and consumers to exchange value with each other.”
Please check out our STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics ) Platform where you can be part of a larger community asking and answering questions from students from allover Africa. Spread the word o as many people as possible to make this FREE platform a success.
Video post by @edzaizvobwo.
Source: MathsGenius Video Tutorial Series brought to you by SABC Education
Make a positive impact on someone’s life today whilst exercising your brain
Forget Sudoku, MathsGenius Questions and Answers are real maths problems requiring sustained concentration, critical thinking, research, creativity, and synthesis of knowledge. By visiting the FREE website www.mathsgenius.co.za and assisting with a question you are contributing to a bigger cause in Africa i.e. Empowering individuals to appreciate mathematics and general problem solving for poverty reduction. Developing a solution is incredibly rewarding and an unparalleled mental workout.
“I love this site as a model for community problem solving that has options for thinkers at any level—even if you are not a mathematician, or are just starting out in mathematics, it’s an excellent way to hone your critical thinking and creativity and contributing to the solution of social ills.” – Primate
Promote yourself whilst earning points
Solving a mathematics problem is an impressive feat — many MathsGenius community members who are Tutors have amassed a lot of followers through exhibiting their expertise by contributing to answers. Your active participation is an accomplishment on its own and is guaranteed to attract attention and start conversations. If you are not a tutor then you will increase your sphere of influence and help more people become better problem solvers and decision makers.
Mathematical Thinking for entrepreneurial Success now @ Old Mutual HQ,in SAndton tomorrow
Venue: OLD MUTUAL HEADQUATERS – SIYAKHULA BUILDING
93 Grayston Drive,
Cnr of West Road South (Next to McDonalds/Opp Investec)
Sandton, Johannesburg
Gauteng, South Africa
Time: 10:00AM
Entrance FEE: FREE
One of the most counter-intuitive traits that can hurt entrepreneurs is smarts. Yes, the more successful you are and the more talents you have, the harder it is to run a business.
While you may think that being smart, motivated and talented would logically make someone the best possible candidate for entrepreneurship, unfortunately, this is often not the case.
The ‘I’m better than everyone at every task’ challenge.
The smart-people problem starts back in school when the dreaded “group projects” are first assigned. Knowing the 80/20 rule for work (80% of all work is done by 20% of the people), what do you think happens in every group project? The smartest and most talented people in each group decide that they are going to do the lion’s share of the work. They don’t want to risk their grade in the class by dividing the work equally and hoping that Timmy (the guy who is absent from class two days a week on average and sleeps through class on the other three days) does his part well, if he remembers to do it at all. In school, there isn’t any benefit in trying to get Timmy up to speed quickly. Forget that — the smart people just take over and do the whole project themselves.
And thus begins the smart-people work cycle. The smartest people do just about everything better than most everyone else. They write better, plan better and reason better. They are better, until it comes to running a business. Then, they are not better; they are screwed.
There are only 24 hours in each day and a person does need to sleep, eat, shower and do certain other things. So, each day, this smart person tries to do everything himself, because he can’t stand someone else doing a job badly. Then, he is stuck with the one-man band “job-business” and ends up not being able to grow.
Why slackers can reign supreme as entrepreneurs.
It is interesting, but actually, some of the slackers are better suited for entrepreneurship than the “smart” people. Why? They figured out early on to surround themselves with smart people who would do the work. They know how to delegate and sometimes, how to manipulate other people into doing things that they don’t want to do.
You’re only as smart as you can automate.
Ideally, smart people would just be able to convey their talents to others. But since the smart people are so used to doing everything themselves, they don’t learn the key skills for making their business successful, including automating and delegating as many tasks as possible. As a smart person, you need to use your smarts and talents to boil down their essence in an easy to follow format that anyone can replicate.
Too smart for your own good.
Smart and talented people also often have a flair for the unusual, complicated or different. They don’t like to follow the KISS principle (keep it simple, stupid), which is required to make a business succeed.
If you think of the assembly line in a fantastic manufacturing plant or the global presence of McDonald’s, they both seem complex, but in reality, they are a series of incredibly simple functions. Every single task is broken down into easy-to-follow steps. The assembly line worker repeatedly performs a few tasks that are specifically defined. So does the McDonald’s cook, cashier and drive-thru order taker. There is little input from these individuals, as everything has been standardized for them.
Some of the largest, most successful businesses in the world aren’t staffed in their majority by the smartest people. They are actually staffed in large part by regular, average (and sometimes, stupid) people. These successful entities have just a few people who are smart enough to standardize, automate and delegate the majority of the tasks in a way that can’t be screwed up by their average employees.
So, being smart or talented isn’t going to help you unless you can use those smarts to figure out a way to simplify those tasks that will make a business successful. This isn’t easy, because it goes against everything that you have ever done and is counter to how you were taught to think. However, it is necessary for a business to succeed and why smarts and talent alone don’t predict entrepreneurial success.
Too much to lose.
Another issue with the smart people starting businesses is that they often have the most to lose. The smarter you are — unless you have the social graces of a wild ape — the more options you have available to you. You will be able to make a lot of money in a variety of fields and have room in your career to become promoted and make even more money.
This means that when you start a business, you have a lot more to risk than someone who makes less money and has fewer career options. This is often referred to as the “golden handcuffs” dilemma. Because you have more to risk, this means that you need to have a business opportunity that is going to provide an even bigger reward for it to be worth it to you.
If you make $250,000 a year (or have an opportunity to do so), your business is going to have to be five times more successful than the business of someone making $50,000 a year to get the same return. Additionally, it is a lot harder to found a business that will double your yearly profit when you make $250,000 a year than it would be if you make $50,000 a year.
So, with the most to lose, a wide range of other options available and the penchant for more intricate, complex endeavors, don’t be surprised when the person “Most Likely to Succeed” from high school ends up in corporate America and it is one of the more average students that finds success in his or her own business.
Carol Roth is an entrepreneur and Author
Source: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/240861
This blog is adapted from her bestselling book, The Entrepreneur Equation.
How can mathematics give an unfair advantage to entrepreneurs?
George Pólya, one of the most influential mathematicians of the twentieth century, said that “mathematics is not a spectator sport”. Entrepreneurs, like mathematicians, do not sit in the spectator’s box, they are doers who improve the economy through the creation of new ideas, products and firms. But are there any other analogies between mathematics and entrepreneurship? Can mathematics training give an advantage to entrepreneurs?
A study by Saras Sarasvathy, a cognitive scientist, showed that expert entrepreneurs share a common way of thinking that defines them. Contrary to common belief, entrepreneurs do not use “causal thinking”. The latter is mostly followed by managers who employ given means to achieve predetermined goals. In contrast, entrepreneurs use “effectual thinking”. They form new ideas and imagine new possibilities based on available means.
While causal reasoning does not necessarily involve creative thinking, creativity is an innate attribute of effectual reasoning. To contrast the two types of reasoning, Saras Sarasvathy gives as an example the task of cooking a meal. A chef who prepares a specific menu by looking for the right ingredients and following the recipes for the dishes in the menu, follows a causal process. In the effectual process the chef is not given a menu and is asked to cook a meal with the available ingredients.
Effectual thinking is a heuristic way of reasoning that requires imagination and risk-taking. And it this heuristic attribute of the entrepreneurial reasoning that makes mathematical training advantageous to any aspiring entrepreneur.
A heuristic is a problem solving technique, widely used in mathematics, whose purpose is to discover. It involves creating a speculative formulation and then use investigation to reach an outcome. In 1994, Saunders Mac Lane, offered intuition, trial, error, speculation, conjecture, proof as the sequence in which we come to understand and develop mathematics. My task here is to explore whether this reasoning sequence is relevant to entrepreneurship.
Intuition emerges from existing knowledge and experience. Ideas, like money, do not fall from a helicopter. Mathematicians and entrepreneurs get ideas for their next research project or venture from what they know and what they are good at.
Trial and error is used to test whether an idea works. Trial and error is a process with an uncertain outcome during which new knowledge and experience is gained. Trying out an idea for the first time can be daunting. It is the phase of discovery that one is faced with uncharted territory. It is the time that one has to face and deal with failure. Mathematicians learn to do this by viewing every failed trial as a step closer to success. A failed trial just eliminates one possible path and improves one’s insight about what does and what does not work. Trial and error is a dynamic process where the original idea is tested, shaped and re-shaped. At the end of this process either we have an idea that seems workable or we are looking for new goals. Is this process any different for entrepreneurs? Mathematicians and entrepreneurs learn to embrace failure and uncertainty.
Speculation After a sufficient number of trials and errors one is now able to make an informed guess on whether the initial intuition led to a workable idea.
Conjecture For a mathematician a conjectured is a proposition that seems to be correct (based on the previous process) and needs to be proven. For an entrepreneur it could be a new product or service that needs consumer approval.
Proof is the last step of the investigation and it can lead either to success or to failure. A mathematician needs to use rigorous analytical tools to verify the conjecture and an entrepreneur needs to devise a marketing strategy to promote a new product and gain customer support. Although proof seems to be the last step in a creative reasoning process it is also the first for the next idea.
Based on my knowledge and experience I feel that pure mathematical training could be beneficial to an entrepreneur’s first steps in a new venture. This post is the first trial of this seemingly bizarre idea. Do you concur with this rational?
Dr Eleni Katirtzoglou is a Guest Lecturer at the London School of Economics and Political Science
Source: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140708183646-131466034-how-can-mathematics-give-an-unfair-advantage-to-entrepreneurs
During the time of the Lord Buddah lived a legendary courtesan of extreme beauty and charm found under a mango tree in one of the royal gardens in Vaishali. Her beauty inspired both war and peace, and she used this to transform into a voice for the people. She is believed to be the most beautiful woman in the history of the world.
She was called Amrapali.
Almost thirty years ago, two Ancient Indian History students, Rajesh Ajmeraand Rajiv Arora set out to build an empire showcasing and infusing tribal, traditional and rare Indian design. With the goal of reviving India’s ancient art of jewelry on a global scale, they began by exploring the most remote and rural parts of India and the authentic and awe inspiring jewelry traditions therein. They worked with and learned from master craftsmen and goldsmiths. In addition to using these jewelry techniques and aesthetics…
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Treat learners like platforms that can grow in intellectual potency to levels never imagined possible as opposed to pipes that are bounded by their very nature.
24-02-2015 | Johannesburg | MGLI
Widespread entrepreneurial innovation is a big driver for South Africa’s success in growing the economy and creating jobs. “Increasing the number of researchers, enhancing research and innovation skills and outputs could contribute positively to improving South Africa’s economy and job creation efforts”, said Department of Science and Technology Minister, Naledi Pandor at the inaugural Innovation Bridge held at the CSIR. This is as true as it gets and can only be achieved if concerted efforts are made to develop the creativity, risk-taking and resilience necessary for sustainable and innovative entrepreneurship. These attributes have to be ingrained in the learners from a very young age. Is the country doing enough to foster creativity and real-life problem-solving from an early age?
The education system is not doing enough to equip learners with the necessary skills for them to flourish in entrepreneurial activities. One of the major problems is that the whole education ecosystem is based on a linear pipe system that does not encourage divergent growth of intellect and skills into the unknown. The proverbial “X” in the maths class should be that end-result or solution attained after learners transcend into an unknown world using known principles so as to fully traverse the terrain that is full of possibilities. Currently education policy makers have brought in platform ideas which are not fully appreciated by implementers who are deeply embedded in the pipeline era.
Our world as we know it has always been governed by pipes created during the Industrial Age. Big conglomerates, systems analysts adopted the pipe thinking in their modus operandi thus have become part and parcel of our lives. Companies like Google, Apple, Facebook and Microsoft have demonstrated that new and better models exist in our fast changing environments.
Education is remaining stagnant as the world moves thus rendering it irrelevant in preparing the learners for meaningful contribution to the global economy. The above-mentioned companies have done away with the pipe-based system and have adopted the platform-based system.
According to Netscape Founder and Venture Capitalist Mark Andreeson, “a platform is a system that can be…adapted to countless needs and niches that that the platform’s original developers could not possibly have contemplated…” Imagine the learners being the platforms and teachers and society being the developers. The developer endeavours to create a platform that can grow exponentially as a result of a robust base knowledge which allows for plugins, co-creation, third-party involvement and room for growth of the base knowledge. In the educational context, the learners ought to be able to scale their capabilities by fully manipulating the base knowledge. Different problems require different solutions thus learners should be able to develop plugin solutions in any given context.
The Department of Education and all other stakeholders have to seriously look at ways and means to give learners problem solving tools such that they will be able to scale their theoretical knowledge in real life scenarios. These are non-negotiable pre-requisites for an innovative entrepreneurial culture in the country.
Mathematical problem solving frameworks combined with design and creative thinking in a hackathon-like setting is a great starting point as learners solve real problems and call on different faculties of their brain to get to the solution in a team setting.
There are many ways of fostering sustainable innovation in South Africa if everyone comes out of the pipe thinking and utilise strategies that have room for exponential growth of the learners’ knowledge base which are more than just sufficient in tackling societal problems.
The technology companies offer an alternative model for seeing life that overturns and tramples the status quo of pipelines. Platform thinking is definitely not a pipe dream but a system of thinking that unlocks value for all players in the South African economy.
Voice of America’s appalling report on South African maths education
18-02-2015 | Johannesburg | MGLI
South African and international news agencies have always had a field day whenever maths and science rankings are published. Whether the rankings are objective or not, there is a dire need to address maths and science challenges in the country. It is the opinion of many that the lack of accountability in maths education has immensely contributed to the dismal performance in maths and science. Some quarters of society have cited the teacher unions as being culprits through their over-protection of teachers thus buffering mediocre teachers from being flushed out of the system.
I will not get involved in the mudslinging but will express my disgust at the poor levels of journalism that are being shown whereby the “South African maths education crisis” is continually churned in publications without giving any tangible contribution to the solution. Journalists have surely found a story-filler such that when they do not have something interesting to write about they simply attack the government and the education system.
Anita Powell, a Southern African based reporter for The Voice of America News has written a poorly researched South African maths education article which tends towards attacking the person of Minister Angie Motshekga and President Jacob Zuma. In her article on the 17th of February 2015 entitled “In South Africa, Math Skills Dangerously Lagging” http://www.voanews.com/content/south-africa-math-skills-lagging/2647263.html Powell shows that she is reporting on a subject she did not immerse herself in but merely repeated what she had heard through the grapevine.
Below are the fallacies and inconsistencies I have come up with:
This part of Powell’s article shows that report is intended on sensationalism at the expense of the truth and the hard work associated with researching a good story. For Powell to conclude that poor standards of maths education are the cause is treasonous. How did she come to that conclusion? I challenge her to reveal her raw data and the research methodology.
It is sad that the world is full of journalists who report in a very irresponsible manner and get away with it. It is surprising how such a poorly researched article was passed by the editor of the publication. Journalists should stay true to their calling of truth seeking and informing the public without fear or favour.
Powell’s article is just but one article and is not the worst in the crop of badly written articles. The standards should be maintained to gain credibility of the public in this information age where access to information is easy and cheap. Journalists ought to give us the public a reason to come back to their publication. Everyone in society should be rolling their sleeves to contribute to the solution as opposed to being a churner of negative news without being part of the solution.
I challenge Powell to a Grade 6 maths test and we can ascertain her mathematical ability based on her speed of responses and lack of mistakes in the process.
16-02-2015 | Johannesburg | MGLI
#SONA2015 was full of drama. Most South Africans were left wondering if this is the political tipping point of the “Rainbow Nation”. Writing in the Daily Maverick, Democratic Alliance’s Parliamentary leader Mmusi Maimane said, “The events of 12 February 2015 will remain an indelible blot in the history books that will be written about South Africa’s young democracy. What happened inside the Parliamentary Precinct, as well as on the streets of Cape Town make for a perfect storm, painting the ANC as a government and party that rules rather than governs.” As a member of an opposition party, Maimane is expected to give an anti-ANC statement. Can the problem be attributed to one political party? Is it a problem with the parliamentary system itself? Are our parliamentarians and the presiding officers adequately equipped to be the custodians of this democracy? Has parliament evolved with its people and the times?
Speaking at a discussion session hosted by The Thabo Mbeki Leadership Institute (TMALI), former President Thabo Mbeki said, “The Presiding Officers were diligent in administering parliamentary rules but it was a grave mistake as they attempted to solve a political problem using administrative instruments. You cannot solve a political issue using administrative rules; a political problem requires a political solution”.
Mbeki’s statement begs us to investigate further and ask ourselves as Africans not just South Africans whether we truly understand the purpose and functions of institutions like parliament. Why has democracy as defined by the West continually failed in Africa? Have we copied and pasted systems that are not relevant in our context? Do parliamentarians really have to wear suits? Is the Western definition of a dignified function the same as ours?
Africa has been a victim of culture imposition since the onset of colonialism and this has continued unabated to the present day. At independence, African countries have consistently adopted exotic policies and administrative cultures which are not necessarily optimal for their contexts and norms. It is worthwhile for different countries to do a serious introspection without prejudice to keep western traditions that add value and discard those that clash with our norms and are non-value adding. This question should not be confined to how things are done but should traverse the whole spectrum of African society.
Is democracy as defined by the West the best for Africa? Is the dichotomy of democracy and development a reality or a means by which stronger countries control weaker ones? Are the development metrics truly representative? Are we telling our own story from our own perspective?
The fact that the presiding officers used parliamentary rules like they were laws of gravity which have no room for discretion and common sense then it leaves the continent wondering if these well-meaning individuals are but just parrots reading from a script they do not fully understand. The “parrot-syndrome” cuts across our education system which has brilliant policies on paper but implementation is almost impossible as a result of the policies not being contextualised for the implementers.
#SONA2015 showed us that the parliamentary system is one that is not owned by South Africans but is a copy and paste from some Western country that we do not fully understand or even appreciate. It is analogous to a PSL team adopting the same formation as Real Madrid without personnel considerations. To use the Real Madrid formation the team needs a Christiano Ronaldo. Clearly the parliamentary system is not a perfect fit for the players involved. Like Julius I will not be fazed by a monotonous Speaker who continually calls out “Order Honourable” in a rigid non-evolving system. I doubt that statement can deter 75% of the country from expressing themselves.
#SONA2015 is a perfect excuse for Africa to re-evaluate its values, modus operandi and re-organise for the benefit of the ordinary men and women who played their part in the democratic process through their votes. It calls for innovation on the part of those in power to redefine the role of Parliament for the benefit of the voter. We are in the information age, should we even have a group of men and women gathering to discuss our future when we can simply converge on an online platform and air our views. I believe that President Zuma wasted an opportunity for a technological revolution by remotely delivering #SONA2015 via a hologram or social media, video conferencing and other platforms considering that the EFF had threatened to disrupt. If I were President I would have jumped onto this opportunity to inspire the nation to be truly transformative and embrace technology as a problem solver. Alas, traditions are traditions and we inflexibly follow them like sheep to the slaughter-house.
Let us all work together and come up with truly African systems that work for Africans. Let us solve our problems in our own ways.
16-02-2015 | Johannesburg | MGLI
By Edzai Conilias Zvobwo
GOOGLE has announced that it will be shutting down Helpouts on the 20th of April 2015. Helpouts is a Google service that connects users with experts on topics (health, home improvement, beauty, academic, etc.) which went live in 2013. The service allows users to get real-time video advice and solutions from experts who actually know the subject content for free or at a fee. Real-time video streaming provides a tutoring solution that is personalised and is closest to physical human contact. In the announcement, Google stated that the Helpouts community had not grown at the pace they had expected.
With the Gauteng MEC for Education, Panyaza Lesufi pushing for paperless classrooms it is important to reflect on the risks and challenges faced by Helpouts to understand the online learning space so as to mitigate them optimally for the South African context. History has witnessed big corporations and start-ups like Skype and Tutorspree shut down live tutoring services as a result of low viability. In the cases of Helpouts, Tutorspree and Skype it was never a shortage of money but the low appetite for the service that has led to shut downs.
The general sentiment amongst South Africans is that data costs are too high and they need a “real person” to teach, making these the major drivers for lack of interest in live video tutoring and streaming in general. It is necessary and sufficient that government and other educational technology service providers diligently measure the return on investment of the different technologies being deployed into schools. Critical questions ought to be addressed on the optimal usage of these technologies and infrastructure. Are the technology solutions a correct fit for the intended beneficiaries? How does the economic status of learners affect their usage of these technologies? Are teachers and learners fully utilising them? Is the curriculum being aligned with the technological improvements? Is there sufficient support to significantly perpetuate this technological revolution beyond the classroom?
According to Educational psychologist Benjamin Bloom, “The average student who has been tutored one-to-one performed significantly better than students taught solely by conventional classroom methods. Tutoring is an important part of education, particularly for students who don’t learn well in large classrooms or lecture environments”. MathsGenius Leadership Institute (MGLI) strongly advocates for Individual Social Responsibility (ISR) as a major component of the education solution, whereby every resident of South Africa reinvests their knowledge into the educational system through tutoring or otherwise and real-time video tutoring has always been a promising channel to achieve this. Now with major corporations showing that is not as viable a business then it is paramount that South African start-ups and government find ways to enhance knowledge sharing in a way that is attractive to the public and is economically viable for sustainability. Worksheet-based learning management systems are the next best solutions to providing seamless online tutoring at a low cost across technology platforms.
The technology space is an ever rapidly evolving ecosystem with constantly shifting challenges. It is highly beneficial for policy makers and entrepreneurs to take this into consideration as replacement costs have to be factored in the initial costing of technology solutions. What is useful and popular today might be out-dated in a year’s time thus it is vital that technological evolution considerations be fully embedded in the deployment plans. Millennials are fast changing human beings who will not hesitate to ditch out-dated and irrelevant technologies.
Educational technology solutions ought to be attractive to the users, cost-effective whilst flexible to keep up with the evolving ecosystem to remain relevant.
Mathematics’ contribution to the country’s innovation process has been overrated as it is only a part of the process.
09-01-2015 | Johannesburg | MGLI
South Africa’s cry for improvement in maths and science performance has been unprecedented as a result of learners’ poor performance as reflected in various international ranking systems. With maths and science proficiency being used as a proxy for educational quality, this has led to members of the public distrusting the government’s ability to deliver worthwhile education to their children. Is maths and science proficiency South Africa’s answer to its complex socio-economic problems that range from unemployment to innovation and complex problem solving?
Speaking at the inaugural DST Innovation Bridge, Honourable Minister of Science and Technology, Naledi Pandor said, “Knowledge is the currency of the global economy. If South Africa wants to continue to compete in the 21st century, we must support research and innovation that will generate growth and jobs, now and in the future”. Mathematics education has always been seen as the key driver of innovative problem solving for the country.
Maths education in South Africa is packaged wrongly and does not serve the country much good as it is not contextualised for optimal utility value and meaning for both learners and society. The country needs to position maths education so that it capacitates learners with skills for creative problem solving and innovation in all sectors of the economy. The country’s issues are complex and require experts who can navigate through the fuzziness to effectively cure society of its ills through creative and unbounded problem solving.
The generalised model of a typical maths lesson in South Africa is that a question/problem is provided and learners have to solve the problem using learnt principles and formulae. This model is firmly rooted in the rationalistic tradition that emanated from the mechanised industrial age problem solving methodologies. The proliferation of the model is a direct result of the false supremacy placed on sciences over arts since the Renaissance Age. This linear mechanistic structure robs learners the chance to sharpen their exploration and problem identification skills which are integral to innovation and problem solving as it focuses on sequential application of methods to given problems which is not a simulation of real life. In life one has to first identify the real problem through critical reasoning, exploration and research.
If recalibrating the maths curriculum is an onerous job then it is worthwhile to consider increasing the emphasis on the so-called “peripheral subjects” like art and design. These subjects complement maths as they offer learners the opportunity for divergent thinking, questioning and problem formulation from one’s unique perspective which is useful in society. Policy makers in the education space can align maths and design to be complementary subjects that produce an all-round individual who has the freedom to express creativity in problem solving whilst being process disciplined and solution oriented.
Maths alone will produce convergent linear thinkers who are slaves to process, abstract rules and methods which are not necessarily great alone for innovation and creative problem solving. Design offers freedom to roam, wonder, critically question, and understand the status quo of situations and perceived problems. Design skills coupled with mathematical modelling of phenomena will definitely produce learners who can contribute positively to the country’s problems.
For the amalgamation of design and maths to be successful, it is paramount that industry specialists, academics and policy makers be united and have definiteness of purpose in unifying the seemingly different fields for the benefit of the country to solve its own problems.
As part of a 2014 book cover design programme that I ran in conjunction with the Department of Science and Technology’s, Technology Innovation Agency (TIA), it was evidently sad that most poor rural and township schools did not offer art and design owing to the purported prohibitive operating costs. This is robbing the majority of learners the opportunity to develop critical reasoning, problem solving and solution formulation skills which are critical in all sectors of the economy and society.
Edzai Conilias Zvobwo is the Chief Genius at MathsGenius Leadership Institute (MGLI) and is passionate about improving education as a precursor to a knowledge economy that is self-reliant. He is a well-known keynote and motivational educational speaker in the areas of problem solving and innovation.
Twitter: @edzaizvobwo
Blog: www.mathsgee.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mathsgenius-Leadership-Institute/178902912170274
Email: edzai@mathsgenius.co.za
06-01-2015 | Johannesburg | MGLI
Mathematical anxiety is one of the diseases that have surely spread through the human race without being detected and treated as a pandemic.
EBOLA, HIV and CANCER have received a lot of airtime in the media as their effects are physical and have a direct impact on people’s lives. Little has been done to awaken people’s attention towards the deadly implicit and indirect disease that more than 60% of the world suffers from. It is a disease that emanates from the school system as currently configured.
Mathematical anxiety has shaped the way society views the subject for centuries and this has constricted humanity’s ability to manipulate the subject so as to harness the possibilities that its mastery presents.
According to Wikipedia, Mark H. Ashcraft defines math anxiety as “a feeling of tension, apprehension, or fear that interferes with math performance” (2002, p. 1). Ashcraft (2002) suggests that highly anxious math students will avoid situations in which they have to perform mathematical calculations. Unfortunately, math avoidance results in less competency, exposure and math practice, leaving students more anxious and mathematically unprepared to achieve.
The direct effects of maths anxiety are the main reasons why the proficiency is low in South Africa and the rest of the world. The sources of this disease are all around us in the form of parents, brothers, teachers, friends, movies and other sources of information who push the notion that one ought to have special genes in order to be a maths genius. This false notion has been spread through society since the pre-Renaissance period. The subject has always been viewed as a preserve of a few talented, special white men who were hand-picked by God to decipher some of his messages to humanity. This grandiose picture of maths and the abstract manner in which the subject is presented reinforces the false exclusivity of mathematical acumen.
As a mitigation measure to alleviate humanity from the monster it created out of the beautiful subject called mathematics, it is necessary that deliberate interventions be undertaken to liberate all the learners’ support structures from the fear of maths. This is analogous to the medical isolation and treatment of affected individuals. We have to find ways of stopping the transmission of mathematical anxiety by affected individuals to the young ones who have a positive view on life.
Let us stop the spread of mathematical anxiety through positive messaging and reinforcing positive behaviour traits with respect to the subject. Like polio, we can eradicate this disease if we are deliberate in our actions and non-actions. Let’s give the young ones a chance at maths by spreading the word that maths can be done by all if taught well. We need to move away from maths being a series of rules and algorithms that have to be obeyed to a more liberal all-encompassing system that trains individuals to be prolific problem solvers regardless of learning style, race and gender.
Yes we can! Let us kick mathematical anxiety out.
By Edzai Conilias Zvobwo
2015-01-27 | MGLI | Johannesburg
On Monday, 5 January 2015, Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga announced the 2014 National Senior Certificate (NSC) results for the country and the provinces. The results were received with mixed feelings and in the spotlight was the national retention rate. According to Jessica Shelver, Spokesperson for Debbie Schäfer, Western Cape Minister of Education, the matric results have to be interpreted in a holistic manner that clearly summarises the learning journey of the Class of 2014 through focusing on two indicators, retention and number of bachelor degree passes. Are these indicators enough to tell the whole story?
Shelver stated that Western Cape had achieved the highest retention rate of 63.8% using Grade 10 as the baseline year in the learner survival analysis. The table below outlines retention rates per province over two years (2012 – 2014).
| Pupils in grade 10 in 2012 – PO schools only | Numbers who are enrolled to write the 2014 NSC – PO schools only | % of numbers enrolled in 2014 compared to 2012 | Ranking | % of learners not retained in the system since 2012 | |
| Eastern Cape | 145 683 | 67 087 | 46% | 5 | 54% |
| Free State | 58 599 | 26 104 | 44.5% | 6 | 55.5% |
| Gauteng | 176 138 | 91 644 | 52% | 3 | 48% |
| Limpopo | 172 398 | 70 288 | 40.7% | 8 | 59.3% |
| Mpumalanga | 91283 | 43 488 | 47.6% | 4 | 52.4% |
| North West | 67 409 | 26 001 | 38.5% | 9 | 61.5% |
| Northern Cape | 21 379 | 9 318 | 43.5% | 7 | 56.5% |
| KwaZulu-Natal | 259 326 | 134 835 | 55.4% | 2 | 44.6% |
| Western Cape | 73 114 | 46 730 | 63.8% | 1 | 36.2% |
With the government pushing for Universal Primary Education (UPE) access, the enrolment at Grade 1 has significantly increased therefore a closer analysis of the key drivers of learner churn should be conducted on a continuous basis. The national education plan assumes that primary school progression will improve automatically as a result of interventions designed to improve initial access and educational quality, however, improving the quality of education alone does not imply that learner survival will be improved as shown by the data from the Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality (SACMEQ) that exhibits a very high variation between mathematics test scores (a crude indicator of educational quality) and survival rates to Grade 5 (mainly determined by the cumulative dropout rates).
In as much as the retention rate and number of bachelor degree passes are measured they do not tell us the whole story of the learning journey. Indicators that the department can add to its analysis among others include:
To effectively contribute to the reduction of the dropout rate, the Department of Basic Education (DBE) has to:
As a recommendation, the DBE can consider automatic promotion as an alternative to forced repetitions.
Edzai Conilias Zvobwo is the Chief Genius at MathsGenius Leadership Institute (MGLI) and is passionate about improving education as a precursor to a knowledge economy that is self-reliant. He is a well-known keynote and motivational educational speaker in the areas of problem solving and innovation.
Twitter: @edzaizvobwo
Email: edzai@mathsgenius.co.za
2015-01-26
By Jeffrey L. Peyton, Founder
PlayTectonics.org
A System in Gridlock
The road to education reform is cluttered, littered, and choked with old kick-the-can ideas, overcrowded with self-anointed patriarchs and matriarchs–a sideshow of government educrats, platform speakers, Internet celebrities, union heads, publishing moguls, tech bigwigs and foundations hawking high tech panaceas, trailed by a parade of marchers, ranters, authors, TED Talkers, and social media people. The road is enveloped in a fog of noise and babble and goes nowhere. It’s fair to say that the system is doing the opposite of what it was originally intended to do. Instead of creatively and effectively preparing our youth, it has, in many ways and in many, many cases, become an academic gulag of stress and boredom-for students and teachers alike. “Our kids hate going to school,!” said a well-respected high school principal from Long Island.
None of the folks in this throng of reformers offers ideas–let alone solutions- that empower, elevate, captivate or give any reason for communities everywhere to move decisively or effectively in a new direction. They all call for change and have the necessary web site posting their particular platform or the next big event, but when it comes to dealing with a monster system that has learned how not to change, they go nowhere, because they, too, are part of the culture.. Besides the proverbial wait for Superman, what hope for change is out there?
To declare exactly what that hopeful something might be would, at this point, snuff the spark and disarm the imagination. But are our antennas even extended? Would people recognize innovation–even if it appeared in plain sight? Animals sense better than we when something big–an earthquake, tornado, or a storm–is close. Our pets signal better than we–with a bark or a slight wag of the tail–when that ride in the car is near–just a reach for the keys is enough to energize the space with possibility. This acute arousel is what’s missing on he road to education reform. We are waiting, if not for Superman, then how about a vibrant hot air balloon of an idea that lifts our vision above ourselves– that captivates our imagination and begins moving us all in the right direction? Sorry, bad idea–that big balloon would all-too-easily make a good target. Alrighty then– how about connecting some dots on a page? Just the suggestion or outline of something would do the trick–for starters.
What follows is a list of elements–dots on a page–requirements necessary for engaging communities across America to advance the cause of broad, sweeping transformation of our learning culture. These are not arbitrary dots placed any old way–they are points on a mind map delineated by the progression of journey. Although some might guess correctly one or two of the short answers to the following riddle-like questions, we suggest that the questions themselves serve as a suitable trail markers that point forward on a path of narrative, logic, order and science–a series of Elements required to meet the challenge of successful and sustained Change for the Better.
How do we know these Elements warrant consideration and contain the seeds of true potential? Just try them on for size. Compare them to your own list of requirements, and see if they provoke thought and spark a desire to know more.
Time & Grade—The elements described here evolved during a 40-year pioneering mission to tackle the problem of learning culture transformation. During the course of this journey, there were discoveries made, problems of culture to be pondered, questions that had to be answered, relationships to be forged, commitments to be made, and promises to be kept–and moving parts to be fabricated and engineered. Ultimately, dealing with a change-resistant learning culture has required the evolution of a viable and proven chemistry of unique moving parts and elements..
Is it Real? Careful reflection should make it possible for you to tell the difference between Education Reform that’s real and the kind that merely talks or sounds like reform. Some may consider this package of requirements oversimplified and grandiose, but boldness, imagination, simplcity and vision are what today’s reform cheerleaders and straight men truly lack.
Test 1. AUTHENTICITY: Is the idea simply big and deep enough? Is it a breathtaking Grand Canyon of an idea? Is it a genuine act of nature of geologic scale? ‘Culture Change’, for example, is an idea that’s‘Big & Deep’. How can you tell? Because not one reform expert talks seriously about changing the learning culture. They might have a clue as to what to change (we can all point to symptoms), but the details of how to ‘change it’ would stop them in their tracks. (If they did try to implement culture change, it would likely come via governmental decree.) Talk about culture change is cheap. If the talk were substantive, they would really have to be thinking way, way out of the box–’Big and Deep’–and actually be involved in the engineering and science of Culture Change. Imagine, if you will, change that’s powerful enough to transform, say, the three biggest change-resistant areas of the learning culture: 1) Communication, 2) Behavior, and 3) the Nature of Knowledge itself. Until reformers can systematically and systemically change those three elements for the long term, in a deep and substantive way, they should not be using the term ‘transformation’.
Why Focus on “Learning Culture?” —-and not just on fixing test scores? Because schools are isolated products that are part of a larger culture that has produced the factory-like model and social illnesses children face daily. Therefore, If enlightened change is ever to come to education, then we must address, as a whole, all that messy stuff in which schools exist–namely, the Learning Culture.
Besides, don’t our children deserve better than this unimaginative trek of stress and testing we feed them? Can’t we muster enough will to envision a new culture? Can we imagine a full spectrum transformation from ‘learning factory to learning habitat’? If all we do is try to fix and adjust every little thing in a system that is flawed and broken, then we persist in the interminable folly of fixing. If all we do is try to fix, rather than redefine and reinvent, then we remain blind to new possibilities.
To focus on Learning Culture does not mean changing the culture all at once. But if you can demonstrate culture change in individual classrooms–with direct impact on the learning and lives of all involved–in a consistent and predictable way–then the spread of culture change is achievable. But change cannot be achieved by law or administrative directive.
There is only one legitimate solution available to people who allow their young to remain trapped inside a system that cannot–and will not–change: The only solution going forward is creative. In short, the only way out is to create our way out. If you can’t imagine a way out, you’re locked in— and lost. .
Test 2. EVIDENCE. Is the idea clear enough to see or imagine? Does it inspire? Does it make you smile? What kind of change is being promoted? What’s on the platform? But calling for change is not good enough. Change must be engineered. It must be able to move past words and rhetoric. It must be able to move effortlessly past the gatekeepers. No permission from downtown or the Principal is required. It must rise above TED Talks, Marching, Ranting, and Clicking, and yet somehow have feet on the ground. It must take on a life of its own. In the hands, hearts, and minds of all involved. What kind of energy–if one exists at all–can fuel a dream like this?
Is the idea physical and self-sustaining? Is it built on human connectivity, courage, conviction, and vision above and beyond money that corporations and foundations typically throw at the problem to spotlight themselves? Is the idea strong enough to re-purpose and transform the neo-penal cell-block character of the school building, as we know it?
Is the Idea Organic and Viral? — Does the idea generate and spread the seeds of a new vision for change that can work in schools anywhere–and at any level? Does it have its own language, media, principles and learning science naturally embedded in its core? Does the idea point to change that can grow and be championed across international boundaries and root into local communities? Does the idea grow from the ground up–where children live–as opposed to being mandated from the top down? As has always been the solution.
Does the Idea Do Children Justice? Is the idea incontestable and inalienable? Do children fit seamlessly within–and embody– the idea? Is it synonomous with children–is it their birthright? Does it nourish and elevate the hearts, minds, and spirit of the young?
Does It Put Boots on the Ground? —. Perhaps most important, can the solution justifiably and appropriately involve students to fight for it in their own way? Beyond lip service, web site and poster images? Does the solution begin–and end—by enhancing the inherent power residing in kids to shape the learning culture in their own image, creating their own learning experiences and their own future? Does it make room for all kids, and compel adults to wisely move out of their way? Is it designed to grow young people who can think on their own two feet, and are prepared to navigate their world but equally ready to claim and change it?
Does the idea call for building small armies of actively involved kids and families trained to advance the language, ideas and tools of learning culture transformation–in the community and on the ground?
Does it Touch on the Human? — Does the idea advance on a fresh, counterintuitive innovation other than the power of technology as a key to change? Does the idea offer a solution based on the science of change itself? Does it advance an organizing principle rooted in our human legacy?
Does it Take the High Road? — Can the idea survive and grow-without the benefit of corporate support? Is it immune to bureaucratic, political, and commercial control. power and exploitation? Is the idea reflective of the highest attributes of American culture and ideals? Does it promote Fairness and Common Decency for All.
Does It Pass the ‘Economics’ Test? Is the solution self-funding? Does it provide a social entrepreneurial pathway forward? Is it based on a proven model–a process that is simple and straightforward to manage and drive–with plenty room for those involved to creatively adapt–and even own? Does the idea attract, involve and offer action-oriented community catalysts the opportunity to make money while making a difference–and is therefore able to grow and empower its proponents and participants?
Education for What?
Does the idea reach deeply into the hearts and minds of young people so that they can stand up to centuries of behavior that have led to –or allowed–War, Consumption, Waste, Exploitaiton and Enslavement to continue? Can it help humanize the young to neutralize the social and psychological need and desire to Bully, Scam, Mistrust, Hate, Kill, and pursue money at all costs over their humanity?
Is it powerful enough to supplant the current system while empowering the young to take full control over their time and their lives? Does it offer a new definition and purpose for education? Beyond academic knowledge as an end in itself, does it offer an authentic foundation for the practical use of knowledge, technology and skills gained through building, collaboration, and action?
For, in posing such questions, we must conclude that the only justifiable purpose for education is to empower individuals to control their own productivity and creativity and the fruits of their own labor.. – ANY OTHER REASON IS ILLEGITIMATE! (D. Hill, Founder, YES Across America)
As co-architect of a process that’s actually building on principles and processes that aspire to–and meet all of– the above requirements, I think you should be able to appreciate how innovative and far-reaching this is. Play Tectonics is perhaps far and away the most ambitious and comprehensive campaigns ever attempted to advance learning in an age of mass population–and it is timely. For if change is to come to Education–change that is deep and systemic–change that is sweeping, sustainable, authentic, incorruptible and unstoppable–it must be creative. If we are ever to escape the trappings of our archaic learning machinery, we must create our way out.
by Keith Devlin
We read all the time how poorly the US mathematics education system performs compared with other nations, particularly those we compete with economically. The most cited comparison study on which this dire conclusion is reached is PISA, short for Programme for International Student Assessment, organized by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
The PISA tests are administered in schools every three years to 15-year-olds, and cover mathematics, science, and reading literacy and problem-solving skills. The main focus of the first (PISA 2000) was reading, the second (PISA 2003) mathematics, and the most recent (PISA 2006) science. (Data for the assessment that took place in 2009 will be released in December of this year.) Tests are typically administered to between 4,500 and 10,000 students in each country.
Six countries have consistently made it to the top ten: Finland, Canada, Japan, Netherlands, Australia, and New Zealand. (Singapore, which also has a very successful mathematics education system that is frequently cited, does not participate in PISA.)
In PISA 2003, out of the 30 countries in the OECD, the United States ranked 18th in mathematics, 22nd in science, and 28th in reading literacy and problem solving. In 2006, American students ranked dead last, 25th out of 25, in math and 21st out of 30 in science. The US also scored worse than ranked countries outside the OECD (considered to be developing nations) like Russia, Azerbaijan, Slovenia, and Estonia. Only 1 percent of American 15-year-olds could perform at the highest level, and 27 countries had a higher percentage of 15-year-olds who performed at level 6. And 28 percent of US students appear to have essentially no math skills at all.
The release of each new set of PISA results produces predictable rallying cries from politicians to “turn things around” and “put the US back at the top.” But is this realistic? And perhaps more to the point, what does it mean to be “at the top”?
In terms of sheer numbers, which is the statistic of most interest to the leaders of large corporations who are faced with hiring enough mathematically-qualified employees, we cannot hope to keep up with China (population of 1.3 billion) or India (population 1.1 billion). In both countries there is enormous pressure on children to secure a good education leading to a secure future, both parental and self-motivational, and that will inevitably produce more and more highly able mathematicians, scientists, and engineers. Will the US, with a total population of 300 million (less than a third of each of those two giants), produce individuals equal to those from China and India. Of course we will; no nation has all the world’s human talent. But in terms of the overall numbers, there is no way we will be able to keep up. So if being at the top means we produce more well qualified, able mathematical citizens than any other country, we cannot possibly succeed.
Or does being a “at the top” mean that US students will be at or near the top in international rankings such as PISA, which is the statistic that politicians seem to care most about? I seriously doubt we can achieve that. All those countries I listed that come out near the top are much smaller and cohesive than the US, and have generated systemic change in a way that our size and structure renders impossible.
To take one example, if you look at the country that came out at the very top in math on the last the PISA assessment, Finland, you find it has an educational system and societal values very different from the US:
By contrast, in the US: (1) some states have tried to demand this only to find that there are no teachers available with many leaving the profession within five years; (2) fewer and fewer students are entering the teaching profession and typically there is little or no encouragement in academic departments on campus for teachers at any level including graduate school; (3) teachers’ salaries are very low compared with other professions; (4) teaching is not valued and there is almost no encouragement for those entering the profession; and (5) professional development is required but is rarely academically oriented toward content; social issues have taken precedent in many schools.
You can, of course, lament this state of affairs all you want, but that is the playing field on which those of us with a stake in US education have to operate. So if we really want to change things (rather than just score political points and advance careers by empty rhetoric) let’s work with what we’ve got. As one of the most innovative and resourceful nations on Earth, we might just find that, in the process, we find ourselves once more in a leadership role.
The first thing we should do is admit that the existing approach simply does not work for us, and there is no way it can be made to work. Then we need to step back and take a fresh look at the situation. What exactly do we want to occur and why?
I’ll admit that I would like to see us adopt an education system like those in Finland or Singapore, having the features I listed above. But even if we could – and as I already indicated, I do not think it would be possible in the US – I don’t think it would be enough any more. The world has changed. In the words of author Thomas Friedman today’s world is (economically) flat. (The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century) Focusing entirely on the business and commercial worlds, traditional mathematical tasks can be outsourced even more easily than manufacturing, at electron speed with virtually no shipping cost. A designer in New York or San Francisco who wants a certain set of equations solved can simply email them to a specialist center in India and the answer will be emailed back by the next morning.
Faced with that economic reality, the only viable response for the US is to do what it has for the past century, and what we have already done with manufacturing, and stay ahead of the curve as the world’s main innovation engine. Just how long this strategy will work is hard to predict – the future usually is – but I don’t think we have a better choice.
For many years, we have grown accustomed to the fact that advancement in an industrial society required a workforce that has mathematical skills. But if you look more closely, those skills fall into two categories. The first category comprises people who can take a new problem, say in manufacturing, identify and describe key features of the problem mathematically, and use that mathematical description to analyze the problem in a precise fashion. The second category comprises people who, given a mathematical problem (i.e., a problem already formulated in mathematical terms), can find its mathematical solution.
Hitherto, our mathematics education process has focused primarily on producing people of the second variety. As it turned out, some of those people always turned out to be good at the first kind of activities as well, and as a nation we did very well. But in today’s world, and the more so tomorrow’s, with a growing supply of type 2 mathematical people in other countries – a supply that will soon outnumber our own by an order of magnitude – our only viable strategy is to focus on the first kind of ability, and hope we can hold our own in that category.
In other words, the only mathematical niche I can see for the US – and, fortunately for us, it is a crucial niche in today’s world economy – is at the innovation end. Fortunately, innovation is an area where we still lead the world, in large part because our political system allows and rewards innovation, and also because it is very much a part of the American character.
(In case that last statement comes across as being American-centric, note that it surely is simply a reflection of our history. For several centuries, and particularly the last century, some of the most innovative people from around the world have flocked to our shores to make their fortune – or in many cases simply to survive. We have a culture of, and a liking for, innovation because that was one of the consequences of large-scale immigration. We took in many of the world’s innovators, taking advantage of the fact that one country’s troublemaker can be another’s innovator!)
Traditionally, a mathematician had to acquire mastery of a range of mathematical techniques, and be able to work alone for long periods, deeply focused on a specific mathematical problem. Doubtless there will continue to be native-born Americans who are attracted to that activity, and our education system should support them. We definitely need such individuals. But our future lies elsewhere, in producing mathematical thinkers that fall into my first category above: what I propose to call the innovative mathematical thinkers.
In order to exhibit the abilities I listed in category 1 above, this new breed of individuals (well, it’s not new, I just don’t think anyone has shone a spotlight on them before) will need to have, above all else, a good conceptual (in a functional sense) understanding of mathematics, its power, its scope, when and how it can be applied, and its limitations. They will also have to have a solid mastery of basic mathematical skills, but it does not have to be stellar. A far more important requirement is that they can work well in teams, often cross-disciplinary teams, they can see things in new ways, they can quickly come up to speed on a new technique that seems to be required, and they are very good at adapting old methods to new situations.
It should go without saying that possibly the worst way to educate such individuals is to force them through a traditional mathematics curriculum, with students working alone through a linear sequence of discrete mathematical topics. To produce the twenty-first century innovative mathematical thinker, you need project-based, group learning in which teams of students are presented with realistic problems that will require mathematical and other kinds of thinking for their solution.
Of course, you still need a curriculum, in the sense of a list of topics that students need to master at some point or other. What you do not want to do is proceed through it one topic after another as is current practice in the US. A common complaint about our current, topic-by-topic, curriculum-based approach to mathematics education is that it is “a mile wide and an inch deep.” It’s not that we teach more topics overall than, say, Finland or Singapore. Rather, we try to cover too many in a single year. The countries that perform well in PISA teach far fewer topics each year, but to a far greater depth. Instead of repeating many topics year after year, those countries merely provide revision of material learned well the previous year, and focus on new topics. A well thought out project-based approach could eliminate the mile-wide, inch-deep problem as well.
In the educational scenario I am describing, the teacher’s role is much more important than in the traditional system. In fact, technology has now rendered obsolete much of what teachers used to do. Except on rare occasions, today’s teacher should not be spending much time at the board explaining basic techniques. That form of instruction can now be found in videos and interactive instruction materials on the Web, much of it for free, where the student can proceed at her or his own pace, free from unwanted distractions by other students, and can stop the video at any moment, view a single frame for as long as required, and replay a segment as many times as necessary. Moreover, increasingly, such materials are being offered in a package that tracks each student’s progress and delivers new material at a rate that matches the student’s ability and past performance. (The non-profit Khan Academy is an example of such a resource that has garnered a lot of attention of late.)
This frees the teacher from being a very expensive delivery system that ships facts from textbooks into students’ notebooks (and hopefully into the students’ minds as well), to being a full-service learning resource. Teachers can diagnose what students understand already, including their typical misunderstandings, they can offer alternative representations, counter examples, examples to help make things clearer when they have had feedback from students, they can explain misconceptions, and they can put students in situations where they have to pay attention to a new idea.
I am not saying the teacher will never stand at the board and provide instruction. A well-designed class lesson can be extremely useful. For example, some of the best designed lessons in Japan and China and Singapore can be very effective, because they draw on what students already know and anticipate plausible misconceptions that can be genuinely constructed by thinking.
But overall, modern technology changes the balance between the different activities dramatically. In the traditional approach, students were supposed to acquire new facts and learn new techniques in class, and then practice them at home. In the twenty-first century educational system, these two can be, and in my view should be, completely interchanged: home is the primary location where the student acquires the facts and learns the methods (mostly from the Web), the classroom is where, with the help of other students and the all-important teacher, the student works through exercises to gain understanding, with the teacher engaging in all the activities I listed a moment ago.
With class projects driving the entire process, it is quite likely that different students will access different material at different times, in different orders, as each team tries their own approach. In the traditional educational model, no teacher could handle that kind of information delivery load, but Web videos take care of that with ease. The “facts of math” are few. What takes time and effort is learning how to make good use of those facts – learning how to think mathematically – and that is where there is no substitute for a good (human) teacher. That’s what today’s teacher should focus her or his time on.
The leadership role that the US has been used to, and clearly wants to maintain, is to be found, I suggest, in the growing strategic importance (particularly to the US) of innovative mathematical thinking, to give a name to the kind of activity I have described above. This is where our economic future lies as a nation. And that is what our educational system needs to embrace. It is an educational philosophy that our local-control, bottom-up, free-enterprise, federated social and governmental structures, and let me add our national character, are particularly well suited to. What we should be doing is not teaching the mathematics for the industrial age, but developing in our students the kind of free-thinking, novel ways of thinking about problems, making use of mathematics when required or appropriate, that are necessary in a nation whose economic well being depends upon constantly innovating.
Devlin’s Angle is updated at the beginning of each month. Find more columns here. Follow Keith Devlin on Twitter at @profkeithdevlin.
Mathematician Keith Devlin (email: devlin@stanford.edu) is the Executive Director of the Human-Sciences and Technologies Advanced Research Institute (H-STAR) at Stanford University and The Math Guy on NPR’s Weekend Edition. His most recent book for a general reader is The Unfinished Game: Pascal, Fermat, and the Seventeenth-Century Letter that Made the World Modern, published by Basic Books.
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2015-01-12
We have all come up with an excuse as to why our homework was not done. Back in the days the excuses ranged from “I didn’t have a pencil”, “My cat died” to “My textbook got stolen”.
We are now living in the future, the future that Michael Knight predicted in his series “Knight-rider”, cars can talk, drive themselves and it is no longer fantasy. Education has seen fundamental shifts and there is no longer a need for pen and paper as the era of computers has taken over. With these changes come modified excuses for not completing tasks, whether genuine or not humans will always be humans. Teachers, beware of the transformed excuses.
Below is my short compilation of homework excuses that will be mainstream in 2015 and beyond.
Do you have interesting excuses you can think of?
The theme of this series has been:How do you turn your small business into a very large business?I have spoken about how businesses like Walmart, McDonalds, Starbucks, were started. The founder ofWalmart, started what we would call today, “a flee market”, and yet he turned it into the world’s largest company, by sales, with annual revenue of nearly$500bn. The guy who built McDonalds began with what we would call a “hamburger joint”; and as someone said recently, even today, anyone can make a better hamburger than McDonalds, at home (certainly one that tastes better!), and yet it is a$30bn sales, global business. I spoke of a street corner coffee shop, called Starbucks, which is now a$15bn revenue company.A few months ago, I met one of the richest men, in America, and he told me about how his father, started a business delivering goods with a small truck; they are still in the same business: delivering goods with a small truck, except now they have tensof thousands of small trucks, delivering goods countrywide.There are three fundamental points, I’m trying to convey to you, in this series:1. It really does not matter what business you are in.You need to get out of your head the notion, that there are areas that make more money than others. A young friend from Nigeria, said to me, he does nothave enough money to get into the oil business. So, I asked him, “what is your problem? Go start a flee market, only don’t stay a flee market. Use the Internet, and build an Alibaba!”2. Building a big business, is a function of management skills: yours, and those you manage tobring around you. It has nothing to do, with how small you start.Be “management conscious”.. Remember, I said earlier, “it is the X-Factor”!3. The capacity to invent something is a great blessing. If you are able to invent something, and patent it; this is really great, and you must be applauded. In business, it is not all you need, and it may not even be enough. What you need is to develop a capacity to be “innovative”; even with the most mundane things around you:These are the guys that take a “hamburger joint”, and turn it into McDonalds; a coffee shop, and turn it into Starbucks!- Can you be challenged to look at a Kombi (Matatu), and find a way to create an “Uber” (one of the fastest growing businesses in the world today)?- Can you look at a corner kiosk and visualise it, as a Pan African retail business?- Can you look at the waste in your city, and imagine yourself, creating a business, that will be a global giant? Some of the most successful, global giants, began by collecting rubbish. And today, they have gleaming offices, with tens of thousands of employees… But they are still rubbish collectors.. And making billions!
To be continued…
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Believe it or not; I have great admiration for sports managers, particularly those who manage elite clubs; whether it is soccer, American football, basketball, or just about any sport played at the highest level.
Let me share with you some of my (BUSINESS) reasons:
1. Fans are important:
If you lose the support of the fans, you are out of a job!
(It is the same with customers in a business.)
2. Competition:
Top managers compete, according to the rules of the game. If you play soccer, you do not expect to win, using your hands, or try to cut a deal with the football authorities that apply only to your team….that is called cheating!
(Using political influence to impede your competitors, or make life difficult for them, is not business.)
3. Respect your competitors:
The sport is at its most exciting when the best teams are pitted against each other. The manager enjoys the competition and the players enjoy the competition. If you hate competition, or believe it should be impeded to give you an advantage, then you are not a sportsman.
(A good business person, enjoys competition, and shows respect towards competitors. Never hate or disdain those with whom you compete.)
4. Strategy and tactics:
The best managers are known for their brilliance in both strategy and tactics. A good manager knows that he can beat a superior team, using effective strategy, and tactics… This is business 2.0!
5. Organizational efficiency:
Good managers understand the importance of an effective organization of their team. A game can be won or lost, if your team has the wrong shape, or field formation; even if you have the best players. The players must play as a unit, and play for each other, on the pitch.
(Remember my posts on how to build an effective organization.)
6. Effective use of information:
Good managers have a lot of information on their own team, and also on the competitors. Today’s manager uses statistical data, showing them the performance of each player on the field.
(A good manager uses proper data, and not here-say, about what is going on, in their business, their competitor, and the market…. Be scientific and professional when assessing performance of your business.)
7. Last season is last season:
Nothing more to add here!
(Stop living on past glory!!!)
8. You must continuously invest in players, and also in coaching.
(Your business is only as good as your ability to attract stars onto your team…Every season…So who was the last star you recruited?
….What was the last training program you did?)
9. Experience is very important, but don’t make a virtue of it. You cannot have a 50 year old on the pitch!
10. Performance on the pitch is all that matters.
(There is no place for philosophers in the dressing room, or the boardroom.)
11. Profitability:
A manager who does not understand how money is made in football, will destroy the team.
12. Succession:
“This too applies in business”.
A good manager always has a program to recruit and develop young talent. Some of the top clubs in the world recruit their stars, when they are as young as 9 years old.
13. Training:
The best managers are also great coaches.
14. Handling a loss:
To win is important, but also to handle a defeat, and pick up your team after a defeat, is very important. Do it quickly, and prepare for the next game.
15.Discipline: nothing to add here!
Once you are on the pitch, you do not want your players trying to do their own thing!
(Even in business.)
16. Innovate or die:
Nothing to add.
17. There are no prizes for second place…. Particularly in business!
18. Don’t glorify mediocrity:
When you lose a game you have lost.
(If your business is not doing well, its not doing well. Don’t pretend it is, because the only person you are fooling is yourself.)
19. Passion, passion, passion….
20. Failure is called relegation:
(In business we call it bankruptcy.)
21. Communicate effectively:
On and off the pitch, continuously.
(This too applies to business.)
Conclusion:
How like business, is the beautiful game!
Let’s play the beautiful game, next year.
Happy New Year!
source: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=766897013384796&id=496453373762496&substory_index=0
When I left university, I had an honours degree in electrical and electronic engineering, but I was acutely aware that I was not yet an engineer. I now had to use that qualification to acquire some skills for which I would be paid a lot of money. One of the first things I did was to enrol myself for basic craft skills training, like house wiring, fixing radios and TVs. I could use a lathe (a mechanical tool). These were skills that university trained engineers, shunned or looked down on, as beneath them. I did this whilst some of my colleagues were registering for Masters degrees.
Even as a young man my mother would always scold me if I looked down on any job, that a person does. Once I needed money, whilst I was at university, and she suggested that I look for a job, “even as a garden boy or a waiter”; and she was very serious! I got a job, that summer working as a farm labourer, picking fruit on a farm.
When I finally got my first job, I was extremely popular with artisans, and technicians, because they knew I understood their job. I could always command their respect.
Some of you will recall, from some of the posts, about how I started in business. I was doing very basic things like repairing people’s house gates, electrical wiring, fixing cupboards. Those early customers, were not interested in the fact that I had an honours degree, in electrical and electronic engineering, from a top British university. I never told them, either; I knew who I was, and it had nothing to do with the job, I did. The future billionaires are currently waiting on tables, and fixing plumbing…even in Silicon Valley.
If you cannot raise money for the “big” project in your vision; start small, at SOMETHING, using what little you have, even if it means selling tomatoes, at the local market: Learn to be “faithful with little”; its a biblical principle.
In my opening post, I said that although Paul, was highly educated, he still had a craft skill or trade: he was a Tentmaker.
What is the equivalent of a Tentmaker, in our modern world? Yes, you have a High School diploma, or college certificate, a degree or even a masters… that is good: congratulations; but what skills are you trading with?
-A top executive of a leading luxury car manufacturer, in Europe, once boasted to me, that they make a lot of money sending a technician to an African country, to “charge the battery”!
-An Italian company executive told me they make millions every year, fitting floor tiles in Africa. He could not believe that some “young chaps, there in Africa, have not figured this out, otherwise we would be out of business!”
– 75%, of the eggs and chickens eaten in some African countries, come from India, and Brazil!
Now don’t write me long emails complaining about government policies in your country, rather seize (katalambano), the opportunity, it creates for you, and your friends; because that is what it is; an “opportunity” for you… That is how a Tentmaker responds!
In part 3, I will show you the seven most important skills, you should acquire immediately!
To be continued…
source: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Strive-Masiyiwa-Teachings
As a young business person, it took me about 10 years to realise that it is harder to hold on to money, than to make money. Sadly many people never actually realise it, throughout their business life or even career.
I recently read a report which showed that many working professionals in a major European country, have enough savings to last 18 days, if they ever lost their jobs! The squirrel, a small animal that collects nuts during the summer, for the long winter, would no doubt be quite amused.
A business associate, who ran a construction company, came to me once complaining bitterly that people were stealing from him. He pointed out that he had done huge projects, in the past, and yet he was now totally broke. “How could this be”?!
” The problem, is if I tell you, the truth, I will lose you as a friend.” I told him.
“Please, please tell me!” He begged.
Okay:
To start with, always, always remember that, it is harder to hold onto money, than to make money. Teach it to your children, if nothing else.
People who inherit businesses, or money, generally end up losing everything. The first thing you need to know, is when you are making money, and when you are not. A large turnover, or revenue, does not mean you are making money.
Then I said to him, “before you tell me, how much you made on this project, and that, let’s talk rather about how much you saved, from what you made on each project.”
Then he looked at me, with a bemused almost blank look on his face.
Then after a while, he said, “I made investments”.
I looked at him, in the eye, and said, “you know its not true. You bought a nice car, you built a nice house, you….. You did not invest, in your capacity to make more money, and you did not SAVE, for the rainy day.”
Then I said, “do you want us to carry on, this discussion; it could become very painful for you?”
He looked down on the ground.
I stopped.
Friends, if you have a job, any job; no matter how little you make: SAVE something.
If you are running a business, no matter, how small: SAVE something.
Financial literacy, is about making sound financial decisions:
Step #1.
hold on to your money!
To be continued…
source:https://www.facebook.com/pages/Strive-Masiyiwa-Teachings/
As I have said before, when I started my business, I was barely 25 years old. And although I had worked for several years, since leaving university, by the time I decided to go and start a business, I was only a junior manager in a big organization. I therefore did not have the experience of building and managing an organization.
Starting a business with just a hand full of people was not that difficult, but within a few months, I realized that although I was a good engineer,and entrepreneur, it was not what was going to make me a success. I had to become a leader and a manager of a business. And these two are not the same.
This is how, I became a good manager:
First of all I became a student of management. If MBAs were as popular then, as they are today, I would have rushed to get one. So I did the next best thing, I bought books, and spent hours and hours at the university library, in the evenings, reading about management.
I have spoken about this before:
“Don’t just rely on getting experience; study.”
I studied organizational and management structures. I would ask questions about local companies, from friends:
“So tell me, how is your organization structured?”
“Please draw for me the management structure?”
“Who does what?”
“How do you get optimal performance from your organization?”
“How do you run an organization that operates in more than one country?”
“How do you find the right people?”
I went to management talks, to listen to the best managers of the day, talking about what they do. I tracked international business leaders like Jack Welch when he was building GE, into one of the most successful businesses in the world.
I could not look at a business, without wanting to know how it was organized, for optimum performance.
….Oh how I wish there was Internet in those days!
Guys, you have no excuse whatsoever.
This guy,called Sam Walton, who built Walmart, the biggest company, in the world, I read his book back to front. Even those Japanese guys, like Akio Morito, the founder of Sony. I read all their books.
I had collections of books by all the management gurus of the day….reading, studying, putting into practice. Trying out the new ideas.
When I visited China, for the first time, and saw the behemoth organizations, they have built, I was astounded:
“How did they build these?” …. Back to school! You should see my collection on Chinese organizations.
Brothers, and sisters, let me get passionate:
Get into management, and become skilled at it. Adopt best practice, benchmark yourself, with the best in the world.
If you do this, you can take practically any idea, or any organization, and make it big. This is not rocket science, but it is science: it is not something you are born, with, it is an acquired skill.
source: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Strive-Masiyiwa-Teachings/
Step 1. Study how organizations are built and managed.
In my first post on this subject, I referred you to a link, showing the five largest companies, in the world, using the measure of revenue generation. I also showed you that revenue generation is just one of the recognized measures we use to assess the size of a business.
I asked the question, how does one build a BIG company, like Walmart, which has a turnover of nearly $500bn, employing over 2 million employees? This company is bigger than the economies of nearly all the African countries, and has more workers, than many countries!
When I started out in business, nearly 30 years ago, one of the first things, I realised was the importance of learning how to build, and manage an organisation.
……….No matter how great your business idea, no matter how smart you are, no matter, how innovative you idea, no matter how much money you raise:
Listen to me:
If you do not know how to build, and manage an organization, you will either fail, or you will never be able to realise your dream.
The difference between those people who are good entrepreneurs, and those who are great entrepreneurs, is the capacity to build and manage an organisation, that is effective, efficient, and innovative, even as it gets bigger and bigger, and bigger.
“This is not something that comes to you naturally. It is a skill you have to acquire, through study and practice.”
Whenever a business fails, if the truth be told, this is 90%, of the reason for the failure.
Unfortunately many people never even realise that this is their problem. They might even get angry, if you suggest that this is the problem.
You can only solve a problem, when you realise that there is a problem…. For those who do not accept they could have such a problem, this is not for you. I’m talking to people who want to turn their businesses, no matter how small they are today, into big, big, global companies…like Walmart or Apple.
In my next post, I want to start giving you some simple but practical principles on how to acquire the skills, necessary to build, and manage an organization. This is a huge subject, so you must be patient.
To be continued
source: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Strive-Masiyiwa-Teachings
Edzai Conilias Zvobwo 